Chapter Text
Grim heard it before anything else.
A series of throaty hacks poured through the halls of Ramshackle on a Saturday morning, waking the direbeast from his leisurely slumber. The coughs sounded painful, and they were coming from the downstairs bathroom. The little direbeast crawled out of bed and followed the horrible sound downstairs.
The closer he came to the sound, the stronger a sour smell became. The air smelled like pennies mixed with ink. Those were the smells of blood and blot, worrying smells, smells he knew all too well. He hurried to the bathroom as he heard the retching pick up and a new waft of the scent came.
He gently opened the door and peeked inside, “Hench-human? Are you okay?”
His hench-human, Yuu, was leaned over the toilet, shaking. Upon hearing Grim, she turned towards him while wiping her mouth with the back of her hand, leaving a black and crimson smear in its wake.
“Oh… g’mornin’ buddy,” she croaked, “did I wake you up?”
He nodded, “you don’t sound very good.”
“I don’t feel very good,” she chuckled dryly before being thrown another coughing fit, “I… really… don’t feel very good.” Grim watched in horror as her eyes fluttered and she passed out and fell to the floor.
Ace was chilling in bed, playing a handheld game Ortho recommended to him, when he received a flurry texts from a hysterical Grim:
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YuuYuu&Grimmy: HALP
YuuYuu&Grimmy: HENCHMHUMSN DOWFN
YuuYuu&Grimmy: GBET NURSE PLS
YuuYuu&Grimmy: EMERGENCY
Epelsauce: Woah-woah-whoa calm down grim what’s happenin’?
YuuYuu&Grimmy: NURSE. RAMSHACKLE. NOW. EXCPLAIIN LATTERRR
HatsuneOrtho: Understood. En route now.
AceDumbass: Me and Deuce’ll get the nurse
Ace felt his heart drop into his stomach, his head swirling with every possibility of what could’ve happened to his friend. He quickly closed his phone, shut off his game, and threw a pillow at a still-asleep Deuce.
Deuce groaned at the impact of the pillow against his head. “Mmhhgh, Aceee,” he whined, “why’re you throwing pillows at me? It’s Saturday.”
“Somethin’s wrong with Yuu,” Ace replied while putting his shoes on, wasting no time by changing out of pajamas. “Grim’s all panicky and Yuu hasn’t said anything yet, so we’re bringin’ the nurse to Ramshackle.”
“Do we know what happened?” Deuce asked as he tied on his own shoes, “And you said Grim texted? Usually she texts for him.”
“Nope. But it’s probably not good if we’re bringin’ the nurse to Ramshackle instead of bringin’ Yuu to the infirmary,” Ace sighed, trying to hide the quiver in his voice. “C’mon Deucey, let’s go help out.”
Deuce nodded, and they left for the infirmary.
“Alright,” Silver panted, wiping sweat off his brow, “I think that’s good enough for today, nice work, Sebek.”
“You as well, Silver!” Sebek beamed at receiving praise for his skills. The two walked back to the weapon rack to put away their practice swords and retrieve their belongings, but when they arrived they noticed Sebek’s phone going off like a fire alarm. He took it out of his bag to look at his texts and his eyes went wide as saucers.
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Epelsauce: Oh mah sevens-
Loosey-Deucey: What is it?
Epelsauce: We might need biohazard shit or somethin’
Epelsauce: Her eyes are leakin’ blot like tears, she’s gotta fever higher than a hot grill in august, and we can’t get her to wake up!
Epelsauce: Somethin’ is WRONG
InAWhileCrocodile: PARDON???
HatsuneOrtho: Looks like Idia was right to have me swap into med gear, be there soon!
HowlinAtTheMoon: What happened??? Did the prefect overblot or something???
InAWhileCrocodile: IS THAT EVEN POSSIBLE???
Loosey-Deucey: The nurse is out of office, but we found Professor Crewel, we’re on our way over!
InAWhileCrocodile: Silver and I are nearby! We’ll come help wake her up!!!
“Come, Silver!” Sebek bellowed at his friend “We are needed at Ramshackle, it’s an emergency!” He grabbed Silver by the wrist and took off in the direction of the Mirror to campus.
“O-Okay!” Silver stuttered as he tried to keep pace with a panicked Sebek.
Ace’s group arrived at the same time Sebek, Silver, Jack and Ortho got there. Skully and the other ghosts let them in and they immediately could hear the prefect hacking up a lung. Crewel immediately took charge of the situation.
“Shroud, come with me, the rest of you pups stay here,” He commanded.
“But-” Ace started.
“No,” Crewel reprimanded, “Until we know what’s going on it’s safer for both her and all of you to stay away. Stay here.” He turned down the hallway and left to assess the situation. Ortho hung back for a second with an apologetic look.
“I’ll make sure to keep you guys updated…” He said. Ace watched as he floated down the hall to go help Crewel.
Soon after Ortho entered the room, Epel and Grim were sent to go wait with the rest of the group. Epel had blot splattered across his face and Grim’s paws were covered in it. They both sported blank stares, still processing what happened.
“What is going on with Yuuri!?” Sebek questioned. “Is she alright!? We heard coughing, did you manage to wake her!?”
Epel carded his hands through his hair, “W-We, we got ‘er to wake u-up, but—,”
“She started coughin’ up blot real bad again!” Grim interjected.
“She still looked really out of it too,” Epel added. “I don’t kno—“
Epel was interrupted by muffled yelling, followed by Crewel and Ortho rushing Yuu out of Ramshackle on a technomantic stretcher.
“Stay with me pup, that’s all you need to do. Just stay conscious.” Crewel said as they flew her out of the dorm.
The rest of the students watched in horror as their friend was carted away. The only thing pulling them from their shock was the chorus of notifications they received from the group chat.
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HatsuneOrtho: There is blot pooling in her lungs. We are taking her to the infirmary to better help her.
HatsuneOrtho: Further testing is needed to understand what is going on. I’ve already contacted a specialist from S.T.Y.X. The Foothill Town hospital has also been contacted.
HatsuneOrtho: I will keep you all in the loop as much as I am allowed to.
The news seemed to suck sound out of the world itself.
The tense silence was broken by Ace, who let out the one word that could encompass the situation:
“Fuck.”