[It was metal, metal on bone, and the static is blocking out the rest, but he can still hear it played back with perfect clarity.]
[His body fell, and then that sound.]
[Jay's moving. Down. They're supposed to go down. Safe zone is down.]
[He holds onto the tangled wreckage of his camera.]
[Ignores the way his jaw won't close right, the way he can't spit when the blood pools in his mouth. It just drips out onto the carpet in strings, spatter across his shirt. New, from the closet, still stiff and unwashed and scratchy. Georgia's not going to be pleased.]
[He can still hear it.]
[He's not thinking about that.]
[He has to go down. Room one. Room oh-oh-one. It's important.]
[He's not sure how he's supposed to read the numbers now.]
[He reaches the clinic some time later.]
[Some time after that, he's thinking enough to mention the body upstairs, the one that fell. Warns them to bring something, since it might be dangerous. You can't leave it, though. Can't just stay quiet and hope it's fine, that it'll figure it out on its own, 'cause he knows how that turns out.]
cw: blood, jay merrick dissociating to high heaven
[It was metal, metal on bone, and the static is blocking out the rest, but he can still hear it played back with perfect clarity.]
[His body fell, and then that sound.]
[Jay's moving. Down. They're supposed to go down. Safe zone is down.]
[He holds onto the tangled wreckage of his camera.]
[Ignores the way his jaw won't close right, the way he can't spit when the blood pools in his mouth. It just drips out onto the carpet in strings, spatter across his shirt. New, from the closet, still stiff and unwashed and scratchy. Georgia's not going to be pleased.]
[He can still hear it.]
[He's not thinking about that.]
[He has to go down. Room one. Room oh-oh-one. It's important.]
[He's not sure how he's supposed to read the numbers now.]
[He reaches the clinic some time later.]
[Some time after that, he's thinking enough to mention the body upstairs, the one that fell. Warns them to bring something, since it might be dangerous. You can't leave it, though. Can't just stay quiet and hope it's fine, that it'll figure it out on its own, 'cause he knows how that turns out.]