The room spun and he had to get away from Ian. Anywhere but here. Outside of his room, he could hear Ian groan and get back up. Donovan wasn't here, Rick would likely find this funny, and Tanner had left the house before he'd come upstairs. If he went to the living room, it would be easy for Ian to find him, and as much as he wanted to flee the house, he doubted he could outrun Ian for the door.

A thump signaled Ian's movement that he'd been trembling in anticipation of. His mind spiraled in circles, looking for safety. There was one place that Ian wouldn't follow him. At the end of the hallway, Nathan sprung up the stairs chased by the creak of someone else on them. If it was Ian, standing on this floor wouldn't hide him well enough.

Two doors were in the hallway on either side, and Ian had said that Julian's was locked, so if he picked the wrong one, it wouldn't open, right? Nathan panicked and reached for the closest door. The door knob turned all the way, and he slid in as quickly and quietly as possible, closing the door with the softest click he could manage.

Breathing heavily against the door, he ran his hands up into his hair with a groan. What the hell was he going to do now? Whenever the man caught him, he was going to be ground beef. He'd rather be beaten by Tanner for being an obnoxious teenager than forced down onto a bed with Ian seething over him.

"Hi?" A voice said from behind him, and he stiffened.

Dammit. Clutching his arms, he did his best to not break down into tears. The voice behind him could be no one else but Julian. Nathan forced his neck to turn so he could face the boy that carved people for fun.

A few feet behind him, Julian stood with his hands lifted just in front of himself, as if he was contemplating coming closer or stepping back. Despite being shorter than him, and almost gangly, Julian struck fear into Nathan, his dark eyes shaded dangerously by long black hair that ran to his shoulders.

"Are you in there?" Julian's voice was chipper, clearly a fifteen year old, but his gaze was more intelligent that it should be. "Nathan, right?"

"Y-yeah," Nathan sputtered in reply, turning the door knob, but it stopped in either direction.

"Locks from the outside. Tried to tell you, but you closed the door too fast."

Of course it did. Nathan turned back to him, and Julian didn't put off the same feeling as Rick did. While the kid was dangerous, according to the accounts of others, right now he seemed... friendly. The boy certainly had a sharp pair of eyes, but he wasn't leering at him. Taking a seat in front of him, Julian peered back and tilted his head slightly in interest. In faded blue jeans and a long-sleeve, purple turtleneck, he didn't look very sinister with a smile on his face.

Nathan had been trying to find some semblance of calm, but Julian reached a hand out, and Nathan had nowhere to back away to. The slow trail of the boy's ice-cold fingers from his shoulder, down his arm, and over his hand had Nathan holding his breath and waiting for this to turn into his worst nightmare.

"Has anyone ever told you that you have a lot of skin?" Julian hissed with a deranged smile, reminding Nathan that he'd been fetched from a mental institution.

Whitening, Nathan swallowed hard as he considered again how close he was to him and how he'd locked himself in. "Mostly..." Nathan swallowed hard, as he contemplated speaking. It wasn't like this could get worse, right? "Just the television during summer for sunscreen sales."

Julian pulled his hand back to himself and shook with laughter. Nathan wasn't laughing as the kid slid a hand on either side of his face to trail them down his neck and to his chest.

"Your skin is so smooth," Julian whispered with longing as he spun his hand on Nathan's pectoral muscle and pressed it to his chest.

Nathan shuddered. The way Julian bit his lower lip had Nathan trembling under his fingers, but Julian retracted his hands and settled down to sit a foot in front of him. This kid was bat-shit crazy, and he'd walked his way right into his lair.

Nathan stomach heaved, but he had nowhere to lose his stomach contents that wouldn't piss this kid off, so he swallowed to try and avoid what was becoming inevitable. First Ian had tried to... do whatever he had intended, and now there was a mini version of Doctor Moreau staring him down in a locked room.

"You have so much unmarred skin, and I'm all out of canvas." The way the kid said it was as if he was out of paper, not out of people to torture and kill. "You're so frightened."

"What else do you expect?" Nathan wanted to remain silent, but that had gone no better with Ian. "How can you be so chipper about cutting people up?" It was dangerous water he was treading, but Nathan was already swimming around in the middle of sharks.

"I don't cut people up." Julian's thin eyebrows rose on the words. "I do natural skin designs."

"You said you're out of canvas..." Nathan said carefully, and Julian nodded.

"I am." Julian didn't get Nathan's meaning. There were at an impasse as they stared at each other, but eventually Julian caught Nathan's implication and then chuckled darkly. "Oh... you think I go through people like tissue paper." Julian laughed heavily when Nathan grimaced. "That was not what I meant. Here."

In a quick movement, Julian grabbed the bottom of his turtleneck and pulled it up over his head, shaking out and straightening his hair as he set it to the side. It was hard to not let out a quick breath, as Nathan's eyes crawled all over Julian's skin. It was riddled with tattoos on every centimeter. Snaking around his neck like a noose, a scaled dragon ran further across his right shoulder where its mouth opened on his pectoral muscle, showing off a vicious set of teeth.

From its mouth, flames burst forth but morphed into varying creatures from a serpent, to a Kirin with raised horns. Lightning spread out from around its form and rolled into the hot burning coals that exploded from a star on Julian's left shoulder. Each tattoo flowed into the next in a sickeningly breathtaking and expertly crafted manner. Even more apparent, were the dark ridges in his skin that ran alongside the ink. In the valley of each raised section of skin, the ink accentuated the patterns that were scarred into his own flesh.

They didn't look mangled or depraved at all either. There were smooth lines of raised skin in some areas to border designs, and in others, it was jagged to bring out the detail in the dragon's scales and the Kirin's hooves.

"This is what I meant when I said I'm out of canvas," Julian said. "I finished up all of the ones on my own skin and then had them detailed with permanent ink." Julian seemed proud of them, and Nathan couldn't fault him for that. The designs in his flesh weren't the work of an immature, high school freshman; they were intricate, detailed, and expertly crafted.

"Those look..." Nathan searched for a word. "Wicked." Nathan cursed his limited vocabulary that didn't quite do them justice.

"Thanks. I spent a lot of time on them. They are sort of a deterrent for social interactions at the pool though, so I don't have any real ability to show them off." Julian chuckled, and Nathan couldn't help but follow.

That'd scare the shit out of half the kids.

"I think we got off on the wrong foot, but I get that way when I see so much unused skin," Julian said with a shallow blush. "I'm sure the men from downstairs have told you some weird shit about me, but most of it is fluff. Really, I act a little" –Julian whistled as he spun a finger by his head– "because it scares the shit out of the thugs, but I'm currently quite mentally stable. I normally cut myself, not other people."

"Normally," Nathan squeaked when he'd meant to speak.

"Well, yes. If you were to ask, I'd happily do a design for you."

"I'm not a masochist," Nathan said quietly, and Julian's eyebrows rose again.

"Oh, it doesn't hurt, I use a combination of muscle relaxation and mild sedation to keep you pretty out of it. I get it though. It's all right. I wasn't asking. I was just saying that I don't hold people down and stick knives in them. I work with the top most layers of skin, and it would tear through muscle if my subject fought and jerked around."

Everything Julian had said so far didn't sound like the ranting of a mad man or someone who carved people like pumpkins. It sounded like he'd done this process a hundred times and that it was perfectly safe and harmless, at least to him.

What exactly was this kid?

"Can I ask how you ended up in my room?" Julian changed the subject. "I thought it was clear that no one was to come up here. You even came into my room."

Nathan found the ground as he was forced to think about Ian who was probably still prowling around. Hopefully the man thought he'd run outside and had gone back to his room. There was an uncomfortable feeling in the pit of his stomach and his throat constricted as he thought about everything.

"Were you fleeing from one of the other men?" There was an actual look of pity that passed over Julian's expression. "Is it something you might want to talk about? I don't really talk to anyone..." Though Julian seemed to be offering in earnest, Nathan couldn't bring himself to speak about it while he was still wound up.

Julian easily picked up on that and stood up to offer him a hand, seeming much more normal than he'd expected. Something had ended him up in that mental hospital, and if it really had been carving some kids up, than he could be frighteningly savage. This was where he was stuck now though, so Nathan accepted the hand.

"Come here," Julian beckoned as he moved to the side of the room that was empty of pretty much everything. There was a bed and a few dressers on the far wall, but half of the room was just an expanse of hardwood floor.

Nathan wasn't sure if he had it in him to follow. It would be difficult for him to deal with anything unexpected right now.

"It's safe. Come on." Julian chuckled again, something the boy seemed to do often. For a shut-in, flesh-carving pyscho, he seemed really upbeat and friendly.

It felt as if he were marching into his grave, but Nathan joined him on the barren side of the room. What could the guy possibly want? If Julian touched him, he was like to freak out. That would be great, breaking down into tears while locked in with no avenue out.

When Nathan reached Julian's side, Julian nudged him into standing up straight. Nathan did so and Julian moved to stand next to him, showing Nathan that he wanted his feet set more apart. Julian extended his hand out in front of himself and ushered for Nathan to follow.

"Like this," Julian smiled lightly, swaying his hands back and then forth only inches from each other.

Nathan attempted to follow the movements only to have Julian reach over and adjust his hands and kick one of his feet in gently. Stumbling, Nathan almost fell, but Julian steadied him and they laughed together. It was awkward and a bit strange, but eventually Nathan managed to imitate him.

Moving next to Julian was unbelievably relaxing, especially when they started sliding their feet along the smooth wood. In one movement, Nathan had his feet pulled together as he brought his hands in, and the next, they dipped and took up so much space with a stretch that Nathan understood why he had no furniture here. The move and turn of Julian's hands was smooth, and when Nathan breathed out with the movement, all of his anxiety went with it. Exhaling his fear and unease, he breathed back in strength and calm. After following Julian's movements for quite some time, Nathan was no longer rickety as he seated himself on the floor with Julian.

"Feel any better?" Julian asked with his smile, and Nathan returned the feeling.

"Yes, actually. Thank you."

"Sure. I've been doing Tai Chi since I was twelve. It's calming and I like how it makes me feel like I'm moving with the earth a part of it, no longer myself." Julian stood and passed by Nathan to sit on his bed. With a yawn, Julian fell onto his side. "Do you want to talk about it?" Julian repeated his offer from before.

After all of the steady breathing and relaxed movement, it was a bit better for him to think about. It was strange how a kid had seen how panicked he was and had known how to calm him. Julian was certainly strange, but more and more, he seemed the most normal out of the inmates here. Julian actually came off as perturbingly intelligent.

Word count: 2279 -- Edited July 12th, 2020