Darkness, darkness, and then the light.
It came unwelcome and shy, pulling at my heavy eyelids and whispering about the dawn.
The dawn could go get fucked as far as I was concerned.
I was lying facedown on something hard and unyielding, wind whipping at my remaining hair and exposed skin. Somewhere nearby someone was arguing but who with I could not tell; theirs seemed to be the only voice speaking.
"I bloody well told you already, yeagnh? You get payment when I get my album finished."
I scrunched my eyes closed tighter, letting sleep sink their voice back into mumbled mist and shadow. I didn't care. Who could care? There was nothing left of the world anymore; Lou was dead.
Who's fault is that?
Guilt and wretched sorrow sliced through me like a knife at the terrible memory of it. As unconsciousness stole me away, I cried out his name into the unknown abyss stretching out before me, hoping maybe he'd hear. Hoping against foolish hope that perhaps he'd find his way through the fog and take my hand, and lead me away from this place.
Above me I heard a laugh. Then everything went back to darkness.
----------------
"Yes, I agree cyborg; she's definitely not as pretty as we were told."
No one had spoken, yet the nasally grunting voice replied anyway, cutting through the comatose bliss I had been basking in.
Wincing, I grit my teeth and pushed my face further into the folds of cloth I was resting on. I didn't want to wake. Once I opened my eyes, it'd be the first time I'd looked at a version of life without my brother in it.
I'd rather stay ignorant to what that would look like.
"Ehheh rise and shine sleeping... well, I can't really say beauty now can I?" Came the voice again, guffawing at their own joke.
I almost laughed bitterly as well, if only at how little I cared as to whether my unknown captor believed me to be attractive or not. My heart felt like raw and ruptured meat, an agony the likes of which I'd never known before. Everything else was numb and dull, pushed to colourless silhouettes of perception in the wake of the terrible grief eating me inside out.
"Aww, no hard feelings, love," the gravelly voice probed through the darkness, "I am terribly sorry about the manhandling that boogieman had to do to get you here, but face-ache needed some motivation and you seemed to be my best bet, ngghehh."
Face-ache?
"The worst bleeding shame is that bald patch. For lack of a better word, I'd say it makes you one of the most hideous birds I've ever laid eyes on; and I had it on with Paula Cracker herself hehhehgh."
Curiosity was getting the better of me, willing my eyes to open even just a crack.
"Ehh but with any luck 2D will still fuck you."
At the familiar name I snapped to attention, body freezing as I listened intently for the first time since beginning to wake.
Is he saying... 2D had me brought here...?
"Unghuhuhuh that got your attention," the tormenting voice chortled, tone dripping with self satisfaction.
"What the fuck are you prattling on about, you radge cunt?" I exploded, finally opening my eyes to glare at my malicious companion.
Shock rattled through me as I came face to face with the snaggle-toothed smile of a man whose skin could only be described as a decidedly rotten green. A greasy black bowl cut fringe came down to just above his hooded eyes, one of which was so infected and bloodshot that it looked as if it had been glazed pink. The bridge of his nose was a sorry state of broken, crooked affairs; bulging with badly-set shattered cartilage.
YOU ARE READING
The Trapeze Swinger
Fanfiction"Him. 2D. I could see him even now, his goofy grin while holding the water gun like a hunting rifle, lining me down the sight. His hands ruffling my hair, one eye closed in a squint as if sizing me up, as if looking into the sun." The year is 2003...
