The Fall of The Great ChilledChaos

Chapter 5

Smarty was cleaning up his embarrassingly messy apartment slowly, yet no matter how hard he tried, it seemed the musty aroma was stubborn and could not be lifted. Smarty was just  weighing up whether or not it was worth keeping some especially funky pizza-printed socks that had somehow managed to grow their own little mould colony, when his computer alerted him that ZeRoyalViking was calling him on Skype. Smarty rushed over and was just about to accept when he hesitated; this would be the first time talking to Ze since… since the unspeakable incident… Smarty took a moment, sat down in his chair, took a quick selfie to check he was looking mighty fine, then answered the call, trying to keep a serious yet polite expression.

Steven’s flushed face appeared suddenly on the screen, a slight grin formed from his mouth.

“Hey, Ze!”  Smarty’s plan to be serious and professional went out the window when he saw his friends face, he had missed him so much!

“How’s it going, Smarty?” Steven seemed equally excited to see him and he was to see Steven, which relieved Smarty greatly.

Smarty shrugged, “I am…” he took a moment- how was it going? How was it going, really? - “good, things are good. So, what’s up, Ze?”

“Oh that’s great! Tom told me about your-” Ze’s sentence abruptly stopped as he re-thought what he was about to say, “Anyway, are you free pretty much all of next week, per chance?”

“I think so… I have no plans… yet”

“Great, it’s just that… We, as in Tom, GaLm and I, were planning to go to… go to Anthony’s place and, yanno, help Jess with his things, the funeral and stuff, and I thought it would be nice…”

“Yeah, I understand. Sure, that sounds cool, so when, where and how?”

They discussed the arrangements for a further ten minutes before closing the call. Smarty was still giddy after seeing his friend for about half an hour, which felt kind of sick considering the reason why he had seen him, but something about knowing Ze was still around comforted him.  John walked around his flat for a bit before realising he was never going to get back into cleaning today, his brain was whizzing thinking about next week. He was nervous of course, he wondered how he, and the others, would cope being in Chilled’s place, but mainly he felt a twisted excitement. Sure, Smarty didn’t have to make his way there for two days, but that didn’t stop him already packing…

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 Smarty stood outside the door and his mind wandered to the last time he found himself at that exact spot. The last time was… that’s right, October 23rd, before the Sunset Overdrive Event when the Derp Crew smashed the Creatures as well as obviously video games, bowling, ice skating, walking through Central Park… ahh bitter sweet memories. Smarty chuckled at the contrast between that time and the now and then let out a small but still surprisingly heavy sigh. Eventually he made a brisk tap on the door and Jess was there opening it with a warm smile,

“Hey John,” they shared an awkward hug, “Thanks for coming… it means a lot. I know Anthony would want this… Anyway, the others are already here, make yourself at home.”

Smarty dropped his heavy bag to the floor and turned round the corner of the apartment. Before him was Chilled’s room with Chilled’s computer and Chilled’s friends, but one thing was missing- Chilled. GaLm was in the corner on his knees looking around the assortment of gadgets and games that had made their home in this room. Tom and Ze  were sitting on the couch talking solemnly in muffled tones- Ze was holding a red mass of fabric on his lap, oh, a hat: a red Mario hat.  All three men looked up and smiled as John entered the room and welcomed him graciously.  

“Everything okay, buddy?” Tom whispered to Smarty as they embraced- a smile on his lips but his eyes deadly serious and full of concern.

“Yeah… yeah” Smarty replied whilst blushing and looking away.

…

The next few hours were emotional to say the least. The five of them- Smarty, Ze, GaLm, Tom and Jess- discussed a lot: the future of The Derp Crew; YouTube; Chilled’s stuff; the funeral; Anthony’s family and much, much more. To say that tears weren’t shed would be a lie, but the group were a kind and friendly bunch and they were all especially relaxed and supportive during the casual but still respectful heartfelt talk. After a few rounds of Capri-Sun and cake, the conversation died down and a peaceful silence danced around the room, teasing out fond memories and calming thoughts to ease the mood.

“Hey, Jess” Ze finally piped up, “Mind if I… Look on the computer?”

“Go for it.” Jess replied quickly without looking up from the book her mind was currently enveloped in.

Ze strutted up and plopped himself down in Chilled’s legendary pink chair and started clicking through the computer.

Smarty found himself idly playing with Bolshevik and Plumbob. Plumbob was busily inspecting Smarty’s entire person with his nose, emitting the occasional squeak. Bolshevik, however, sat on Smarty’s lap and stared him right in the eye. John wondered what the guinea pig was thinking, if guinea pigs did have ‘proper thoughts’ that is. Even if they did they would probably just think about food and pooping, right? But what if they had just as developed thoughts as us; could they understand what is truly going on around them? Oh wow… What if we are pets to a superior race and we just don’t know it? Or even just a parasite on a pet of a superior race?

Just as Smarty’s thoughts were getting oddly out of control, Steven suddenly straightened his back and made a peculiar noise from the desk by the computer, his face expressing confusion and shock.

“Err, guys...” he mumbled nervously “You may want to see this.”

Jessica dropped her book to the side and skipped over to the computer, “Oh gods please don’t tell me it was- I’m sorry if-”, her eyes settled on the screen as she looked over Ze’s shoulder and she stood still for a moment or two, reading. Her expression morphed: first to confusion and shock, like Ze, but then her brows furrowed and her face wound up in a snarl, she was angry- very, very angry.

“HOW DARE SHE?! OH I SHOULD JUST GO OVER THERE AND- AND – UGH”

Jess slammed her fist in the couch and then collapsed onto it in a frustrated sulk. John nearly jumped up and ran over to the computer in a flash but he had to carefully pluck off the two furry beats that were roaming his body before proceeding towards whatever Ze was talking about. By this point, GaLm and Tom had already surrounded the monitor, their faces ranging from a look of bewilderment to complete and utter rage. John picked his way through and finally saw what was on the screen. At first he didn’t realise what all the fuss was about but as he read on he was faced with the truth and oh….

He was angry.