Chapter Text
“Tommy, the three of us are going to go out into the city for a little while, please stay here and don’t leave under any circumstances.” Wilbur said, gesturing to the ghosts behind him.
“What??? Why can’t I come, Wilbur?” Tommy whined, everyone suddenly agreed they were not getting out of this easily.
“Look, Tommy, We’re going to do adult things that you shouldn’t come and see.”
“Wilbur, you were the one person who told me that there are no laws and even I can drink here.”
“That doesn’t apply to this situation, now, if you don’t mind, we’ll be on our way.” Wilbur made his way past Tommy, Schlatt and Mexican Dream behind him. Tommy grabbed onto Wilbur with means to stop him.
“Please can I come, Wilbur?! I don’t know what you could possibly be doing without me! The only thing that comes to mind is strippers or drugs, and I sure hope it’s the latter because the first option is weird.” Wilbur paid no attention to Tommy as he walked out the door to the suite, with Mexican Dream closing the door behind them.
As the door closed on Tommy he was determined to find out where the three other ghosts were going. Even though he didn’t want to witness whatever the hell it would be that they were going to do, Tommy would be lying if he said the real reason wasn’t because he was scared to be left alone in hell, but alas, he still lingered.
Tommy waited a few minutes before opening the door to the now empty hallway, noticing that the main elevator was in use. He remembered that Wilbur told him about the hidden “elevators” next to the main one, but they’d never used it. It was hidden behind the fake plants, hiding in the wall were the buttons that would teleport you to the ground floor. Tommy decided that it was worth a try.
He sprinted down the hallway and to the plant on his left, brushing away the leaves to reveal small buttons engraved in the wall, with writing that Tommy couldn’t quite understand. He pressed one, and a familiar nauseous feeling surrounded him, like going through a nether portal but he was still in this inescapable realm. The next time he blinked he found himself on the ground floor, and the nausea quickly dissolved. Around him was the lobby he had grown familiar with, as well as Wilbur, Schlatt, and Mexican Dream talking to the receptionist, but they hadn’t noticed Tommy yet. He was still having trouble comprehending the language they used in hell, everyone else knew it, but he still couldn’t understand it. He also didn’t bother trying, the language was almost entirely english but Tommy was just unable to understand it. He felt alien to it.
And before he knew it, the three ghosts were already out the door and the receptionist was meeting his eye. She spoke to Tommy, but he just stared back and walked out after the other ghosts, not bothering to try interacting with the receptionist.
The city was bright compared to the darkened sky, with the buildings impossibly tall as always, Tommy felt small, he felt alone even though he was only a few meters behind Wilbur. Tommy noticed the faces of the people on the city sidewalks were getting less and less like actual faces and more like blurs, he’ll have to ask Wilbur about it. As Tommy walked through the city he savored the beauty of it, or at least the salvageable beauty. Some buildings are still drenched in blood, there are lifeless bodies in the sky, some of them hanging from ropes that are too long to guess. Some bodies are just floating there, with missing limbs or large wounds; blood would often drip down onto the city streets, Tommy remembers the first time he noticed the bodies in the sky, a drop of someone’s blood landed on his forehead, and it burned. It burned like hell to the point where Tommy begged Wilbur to take him back to the hotel so he would no longer be in danger of the blood. Maybe Tommy was just sensitive to pain still, but even then, Wilbur had only told him to shut up and that Tommy would get used to it in time. He never did.
Sometimes, Tommy would spot Dream XD using the bodies as target practice, it was burned in his mind how arrows and projectiles were just thrown at them and often pierced through them entirely. He tried to reassure himself that they deserved it, they were in hell after all. But so was he. For reasons not even he knew, Tommy copes by convincing himself that he deserves it. It never really works though.
Another thing about the city is that its mere presence is addictive. Tommy remembered a time when Wilbur was in the city for way too long, Tommy had to wake up Schlatt and get Wilbur who was extremely aggressive that night, he didn’t want to leave at all and got physical when Schlatt tried to drag him to the train. The train that night was terrible, the train was especially empty and Wilbur and Schlatt were too pissed at each other to sit even remotely near each other, so they sat at opposite ends, leaving Tommy alone in the middle. He cried himself to sleep on the train.
When Tommy snapped back into his senses, he noticed he was standing in front of a building with way too many neon lights and no front windows. Wilbur, Schlatt, and Mexican Dream had probably gone in there. He was definitely nervous of what he would find, or if they were even in there, but he swallowed down his nerves and walked right in.
There was nothing suspicious at first, it just looked like a normal bar, but there was no Wilbur, Schlatt, or Mexican Dream in sight. Tommy still continued in, knowing that they must be in there somewhere. One of the bartenders called to him, Tommy walked over.
“Hey, uh… do you have a bathroom in here?” The bartender said something incomprehensible to him, yet still pointed in the direction of a hallway in the corner of the bar. Tommy nodded to him, and walked to it. It wasn’t a big hallway, it just had three doors, which was probably the two bathrooms and maybe a storage room. Tommy recognized the symbols on the signs as the appropriate bathrooms. He creeped the door open, not noticing anything weird at first. It looked normal, it had mirrors.
Tommy had hardly ever seen himself since he got to hell, if anything he’d been avoiding it almost entirely out of the fear that he’d see the scars and get sent back to where they originated from. But then again, it has been a while. Tommy approaches the mirror, his reflection slowly coming into view. It was underwhelming in all honesty. He hardly recognized himself, his eyes too far gone to see clearly, and his lips too tired to smile. The scars were still there, and new ones too. Tommy doesn’t remember getting them, maybe they were ones from Wilbur.
His reflection smiled at him, Tommy only frowned even more.
“Despite everything, it’s still you.” It said to him, reaching into his brain and refusing to let him separate from his name and face. A tear fell down Tommy’s cheek. A black one fell from the reflection. Tommy backed away.
“Do you think they miss you?” Tommy stopped in his tracks, deciding whether or not to converse with himself.
“No.”
“Well why’s that?”
“Don’t make me talk about it. I don’t have to tell you anything! Bitch.” The reflection remained quiet.
“You’re not even real anyway?”
“I’m just as real as Dream is, just as real as Wilbur was, and Schlatt was.”
“You’re lying.”
“Well why don’t we go and test that right now? In person?”
“Don’t talk like that, you of all people know not to say that.” The reflection smiled at him, slowly reaching for him.
“You idiot, that’s a mirror! You can’t go through it! You’re just as dumb as Tubbo sometimes I swear.”
“You want me to be Tubbo? I can do that.”
“Absolutely not, do not do that please.” The reflection reached the edge of the mirror, piercing through it and pulling itself out. But on the other side of the mirror wasn’t Tommy’s reflection anymore, it was a copy of Tubbo.
“How the fuck did you do that? Go back in there you fucking bitch, I don’t care what you look like it doesn’t change the fact that you aren’t real.” Tommy slammed into the stall behind him in an attempt to escape, but the copy of Tubbo was between him and the door.
“You can’t get away from me Tommy, I will follow you until you leave the city and never come back, I’ll torment you until you give up and become like everyone else here. You’re the only one who hasn’t given up yet and I need you to give up, to not want to go back home anymore.” It said to him, getting even closer before stopping and reaching out to him.
“Stop it! Leave me alone already, I’m not going to do what you say and I don’t care either.” It got even closer, Tommy could almost feel it’s breath on him.
“I can’t believe you let me get this close, most people have already given up by now. You’ve let me in, Tommy. I can do whatever I want with you just like Dream.” It’s dead fingers touched Tommy’s cheek, where the teardrop fell. It held his face, running it’s fingers where the tear fell, before quickly withdrawing it’s hand and proceeding to slap him as hard as possible.
“What the fuck man? Why’d you do that for?”
“You need to learn to behave, Tommy. You’re in this situation in the first place because you can hardly do it”
“Haven’t I already told you not to talk like Dream, I mean really, for such a mean dude you don’t have to stoop that low.” It hit him again, and again, until Tommy was begging it to stop and scurrying into the stall farthest from the door, then locking it and hiding against the cold tile on the walls.
“You can’t hide in there forever, I’ll be back whenever you leave that stall!” Tommy backed up more in the stall until his back hit the wall, scouring for a place to run or hide. Luckily, he noticed a crack in the tile, a continuous line all the way down to the floor. Tommy pried open the crack as hard as he could. It swung open, revealing a passageway that was dimly lit with purples and pinks. Tommy hadn’t seen these colors in hell yet. But there’s a first time for everything in hell.
Tommy rushed down the passage, which was way smaller than he was so it was quite difficult. Distant music could be heard, and there was a lot of commotion at the end of the passage. He came to the end of it and found himself standing behind two figures who were tall enough to be blocking Tommy’s view of the room. He stood close enough to eavesdrop.
“Wilbur, this is weird.”
“Just drink a little more, Schlatt. It’ll look less like Mexican Dream and more like a hot lady just as long as you take a few more sips.”
“I’m trusting you on this, Wilbur.”
“You say that as if it’s the first time we’ve done this.”
“It’s the first time I’m walking into this sober.”
“You’ll get used to it.”
Tommy was horrified, in front of the men was Mexican Dream, on the pole, in hardly any clothes, dancing. Mexican Dream moved like he was born to be on the pole as Wilbur and Schlatt watched intensely. There were many other people there as well, throwing some sort of money at Mexican Dream who was dancing alone. Tommy and Mexican Dream’s eyes met.
“Eyyyyy man, welcome to the show, man.” Mexican Dream gestured to Tommy. Wilbur and Schlatt looked behind themselves, eager to see who had joined them. When they saw it was Tommy, their faces dropped.
“Tommy what the fuck are you doing here?”
“Uhm. Nothing.” Mexican Dream stepped down from the stage and made his way to Tommy.
“Eyyyy, you want to join man?” Wilbur was horrified.
“No! He cannot join you! He shouldn’t even be here in the first place!” Tommy did the shaky breath. His thoughts were going turbo.
“ What the actual fuck have I stumbled upon. This is more traumatizing than when Dream beat me to death with a potato. This is so goddamn hideous that I think my eyes burned, I need bleach. Where is Philza Minecraft to save me. Why does Dream XD and Techno allow this here? Does Techno even know about this? I’ll have to file a complaint. KarenInnit returns. Why are there no laws here. This is death. I hate this. I want to go home. I want to go back to Tubbo and such. I would rather go back to exile than this shit. Why did this have to happen to me? Why am I so unfortunate? Why is this such a shitty day?”
“Thomás? You never answered my question.”
“No! Obviously my answer is no! I just want to go home. Take me home.” Tommy whined, crossing his arms. Wilbur sighed, none of them wanted to leave as they had just gotten there and Mexican Dream still had to work.
“Just go home by yourself! You’ll be fine!”
“Wilbur what the fuck. I am not leaving this room alone.”
“Why are you being so stubborn! Just go!” Wilbur nudged him back.
“Why do you want to stay in here? It’s gross!”
“EY MAN, ONE DOES NOT CALL THIS WORK GROSS. IT IS SIMPLY AN ART FORM.”
“Mexican Dream you are truly one of a kind, I appreciate that about you.”
“Thank you, man.” Mexican Dream said, flattered by the comment.
“Anyways, Tommy get the fuck out of here we’re busy.” Wilbur said again, insistent on getting Tommy to leave.
“Fine.” Tommy said and walked out, afraid to go back into the bathroom.
“You’re always welcome!!” Mexican Dream called to him, then was shushed by Wilbur who was fuming. He could distantly hear Wilbur lecturing MD about not letting Tommy come back.
When Tommy got back into the stall he braced himself to see it again, but he didn’t see or hear any traces of it. He’d just have to hurry. Tommy swung the door open, revealing the normal looking public bathroom. He sighed in relief, looking around. Finally he was safe again, Tommy started on his way out when he saw the mirror in his peripherals. And there it was, Him in the mirror again, eyes black and large, hair matted and covered in blood. Tommy jumped, screeching, and proceeding to run out of the bathroom while it’s gaze was still in a straight line. As soon as he was out of the bathroom he bolted home, sprinting back to the hotel as fast as he could.
Tommy didn’t look at a mirror for the next week.