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“When the sky turns black and - When the sky turns black and - When… ”
Brodie awoke to the crackling and sputtering sound of his record player, replaying the same few seconds of a Bloodbath song. He must've fallen asleep to it without realizing.
“Hey asshole,” a voice interrupted the irritating sputtering.
Brodie rubbed his eyes and threw the sheets off his body, slowly sitting up.
“You know what fucking time it is?” Brodie asked, looking at his alarm clock which displayed “3:42”.
“Huh? No, don't have that shit down here.”
“Oh. It's 3 am. What's up?”
“I got a story to tell you,”
“Is it important enough to lose sleep over? I got school tomorrow- today I mean.” Brodie pulled a pair of sweats besides his bed on. It wasn't like Zakk could see him, it'd just be fucking weird if he was half naked. He finally sat down in front of his record player, leaning his head against the wall as he listened to Zakk’s answer.
“No. You wanna hear it?”
“Yeah, alright.”
“So the other day I'm eternally suffering, you know, when I see this chick. Least I think it was chick, cause she was all distorted and fucked up. So I'm like oh shit, demon!”
“Right.”
“And when she sees me, her face contorts into what I assume was anger. She charges for me so I fucking deck the bitch in the face.”
“Right.”
“Would you stop saying that? I'm tryin’ to talk.” Brodie scoffed but didn't say anything back. “Anyways, I ask her what the hell her problem is. And you're not gonna believe this shit. Her family got possessed from the hymn! She tells me she got home to that shit, and blew them and herself the fuck up!”
“Holy shit.” Brodie feels his stomach drop. The longer it's been since that day, the more guilt that infests him. “That's awful, dude. Fuck”
“Uh- I guess.” Zakk sounds taken aback by Brodie’s serious reaction. “Well she kept attacking me so I beat what was left of her face in. Hasn't fucked with me since.” Brodie doesn't need to see Zakk to know he's grinning right now.
“Fuck bro, don't tell me that shit. Makes me feel like crap.”
“Sorry. Just trying to cheer you up. Why are you so hung up over this shit anyways?” Zakk asked.
Brodie gaped at the record player in disbelief. He supposed death could desensitize a man to such things, but he wasn't sure that Zakk wouldn't be like this regardless of his living status.
“We killed people man- like hella people. I fucking chainsawed my cousin in half!” Brodie said louder than anticipated.
“Your cousin was a bigger dick than me, mate! Get the fuck over it.”
Brodie felt his feelings rising from annoyance to genuine anger.
“I watched bits of his corpse fall to the ground! I still fucking slaughtered my own blood, that's fucked!”
They were both silent for a moment. Zakk was… an asshole. In life and death. Hell wouldn't do anything but make him worse. Brodie had expected that, but somehow it still hurt to hear the lack of empathy in his voice as he spoke about such fucked up shit. He sighed and began to wonder if Zakk had left, right before he finally answered.
“You wanna know what I think?”
Brodie sighed. He didn't.
“What?”
“I think your cousin was probably a faggot himself, and if I looked hard enough, I'd probably find him down here with me.”
“...Do fags really go to hell?”
“No, he was just a cunt.”
Brodie laughed. Zakk was an asshole, but he was a good mate. And his sense of humor wasn't all that bad either.
“Listen dude, I actually gotta sleep. Sorry about the hell recognition. Hope that's the last of it.”
“Eh, I don't know. Kinda cool that we're basically fuckin’ metal legends.”
“Yeah, yeah. I guess it is,” Brodie admitted as he made his way back to his bed and pulled the sheets back over him. “Goodnight, dude.”
“Night.”
There was a distorted screech as the record finally returned to it's normal function and the song continued.
“When the sky turns black and nature's sounds go mute, the dead walk the Earth's last round, outnumbering the day all light peels away…”