Work Text:
Abed gazed across the crowd of their peers, flooding the freshly decorated dance hall. The familiar faces, usually indifferent, often cruel, were smiling. No teasing, no taunting, none of the laughter, that godforsaken laughter.
They were all cheering for them.
They grinned, hands clickety-clacking at their side. They didn't understand it, how their name had ended up on the homecoming ballot, how they'd won. But on the stage, in front of everyone, a crown was being placed on their head. The spotlight glistened on their pinchy shoes. They were adored. Miraculously, unexplainably adored.
And then the pig's blood dropped. It seemed to happen in slow motion, the first drop hitting their cheek, the rest hovering above their head in a miniscule infinity. And then they were soaked. Their father's suit was stained irreparably. Their hair was plastered to their forehead. Blood dripped in their ears, their eyes, their mouth.
And all of the sudden, the smiles and applause were gone. There was a gasp that traveled through the dance hall. And then the laughter.
That godforsaken laughter.
They screamed. The sound crawled out of their throat, rough and rabid, cutting through the noise. But it still couldn't stop the laughter, that godforsaken laughter.
And the thing inside of them couldn't stay cooped up a second longer. It escaped too, scratching its way up their throat. It was dark. It was angry. And Abed couldn't control it any more. Abed couldn't stop their own screaming.
The bulbs of a million fairy lights shattered, showering cheap crepe paper in sparks.
Someone else screamed too.
The thing that was once inside Abed danced among the sparks, teasing them into flames. The fire ripped through the tacky prom decorations, bringing the fake flower archway down on a boy in a tux heading for the door. Heat billowed about his body. Another set of screams, then a dozen.
Abed stared. Something in their brain had shuttered off. They didn't know if it would ever switch back on. The thing returned to them, scrambling back down into their chest. They watched the students fighting the flames to reach the gym door. The boy the arch had fallen on wasn't moving anymore.
The sprinklers went off, their blasts measly against the overwhelming heat. The water coursed over Abed's face, their shoulders, their antique tuxedo, washing the blood away. But the stains had already started to set. The damage was already done.
There was another door, behind the bathrooms Abed had spent half the night hiding in. They walked towards it, their classmates shrieking and shrinking away from them. This meant nothing to Abed. They just walked on, their brain turned to blood-soaked cotton balls.
As the thing inside them swung the door open before them, someone shouted behind them. The voice had a familiar tenor; Abed knew a threat even in this odd autopilot.
They turned. An even more familiar face, the boy who shoved them into a locker last week, not letting them out for hours. He was running towards them, his face twisted into something utterly unknown.
Abed slipped through the door, even the fear hidden behind some unseen barrier, the thing inside locking it behind them. He wouldn't be hurting them again today.
No one was going to hurt them again. No more of the laughter, that godforsaken laughter.