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“You may slay me, and take the enchanter.”
Bdubs knelt in the pond, his neck bared, and the bloody water gently lapping around Cleo’s feet. It was deceptively peaceful in the little valley, provided you could ignore Jimmy’s body, lying motionless next to them.
“I- no. No, I can’t. I can’t do it.” they stepped back, her sword hand falling down. He looked up at her, something calculated in his big eyes. “Okay.” he said. “Okay. Then- we can just go home, yeah? Back to the desert.”
“Okay,” she said, “yeah, okay. Let’s- let’s go home.” They put out their hand, and he grabbed on. Slowly, they made their way back to the desert. He helped her over the lava wall and around the cactus. They picked their way to Monopoly Mountain, around the craters. They kicked up sand as they went; she remembered how she had used to hate it, hate how it got into everything, hate the texture on her skin. The sun was shining, baking them in a familiar warmth, but Cleo felt a chill in her bones.
It can’t end like this. A voice hissed at her, sounding a bit like Grian. After everything, you can’t possibly think this is fair.
Someone has to win. Someone has to die. This one seemed like Jimmy. That’s how this goes.
“Bdubs,” they said, “Bdubs, the ghosts want a fight.”
He looked at them, considering. They were at the foot of the mountain now, on the partially intact stairs. “Do you want a fight?” he asked.
Yes. This was Bigb, and Joel, and Tango. Yes, you’ve got to fight.
“The ghosts demand a fight,” she told him. “But we can- we can make it a fair fight. We can do this the right way.”
“Alright,” he said, studying her. “Let’s go- let’s say one last goodbye to- to Pizza, yeah?”
“Yeah,” they said, “yeah, okay.”
They climbed to the top of the mountain, and stood side by side at Pizza’s grave. After a few moments, Bdubs took a deep breath and said he was ready.
“Okay, let’s- let’s take off all our armor. Drop our weapons. Do this properly.” Cleo said.
He cracked a small smile. “Good old fashioned fist fight, huh?”
“Seemed fitting.” she said.
“Okay, okay- wait, we should- we should have a ring, yeah? A cactus ring! Lemme- hold on-” He pulled some cactus out of his inventory, and carefully placed it in a circle on the sand. “There,” he said proudly once he was done.
“Very nice, Bdubs,” she told him, and stepped into the ring.
He stalled for a little longer, but they didn’t call him out on it. She watched as he burned first the Logwarts banner, then their enchanter. Finally, he tossed his flint and steel away, and the fight began.
The battle was short and bloody, every strike echoed by a chorus of cries and jeers, the ghosts all shouting for death, death, death . Death, like we faced. Kill him like you killed us.
“I’m sorry,” she choked out between hits, “I’m so sorry, Bdubs.”
“I’m sorry too,” he cried. “Cleo, I’m so sorry.” he was sobbing now, tears falling down his face and onto his shirt. Cleo was pretty sure they would be crying too, if they could.
They traded blows and apologies back and forth, a graceless, fumbling dance. Bdubs was clearly pulling his punches; his misses were almost comical, and he kept falling into the cacti. She wished she could find it in themself to do the same.
They threw a particularly well aimed punch, and broke his nose with a sickening crack. “Nice one,” he grinned at her, blood dripping alongside his tears. She made a broken sound that was somewhere to the left of a laugh.
They were both laughing, as they fought. They hit him, again and again, until he had fallen out of the cactus ring and was lying on the sand, not even trying to fight back anymore. She brought their fist down on his skull, and then he wasn’t moving at all.
She stumbled back, bile rising in her throat. They turned away, and sank to her knees in the sand. They felt a scarred hand gripping their shoulder, and the ghost of Scar’s voice. One life left to go . She raised herself on shaky legs.
They stood on the hill, next to Pizza’s Grave. Bdubs’ body was lying behind her, bruised and broken. She had bruised him. She had broken him.
They wondered how everything had gone so wrong so quickly.
She thought of a valley full of flowers, and the garden that would need tending. They thought of an empty Crastle, and villagers in the basement that needed food. They thought of dogs howling in the desert, who needed someone to feed and play with them. She thought of the shop-turned-kingdom-turned-battlefield, and potato fields that would need harvesting. They thought of a wool castle, and sheep that had to be sheared.
She thought of a llama with a silly name that she had to feed.
They thought of all the things on the server that needed doing. She stepped forward, wind whipping their hair behind her. The sand shifted, falling to join the dunes below. They supposed they’d never been particularly afraid of falling.
As they plummeted to the ground, she found herself glad that at least she got to die on her own terms. When they hit the sand, she found that they didn’t quite hate the texture of it on their skin after all. She thought it felt like home, now.