Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Alex Big Clappy never truly found out where his mustache had come from. His roots kept deep below, covered by centuries of knowledge, shared by those who lived on an entirely different continent to him. Nobody around him knew why, even his dad, the person who had also experienced it, had no idea either. The island that held this ancient knowing was lost to history, uncovered in maps, and it’s whereabouts unknown to the world, and to their knowledge, the island was no more than a simple myth to get more Europeans traveling in the Polynesian regions. He strived for the knowledge until the day he died, still awaiting obtaining.

Sadly, that may be since his life was set so short…

Chapter Text

Buddy was wearing a sweater. Some weird monotone purple sweater Alex had made from for him. Even though they had only been friends for so little, he enjoyed the gift. Alex took a lot of time learn how to weave so he could make it. At the epvery end of it, was one very small string sticking out. Buddy didn’t put much thought into it, anyways…

Buddy: hello grandpa. Do you notice anything… odd of my wear?

Budad: what is that? You look like a flower with that on!

Buddy: Alex gave me it since it was a good gift in his perspective. 

Budad: well from my “pErSpEcTivE” that looks bad on you. Wear some of your normal clothes!

Buddy: you mean the ones paid by my dad, or your son?

Budad: wow, so smart. And besides, there’s that thread up there you need to cut off!

Buddy: oh… that, well honestly he put some thought in it and I’d like to keep it as how he intended it.

Budad: fine. You do you. Now leave before I eat this egg!

Buddy: you wouldn’t.

Buddy’s grandpa had started to crack the egg before Buddy couldn’t stand to be in that room much longer. He was walking outside. All of a sudden a small spark floats downward from the sky. Buddy looks up to see some stranger smoking a cigarette on a balcony.

Buddy doesn’t see exactly why people smoke anyway. You’re making yourself momentarily happy with the cost of your elder years? Why? Never mind the fact they could be spending that money on other things anyway, like food, or resources, or clothes… wait… why is his clothes so hot?

“…”

In a second, Buddy clothes are engulfed in flames. The damn yarn was dry as a bone, and right next to a shower of hot ash. Why didn’t he think of this.

Immediately, Buddy enters a part of the street, where it’s nearly dark, and hoping no one is looking, takes off his sweater to avoid… dying. He makes sure nothing flammable is nearby. He does see a puddle of what he assumes is water on the exposed string, puts on a shirt he luckily had tucked below his hat to protect him, and goes on his merry-

FOOOOOOOOM

Suddenly, a large flash of light, and the loud, audible sound of something being lit aflame makes Buddy realize his expectations of what that puddle was truly made of. Fires start to erupt from the portion of street. Buddy however, is quite smart, and just walks faster as to not cause any panic, although the swiftly growing fire will prove the exact opposite effect.

In the end, at least Buddy and his grandpa got what they wanted: The stupid string gone, and one less person to be plagued by smoking, although Buddy hopes the world will see it that way…

Chapter Text

Also don't read the "()" when you sing this...

When little daisy started, Atlas had the crown, that title he held pretty close, til he ended in the ground...

Mitzi does now have it, but someone thought that wasn't sweet, the funny part of that is that guy is also called the same name, quite unique!

Right in-between them, is this guy called (Alex) Big Clappy, but he doesn't know that they exist, he just lives life happy.

One day he meets this guy, a guy who is Jimmy (jumbo). But Alex does refer him, under the name: Buddy.

Then he finds a gold bar, Buddy puts it in the bank, it was part of a framing attempt, but now it ended the wrong way.

The next there's a bottle, the third main story plot, Rocky appears while they were trying to to destroy it in one shot.

The next one is a cake, makes the two of them to fight, (over it) Mordecai appears and it gets crushed: under a car's might. (the cake btw)

Asa discovers his (Alex and buddy's) existence, this news does bring him rage, but he doesn't do anything, cause he only knows their general age...

Buddy finds a box, Alex does go in, to scare some few strangers, but Buddy forgets about him (he saves him though.)

But Alex does have a dream, a "certain" guy does appear in (just read it it's a spoiler), he ends the dream with sending Alex to the sun's very warm spin.

Alex loves his family, they treat him very kind, Buddy's grandpa however makes him lose his freaking mind. (Lil cringe sorry)

Alex wants a picnic, Buddy takes him across: to a forest to enjoy some time- but Alex does get lost.

In between chapters appears, Wick, Mitzi, and Iv(y), but Alex (somehow) still doesn't know what's happening behind the blinds.

Too go well beyond this, is a question not easy, because I haven't got the time to make that part of the story!

When little daisy started, Atlas had the crown, that title he held pretty close, til he ended in the ground...

Mitzi does now have it, So does Asa sweet (but it's his own), but with these two delinquents, how will they be discreet?...

FIN

Chapter Text

Buddy is walking through the rain. The air is cold, from a massive thunderstorm leans above him. The sky is murky, and the fact that’s it’s night doesn’t contrast well. Buddy is walking to his grandfathers house so he can escape the weather. The houses around him have limiting light glowing, in preparation for a possible power outage. Buddy is moving though, albeit slowly, in order not to slip in the rain. The cold air mixed with wet clothes certainly wouldn’t help, although his clothes are already quite soaked from the water. He remembered when he assumed it would be a small shower, and went outside. Big mistake…

boom!

Buddy isn’t an easily frightened person. But lightning gets him. Every loud boom makes him stop in his tracks. He almost slipped on a puddle when one struck nearby. Buddy groans, and keeps on going.

Buddy: You know, if I could talk to the sky, I’d tell it to fffuck, off.

Suddenly, a bolt of lightning strikes next to Buddy, like the sky had given this in order to bum Buddy’s supposedly huge ego down. Buddy’s tail flinched upwards in fear. Buddy slips, and eats shit slips hardly on the watery concrete. 

Weirdly enough, in the background amongst his loud shuffles to get up, the rain slapping hard on his clothes, mixed with the rain’s sound in general, he barely heard a man’s voice say “Missed. Welp…” Buddy, as a person, doesn’t believe in the existence of a second, third, or really any number of beings beyond one. But this felt different. Like there truly was something plotting against him that day. But Buddy shrugged it off, picks himself up, and goes on his merry disengaged way.

But then, Buddy feels warm. No… hot. Like a temperate, glowing ball of light was inside him. He didn’t feel cold anymore. He learnt this happened when the body gets too cold. But this was odd. He got hotter. And hotter. Uncomfortably hot. Like a hotness his body couldn’t possibly fake. He feels a sharp pain in his chest, and looks in to see a reddened area, like he’d sunbathed for hours. At this point, the pain was unbearable. He took off his shirt, but the heat still cooks him, like he was in a pot of boiling water.

Buddy has no idea what’s happening. He knows the human body can’t get this hot on command. If he did magnate to reach his temperature, he’d be long dead by now. The water around him starts to steam, but not “his water”. Buddy would be annoyed by this physically impossible inconsistency if it wasn’t killing him.

Buddy tries to look at his hand, when he notices something… strange. His paws were starting to slowly deform out of shape. He assumes it’s because he’s shaking it in pain, when a drop of him jumps from his now jiggling mass that looks like a hand. It boils some water around where it landed, and starts to melt, visibly. Even he starts to melt. His tortured mind ponders why is this happening…

by the time his mind reaches the incredibly mad yet possible epiphany, he bursts into flames. Glowing yellow to blue, before glowing so bright it illuminates the inside of the houses around him. But not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.

After the flames die out, Buddy is no more than a mound, that looked like it had somehow melted into a giant, thick black aggregate of nothing but coal. 

Don’t mess with deities, kids.

Chapter Text

Rocky was driving in his car, after a successful rumrunning session, with his liquid gold sloshing around in the backseat, along with cactus friend’s incredibly terrifying, bleak stare eerily watching Rocky from the back. The tired Rocky is trying to pay attention on the road, due to the fact he hasn’t drank syrup in 2 hours that we won’t ever know.

Although, with the fact that there is no road (and therefore no cars,) means that all Rocky’s worried of is hitting a tree and losing the delicacy. But Rocky’s uncredited, egregiously powerful train of thought takes the better of him.

oh man, Mitzi’s gonna be so happy when she sees all this supply I gave her! Everyone else is gonna be super happy, and they’ll clap for me, and they’ll give me a trillion dollars, and I’ll launch myself to the moon, and the moon is a aggregate of bliss, rock, and cheese and the….

gallop.

Suddenly, a deer runs across the road, but Rocky is distracted, trapped in his random thoughts.

THUNK!…crack…thunk!

Rocky immediately stops, and slams on the brakes.

He awoke from his daydream to find a deer 20 meters back, with two distinct tire tracks on its body: one in between it’s legs and chest, and one more over its neck, snapped upon impact. It’s corpse unstirred, and laying quietly in the dark. Actually, everything was quiet. Minus the sound of the car running, and Rocky’s labored breathing from the scare, thinking he had ran over something. Or even worse, someone. 

Rocky: eh, not my problem.

Rocky bounces his way back to the car before realizing: this is his problem. He can’t leave it here, that would be weird. He’s already: smashed a butterfly on his cousin’s head, and brunt several pigs to death, so he owes a lot of debt to nature. And also the (human) deaths caused by bringing his cousin into Lackadaisy, but does that reeallly count?

Rocky slowly drags the deer over the grass, audibly bending and turning under it’s weight. He’d try to reverse to the deer himself, but he’ll most likely just run over it again. 

Rocky: Elbow grease… day it is… then!

Every small pause cause by him tugging on the deer to get in to the trunk. However, while pulling to get it in the trunk, Rocky pushes too hard, causing the tire-tracked area of the deer’s skin to rip open.

This spews blood all over Rocky. Rocky freezes in disgust. The blood audibly dripping of his body, among the silence of the night.

Rocky closes the trunk, but forgets about the liquor due to the incident. Instead, he waddles in the front of the car, gets into position, and sleeps, the blood on him making the seats become reddened, and wet.

Rocky suddenly awakes in the depth of the forest, his car nowhere to be seen. Rocky swore he had fallen asleep in his car, although that might have been from the syrup sleep deprivation. Rocky waddles around to look for his car, but sees nothing. Suddenly, in his peripheral vision, he sees what seems to be the legs of a deer. But bigger, and standing upright.

This causes Rocky to look back, but nothing is seen. No deer, no creepiness, nothing. And besides, the night is just as quiet as it was when…

Suddenly, he hears the sound of faint footsteps in the distance. He assumes it might be someone lost.

Rocky: hello? Anyone there?

Immediately, the footsteps become more loud, like it wasn’t lost. Or human. Or a deer. At least lost without finding him first. Rocky connects the dots in his head, and realizes he needs to run. Now.

Rocky runs through the forest, hoping it won’t get to him before he enters his car. But Rocky’s footsteps are loud, grabbing attention to whatever is chasing him. Rocky is confused, but knows if he doesn’t outrun “it”, he’ll be it’s next meal, or worse. Luckily, from the hill he was running off of, he sees his car at the bottom. Rocky has some hope to survive this ordeal, and live to tell the tale of-

A fast, repeating thumping noise appears from behind him, far surpassing the noise of Rocky’s own steps. Rocky desperately tries to run as quick as he can, his newfound hope, now torn from his grip…

Rocky feels the pressure of one of the deer’s hooves on his shoulder. He stops in his tracks. His heart beating out of his chest, thumping loudly. Now it’s silent. Rocky awaiting the next action of this beast. Rocky looks back to see nothing…

…except two disembodied legs. The exact ones Rocky had seen before. The exact ones Rocky ran over. But where was the rest then?

RRRRRRRRRR

Rocky’s car jumpstarts up, revealing the horribly distorted remains. Its head turned backwards from its arms and body, it’s eyes gazing at him from the sides of it’s head like blackened ears. The car starts to drive towards him. Rocky doesn’t flinch. He doesn’t move a muscle. He knows not to move under such a force, despite his mind screaming at him to move. The car gets closer and closer, speeding towards Rocky. Rocky shreds a single tear before the car runs over him.

Rocky wakes up. It’s still night, although it seems a significant amount of time has passed. A deep, dark red blood stain covering his seat, leaving a powerful, iron-like smell in the car. Rocky opens the windows before he throws up from the stench. Rocky is wide awake from the scare the nightmare gave him, soon realizing he had a delivery left to do, and speeding towards the rest of St. Louis. 

Eventually, Rocky looks in the trunk to see the deer. But the deer had looked like it died of old age. No tire tracks, no open wounds, nothing, like it had just died minutes ago.

Then why was Rocky feeling like he was being watched again?

Chapter Text

Rocky, Ivy, Calvin were driving in Rocky’s car, after finding a spot where liquor could be found. Rocky was surprised no one ever thought of looking there, since the area had existed for over 300 years, untouched by anyone. However, with no other knowledge of the place, they brought their little “Torpedo Boy” on the way in case it was a Marigold trap. Funnily enough, the location was miles away from St. Louis. But with all their other locations occupied, snuffed, shot up, or destroyed by Marigold, they didn’t have much to choose from here. Eventually, they come upon the site.

A small, white cubic mausoleum, reinforced by chains and crosses in a giant circle, all surrounded by a dark, thick metal fence six feet heigh.

Calvin: I’m not sure I want to do this anymore…

Rocky: Come on, Freckle! The early bird gets the worm!

Calvin: but this has been abandoned for 3 centuries! This stuff is old already!

Rocky: It’s wine! The roseate liquid of eternity. It will only go when the world transmogrifies to soot and cinders.

Rocky reaches the tall metal wall, and grabs an emergency rope from the trunk they’ve been keeping for months, now useful. Calvin ascends the rope quickly. Followed by Ivy, then Rocky.

Thump!

Then Rocky.

Thump!

Rocky: curse these spaghetti arms!

Rocky, without the ability to climb up well, has to have Calvin and Ivy pull the rope over the fence instead. Rocky crashes to the ground, this time on the other side, and crashes with a harder thump, along with the rope.

Rocky: finally, the serene spirits, under death’s scythe, to be of our inventory.

One small problem. The chains. Unable to be opened, Rocky brainstorms an idea.

Rocky: Hey Torpedo Boy.

Calvin: it’s freckl-

Rocky: can you…

Rocky whisper something into Freckle’s ear, unintelligible to Ivy. Freckle’s face makes a small frown, and gives a notion for Ivy to move away a little.

BANG! clink! BANG! clink! BANG! clink!

Freckle shoots each of the chains once using the Tommy gun, which destroys them immediately. Luckily for the three, they hadn’t think of putting a lock, so Rocky opens the door to find a dark room. No windows. No candles, No lights. Nothing. Cobwebs surround the room, covering everything but the center. Like they were avoiding it for survival. Ivy turns on the flashlight to see the grave, it’s lid nailed down, covered in inches of dust.

Rocky: Awwwww!?!? This again?

Rocky looks everywhere, looking for something to break the nails somehow. Suddenly, he notices one the nails is bent, and rusted. Actually, most of them, were. It seems like little care was put in after the process was over, like it had been left for years untouched. Probably a very bad criminal with the protection encased around it. Rocky slows bends and snaps the nails off the casket one by one, trying to be careful. The smallest poke, the smallest cut, and he’ll join whoever’s inside the box. He wonder who that person was like. little did he know, he would see moments later.

Rocky opens the lid to find bottle scattered all over the inside, along with a skeleton inside (duh). But somehow, this was intact, but nothing attached to it. One bottle, however, was pieced straight through the chest of the boned cadaver, the rib cage bent around it the neck of the bottle, like it was forcibly pushed inside. 

Looks like this was going to be a day for elbow grease.

Rocky pulls and tugs on the bottle, but to no avail. Finally, he uses all his strength to grab ahold of the bottle, this time successfully nudging in away. Rocky smacked his head on the ground from the force, and is about to throw it over the fence to the others.

Mitzi’s gonna be so happy, and Viktor’s not gonna want to punch me, and he’ll learn to smile properly, and

Pop!

Suddenly, the cork of the bottle starts to get magically pulled off the bottle, releasing a beige liquid to the floor, like the gas of a champagne bottle. But it was wine! What was happening?! The liquid navigates across the ground, before climbing over the casket wall, and slowly, from head to toe, spreading across the skeleton’s full surface, frothing up and down before solidifying into a hard, skin like appearance over the skeleton, now looking pale, and unexposed. Calvin, Rocky, and Ivy staring frozen from confusion and disbelief.

Rocky: well, I guess we’ll be one bottle short…

The pale, grey haired figure awoke. It’s hair short, with some places having little hair, to some completely bald. It’s eyes white-blue, with with blackened veins. It’s teeth pointed, with red splattered over it, along with the rest of it’s oral interior. It’s face matching the tight angles of it’s skull, dried beyond recognition, or if there was anything left that could recognize it anyway. It looked to be far beyond it’s original appearance, around the age the site was described to be. Rocky makes a grand realization. This wasn’t to protect it from humans—it was built to protect humans, from it.

A vampire.

Immediately, Rocky, Ivy, and Calvin flee away. They don’t want to be around with this monster. The close the door behind them, but encounter a problem. The rope they had used was now on the floor. Ivy was about to pick it up before Freckle shoots the fence straight through, a hole big enough from them to escape quickly. Not Calvin, Freckle.

Freckle walks in the car, and has the widest smile on his face, as if waiting for the creature to appear, so he can shoot it for his merriment.

Rocky and Ivy step on the gas immediately after starting the car, speeding away. But this creature, challenged by time, rot, the bindings of those who had entrapped it, and life itself, was not to be stopped easily. It ripped through the door, and bolted toward the car at inhuman speeds, barely capable by the car itself.

Freckle starts shooting, bullet after bullet, but the monster was beyond that. It’s skin showing some holes for a second, before being filled in with more skin, the beige “substance” spreading like venom to the injuries. Even when the magazine was gone, the specimen’s chase had been unbothered. Their resistance was futile. It was approaching faster, possibly fueled by the attack to inch closer, with more power in each step, steadily accelerating.

Suddenly, a bottle Freckle had managed to grab, possibly as defense, slipped from his grasp and out the window, speeding toward the monster.

Splack!

The bottle pierced straight through the creature’s chest. It’s wooden cork, old, but attained the same powerful effect as the original bottle. The creature made a loud screech, breaking what remained of the car’s windows, and causing the crew to cover their ears in terror. It’s skin, being turned back into liquid, got sucked into the bottle, transforming into the beige liquid from before. The skeleton, standing upright but not attached together, broke apart against gravity, and became no more than a dusty pile of bones.

In the end, the crew flee the site, hoping to never have to come again, and hoping to never encounter such a beast again, this promised with the bones detached beyond repair.

No more than a pile of bones, such of those who had entrapped it there, it laid as it should have been.

FIN

Chapter Text

Fish. Worst nickname ever. Not like he could change it, Mr. Sweet was the one who coined it. Not like he’s the kind of man to do anything about it anyway. Especially after the injury. His back beyond repair, in tremendous pain. The car falling on itself had lead to a massive toll on his body, and Asa was starting to take note of this… weakness. It made it harder for Fish to live, and to do his job too. No more running, jumping, or standing upright, even. 

But Fish wouldn’t lose that easily, although it would be up to Lady Luck as to how this would play out for him…

Asa had been kind (this is why it’s not canon) enough to give Fish a chance, and gave him a job that no one was doing anymore. Refills. Marigold has certain places where it gets its own liquid gold. And Fish was the only person who wasn’t dead, or abled to do any other job. An open space had opened the day before due to an “incident”. That was all Asa said before giving him the opportunity to fill in. Fish was desperate, anyway. He shook Asa’s hand. 

Fish was driving a large truck on his way to the establishment. He was happy to have a job where he wouldn’t get shot at, punched, or hurt doing, a big smile over Fish’s face. He needed to show the pin, place the liquor inside his truck, arrive at the Maribel Hotel intact, and everyone’s happy! Fish was worried Asa mentioned being “intact” though. What happened to the guy before? No one could have the balls to quit, anyway.

The night was quiet. No moon. Just a cloud here and there, among an endless sea of stars. It had rained the night prior, but the sky was clear, like the role Fish had. Show the pin, get the stuff, and show up. That was easy. Oh, poor Wes. Wait. He’s not there. He can say what he wants.

Fish: Hey, weasel face! You would dream about doing this!

The words echoing through the night. He heard the rustling of a bush. Probably just a deer.

Eventually, while on his way to the establishment, he finds a random truck in the distance. He doesn’t think much about it, to him it was probably abandoned. He gets keeps on going, whistling a song as he drives, although hindered by the punch delivered to his snout. His snout sadly never properly healed due to the accident. His already weak nose smacked into the wheel, and bent it permanently. He doesn’t need to breathe from his mouth, at least. Eventually, he finally arrived. The area dark, with a large, white building, blinds fully down.

He notices a truck in front of the establishment, and walks up to it. He notices some liquor in the truck. Good. Now it was time for step two. Fish walks in, and grabs a few bottles. But they were light. Strangely light. Like there was nothing inside, and a closer look confirmed it. He walks out, and goes to the passenger side. Nothing. He sees a large, red drape covering the front of the truck. He thinks nothing of it, but his gut is telling him there was more to that. When it comes to jobs like this, he learnt a gut feeling is about life or death. Fish pulls the drapes. His heart sinks over what he reads.

“Carmody Pie Shop”

The truck that had them in it. The truck with those grey and orange cats that nearly killed him. They shot at him. They crashed his car upside down, and left him to die. And they were happy about it.

”Run.”

It was Rocky. The man who nearly killed him. His skin turns white. His tail jerks upwards. He flees.

Fish runs deep into the forest, hearing Rocky’s loud chuckles as he chases him down. His heart beating out of his chest, and back aching painfully, although not as much as he thought it would be. He assumes it might be adrenaline. He groans with every step, and is huffing and puffing as he runs. Maybe his nose wasn’t enough, after all. Eventually, he finds a dense pack of trees, the other side invisible. He walks through them, running for what he guesses is miles, before stopping behind a large, thick tree.

Fish hears Rocky’s footsteps, hearing them getting closer and farther, like a vulture teasing its prey. He starts to tear up. He doesn’t want to die. Not like this. He messed up such a simple job. The job. The job Asa gave him. This was what happened to the person before him. Blown away by the weaponry of those cats. The job he shook Asa’s hand for. If he knew this would happen, he would burst out that door, and never be seen again by Asa, ever!

He thinks about his girlfriend. He never even said anything the last time he saw her. All he did was paid of half of dinner, and walk away. He didn’t want to take any chance and miss the job offering. Now he regrets everything. If he knew this would have been the last night… Now she’ll only learn he went missing one day. Will anyone even know? Will anyone miss him?

tip!

A droplet from his face falls to the floor, sending a massive shock through his body. Hoping Rocky didn’t hear, but he hears the footsteps become louder, faster, and closer. He covers his mouth, smacking into his nose painfully, but not making a peep, his eyes wide open. If he makes a single noise, it’ll be over. Eventually, he hears them stop around 10 feet from him. He was safe, assuming he was going to give up. He felt like his whole life passed in the time awaiting the silence. His heart eerily audible, hoping Rocky couldn’t hear it too. He started to unwind. He was safe.

“You.”

He looks up to see Rocky, and his gun, ominously reflecting the light in his eyes, like it knew it could take it away in a moment. He bolt away, his back shocking him in pain from the surprise, making a loud grunt. He runs. And runs. And doesn’t stop. This monster. This evil, apathetic monster to chase him to the ends of the earth. All caused by that handshake. His regret sinking deeper. Why?

Eventually, he reaches the end of the forest. Rocky gives out some shots toward where he ran. The darkness of the trees staring back at him. There was no more forest to chase away from. He hears around to make sure he’s gone. Nothing. No steps. Just his heart beating, starts to calm down. Finally. He would be the last to fall for this setup. 

“I see you.”

Fish’s hair stands on end. His heart sinks to his stomach. He sounded more closer than ever before, the trees in between making an echo impossible to decipher his location from. He started to back away, his back in pain even from the movements. The grass crushed beneath his feet. He hoped, for the last time, this would be it. The last bit of hope. But a few steps in, he trips, and starts to tumble down a hill, his back aching and popping from the chaotic spin. He hopes he won’t hit anything. The smallest blow now to his weakened back. He’ll be gone. His girlfriend, family, and friends. Never to see him again.

Luckily, he doesn’t hit anything. For there is nothing to hit. Or anything around him for that matter.

Fish is hanging off of a cliff by one hand. He tries to use his other, but his back aches and pops, and nearly lets go out of pain. This is it. No chance. He’ll fall and become no more than a puddle. He stopped hoping, for there was nothing to save him here. Just Rocky, something among the vast forest, stalking for his presence, to take his life. There were only stars, the ledge he couldn’t scale, and the rocks below, taunting him with their sharp points. He started to tear again, audibly. There was no reason to hide anymore. Not like he could even hold up before Rocky found…

“Hello.”

Rocky’s bloodshot eyes looked down at the helpless enemy, the gash on his hand visible. A drop of blood from it falls to Fish’s face a tempting reminder of his demise to be. He stares at the monster back. He was grinning. To Fish, it was the easiest job ever. Now, it’s his job to do, and he’s on the fatal end of it. He was at hell, staring at Lucifer, to him his situation and Rocky were interchangeable. Rocky was Lucifer. The one who decided his life to be or to not. It was all over.

Rocky: Listen. I’m going to keep this a secret…

Rocky holds his hand down to Fish. His life in his hands. He could decide to save him, or smack his body on the ground and throw him off. But his mind. Tortured beyond measure. He had to take this chance. He holds Rocky’s hand, and starts to get pulled up.

BANG!!!

Fish’s hand explodes in a mix of bone and flesh. They shatter on the ground and Rocky, who pulls his hand away in shock. Or maybe he wanted that. To get a closer look at the tears in his eyes, and to let go when he had enough. Fish watches the ledge slowly get smaller and smaller. He doesn’t have time to form a coherent thought before…

SP-CRUNCH!!!!

Fish’s body gets shattered into a million pieces, becoming a red, thick and muddy puddle on the ground. Every last thought now a pink, fatty glob rolling down. Gore.

Rocky: Calvin, don’t shoot so close to my hand! 

Freckle: I know.

Calvin starts to cry.

Rocky: Hey, hey, listen, if we keep doing this, then Marigold will go down in flames! That’s the way how life goes. And it goes on and on. Except for him.

Rocky looks down, his eyes bulge open.

Rocky: actually… *cough* don’t look down… *cough* not… *cough* worth…

Rocky vomits immediately. Normally, he’d see a tiny hole with a red puddle. Not this time. Everything. Everywhere. He was gone. Torn to nothing. Rocky looks at Calvin.

Calvin: what?

Rocky: Good job.

The handshake that ensured his future, no more than a gory slush.

FIN

Chapter Text

It was a dark and cold night. Virgil, as usual, was wondering the streets, awaiting... something. He could never truly begin on how his life turned this way. He was just a young, inspired man so long ago. He wishing his life could change, although, he'd wish for many things to happen, even from when he was a child. Sadly, his life would be of struggle.

His inability to sleep easily meant he'd wonder most of the time, and hope he doesn't finally pass out on a highway or something. Suddenly his ears pick up the smell. The smelly smell. The smokey smell. He walks towards it for a while before encountering his only friend in the world. Zib.

Virgil: hey, Zib!

Zib: still poor.

Virgil: aww!

Virgil knew Zib was in Lackadaisy. He had visited that place a few times. One time he licked the walls of it. He had many crazy stories of his time there. The bright, dazzling lights distracting him him most of the time, anyway. But one time, he overestimated his boundaries. Drank one too many, he said. He wasn't in his right mind, he said. But it was too late. He got kicked out of Lackadaisy. Forever.

He longed for the day to come back. He knew it still existed, Zib had a home, still. Albeit a shitty one, but that's all he knew about it. Suddenly, thought comes to his head. If he can't get explicitly in... there's other ways of getting inside. 

Virgil: Hey, you know Lacka...daisy? 

Zib: Yeah?

Virgil: what do you like... do in-between Lackadaisy and Little Daisy?

Zib: you mean when the people leave for sleep and when the people come for food?

A small twitch happened when Zib said "Food." He wasn't starving for it, but he sure wasn't eating enough. His mom said he was a picky eater, and wouldn't eat food with weird texture or appearance. But even then, his waist was nowhere near to where it was now, shriveled up. He wished he ate more as a child, he would have withstanded a little longer of this.

Virgil: yes.

Zib: before the sun comes up or so... But you got banned from there, anyways. 

Virgil makes a small whimper. That last drink, snowballed a situation beyond forgiving. Now he stands alone. Unless...

Virgil doesn’t do crime, mainly because a can opener isn’t a good weapon. But this time. Things changed. He was right next to Little Daisy, behind an abandoned building. He watched slowly as the cars went away, and before he realized, one remained. He took a closer look. There was Zib, who was the last to leave. Was he really going to do this? Use Zib’s knowledge to hurt him? His only friend? Over some better booze he wasn’t drinking all this time? He felt sick to the core. He knew deep down, he couldn’t do this Zib. The only person who understood his pain. Maybe the juice will loosen me up…

Virgil walked into Little Daisy, trying not to make much noise. The area empty. He slowly waddled in before reaching the shelf. The final barrier. He hadn’t seen anyone do this in years, years of brain fog making it difficult to remember, anyway. 
He slowly inserted the “sharp” end of his can opener into the slot. Silence rung for a moment, as the can opener reached the end. 

tink!

The door slowly started to swing open. Virgil’s eyes bulged. He was surprised to see how little had changed. Despite Zib telling him that Lackadaisy was failing, he assumes the worst. But it still inched forward somehow. And now, he saw it. A long, empty cavern of nothing, on the other side, a giant wooden door. Good job. You opened door one. Number two… Virgil tries to fumble the doorknob in every attempt, but it keeps failing. He tries reversing it, looking for a spare key, anything. Nothing. Virgil decides to use a final resort. His trusty can opener, wedging it between the doors.

SNAP!

The can opener broke. But to Virgil, he was in. It was late, around 5 am. But he made it. The area, eerily lifeless, and empty. Obviously. There was nobody, the last one having left minutes prior even. He thought about Zib again. He walked to the bottle, grabbed one, and let his intuitions drown. Including any remorse for Zib.

About 20 minutes had passed. Virgil was twenty bottles in, technically. He only downed four, but kept dropping them, flipping them upside down, or just breaking them like a toddler. In the end, everything was laced with alcohol. The piano, the sofas, and tables, everything. But Zib’s iconic trumpet. Sadly, he had forgotten about Zib, but somehow, his instincts told him not to. It was dry. But himself? He was soaked in it, the smell radiated through the room. Virgil, wandering around the room. He picked up a tooth, and rapidly forgot that only 5 minutes ago he had slip of the stand and lost it. He just threw it in a random direction, but notices something odd. A small white box in the distance, barely visible due to his right eye, irritated and scratched. He was lucky no to go blind in that eye, whether it would have been infected or damaged.

Zib’s cigarette box. Virgil was semi-smart man sober. He knew what he wouldn’t, and would do. But the temptation to try it was now unrestricted, his drunken mind, the ability to resolve hindered long beyond thought. He picked one up, walked into a random room (like anyone could see him, anyway) used a lighter he kept secretly in his pocket and lit it. He had it in case he needed to keep himself warm in the frigid, colder months, as if the tiny flame could do anything, though. He watched a small cinder fall from his lit cigarette before his mind could realize…

Mitzi had been the first person to notice the situation, realizing the door was open the entire time. A minute later, the band walked in. Everything had been burnt. Rocky decided to wait in the car to see his violin. He needed time to comprehend what might be. Zib was the first person to enter inside. Everything wooden charred black. He thought the Marigolds had finally did the impossible, before stepping on a broken metallic object. A can opener. Zib had realized everything once he checked his pockets. Empty. He looked around to see his cigarette box burnt badly. Great. But where was Virgil? He notices the armory door opened slightly. Curious as he is, he looks inside.

Poor, poor Virgil. Gone too soon. He was almost unrecognizable. Zib felt sick just thinking about it. If it weren’t for the can opener, he wouldn’t have known, and honestly, he wished he didn’t know. He wished he asked why he asked about it. He wished he knew he was there. He wished he stayed longer that day. But there he was. Gone. He noticed how the doorknob was covered in ash, like he struggled to escape with the fire on him, to no avail.

In the end, Zib buried him, or what was left, to the best of his abilities. He couldn’t report it to the cops, no doubt. He wouldn’t want to send him to the pigs either. That’s no way to have your remains become. He believed it what he would had wanted, or so. One time, Virgil opened up to him about it. He said one day he’d drop dead on the street, and that would be that. But Virgil ended up getting a semi-proper burial, at least. He hoped Virgil at least ended up in a good place, free from his (daily) struggles. But Zib only had one question on his mind:

If only he wasn’t so reckless…

FIN

Chapter Text

Wick never thought he would end up in this position. Once so cheery and happy for the result, now entrapped under it. How did this happen?

It was a bright, sunny day. Wick was looking outside. The plains outside his house were expansive, and flat. A large portion of it covered by trees, all sharing the same, medial height. But one tree stood tall amongst the flatlands. There was nothing he could do about it, it was too wide to he cut down easily, and it wasn’t important enough to really destroy anyway. It would take hours to cut it, move it away, and even then, he already has enough firewood. The whole endeavor would prove useless, and he would get nothing out of it but a cleaner horizon.

But Wick does have know one person who could. Rocky Rickaby, the destroyer of worlds. He’d find some stupidly destructive way to get rid of it, and quickly. As he was walking towards the phone, he got a feeling in his stomach like this would be a bad idea. Like he might die from it. But as long as he avoids Mr. Rickaby’s explosive rampage face on, he’ll be fine. 

Wick: hello, Mr. Rickaby.

Rocky: Hello Ted-wick Table. I would like to buy one hundred million tables for…

Wick: what? No. I wanted to ask you a favor.

Rocky: go on…

Wick: I have this tree in the distance of my mansion and I want you to… you know… do your thing. 

Rocky: How much?

It was honest to Wick, and Rocky, that his perception of money was far less than his. “Much” was far underestimated from Rocky’s view.

Wick: fifty dollars.

Rocky: Ok. Ted-wick Table.

With that, Wick awaited outside for Rocky to arrive. From there, he could tell him which one (if it wasn’t obvious) to cut, and then wait for the final result. It would be weird for Wick, and all his employees, to no longer see that tree anymore. He just hoped no one would be mad. It wasn’t much of a landmark to him, but he couldn’t arrive the same for everyone else, though. He walked from his window to drink some tea. From the reflection of the tea however, he saw smoke behind him. A simple gaze from behind confirmed that. But before he could call Rocky to tell him what was happening…

BOOOOOM!!!!

Wick looked back to see a huge, violently expanding cloud of ash billowing above the forest, birds flying away from the horizon, and cars around stopping to witness the result, with Wick also watching the scene unfold, the cloud dispersing after a few minutes to the tree still standing high above. Wick was impressed with what the result would be before. Finally, after years of having that eyesore there! But the reveal showed no clear difference in appearance, with the lives around, animal or human, being disrupted significantly, for nothing! Wick went in his car, and drove several miles away to see the damage for himself.

This would prove to be a mistake.

Wick eventually made it to the tree, despite the directions he was going to give Rocky… they were off by hundreds of feet! He was surprised Rocky was able to find the tree so easily, but he guessed his mind works different to Rocky. After walking for a while, he managed to find the tree. An area a few feet above the ground on the tree was decimated, leaving a small piece connecting two parts of the tree, looking like an unfinished felling job. 

Wick—distraught by the end result, tries to pull on the area to separate them, but nothing happened. The area blackened, smothered with ash and soot. Small, cooled climbers fall from the area every now and then. But Wick knew that nothing would happen. Out of anger, Wick grabs a rock, and throws it hard on the weak part of the tree. It makes a little sound, moves the tree by maybe an inch, and smacks on the ground.

”Why can’t you just break off!?!?”

Wick starts to walk away, before hearing the sound of rustling. The sound grows a grows, before he realizes the sound is coming from behind him. The only thing he can do is make a jump to right to at least avoid the tree, landing on soft grass. Wick, for a second, believes he’d be safe where he was now.

He wasn’t.

Immediately, he hears the sound of the heavy tree falling to the ground, but eerily hears the sound of bones breaking and snapping, followed by the worst pain in his leg imaginable. Wick looks down to see the heavy, thick, tall tree crushing his leg. Wick screams. The pain is unbearable, feeling every inch of his skin ripped apart in seconds. But the silence that fell afterwards was, in his opinion, far worse. He only realized the severity of the situation when he noticed there was no one to hear him, for miles upon miles. Only him.

He was thinking about everything that led to him becoming trapped, under a log, alone, for 20 to 30 minutes. He couldn’t truly tell because he forgot to take his watch with him. Not like that would help him, anyways. Now stranded underneath a tree, his car only a five minute walk away. His freedom so close, yet so far. He was in hell, looking at heaven. And he was in for a hell of a ride afterwards, even if he did escape.

He hoped that someone, anyone would come to him. That he wasn’t alone in a place where he would surely die if no one discovered him in time. He had learned the body could withstand without water for 72 hours. Two had passed. He had time, right? As long as nothing came to eat him while he was sleeping, or if he even could in so much pain. As long as someone, whatever, whoever, whenever, same to him. 

However, that thought would be tested by who would really come…

Rocky.

Rocky walked up to him, or, alternatively them, according to a snide remark Rocky gave Wick. Rocky originally thought Wick lost his leg, but a quick check where Rocky kicked his leg proved otherwise, and also egregiously painful to Wick. That didn’t stop Rocky from doing it a few more times. In the end, after Rocky had his fun hurting Wick, he went to Wick, and then started talking nonchalantly to Wick, ignoring the situation.

Rocky: so Wick, how’s it going?

Wick: please, just send help.

Rocky was tired of Wick saying that from the moment he came.

Rocky: what do you think they’ll do?

Wick: they’ll lift the log of my leg!

Rocky: they can’t help you.

Wick: what?!

Rocky: It took seven sticks of dynamite for me to barely destroy the tree, I was going back for more, but I see you must have brought some with you! Accept the fact that, your prized little limb will have to be… you know… 

Wick: No… I know they can do it!

Rocky: I’m sorry to say your leg is gone. Now we can do this the easy way, or the hard way.

Wick: why won’t you send help?!?!

Rocky: I have help in my pocket. Riiiggghhhttt here.

Rocky pulls out a pocket knife, and throws it on the ground.

Rocky: Listen. You can: act in denial and believe that your leg won’t be torn off anyways even if I, or someone else gets help, which I won’t…

Wick: or?

Rocky: you… do the job yourself. 

Wick was surprised that Rocky truly thought he would cut his own leg off. His gift from god, a lovely, natural pair at birth, to go to waste at his own hands. He would have thrown the knife at Rocky’s back if it weren’t for the fact he was already walking away…

However, as night started to fall, the now starving, dehydrated Sedgewick Sable was getting desperate, going crazy from the pain. What I’d do to be back home, with my two legs intact! He always thought he would go at old age. But it had occurred to him, among the stars, the moon, and the trees, that he has one option left, one he was against doing for hours. But he was getting tired. He needed this to end! He was staring at the knife for a while, a thought echoing in his mind:

Would he? WOULD he? To his leg? HIS leg?!

Chapter Text

Freckle was good at many things. Being the cutest little guy in the world, and blasting holes in objects. And people. Once again, Freckle had found himself at the dispense of LD. But Rocky's means of getting rid of it was dangerous. He’d told him that this would be easy. Carry the body though the house and into the garden, since Nina was sleeping anyway, and dispose of it there. Simple.

In the end, blood had splatted in a trail leading through the whole house. From the door, through the kitchen, and into the garden, where that person has been laid to rest. Rocky made a few, loud pure Irish curses at the now flat portion of the ground. Some bird flew out of the trees when Rocky screamed it. But Rocky said “that’s how you know it worked.” But what Rocky didn’t say originally was that Freckle had to clean everything. Rocky's "spaghetti arms" would barely cover it. There had to be not a single spot left.

And now, Freckle was cleaning blood off a wooden floorboard at 3 in the morning, with a mop. Sweeping every last drop, and putting it back into the bucket. The bucket was huge, so the red tinted water was nearly impossible to see, combined with the low light. Freckle didn’t dare think of touching the light switch. It would lead Nina right to him. As to where Freckle wanted to put it the liquid, that was for him to think for later.

But he was so tired. His hands slipping every now and then, his grip weakening by the second. All he wanted to do was rest. He thought about the person's... liquids he was cleaning up. He felt sick to his stomach over it. It was all him who did it, anyway. He hoped it was a quick one. That's what he always hoped, anyway. Every little sound from upstairs caught his attention, making pause for a minute. But he was wasting valuable time, and soon he would pass out. His eyelids dropping. His balance swirling. His world spinning. He was...

THUD!

Freckle awoke about 20 minutes later to a shadow leaning eerily above him. Nina. His mom.

"What are ya doing down here, lad?!"

Freckle's eyes bulged. He fell asleep, and beyond that he doesn't remember. He looked around, to see his a few red drops in a room, barely visible. He wasn't done. She would have seen it if it wasn't Rocky's former room, now just a collection of boxes and the such. He hoped Nina didn’t turn to look at it too. But Freckle looking back to see Nina’s angry face staring back down, straight into his soul.

"Well, answer yourself!"

Freckle: I... was...

Freckle had to have come up with something, and quick.

Freckle: cleaning the floor because I was trying to... to... squish a bug yesterday but I forgot to clean it up, and… it got on my shoes.

”Oh… that’s ok. But why at this hour?”

Freckle: because it was getting on my nerves a little.

”Well, ya don’t need to get worried by things like that. Go to bed.”

Freckle needed to clean the last few drops, but he felt like Nina wouldn’t enter the room since he felt like she cared come amount not to come in unless it was needed. He slowly walking upwards to his room, and eventually started to care less and less about the what he needed to clean up. Not like it would even be a problem later. And so, he drifted off to…

AAAAAAHHHHH!!!!

“Calvin McMurray, come down right here NOW!!!”

Freckle’s heart dropped immediately. He was not expecting this to happen! But was over. He needed to confess eventually… the guilt was eating him up. But he knew if they locked up Rocky, he would never see the light of day ever again. Was Rocky going to take the blame, again? He couldn’t bring himself to even choose, just hiding under his covers. He just wanted this to be a bad dream. Just wake up. Wake up. Wake up. WAKE. UP. WAKE UP.

Freckle woke up on the floor, the moon nearby. It was like he had just restarted the dream. But no. Only 30 minutes had passed, and he saw outside that the sun was coming up. He hated how he joined Lackadaisy during the summer, the times where his mother woke up the earliest, because the sun came up at that time (despite it being ridiculously early).

He quickly moped the rest of it up, poured the remains into the sink out of cheer panic, and slowly began walking up the stairs back to his room, looking back to make sure he didn’t miss anything. Nothing. No eerie reflection of red on the floor. He crept into his bed, and feel asleep, exhausted.

Eventually, Nina woke him up. Calvin took his morning shower, and “scrubbed those sins away”, as his mother described it. He reached the breakfast table, ready to forget about how his day started as and just enjoy the time until he had to do… “it” again. But something felt… off. Nina was quiet. Too quiet. Like she knew something, and not his clothes being incredibly itchy, was wrong. But Calvin ignored it, ate his “delicious” porridge, and was going to go outside when Nina sat down, and asked him something.

”Calvin, we need to talk.”

Chapter Text

Alex Big Clappy and his friend Buddy were in a field, the open expanse stretching beyond where they could see. Short, light-colored grass spanned across the area, also dotted with some flowers here and there. The sky was a light blue, saturated with large clouds floating high above them. Finally, they managed to have a good picnic. No dumb trees to get missing in between, unlike last time. But now, they were at peace, watching the city from the edge of the grass.

Alex BC: it's crazy how so many people live over there. It could cover it with my... Hey! Where's my gun?

Buddy: I confiscated it. Let's just... be with nature today.

Alex BC: but I don't want to.

Buddy: shh. Do you hear that?

Alex BC: what?

The sound of wind is heard amongst the silence, the city, so far away, is inaudible. The sound of grass shifting back and forth from the soft blow, the sound of files buzzing around, the sound of... Well... Alex doesn't like being so far from the city like this. The last time, the soft sounds of nature were all that could be heard. Now, all there was were the annoying sounds of nature. 

Alex BC: I honestly don't get how you like this. I only enjoyed the forest, where no stupid bugs were, and-

Buddy: you got lost and it took 12 hours to find you.

Alex BC: personally it felt like less than that...

Buddy: you fall asleep and got carried away by water.

Alex BC: yeah... still trying to comprehend what that dream was about. Probably nonsense.

Buddy: just... Let the ambiance take over you.

Alex BC: Can I ask you something?

Buddy: yes?

Alex BC: if you were outside here, would you be able to sleep?

Buddy: no...

Alex BC: and ambience is supposed to be soft enough to get you to sleep.

Buddy: yes.

Alex BC: so-

Buddy: Listen, Alex. It's the environment that makes you like this. You grew at the city because that what you could do. My family went all around the world because we could.

Alex BC: ok... But did you visit Antarctica?

Buddy: no?!

Alex BC: so you didn't go all around the world.

Buddy: no one lives there...

Alex BC: fine... what about Africa?

Buddy: I flew over it.

Alex BC: but-

Buddy: I said "around the world". Not "visited everywhere". You can fly around the whole world and never touch any land except for your landing strip.

Alex BC: so you didn't visit anywhere?

Buddy: just... enjoy the field. Please.

Alex attempts to "enjoy" the field by closing his eyes, and imaging that he wasn't there. He tries hard to ignore Buddy's talking about insects, and his facts... really puts the "fact" in "factored"? He already forgot that weird word Buddy invented. He used the word sometimes like if it wasn't completely out of place. But there is a sound... a incredibly annoying, ringing sound. No... Vibrating sound. No... Buzzing sound. BUZZING SOUND?

Alex realized a bee was buzzing above his face. It swirling around his ears, like it was a flower. Alex jumped at the sight, trying to swat the bee out of reach. His anger made it impossible to hear Buddy's screams for him to stop. The damn butterfly... And now this? He was confused. Does he like bugs or not now? Suddenly, the bee started to go towards Alex. Alex was certain of what was going on now. Until the most painful, pulsing pain coursed through his body, radiating from a single point. 

He was stung.

Alex started to flinch violently in pain, crushing the grass over him as he started rolling chaotically on the floor. Buddy was a little surprised at this reaction. It certainly couldn't have been that painful. He had been stung many, many times in his life, from going everywhere he was bound to interact with them, and at a young age, always approached them like it was a little tiny blumbing tiny friend for him to make. At least before he got stung for the 15th time, or so. 

But Buddy made a mistake. His avid daydreaming had distracted him from Alex goes from moving too much, to moving too little. He was audibly trying to breathe, his tongue and throat stretching, making him desperate, and unmoving. Buddy tried to look for anything to help, but by the time he looked back, Alex was gone. Blue. Buddy didn't understand this, until he saw a massive swarm of bees looming eerily above them. By then, it was far too late.

gasp!

Buddy had awoke. In his bed. Not next to a massive swarm of bees, or a decaying Mr. Big Clappy. He took a moment to process the dream, get up, wake up his grandpa, hunch over for a few minutes from the daily punch, walk over outside, and meet up with Alex. Alex was rumbling on and on about this new place to have a picnic at. No dumb trees to get lost in, just one large, empty field of nothing but flowers and grass. Buddy tried to get Alex not to go, but Alex insisted on going. Buddy went to. He didn't explain the dream to him, though. He would sound crazy. And if the truth about his true opinion on Alex was revealed, he'd be called the same too. 

Eventually, both Alex and Buddy made it. One large, empty green field, but eerily like the one in his dream. Too close. Same light green tint, same sky color, with clouds, and flowers, and the city, and the emptiness. But Buddy wasn't dumb. He knew it was a coincidence. Maybe he visited here as a child and his recollection of it was that dream. But with Alex. Although he had an explanation for that already. Besides, there were no bees either. Buddy started to calm down, put his head down to lay on the soft grass, close his eyes, and relax. It was a dream. Only a dream, and no more. They were fine.

Until the buzzing started.

Chapter Text

But he was getting tired. He needed this to end! He was staring at the knife for a while, a thought echoing in his mind:

Would he? WOULD he? To his leg? HIS leg?!

He didn’t know. He started the moon, like it would give him the answer. He was so hungry. He was so thirsty. He was so tired. He was so done. He looked his leg, now purple and veiny from the massive weight of the log above, suffocating it. He decided to touch it again. It was ice cold. He couldn’t feel his touch on his legs. He pulled his finger away, but saw raw flesh sticking to it. Glistening in the night. His leg was gone.

He was surprised at this. He was about to vomit, but there was nothing to vomit. He had been sitting there, in pain, without food or water, in the middle of the night, alone, in the forest, and he couldn’t bare another minute. He looked back at the knife, the smooth metallic blade softly reflecting the moon light like his own flesh. He looked at it. Blood stained on it. He shrieked in disgust.

He probably used this on someone before. At least he knew it was sharp enough to cut though, and Rocky wasn’t giving him a fake one to mess with him. He would do that. Especially after leaving him alone in the cold, without food and only a knife. So cold. He knew Lackadaisy gotten themselves into darkness as such. But this? He knew he only did this because his mind was so bent from his experiences, that it only seemed rational.

Oh, what was he thinking?!? He was running out of time. Soon he would eventually have to take the blade to his thigh. A part of him was truly trying to think if it was worth it. Maybe, just maybe. But he couldn’t lie to himself much longer. Soon, he would die out here. It was about survival. He honestly wished things hadn’t turned this way. Damn Rocky. He was right there. Wick suddenly thought about why Rocky doesn’t like him. But he couldn’t. Why must the one person in the world who hates he come to me?!?!

But he did help him. He gave him the knife. He looks at his leg, which carried him everywhere, had now come the time to die. He never, ever took having two legs for granted, but he would know this time would be a moment to think about it. Not like he would have it. But he was lucky to be rich with this possible threat of becoming an amputee looming ominously over him. He just needed to become one first.

He looked at the knife one last time. Pondering hard about whatever he could truly, truly do this. To his god given gift, his right! He thought about if this would jeopardize if he’d go to heaven or not. But he couldn’t justify what he was doing anymore. It was life or death!? But should he? But he had to! But it would hurt! But

PLACK!

He had already stabbed his leg by the time it became too much. He would have gone insane thinking about it. He was thinking and not acting. He did it. It was painless, and cold. It was like was cutting through butter, the flesh softened by rot. It almost made it a little bit bearable. What was not was, the terrifying sound of it cutting through his meat. He wanted to vomit. He needed to. He didn’t care anymore—Oh god, this isn’t what I planned!

He tried to imagine how he would do after this. He could eat, He could drink, but he would lose his leg. It was already gone. He didn’t even have time to accept it before he hit bone. Rock hard. He had cut the flesh around it, sure. But his rock hard bone sent shocks through his body every time he touched it. It was so painful. But he knew he had to do this fast. His blood spilling everywhere. He took the knife, and plunged the blade into his bone. He cried. He was so tired.

Again. And again. And again. Every enormous shock coursed through his body. He couldn’t help but scream each time. But it became more painful when, he heard the sound of an uncannily loud metal clink. The knife broke. It was over. Over. Over. He would die out here. Alone. Starving. Bleeding. Hungry. Tired. Starving. Tired.  Hungry.   Bleeding…   hungry…     tired…

But before Wick passed out, he had one final move. He puts his hands on the log, the splinters poking into his hand already, and pulled. He sound of bones shifting. Meat ripping apart. The log started to move slightly. Finally, with his life at total stake, he pushed hard, and nearly passed out before the most painful, aching, agonizing, excruciating, violent, harrowing, tormenting, grievous, dreadful, unbearable, pounding, unpleasant, wretched, torturous, cruel, searing shock flashed through his body, making him freeze in pain. The terrifying sound of a large SNAP! rang through the woods. 

He was free. He started to crawl his way through the woods, leaving a trail of blood behind him. He hoped nothing would follow him through it, he was right there. He was finally out, free into the road nearby. He saw many cars pass by, but one finally stopped. Its lights off. The stranger walked out. Nearly visible, holding some massive object in his hand. Wick was happy, but confused on what the man would do with it. The man walked up, went up to his ear, and said in his familiar tone:

You want a drink?

Chapter Text

Rocky was walking through the dark, with a large, beige map in his hand, a flashlight flickering on and off in the other, and legs trudging through the dirt. He was looking to the map every few seconds. The moon looming over him. Eventually, he managed to reach the place. There was no X. Rocky didn’t need it. He took his shovel, and started to dig into the ground. There, he would find what the map told he would be:

Gold. Gold. A lot of gold. More than any explorer could possibly need, and a big supply of it. Whoever finds it will own every last piece. Gold chains and gold rings, shined with many precious jewels. Gold bars the size of bricks. Held deep within the ground, covered in a foot of concrete, left to be uncovered by the world.

Rocky had to do this. The speakeasy had once again started to fall, but this time, more than anyone had anticipated. Rocky was desperate, everyone was. He read book after book, trying to find some amount of information about possible liquor, possible money, possible anything. He didn’t want to lose what is basically his home now. Rocky couldn’t afford to lose his place here. It was the last chance. 

Eventually, Rocky had hit a mass of concrete below. Lady Luck has bestowed upon me this gift, I will redeem with pleasure. His shovel banging against the wall. TINK! TINK! The massive smile on his face might have ripped it in half. He was so happy. But deep down inside he felt scared. There was a multitude of possibilities. Maybe it might be a myth, wrong, faked, or simply nonexistent. He didn’t want to lose everyone he loved. He paused for a second, thinking deeply about it, took a breath, and want back to digging through.

Rocky suddenly felt a rumble through the ground. Like the massive sound of a crack, spreading along the concrete. He looked inside the hole he’d dug. It was black. He made it. He slipped his body inside of the hole. He thought his “spaghetti arms” would do anything. Nope. Guess they still have bones. He took the shovel, chipped a large piece of the concrete, and fell in. The area was pitch dark, but his flashlight was better than nothing.

He immediately spotted a few things. Gold. All around him. Jewels, in golden jewelry. But there was one last thing missed by the description of the area. A large bottle, of glowing red liquid. He thought it was just his flashlight, until he realized he never turned it on. It was bright, making whatever was inside Rocky’s cranium walk towards it. He opened it. It had a lovely, sweet scent. Of roses and daisies. Of sweets and syrup. Of soap and water. The bottle looked like it was untouched for years, a sheet of dust over it. 

Rocky was curious. He took a small sip. Liquor. Money, riches, gold, and now this?!?! He hit the jackpot. But upon the first sip, his whole body got a feeling like he needed more. Another sip wouldn’t hurt. And another. Maybe a few more for the road. A sip for celebration! A sip for every piece of gold he had found! A sip for every particle of dust in the room! He needed it. His body begging for it. The next moment, a single drop remained. It fell into his mouth, and the greatest bliss flew through this body. Like his body had replenished itself. He went back to getting the gold. His tiredness gone.

He pulled a gold bar from a massive pile, stretching all the way to the ceiling, filled with gold, all reflecting Rocky’s sinister grin. Suddenly, the gold pile started to sink. Actually, the ceiling was. Everything was. The massive pile started to fall over Rocky. It was heavy already, but this much? He wouldn’t make it if he got stuck! He leapt for the hole he’d come out of minutes prior, but the ceilings collapse bring dirt within. In seconds, Rocky… was gone.

FIN

FIN-NAH!

Rocky slowly dug himself out of the pile of gold, first his head, then his arms, and was fully out before realizing something. He came out of a pile of heavy gold, dirt, and concrete pressing on him, unscathed. His body was free of bruises or broken bones. He put as much gold as possible into the passenger area, trunk, and seats, and drove off.

But Rocky’s pain was not over. Upon realizing his incredible strength, he put his body against multiple different pressures to test his strength. He did all of them. Viktor punch, Freckle shoot, Ivy car, anything. His body was unscathed by… everything. Including age…

He slowly watched the world, his friends, and his life change. But his physical self didn’t. Remained basically the same, forever. But his friends didn’t. He cried tear after tear. But it never stopped. One by one. He was there for each one, of course! Until the day Freckle went. He was the last. He was the only one who truly understood him. He was there from day one. But he never thought it would end like this. He looked at his cousin, now reduced to a name etched on a stone.

Slowly, he watched the world change. War after war. He saw no difference. That one grin he had, now changed by time into a cold, distant memory. His body stood against anything. But his mind, his self? Gone. Miserable. Hundreds of years passed. Every year brought nothing. He knew he didn’t need anything to live, he already had nothing to live. He locked himself in an old, abandoned cellar.

Eventually, Rocky awoke from his depression, and slowly walked out into the world. He was ready to have new friends, enjoy his eternal gift!

He was far too late. By about a few million years. His mind struggled so hard to process the last thousand years, that thinking about every last moment, griefing through, and resolving, had token far too long. Humanity had abandoned three things now. The cellar, their world, and Rocky.

He wandered through the world. He hoped to blast away from it somehow. He needed someone, anyone! He was alone. Walking a warm, dry, humid ball of dirt and rock. Left to suffer through it all. He wondered truly what happened. Did humanity leave, or did humanity “leave”? He truly pondered if, someone out there, was on their own world, with people. But everyone left this one to die. With Rocky.

Eventually, he noticed the big ball in the sky had become bigger, and redder… What did people call that anymore? His brain, holding too much information that it could handle, basically reset every few thousand years. But now, Rocky was losing parts of him. His personality. It was shattered, reforged, and shattered so, so many times.

But finally. Everything was gone. The earth were to be swallowed by the sun. A endless sea of red, stretched far beyond what he could see. It took up almost of his vision. But it was over, finally! Rocky stared at the glowing sphere, as his home had now started to approach it, closer, and closer. The most massive quake occurred below him. Pieces of dirt flew off. But he was flung away. He missed the sun.

18,763,452,174 years had passed. He was truly alone. No thoughts. He only assumed that was the date. He was alone, floating through the endless void. Some stars came and went. He saw one explode. His one. The only one he knew. The sun. But that was it for ol’ Rocky Rickaby. Gone insane beyond what he could possibly be. His mind twisted and tortured for billions of years! He was telling more and more tired by the millennia…

Eventually, Rocky stopped being.

Chapter Text

Chapter Text

Zib was sitting in the ragged chair, awaiting his torture. In now thirty minutes, and no more, as Asa said, he would be suffer the worst pain he had carefully made for him. His eyes staring at the clock nicely put next to him. He wish he could take a better look, but he was tied head to toe in rope. Asa had planned for him to not escape. Every little tick the clock made him feel worse and worse. His time was running out, he had counted 28 minutes in.

But there was a chance for him. If he unveiled the secrets of Lackadaisy, enough for Asa and his crew to storm inside, he would be set free, but on a leash: if he told anyone about anything that occurred here, he would be found dead in hours. But he wasn’t willing to let go. He couldn’t let Mitzi down, she was the only person who he could call a friend, and could trust. Mitzi trusted him with her secrets, and vise versa.

He wouldn’t let go, even if they would take his life. Not like his life would get better anyway. His friend, Virgil, had been found brunt to death in their speakeasy. He had to bury him on his own. But that was a mistake. One second he was mourning his friend, the next second he got shot in the legs, dragged away, and then taken to this stupid place. Now, Mitzi might be the next one to mourn him.

At least, he hoped she could. When Atlas came to Lackadaisy, all of Mitzi’s focus had went to him. He just hoped she had some place left in her heart for it. But he was running out time, anyway. The clock had ticked to 29 minutes. The last 20 seconds of comfort was fleeting away, and now, Zib was finally accepting his certain demise. Not like he would leave too much behind. His secrets Mitzi knows, and he doesn’t have much else to say goodbye to. 

3…

2…

1…

Nothing. No guys in suits stabbing his chest. No Virgil, and the pearly gates, or Atlas. Although maybe he may be too overzealous with that prediction… But no. Nothing. He sighed in happiness. He wasn’t going to be given the most egregious punishment possible. A few more minutes passed, and Zib was starting to calm down. But he wasn’t going to leave his guard down. At any moment, it still might begin.

A few more hours passed. It was night now, and Zib, unlike the average man, was not tired, and wouldn’t let his guard down, ever. Any moment… Any moment… He was thinking a little bit harder about his life. His friends, his band, Virgil… he missed him. At least he got a better treatment that what he was getting right now. His pain was overdue about 5 hours now. And he didn’t like that they were prolonging his stress.

A few more hours passed. At was day now. 11 hours in. Zib was starting to get hungry. Man. When will someone come? Maybe they had forgot about him? He wouldn’t know until something happened. And fast. He needed to eat. He was getting cold, too. Going without a cigarette for so long, he was going a little bit crazy without one. But his pain only seemed to grow as more and more hours went.

Soon, Zib had hit the milestone. Twenty-four hours. Zib was now a little tired. But that was the least of his concerns. His mind was going insane without food, water, or his cigarette. He needed them, and quick. His cold feeling was no longer caused by his mind. The room was really cold, and it was getting to him. His chest was hurting. The rope was restraining him from breathing properly.

Forty hours in. His body was disheveled. His old, nice waist, now shrunk from his insatiable hunger. Only know he had realized. The torture, was this. To starve until he had died. He was so sick. He was so tired, he could barely move. What I wouldn’t do to leave… He was left alone, with no food or water, only his thoughts to feed him. His mind was running crazy. No cigarette makes Zib a mad man. Would they really? They’re only source of info about Lackadaisy. And they would just starve him instead? Maybe he was wrong. He couldn’t keep a single secret like this.

Seventy-one hours. His body starved to the limit. His once lovely, slender body, now ruined and skinny, and all of his fat was gone. He was going insane. He hadn’t slept, hadn’t drank, hadn’t eaten. He didn’t care about cigarettes anymore. He was dying out here. But finally, he’d truly accepted his fate. Zib slowly started to close his eyes. His head sunk downward. 

Asa had walked into the room, holding a big, juicy burger in his hands. He brung a table, which he used to poke Zib with, waking him up. Asa unwrapped the burger, then started eating it. In front of Zib. His once vibrant eyes, now struggling to stay open, and watching the burger intensely. Asa wasn’t breaking eye contact with Zib, either. He was staring directly into his eyes, teasing him. Eventually, Asa broke the silence.

”You know what you have to do.”

Asa had said in a soft voice to Zib.

”But… I… don’t… know… if… I… can.”

Zib voice was dry, his raspy voice cracked on every word, every breath audible.

”Listen, I’ll let you free if you tell me everything. And an even bigger meal than my burger. For you.”

Asa said in his teasing tone to Zib. He knew he wouldn’t refuse.

Zib started to shake slightly. It started small, but went to full on vibration. The pain in his heart, he couldn’t do it! But he has too. He’ll die if he doesn’t. He was full on panicking in his mind. But then he stopped. He had made a decision. He slowly turned his head to Asa. He screamed every last word. He was So. SO. SO. HUNGRY. HE COULDN’T BARE ANOTHER MOMENT. He didn’t care anymore.

Asa walked out of the room when he was done. He left, and Zib was alone for a few minutes. Rocky, Ivy, Freckle, Viktor, Mitzi, and so many more. He had now sent to their quiet but painful fate. He wouldn’t make it. He needed to, had to! First Virgil, and now all of his friends. But Mitzi. She was the most important one. She would likely suffer a fate like his, although without Asa coming back. 

Asa rentered the room. He placed a large lasagna tray in front of Zib. He immediately went to gobbling it up. Mr. Sweet wasn’t kind enough to give him utensils. Not like Zib excepted much from him now, likely had done it for his own sick pleasure. Zib didn’t care, only putting a thought for it before eating up. But as soon as he started, he started to choke. His already disheveled body having trouble pushing out the food.

But it wasn’t food.

Zib saw a small, golden button, stained with sauce, get flung from his mouth onto the floor, making a small clink! 

“Huh. I thought they would have removed that when they dug him back up.”

Asa gave Zib a sinister, sadistic grin.

Chapter Text

Zib was stumbling about the alleyways, doing whatever the fuck he wanted. He had dranken more than he could handle, and was a drop away from blackening out. A car almost hit him from his choatic tumbling. Although, even if it did hit him, he wouldn’t feel anything. Almost numb from his head to his toes. But there was one thing, numb or not, that Zib could tell about him everytime. He forgot his cigarettes at the Lackadaisy. He could feel it… somehow. Maybe it was a sixth sense, a third eye, or a neurological thing. But he always knew. But he could never find the Lackadaisy in a reasonable period. 

And so, Zib began his odd journey toward, or should I say, spiraling toward the Lackadaisy. He never, ever managed to walk in a straight line like this. And when he did, he was running. Fast. For his life. Against someone probably more drunken than him. So Zib slowly stumbled for a few hours. But to him, it was a few minutes. One blink, and he’s on a crosswalk. Another, and he’s on a bridge. Another, and he’s in the water below it. Another, and he somehow managed to get to shore. Another, and he’s talking to Virgil.

“What are you doing here? You said you were going to the Lackadaisy five hours ago…”

Five hours? Zib was confused. Maybe Virgil was drunk too. But no. He saw that the sun was starting to eerily rise above the horizon. He saw a small, barely visible orange hue, indicating that Zib’s time was up. Unless he dashed to the Lackadaisy. Somehow, he does. Barely sober enough to walk straight, Zib waddles toward the Lackadaisy. But just in case someone’s inside, he drinks his entire flask in one gulp, and goes on his merry way.

That was a mistake.

Immediately, the liquor hits Zib hard. He even lays down on the ground before realizing he’ll waste time doing that. He gets up, enters Little Daisy, and starts to stumble and crash into things. Spices, Sauces, even the syrup, too. Rocky’s gonna be so mad. But he doesn’t care. He even stumbled into a small gas pipe and… possibly disconnected it. But he still doesn’t care. He just keeping going on, and enters Lackadaisy.

The place is dark. Zib knows that. He doesn’t turn on a light switch. But he needs his cigarettes. He needs to just take one, and he’ll feel better, like he had eight hours of sleep. Although he did have five hours, still (but caused some incredible amounts of time to be wasted.) he had to get to them. He couldn’t go another minute without a small, little, gust. He walks to the door. But it’s… locked. His dumbass didn’t take out his keys when he unlocked, and stupidly relocked, the door.

Suddenly, Zib gets hit with the wonderful smell of gas spreading in the room. Although to him he’ll vomit to it. Not like he had anything to vomit, anyway. So now, he might suffocate. Unless someone comes in. But his drunkenness was hitting him, and quick. He walked to the podium, as if that would let him escape the gas. But his dizzy, confused brain falls off. He didn’t break anything, but his leg had a pain. Once that meant he couldn’t use it. 

But Zib realizes something. The doorknob has a thumb turn. Out of his drunken hysteria, he’d forgot the door had that. If anything could get Zib to stop drinking, it would be that. If he could. He started to crawl on the dirty floor, picking up cigarette butts he had left from the night earlier. He remembered it. Wick was there. But for everything else, his eventually sober brain would figure out. 

He was crawling desperately, like there was a fire (😉) behind him. Not that this couldn’t be comparable. What he was doing was very, very simple. But his drunken self struggled. He barely made it halfway in about 10 minutes. But slowly, he was making some good progress on his way. Although the thick, thick smell of gas radiated across the room. Eventually, he was only a few feet away. He pulled his arms sheepishly onto the knob. He pulled.

It was the light switch.

FFFFOOOOMMMM

Suddenly, an unpleasantly large flash of light emerged from the light switch, knocking him forward, before sitting fire to the entire room. Including him. Zib could feel his fur being burnt, from head to toe. Out of pain, Zib limps to the ground, and passes out. Put he knew he wouldn’t make it out of this. He started to write words onto the door, turning his tracings into a blackened mix of soot from his fur and the wooden door.

Immediately, Wick wakes up from a dream. But something didn’t feel right. Like something happened. And bad. Wick wouldn’t normally take a gut feeling. But it felt strong. He got up from his bed, went down the stairs, got in his car, and went around the city, looking for anything unusual. But after a looking 20 minutes of looking around, he decides to go back home. His nose picks up the smell of something burning. He goes back to the city again, to see plumes of smoke emerge from Little Daisy.

Wick immediately walks inside, grabs the key, walks into the caves, but Horatio isn’t there to open the door. In fact, no one is. The room inside is dark. Wick notices that the key is still on the knob. While Wick doesn’t want to enter inside without permission, there could have been something bad! Wick slowly unlocks the door to see everything inside blackened, and charred. Suddenly, a burnt Zib slips out, like he was leaning on the door, engraved with one single text. Wick’s eyes widened. 

I love you Wick.

FIN

Chapter Text

Rocky was walking around his infamous little bridge, the one of many poems, and incredible railing balancing acts. But this time, there has been a renovation. Literally. The bridge, now reconstructed in a portion, is too slippery to stand on. But not for Rocky, to him, a challenge of great stakes. But in his immense talent, came a great scare. Of all the bars in the bridge, one was wobbling, not even properly attached to the ground. Rocky lifts the light, hollow pillar to see a book.

This book’s cover was black. Not grey, not even some amount of color. Black. Rocky went through the first page. What he saw both amazed and shocked him. 

This book, I believe, is a curse. A curse I say! Every name, famous, infamous, family or friend, will always die within 12 hours of their name being written. Whether it be a natural death, a murder, an assassination, an execution, it doesn’t matter. They all fall before the day ends. Whoever picks up the book. Put it back. On June 1st, 1927, there was a massive reconstruction of the bridge. I had to take my chance. My only one. I replaced the pillar with a hollow one, and placed the book underneath. No matter how I tried to get rid of this book, it always came back. Into the Mississippi? Soaking wet on my table the next day. Burnt? The next day it was there, again. It’s always there. This is, what I believe to be the only way for me to dispose of this book without having it return the next day. Please. Put it back. The horror this has given me has ruined my life. Put. It. Back.

Rocky read this paragraph telling him the danger, bounced in his skull, and came out the same eye that read it. Rocky immediately want back to his car, stuffed it in between the seats, and started to think. He knew he would think of every name possible, but he needed one. One stupid, obnoxious person to write in there. Asa Sweet? Nah. He’s got a wife and children. And they’d happily take over Marigold if they had to, anyway. 

Viktor? Nah. Ivy would be sad. Actually, everyone would. He’s the bartender for what it’s worth! Maybe Mordecai. No. He’s just like that because he’s working for Asa. Actually, maybe Nico or Sera? Although that requires two names. That have a chance of possible not being their actual names. If he put a nickname like Zib, would it work? Shit. How many people have hidden their names? How many do I not know? 

With that, Rocky falls asleep out of how long he was thinking.

Eventually, Rocky wakes up. Missed another day at Lackadaisy. But that couldn’t amount to the possibilities of… the… book. The book was gone. Not there. Rocky looked everywhere around the car, even below the car, only burning himself twice from the running car’s heat below. In the end, Rocky gives up, and drives away, to his wonderful cousin, and super friend, Freckle.

Freckle, upon hearing of this magical book where, if you input any name onto it, they would die in a matter of time. A death… book, or sorts, was not happy. He immediately suggested destroying it somehow, but Rocky reassure him it wouldn’t work that easily. The owner who had the book could never get rid of it. Freckle was disapproving of this. He wanted Rocky to put the book back, and forget about it. Rocky, about to shed a tear, decided to go through with it.

But first he must find it. He looked everywhere. In the garden, in the bushes, in Freckle’s room, below his bed, below Freckle who was staring terrified and confused at Rocky, In the area Rocky will never tell a soul what’s six feet underground, in Nina’s room, everywhere. In the end Rocky was about to leave before taking a glimpse at his former, now darkened room. A book sat inside. The book.

Rocky put the book, but in his passenger seat this time. Sorry Cac! He needed to make sure he wouldn’t lose it again. He was just about to drive to the bridge to put it back. But then, Rocky had an idea, a dreadful, miserable, awful, fatal, horrible, terrible, daring idea. He took the book, got a pen, a wrote a name. A name of someone he hated more than anyone else. But who? More than Asa or Viktor or a Marigold? More than anyone that could drive him old? Whose name would be sold? Sold to death’s door, for their life to be ended, foretold….

Meanwhile, a few miles away, Sedgewick Sable was enjoying a nice cup of tea, infused with a potent mix of his choice. (Alcohol) He was working on a big new project of his. But something didn’t feel right. He felt like he was being watched. Not by his ghostly duck fiend. But by a person. Outside. Wick only put the blinds over the window, and felt better.

But something still didn’t feel right. Wick decided to go outside to his balcony, and the wind was high, and picking up speed. And picking up more than that. Leaves, dust, grass. It was a lot. Wick even though he saw a rock fly by. But it still felt off. Like something bad was going to happen. 

It all happened so fast. Wick, smacked in the skull by his favorite obsession yet, and now a broken mess on the floor. From a rock. A rock. Although that may leave a resemblance. And a horrendous mental scar on whoever finds him.

Chapter Text

Freckle had always been worried about Rocky. Ever since the day he got kicked out, the day Rocky sent him a letter saying he  lost the farm job, and the day the letters stopping coming. That was the worst, because it was so long. But when he discovered Rocky was in Lackadaisy, things got worse. He knew that every day, Rocky could easily lose his life. The job was dangerous, after all. But he never thought deeper of it…

Now there he sat. A grave. Freckle honestly didn’t know what happened. One second he went off, shooting into the night. The next, Ivy was next to a heavily bleeding Rocky. Ivy told him Rocky got in the crossfire, and hard. But he knew deep down, he caused some of it. Maybe that was the final straw. Him. He did it. He killed Rocky. His own cousin, now gone. He truly cried. Like when his father had died. He hoped he wouldn’t seem bad for it. But it didn’t matter. There Rocky stood, six feet under.

Freckle got up after he felt “better”. He knew he would never truly get over this. No matter how many times Mitzi, Ivy, or anyone told him it wasn’t his fault… he still knew. Freckle keeled away, and started to walk off before feeling a presence of sorts behind him. He saw his shadow, blocking a violet glow, radiating from the grave. Freckle’s mind raced. What, or who was behind him. He looked. 

He saw a black-haired cat, with two pairs of eyes, one greener than grass, the other more violet than his glow, gazed upon him with amusement. He had hair, the only male he’d ever saw with such. Freckle was surprised at this oddity before him. It stood above the dirt above Rocky’s casket. He seemed like he was about to do something bad. Freckle slowly backed away before he said

“DID I COME HERE FOR YOU TO STARE AT ME?!”

His mouth was open wide. There sat another, similar set of teeth within. Freckle was already alienated by this. He never, ever thought he would encounter such a… being. An unholy one. But he was more than anything: confused. He didn’t believe what was looming eerily next to him. A… a… a… a… A demon. The one they talk about being the most evil, sinister, corrupt, and apathetic entities in existence. The source of which incarnated before his eyes.

“I have an offer. A deal to be exact.”

Freckle thought his heart was about to burst out of his chest. Freckle slowly got the courage to start running away from this evil being. Nick didn’t like this, and stretched his arms out to stop Freckle in his tracks. Freckle thought it was over. He would at least get to be with Rocky again. Although thinking anything next to this being didn’t feel right.

“I see, your little Rocky. All part of this preposition I have.”

Nick pulled Freckle back in, Freckle about to scream at any moment. Small tears start to fall down his face.

”Listen. I will not hurt you-“

”You would! You would and… and I know it!”

Nick snapped his fingers, and a violet aura appeared around him and Freckle. Freckle suddenly started to float off the ground, before feeling a invisible sensation of his lips being press against each other.

”Listen. Nod or shake your head if you do, or don’t understand me.

Freckle nodded, tears rolling on his face.

“Good. Your precious Rocky is in my hands. Gone too soon. But I have an idea. Bear with me…”

Freckle nodded.

”You give me something in return for Rocky. Something valuable. Like… you.”

Freckle shook his head violently. Nick let Freckle down.

”Fine. Let your brother sail in my torturous seas. But the chance is on. 24 hours. Here. I’ll be waiting…”

The way Nick said anything made Freckle shiver, as if the cold air around him wasn’t enough. Freckle ran away immediately, not wanting another thing with this cold, heartless, manipulative demon! He ran, and ran, until he reached the calm serenity of his home. Nina greeted him for a second, to talk about the death of his cousin. Freckle didn’t stop running, until he reached under the covers of his bed. Only then could he let thoughts flow.

He knew he wanted Rocky to be alive, so badly. But for a life? He couldn’t. Freckle was not going to replace someone’s life for Rocky’s! But he told him where he went. He hoped so badly that Rocky wouldn’t end up going… “down”. But his pains were confirmed true. Not even the slightest amount of comforting in his tone, either. He acted like the possible unneeded pain Rocky was going through was justified.

Freckle kept thinking long and hard about the deal. For hours on hours. Even into the morning. Not like he could sleep after what happened last night, anyway. Would he really do this? The choice a demon could have unknowingly corrupted him into taking? He couldn’t bare thinking another moment about this. His bed and clothes, soaked in sweat. He was shivering, too. Like he had a fever. He was going insane over this. At least he could have a moment of s-

“Wake up, Calvin!”

Calvin took his morning shower, to “scrub those sins away”. But this time. He couldn’t. Thinking of what he was going to possibly go with, as a sin. He couldn’t take more things against and with on this argument. He just wants his cousin, his friend, the only person who was with him his whole life, from birth, and the only one who would make him where he is now, back. Is that too much to ask for??? He slowly reached the breakfast table, his terror, confusion, and sorrow turning him into a metaphorical husk of a man. Freckle ignored his his porridge that was given to him, frozen in thought. Only when Nina said something did Freckle snap out. Nina sat him down, and asked him something.

”Freckle. I know it’s been hard since your cousin died. When my sister died, I felt the same way too. But that doesn’t make us lesser if we talk about it.”

”No, mom. I need to do something.”

”But-“

Freckle was out and out before Nina could say more, dashing to Rocky’s grave. He had made his choice. A choice which he couldn’t take anymore. He needed this to happen. For his cousin’s sake. He couldn’t bare thinking about what was Rocky going through. He entered the graveyard, and walking over to Rocky’s grave. There he stood. The man from before, facing away from Freckle, awaiting response.

”Hello.”

“Hello.”

”So, have you finally came up with something? Or are you just trying to get rid of me?”

“Yes.”

”Good.”

Suddenly, a large, black disk covered the sun, turning the sky within night. It only left the looming white corona around its edge. 

“You know, not everyone who sees my calls ever comes back.” “But you, You… you are persistent.”

”Because it’s my cousin. My only one.”

”That’s what drive is. But you take it, and you let it move you to your wants and desires.”

”So. What’s next?”

Nick snapped his fingers. A table materialized in front of him, falling softly into the dirt. Nick slipped out a golden goblet in front of Freckle, filled to the brim with a thick, red liquid. The liquid glowed faintly from Mr. Nocturne’s glow.

”So… what does this do exactly?”

”It seals the deal properly. You need the soundest possible source in order to show that you have devout support for what you want.”

Freckle threw back the drink. If it tasted good, Ok. If it tasted bad, this was the only way he’d have it. It was sweet, but with a powerful, exponentially growing feeling of a spicy aftertaste. Freckle felt it through his mouth and throat, the feeling growing in pain, like someone was forcing hot soup inside. The pain grew through his abdomen, he felt it go through his esophagus down into his stomach. The pain was so vile and painful he felt a great numb sensation through his body. 

Nick pulled a massive, vertical window through his sleeve, and shined the light of the unholy eclipse through, transforming it into a mirror, where an endless black void spread through the shape. Freckle felt something shift. His pains finally started to loosen, and his feeling becoming weaker. But Freckle knew this could be bad. His mind was thinking about what could be next. What would await him for Rocky?

Rocky suddenly appeared inside the deep abyss, inching closer and closer from the mirror towards Freckle. Nick was staring intensely into Freckle’s eyes, as Freckle felt him depart fully. Rocky slowly broke free as the eclipse started to shine more vibrant, its colors shifting in a rainbow pattern, the sky eventually going as well. But finally, Rocky was next to Freckle. Rocky bent down to Freckle, seconds from losing consciousness. 

“Thank you. I’m sorry he tricked you.”

All that was left for Freckle to say in his terror were a few mumbles, before the table, the mirror, and Nick started to fade away. Nick had done his job. Freckle slowly started to slowly levitate back to the floor. Finally, Freckle closed his eyes…

And as soon as everything went away, everything went black.

Rocky awoke. He was happy to see that his “eternal torture” had been cut short by a tempting assistant. Rocky looked down to see the courageous folk who had sacrificed their soul to switch for his painful, cruel treatments below. Where the sun doesn’t shine, no flowers grow, and lava flows amongst a boiling sea of ash, soot, and torture.

His fur was orange.

Rocky kneeled down the see the grave rewritten. Calvin MuMurray.

It was too late for Freckle now…

FIN

Chapter Text

Nina and Sophie were two polar opposites. Like the Arctic poles. Two, frozen on where they are, people, who will never change. Nina is a person who abided to any rule. Whether in come from the big man, her parents, or anyone else. She wouldn’t divert. Although from his sister’s perspective, she was strict. Sophie was a free soul. She did anything, regardless of anyone. Nina didn’t like how her sister was. But they were family. So despite their polar conflict, they would stay no matter what.

Until Sophie moved. Things started to change. By then, Nina had a wonderful husband, named Carroll. But Sophie met this guy named Ransom. Nina did not like Ransom, he was different, weird, nowhere near like Carroll, who also took note of this. Even Sophie did, although that lasted a short period. Now there were two poles. Nina and Sophie’s, and Ransom and Carroll’s. But it seems to only distance itself.

But then they wanted to marry, too. Nina thought this was a stupid idea, and being the older sister, wanted to change that. But Sophie would listen no more. The poor, poor idea of Sophie marrying Ransom, in Nina’s mind, made her angry. The contrasting personalities didn’t help, either. So the poles had gained some mental distance. But physical, they remained. Carroll didn’t like Ransom not being on the same page on some things.

Until something happened. Sophie felt a kindle. Like she wanted someone. Not Ransom. Carroll. She tried everything to keep it from him, until someone told her to spill it. She admitted her love to Carroll. Carroll went back home, and the love depolarized to Ransom again. But the poles had shifted. Now most distant. Carroll didn’t like Sophie, and Sophie didn’t like Nina, but Nina liked Carroll, but Ransom didn’t like the both of them. 

However, as Carroll and Ransom started to enter the spiral of them getting more hateful of each other, Carroll’s nice, quiet personality breaking in front of him at times, Sophie broke the news. The news so big, it towered to the sky. “and Ransom’s the father.” Nina hated this. She even went he extra mile to ask if it was Ransom, the stupid guy Sophie had married out of incredibly poor judgment. Nina burst out, angry at Ransom. Sophie didn’t like this, either.

Nina and Sophie argued, and argued, and argued, and argued. It got to the point Ransom had to calm them down. But Sophie decided to leave 40 minutes in, slamming the door. With Carroll knowing Nina wouldn’t apologize, or the other way around, the poles had once again, grew further. But oddly enough. Carroll and Ransom were right on a thing. They were uncontrollably furious, Nina and Sophie.

A great silence emerged. One of incredible length, 4 months. But finally, Carroll had returned to Ransom and Sophie, with a gift. But they had anger against Carroll and Nina. And so secretly did Carroll. But Ransom became more angry at Carroll in the passing months. There struck a glare between them. Ransom didn’t want their gift. He didn’t want anything. Sophie tried to defuse.

Ransom didn’t like this.

“You always pick their side, never mine!” Another fight had commenced. But this time, Ransom wouldn’t have shit. No jack shit with Carroll around. Ransom finally had his moment to give Carroll a piece of his mind. Ransom grabbed Carroll and dragged him to the front door. (note: this small sentence is copied from the og) Ransom threw Carroll out of the house. Sophie wanted to apologize, or at least say something. Carroll had enough. He drove away, in intense rage. The poles grew further. There was not much more it could go left.

But finally, came the time for Rocky’s birth. But Ransom was boiling in anger. And for the first time, he said it. A quiet, small, virtually inaudible: “m*ck.” He knew they wouldn’t hear it. They didn’t. But it was needed from Ransom’s perspective. But after Rocky was born, Sophie had called Carroll in. But Carroll had a massive outburst. Not at Sophie. Not at Roark. At his childhood. It was rough. Incredibly. But with Rocky in his hands, Carroll grip was squeezing him. When it was over, everyone was fine. But not mentally. Sophie saw this as the final straw. Not anger. Not fury. Fear. Sophie was scared of Carroll.

But eventually, it came the time for Calvin. Upon the announcement of the upcoming bouncing baby soon, Sophie was happy. Ransom was not. These contrasting feelings persisted. But Sophie, there for everything, was actually seeming to grew closer once more. But finally. Calvin. The poles had came together, for the ultimate moment. But soon, things would turn south.

For the last time possible.

Roark sadly had to start living with Carroll and Nina as her condition worsened. Ransom, not so much. But Ransom had enough. Not of Carroll. Not of Nina. Of Sophie. Her worsening condition proved too much. So Ransom prepared to abandon ship. But Carroll had heard. Ransom wanted nothing of him. They argued, the tension more higher then ever. 

Chapter Text

Rocky honestly didn’t know how it even occurred. He never put to mind this even happening. 

One day, Rocky was enjoying his time outside. The sun was shining. He felt really good, so he decided to eat his favorite food. Pancakes. Rocky was on his way to Little Daisy, when he noticed someone inside. Viktor. Rocky initially entered in with caution. But Viktor was kind. Rocky didn’t realize what he was planning. Viktor pulling a massive plate of pancakes, two feet high. Rocky was confused. Did he poison them? Was this a trap? But Rocky assumed Viktor let go of the beef between them, and started eating. Viktor walked out of the room.

Rocky should have realized something was up. But he was already secretly chugging the syrup in. Soon enough, Rockywas in the zone. Rainbow lights danced around him, as he floated through an abyss of clouds, anomalies, and more. Red and blue lights flashed next to him, too. But then it went south. Literally. Rocky’s bliss was met with a hard wake up on the hot pavement. He was being dragged. Rocky looked up to see something, or someone. The only thing worse than Viktor.

The police.

Soon, Rocky desperately tied to escape his justice. But it was too late. Rocky was thrown inside, and was ridden to his fate. Rocky watched the city go by. Calvin’s house even came and went for a second, like a grand cosmic joke to rub salt in the wound. But eventually, he reached his stop. The prison. Not the jail. Prison. Rocky was surprised it was that much, although the has broken a lot of laws.

But here he sat, alone, thinking about how he ended up here. It was cold and swift. He went from being free, enjoying a nice, delicious breakfast, to justice being delivered to him. He didn’t even get to eat his pancakes, he wouldn’t even have finished them by now: it was all so fast. He at first assumed it was Viktor. But it couldn’t be. Viktor would also get arrested, too. It had to be someone else. But who? Rocky had many rivals, and Rocky rivaled many people. But Rocky had to think first. Who? 

Immediately, Rocky’s mind went to Viktor, but he knew it wasn’t him. His mind so preoccupied in that little moment of freedom it couldn’t stop thinking about him. Next was Nina or Freckle. But Freckle’s in on it, too. And if Nina found out Freckle would certainly be here. He’s committed crimes far worse than his, and much more than he has, too. Maybe it was a Marigold? Although what applies to Freckle and Viktor probably still applies there. But if anyone, it would be Mordecai.

Maybe it was Wick? I hate him, so maybe he decided to chicken out once it proved too much for him. What a fool. When I get out of here, I bet his mansion’s gonna be gone! Maybe it was Kehoe? He’s the only one who could have done it. But that’s not much of a rival, or to say. So if it’s not Mordecai, Kehoe, Nina, Wick, Freckle, Viktor, or anymore else… who?

Rocky was left thinking for a while. The room was certainly not silent, but his ways of getting lost in his thoughts far surpassed any sounds in the room. The air was cold, certainly so. But Rocky’s optimism was his last straw. He still thought that there would be a way out of this! Someone from Lackadaisy would break him out, and then go from there. But no one did. Rocky went to sleep that day alone, and without a answer for what was next.

Rocky woke up the next morning, and immediately went back to thinking. He tried thinking of anyone. Mitzi, Zib, Ivy… there had to be someone who knew him well who would have done it. He thought of everyone, even people who didn’t know about Lackadaisy! But he couldn’t think. Not only that, but no one else came in, either. So only Rocky got caught, while everyone else, including the Marigolds, walked the streets free.

He thought of someone. Who also walked the streets free. But they did something terrible, something so sickening to him, it wasn’t worth thinking of. His dad. He honestly wasn’t even sure if he could even know Rocky existed anymore. But Ransom, under the hypothetical he knew his son was out there, and somehow found out what he was doing, he would. He had already contributed so little to their family, and this would be something he’d do to make things worse. But Rocky shouldn’t think so hard over it! It’s only a hypotheti-

“You have a visitor, Roark Rickaby.”

Rocky looked outward to see someone. Someone he’d hadn’t seen in years, he stopped wanting to see them years ago anyway. But there he was, in all his terrible, deadbeat, sickening glory. He watched him slowly stride through the hallway before stopping at Rocky’s.

“So. Have anything you want to say, dad?”

Ransom quickly jolted upon hearing that word.

”Call me your father. I don’t want any weirdness from you. You were enough as a child.”

”So that’s why you left?”

Ransom gave Rocky an angry stare.

“Listen. I’m not here to make you angry. But I hope what I have to say won’t do so either.”

“Fine.”

”I turned you in.”

Rocky was stunned. His own father, his blood and bones, his family, had once again made things worse.

”Why?”

”Money. I was short on it. So I learned a bit more about you, and what I found, was incredible.”

”What about Viktor? Was he in on it too?”

”Who’s Viktor?”

Rocky had assumed Viktor knew somehow. But this confused him more. Maybe he heard about the search for him and decided to make the trap somehow. But now was not the time to think about that.

”You’re sick.”

”Why did you think they locked you in there? I’m your father. A piece of me, went in you. There.”

Rocky was mad. Why must his father do this to him? But before he could lash out, Ransom walked away.

But then he walked back.

“Also. I don’t forgive myself. You weren’t needed in this world. I made you, you made it worse, so now I admit this…”

”I didn’t want you.”

Ransom walked off, leaving Rocky to take what he said in alone.

FIN

Chapter Text

Rocky was sitting in wide, flat field. Grass spanned across the entirety, leaving the area green. But Rocky couldn’t see it. Or anything for that matter. He laid down on the soft ground, awaiting to begin at Lackadaisy. All there was were a million stars, the moon, and the city lights blasting from the horizon, so bright he couldn’t see stars like this when he was a child. But Rocky had finally gained the time for the most incredible moment of anyone’s life. Driving far out and watching the stars.

When Rocky was a child, he also wondered if somewhere, on one of of those stars, if not then a star in the galaxy, if not then deep within the universe, or possible anywhere in deep space, lives beings like them, or at least some form of life that is intelligent, created a society, and possibly even wondered if anyone else was out there too. Or maybe even exploring the deep void of space already.

But now, he sat once again. No aliens, No alien spaceships, nothing. Nothing new. He eventually assumed later in life there was nothing. If there was something, there would be something, since there’s nothing, there should be nothing. Maybe the idea of being alone in the universe isn’t that bad of an idea to him since his childhood was… well he doesn’t like to think about it. 

A tiny, glamorous shooting star appears for a few seconds. Rocky has no idea what to wish for. But his gut knows. But he isn’t sure such a wish should be granted. Nonetheless, Rocky says the one thing that came to mind.

”I wish it was my buddy!”

As soon as Rocky blurted it out, Rocky covered his mouth. What was he saying? Rocky quietly want back to observing the abyss. But the wide, sharp streak of light through the sky did not leave. Nor did the brightening dot in the sky, which was getting bigger and bigger by the second, narrowing towards the horizon. Rocky watched as a large flash of light glowed outwards, followed by a loud boom echoing through the night.

Rocky, knocked over by the shockwave, looked over to see a large, glowing hot metal ball the size of his car. It was red hot, burning the grass around it and steam was coming off of it. On the ball was some odd, undecipherable extraterrestrial text, following with hundreds of weird signs below it, taking up almost all of the space. The metal ball started to melt from the heat, and its hollow shape made it turn into a hot, bright red puddle.

In the center laid a furry, green… alien! It was small, barely the size of his hand, but like stood asleep on the ground. Rocky bent down to see it closer, but it awoke, scaring him. It seemed to have no eyes, no mouth, no hands. Just two short pink legs and a spherical, tennis ball-like body. It approached Rocky and started to tap its little legs on Rocky’s shoes. Rocky found this to be incredibly adorable, and picked it up.

The tiny, small creature stomped its feet against Rocky’s paw for a second. Rocky was confused on what it was doing. Suddenly, it walked over his arm to his shoulder, and stomped on them too, before moving up to the top of Rocky’s head, and stomping that too. It then waddled over Rocky’s back to the ground. Rocky, even more confused, decided to go back in the car to make room for it. If I show Mitzi this, she’s gonna be so happy!

Grave mistake.

Rocky turned back to the creature gone. Now where had this adorable, faceless specimen went to? Rocky looked behind him to see it. Rocky started to walk toward it before it expanded in size. It got bigger, and bigger, before eerily reaching the exact height of Rocky. Rocky was concerned over what it was doing, and backed a step away. It heard the moment, and opened its mouth, teeth sharper than a knife. And larger than that, too. Rocky tried to run off but barely made it a foot before his vision went black, and he felt the worst pain in his chest.

Mitzi had been concerned that Rocky had disappeared for so long. Rocky had told her about going out deep beyond the city, and seeing the stars, which she dismissed as a joke. Rocky wouldn’t miss his job. But with worry about his whereabouts, she had sent Freckle to visit the supposed area Rocky would have went to. It was dark by the time Freckle made it. Mitzi had given him his trusty gun in case anything had got to him.

Freckle had looked up, just like how his cousin said he did. It was full of stars. But that wasn’t important. Freckle had to look for Rocky. He was already lost for almost an entire day, and if he was captured… Freckle would make sure there wouldn’t be people left in that building for him to be kidnapped again. But finally. He found him. On one of the tall hills. He was standing. Silently. He hadn’t said a word.

Freckle walked up to Rocky. There he was. Rocky Rickaby. That old voice, too. So, where off to next? It was him, alright. Freckle started to walk down the hill to get to the car. He didn’t even bat an eye to how he’d got lost so close to his car though… when he felt a push. Suddenly, Freckle when tumbling down the hill, before smacking the bottom hard. Freckle barely had time to regain his fitting when he felt the eerie sound of breathing.

Freckle looked back. All he found was a long, massive tongue, incredibly sharp teeth, and the only abyss more dark than the sky it should have stayed in. 

Mitzi, now worried about both of her rumrunners gone, sent Ivy, despite Viktor’s strong protests. If only she knew.

Chapter Text

Rocky, when he was very young, was given a small, tiny red button. His father, Ransom, had said to him that if he lost it, it would come back when he needed it most, and said if he pushed it, he would get a million dollars. But, with all things Ransom said to Rocky, that slowly but surely extinguished. Now, Rocky was a bumbling adult. He had… well, not many things. Especially not when he needed the button most. That’s when he stopped believing in it.

But things had become desperate. Zib had betrayed the Lackadaisy and now it looked grim. With Zib knowing Mitzi for years, and him giving the enemy, Marigold, important information, Lackadaisy was now awaiting a possible break in at any moment. With that, Rocky started to spend less and less time at there. He didn’t feel like possibly going on the wrong day. With that, he got paid less, and less. Until the day came. Now, with Rocky unable to work there anymore, he was officially doomed for pennilessness. 

But the thought still stayed desperately stuck in his mind. He knew it wasn’t true, but he was on his final straw, and even though everyone in his life had abandoned him, if it never came back, it would be the first. The first out of a painful series of multiple, multiple people. Soon Rocky would have to withstand the pressures of life he had once lived through, but now, with Marigold possibly on his tail. (No pun intended.)

But finally, Rocky decided to ask an old friend of his for help. Nina. Rocky knew that a kind soul like Nina would help him at his lowest, no matter what needed to be done. After all, she’d do the same for Freckle! Rocky walked up to Nina’s house, and knocked the door. Rocky waited a few seconds before she had appeared. The same blank expression.

”Hello, Nina!”

”Hello.”

”Ok, I need to admit something. I’m in a bit of a pickle, and I need-“

”No.”

”But-“

”No.”

”Please. I just want to come back here is all. Is that too much to ask?”

”Roark. No.”

”So it isn’t too much to a-“

SLAM

Suddenly, reality hit Rocky. Hard. His final hope, now gone. Why did he think this would work? But now, Rocky had to prepare himself. In a few days, his car payment was soon to arrive. But he couldn’t pay it. Rocky, once finally having enough money to live comfortably, was now due for his second time in a state where this time there wouldn’t be a Mitzi or an Atlas to help him out of.

But finally, with all other ideas extinguished, Rocky soon realized there only one person left. One person with enough money to sustain him, one person who would be somewhat kind enough to possibly help him out. Rocky got in his car, swallowed his pride, and drove off towards the one person who he knew wouldn’t help him, the one person who he hated the most. Wick. He thought about every time he scared, pissed off, angered, pranked, hurt, damaged, or defiled Wick. His pride now swallowed, he realized he unconsciously dug himself his own grave far, far in the future from his own actions. The now future.

Karma's gonna come collect your debt.

But there he sat, now soullessly waiting for Wick to answer the doorbell. Rocky looked up at the door, hoping just maybe, Wick will help him. But eventually, Wick opened to the door to Rocky, his once gleeful grin now hanging downwards off his face. 

“Hello, Rocky…”

”Hey, Wick. I’m in a pickle, and I really need some help.”

”I’ve heard of it, Rocky. I knew you’d come, and I’d be delighted to help you, but… I can’t.”

”What?”

”You’ve… been too much. If I had you living here you’d… well… you’d probably just keep doing these… things.”

”Listen. I know what you mean, but let’s put that all behind us and-“

”I’m sorry, Rocky. But you’ve caused So. Much. Pain. I can’t just give you money over all that!”

”Wick, please! It’s cold outside. I won’t handle this cold alive!”

”Maybe when Lackadaisy comes back.”

Wick closes the door. It’s official. Even Rocky had admitted it himself. He’s fucked. He hasn’t been in such a state for so long, and for the first time, he’d had to survive a winter outside. Or anyone possible winters after that. The shine in Rocky’s eyes had faded. He headed inside his car, and drove out to one last destination. One final place Rocky thought about, before officially entering poverty.

Rocky drove out into a large, green field. The clouds above had started to pour, turning the sky a darkened color. Eventually, the last bit of the sun went under the clouds. Rocky simply couldn’t live like this much longer. If he did, he would be in tremendous pain. He already had to live like this once. He didn’t want a second time. He tried so desperately hard. But now, Rocky, left with the eerily familiar sense of doom, reminiscent of when he lost his final job, finally had enough.

Rocky looked below his seat. There it sat. Many, many years ago, Rocky had jokingly put a box containing a certain object inside, and labeled the box “Final Plan”. Rocky made it when Zib’s band had joined with Atlas into the Lackadaisy, and, assuming a certain someone “needed it”, Rocky would simply give it to them, give them a prayer, and never see them again. It would have been nonchalantly grim if he had to do it, but now came the time. But it’s Rocky’s head at the disposing end of it. He never thought it would end this way.

Rocky stared into the old barrel. The once smooth color now replaced with rust. But now, it was finally time for its use. Rocky was at his last straw, and he no longer felt the need to live. He put the gun over his temple, and gave himself a minute to think about everything in his life that left him. His jobs which he lost, his mom who died, his dad who left, his aunt who kicked him out, and cactus friend being shot in the head by a Marigold, and his band disbanding, including their friendship. He was now finally lonely. But finally, Rocky looked over to his car. The last and final corporeal piece of him that would remain. 

He saw the button. Rocky didn’t understand until he noticed Wick’s signature on it.

FIN

Chapter Text

Serafine didn’t want to relive the pain of that day. The day she lost someone who was dear to her. Her brother, Nico. Serafine didn’t even know what happened. There were in a swamp. Serafine was behind a tree, hoping her brother would make it out. But no. Rocky got the bastardly idea to surprise Nico from the back. But with their car. Nico was flung high into the air when he got hit. Serafine assumed Nico would make it through, it was a small fall after all. But Nico had been flipped the other way, head first towards the ground.

Serafine walked over to her brother, who was shaking from the fall. She assumed this was a prank, some sick joke her brother was playing. But when a massive, white foam emitted from Nico’s mouth, and he stopped shaking… it was too much for her to comprehend at first. She still thought he was still alive. Serafine still heard a heartbeat. Her brother was alive, but not responding. Those damned Lackadaisy devils just drove away. She watched as the fireflies flew around him.

Eventually, their gangster-doctor (yeah idk the real term) had arrived, and upon seeing Nico, already realized the grim reality, that Serafine had not known. His severe head injury caused Nico to enter a comatose state. The doctor looked at Serafine. He gulped in anticipation. The doctor told her there was nothing she could do. Serafine couldn’t believe her brother was alive, but she could only watch him silently die. One day his heartbeat would go. That was the day that Serafine cried. Cried more than ever in her life. She couldn’t let this slip away!

But Serafine wasn’t looking to let go so quickly. Neither were anyone else in their religion, either. They knew what they had to do. Serafine knew of a spell that would let the living converse with the comatose though a mindspace, for only 5 minutes. The problem? They needed a moist, fresh ring of blood that would run the length of everyone inwards. Serafine wouldn’t normally do this, but for her own brother, she had to.

Eventually, all members of her… society, as she called it, were listed up in a massive circle. In the center, was Nico. Serafine made sure he was still alive, and walked away from Nico, and placed a picture of him, nesting above his chest. Serafine grabbed a massive bottle of blood. The members questioned who it came from. Serafine didn’t answer, but the effects were dawning on her, who was light-headed and queasy. But there was no time to be muddle around.

They started to chant. Serafine was sitting in the center of the circle, with the spellbook in hand, and the blood bottle sat in the other. Serafine closed her eyes, and begun her portion of the chant. Fireflies had started to appear dense, and compactly centering around her. Serafine slowly felt odd. It wasn’t the low amount of blood in her body. She felt lighter, and lighter, like her body mass was lowering. Eventually, once her mind lost the sensation of weight, she passed out.

Serafine awoke in a massive, deep black void. This was it. There was dust all over the floor. Serafine looked around, before noticing her brother in the far distance. He was laying down, eyes open, awake. He was looking up, like he was waiting for something. This was her only chance to talk to him again. Serafine walked over to him, her footsteps becoming paced as she started running for joy.

“I missed you so much! So, you waiting for something?”

”Yes. I’m just waiting to wake up.”

”Wait. What are you doing here?”

”Nico. I have some news, you best be able to understand this…”

”Throw it at me.”

”You won’t wake up.”

Serafine started to tear as she remembered the day again. The day Nico lost consciousness, forever. Now there Nico sat. But he wouldn’t see her again until the end of her own days. Nico layed back down again, thinking about this. He wouldn’t wake up again. No more life, no more joy, no more pain, no more living, no more Serafine. Nico got up, looked his sister in the eyes, and awaited her response.

”Well. What about you? Did they find you too?”

”No. I did a spell, and I only have three minutes left with you.”

”Oh. So what’s there to do?”

”Say goodbye. To you. Forever.”

“Can you explain what happened?”

”They ran over you. Your head went for the ground. You didn’t wake up. You convulsed. But that was it.”

”Why didn’t you save me?”

That sentence left a sick taste in Serafine’s mouth. But what could she had done? Any other ritual would have killed her. Any other ritual would have killed her, but reincarnate Nico. She had a question…

”Nico, if there was a way for you to live again, but without me, would you?”

”Would you?”

Serafine thought about it. Would she sacrifice herself for his brother to live on?

”I… I don’t know.”

Only two minutes were left.

”Listen, Nico. I’m terribly disappointed to say I can’t avenge you. Your death wasn’t in vain, but I’m sorry I can’t do anything.”

”It’s ok. Whatever is whatever.”

”You wanna say anything to the real world?”

“Tell Asa to bury me, proper, and tell Mordecai he was a cool guy to me.”

90 seconds left.

”I’m not sure Asa would do all that. And Mordecai wouldn’t believe it was you.”

“So how much longer do I have to live?”

”Probably a few days.”

”Oof. I always thought I’d be more resilient.”

“Well you tried.”

Nico got up, and started to strain himself. Serafine watched in confusion.

”What are you doing?”

”I’m trying to wake up! I’m not ready to leave this world, especially with you in it!”

”Nico.”

He didn’t stop. 1 minute was left. Serafine had to say something that mattered.

”Nico!”

He still hadn’t stopped.

”NICODEME!”

Serafine’s voice blasted through the abyss. Nico looked at her, listening.

”I know you’re not ready to leave. But there comes a time for everything. And for everything to end, too. It’s time to let go. No matter how painful it will seem.”

“I don’t want to let go.”

Nico’s soft voice reminded her of when they were kids. Serafine started to tear up.

“Listen. You’ve gone far. But now it’s time to rest, to let go. You’ve made it this far. It’s enough.”

”But I’m not ready. I’m not ready to leave you behind… I’m… scared.”

Serafine voice trembled in sadness, tearing running down her cheek.

“Nico, I’ve been chasing the feeling of being with you again for days. But now that the time has finally come, and now will soon end… I’ve realized it’s because I wasn’t ready either. But now I have accepted you will leave. And now it’s time for you to accept that, too. I’m sorry, Nico.”

Nico turned over to Serafine, and looked her in the eyes. He got up. And for the last time, he hugged her. They entered embrace.

”It’s time, Nico.”

”I know. Goodbye, Sister.”

The tears had welled up again.

”Goodbye. Brother.”

Serafine’s world faded to black. 

FIN

Chapter Text

Rocky had come up with every single possible excuse for Freckle being in Lackadaisy. “It was a coincidence!” “He wasn’t there, that was someone else.” “You’re a Lackadaisy!” So, for what it’s worth, Freckle or Rocky will ever have to worry about the rath of Nina McMurray terrorizing any amount of their plans. Unless Freckle told her face to face. But Rocky was also sure he wouldn’t do that.

He believed it was somewhere between when he gave him the paper until when they buried that whistle-blower did Freckle lose the want to tell Nina, or anyone else (as if Freckle had friends that didn’t know about Lackadaisy) about it. With that knowledge, Rocky could sleep peacefully in his car every day knowing he would see the sun rise once again for a brand new day. Rocky dozed off, and went out.

”Rocky, wake up, wake up!”

”ughhh…. What is it, Freckle?”

”It’s my mom!”

”What?”

”She’s gone crazy!”

”What?!”

”I told her about the Lackadaisy thing, and-“

Oh. No. The Lackadaisy thing. This was it for Rocky in St. Louis. Rocky immediately tried to get up, but was bound by ropes excellently crafted and tied by the Torpedo Boy himself.

”Freckle, help untie these! If Nina comes I’m toast!”

”Don’t worry, I drove deep into the forest. We’ll wait until she comes out of it. If you escaped here you wouldn’t make it!”

”Wait… what happened to Nina?”

”She got mad—really mad, and then became the type of mad I get when I’m ‘Torpedo Boy’!”

Oh no. Rocky was now left to deal with a Torpedo Woman. Great. Just great. 

“So, what’s next if she finds us?”

”Well we-“

Freckle and Rocky heard a faint sound of a car. But they were no where near a road. Freckle knew what was going on. Freckle hop in the driver’s seat, and sped away as the small glimpse of Nina in her car appeared in the distance.

”Oh. She doesn’t have anything. She can’t hurt us.”

Suddenly, a small penny flew through the window.

”What the?”

”Oh shit.”

”What now?”

”It think Nina’s anger has been released in the one thing she’s good at!”

”What?”

“Strength.”

All those times Nina had to carry a heavier, and heavier, and heavier Rocky to the hospital, maybe he should have thought there would have been some level of overlap in her strength. Immediately, a barrage of coins, rocks, and whatever else were being flung at great speed towards them, smashing the other window and penetrating through the seats, inflicting pain on Freckle. Rocky was luckily protected by the trunk in the backseat, laying down.

”So why is she doing this?”

”Not why, who?! Who is the only person she’d want to kill right now?!?”

It was him.

”Me?”

”Yes! We need to go!”

It was raining now, with trivial work done to escape Nina. His car wasn’t much faster, with the newer car Rocky has being greatly damaged from enemy attacks, gunfire, and whatever else over the years. Small flashes of lightning were going here and there. Rocky decided to take a peek above to see what was going on. Nina wasn’t in the car. But it was still driving. Where was she?

”Oh god…”

Rocky looked higher, seeing the horrifying sight of Nina swinging a massive stone tied to a rope, illuminated by a close bolt of lightning. The swing becoming more violent and fast, causing the car to deviate left and right. Rocky immediately ducked as the massive stone ripped straight through everything, making a giant hole in the seat, and knocking Freckle after detaching the head rest, and making him smack his head over the wheel.

Rocky, in his bound state, tried to pilot the car. But with nothing pressing on the gas, it was a matter of time before it started to slow, with Rocky watching it approach Nina’s car from the backside mirror. But what was next was something Rocky wasn’t ready for.

Nina immediately leaped from her car onto Rocky’s, having an air time so long it was long enough for Rocky accept his death. Nina then smashes through the roof using her fists, and wedges a massive hole in it for her to go through. When Nina entered the car, Rocky stared straight into death. His life flashing before her eyes. The tension building up. Nina grabbed onto Rocky tight, her grip making it hard for Rocky to breathe, jumped through the hole, and smashed through her car, going for a U-turn toward the city.

Calvin eventually awoke inside the car, luckily not having hit anything while he was out. Calvin looked behind him for Rocky, but he wasn’t there! Calvin looked around for Rocky before noticing a humongous hole through the roof. Calvin had to think hard to understand what happened, and honestly, he wouldn’t believe it until he saw proof. But there was no time to doubt. Calvin begun the car again, and drove straight for the city, assuming that’s where she’d go to destroy Rocky, and possibly the Lackadaisy.

Nina was looking for this so called “Lackadaisy”, while Rocky squirmed in Nina’s hands. When it became obvious Rocky was planning something, the now heavily furious Nina, lacking in decision making, tied Rocky’s ropes harder, and tied him to the roof of the car. He would be a problem for later. A problem her sister made long, long ago. But now had came the time for Nina to end this.

Eventually, Nina pulled up to Little Daisy. But Nina wasn’t an idiot. She knew clearly what disguise this meant for her. She was finally here. She slowly climbed up to the roof, holding Rocky in her arms. She almost broke out of her trance when it reminded her of when he was a baby. But there was no time for that now. She reached into her pocket, and grabbed a neatly placed box of matches. That when was when Freckle arrived.

Nina dragged the match along the wall, setting it ablaze. Ivy was also walking by when she saw Nina. Ivy was about to scream when Freckle shushed her. If Nina heard a single word from her, that place would be lit in seconds. It was up to Freckle to speak up. Freckle walks over to where her mother could see him.

”Mom, what are you doing?”

”Oh, aren’t you another idiot? I’m getting rid of the pain, the sin! Taking it away from you before it hurts you forever! What don’t you understand?”

”Please. You don’t have to do this.”

”Oh, as if I have time for that now. There’s the match!”

Rocky then blew the wick out. Nina didn’t like this. She stuck the other matches into Rocky’s mouth, and lit them ablaze instead, Rocky’s face in agonizing pain from the flame.

”Please!”

Nina looked into Freckle’s tear-stained eyes. She remembered long ago, when Freckle made the exact face…

”ding-dong!”

”Now who could that be?”

Nina opened the door to a hairless Freckle, and Rocky’s gleeful smile next to him.

”Shave and a haircut, two bi-“

Nina eerie face stared into Rocky’s eyes. He ran off.

With that surprising escape, Freckle started to tear up. Did… did i do some… something wrong?

“Oh… It’s not your fault, Calvin.”

”Really?”

”I’m sure.”

Nina saw into Freckle’s teary eyes the same as she did that day. Nina awoke.

”I… ugh… I… AH!”

Nina saw Rocky’s face full of lit matches. Nina blew them out.

”What happened?”

”You went really crazy after I told you-“

Rocky’s face suggested not to tell.

”Rocky was gonna shave my face again!”

Nina looked at Rocky, who was tied up.

”…sigh…I can’t stay mad at ya.”

Nina untied Rocky, and descended back down. Rocky, on the other hand…

”oof!”

“Huh. So that’s your mom?”

”Yeah.”

”Who’s this… girl?”

”Oh, she’s-“

”I’m his girlfriend.”

Freckle stared at Ivy for a second.

Nina stared at Ivy, for slightly more than a second.

”Run.”

FIN

Chapter Text

Nick Nocturne, the ruler of hell, made sure everything he wanted would go. No matter how violent, unfair, or vindictive. Sure, he would feel bad for it, but the joy, and the need for it, would far surpass the sadness. For he is, Nick Nocturne. The sadistic torturer of all darkened souls, who fell from the light of their creation, to enter his land, where the flowers never bloom, the birds never sing, and the sun never shines. 

But this time, things would be a little closer to home. Nick Nocturne was enjoying his time looking at his phone, doom-scrolling through literally whatever. Suddenly, one of his minions had approached him with a query. 

“Hello, Nickey.”

“Excuse me?”

”I mean… Ruler of Unholiest Supreme Order Nick Nigh Nocturne, reporting to your service.”

”Yes?”

”We have discovered two delinquents have been looking across St. Louis for illegal booze.”

”Yes, and?”

”They have discovered it.”

”What do you mean they discovered IT?”

”They discovered the secret stash of booze you have. We don’t know how, but they have dug a hole to enter inside.”

”Ok. Kill them?”

”Sir, I believe there is a much easier way of dealing with this. The brother is too strong to be defeated, and the sister is protected by the brother, and memorized all our spells.”

Nick Nocturne breathes in…

“Now I know this may sound a little mad, but I hope you can understand the immense amount of anger I must vent out and none of what I’ll say is directly supposed to be towards you.”

cough

“WHAAAAAAAAT!!!!!”

The entire building shook over the sound, echoing into the distance, audible across all Hell.

“Then HOW are we going to deal with this?”

”They are part of a massive association with infamous speakeasy runner Asa Sweet. If we instead focus on ‘getting rid of’ him rather than the twins, they’ll lose their job, and it will cause the maximal amount of damage.”

”Did you say… maximal amount… of damage?”

”Yes! And this person is a person of interest, in crime so vile that his disappearance or death ending up unsolved wouldn’t be surprising, considering what we’ve done last year.”

”Well… good job. I must make this swift.”

Nick Nocturne started to glow, before vanishing in a thick, expanding cloud of fire.

Asa Sweet had awoken by his alarm clock, ready for the wonderful day ahead. He climbed out of bed, brushed his teeth (as if a smoker doing that would do anything) and kissing his wonderful wife as he went outside to begin his work. He went into his car, started it up, and began to drive. Meanwhile, a certain unholy figure was on the tail of the car, awaiting the perfect moment. 

Nick Nocturne was floating flattened between a nearby car and the hot road when the red light had finally hit. Bingo! The car he chose was right nearby to do his first act. Nick Nocturne floated below Asa’s car, and dung his hand inside, as a demon his hand wouldn’t get burned. Eventually, he found a long cable. This was it. He used his strength to pull into it, releasing a powerful smelling fluid. Braker fluid. 

Asa’s car sped off, and Nick watched happily as it would soon fail. Asa soon hit another red light, and tried pushing the brakes, but to no avail. 

“For the 10th time!”

Asa swiftly jumped out of the car as it started to swerve, eventually turning towards a lake, and falling in. Nick was in disbelief in how it didn’t work, but the more he thought, the more he realized. Asa, as a (no pun intended) mob boss, obviously would have dealt with things like this many, many times over the years, seven to be exact. And he would be ready, every time.

A little while later, and Nick was once again back in the underworld, to brainstorm for more ideas. He even put his minions to the thought. Eventually, one of them gave him a grand idea, one so rare and easy that it just might work. 

“What if you cause a gas leak?”

Brilliant. He wouldn’t even notice a thing. And since he smokes, his sense of smell would be fucked, so he’d light one up without thinking and blow up everything, with even greater effect, the lack of a building making the grave consequences act faster. And since it’s his building, the only way one would incidentally happen is if one of them betrayed him. As if anyone would do it.

Asa slowly walked into his office building, eventually reaching his desk after a long day of commuting. Without a car, Asa was once again late, the first time in only 2 months, last being of similar details. His legs were tired. He knew he should have lost some weight that one time. But it didn’t matter now. Asa made it, and now all he needed to do was wait for the nighttime. And also whoever would show up here and there.

Meanwhile, Nick slowly approached behind the walls of the building, looking for a way in, touching the walls for the finest hole. After feeling a small, narrow crack, Nick decided to not wait and inch his way through, his body slipping straight between like a liquid. Eventually, after a bit of movement, he found himself the closest possible to Asa’s office. He took the gas pipe, and bit through.

Asa, unbeknownst to the leak, was sitting idly at his table. Mordecai had decided enough was enough, and took away his cigarettes. Asa did have a secret stash, but he was willing to participate in this little “experiment” (as he called it), and tried his best to distract himself from the idea. But the struggle was real. Without a real way to distract himself, he couldn’t stand it, and reached into his cabinet, and grabbed the cigarettes, and-

“Asa, what did I just say!”

”Hey. I make the rules here.”

”You just said you’d work on it!”

”Listen. I can quit any day I want. But not now.”

”Fine. Put that down.”

Asa puts the cigarettes back in the cabinet.

”And I’ll wait 10 minutes. Here.”

”Fine. Already forgot about them. So you can leave.”

”I’ll. wait. 10. Minutes. Here.”

“Fine.”

Mordecai was staring at Asa’s hands, while Asa was trying hard not to just get his men to unfairly kick Mordecai out of the room.

”So. How’s your day?”

”My car got destroyed again.”

”I can see why. But don’t worry. There are better things in the world than that… including your cigarettes.”

“I know.”

”…do you smell that?”

”No?”

”I smell… gas???”

”Mr. Heller, I know when you’re lying.”

”No, like actually smell it.”

”I smell it too. Odd.”

”OK TEN MINUTES OVER”

”No, Asa! If you light that cigarette the gas will ignite and we’ll die!”

”Fine.”

”Not ‘fffine’. You need to leave, everyone does.”

Asa, with a great, long sigh, slowly walked away, and told everyone to go outside while he called the company. Nick didn’t like this. Without any of his tricks working, Nick knew there was only one thing left. He pulled a vial of a dark green, powdery, toxic magic substance out of thin air. Nick had never gotten to use it before. Normally they would all go before he got to this step. But not Asa.

Asa slowed started to walk back home, using a hat to cover his face as he went. He didn’t want anyone spotting him, especially if his office does explode, or whatever he remembered Mordecai saying about it. As a just wanted to be with his wife and kids, and escape this nonsense for a while. Meanwhile, Nick watched from the shadow as he disappeared below the horizon. He wouldn’t get away this easily.

Asa eventually managed to reach his house, with Nick floating eerily around. Asa greeted his wife early, and sat down at the table to eat dinner. It was the first time in a while he got to eat it fresh. Nick slipped through the roof, and opened a small hole inside the space between, revealing Asa already chowing down on homemade food. His kids even joined him for this. Nick opened another hole, se he could watch while pouring the dust in. 

But something, deep, deep inside Nick felt like this wasn’t right. He had a wife, and kids, who would miss him terribly if he went. He watched eerily from above, everything. Asa was a cruel, cruel man. But he has the personality of a saint in front of his family. Nick realized something. It wasn’t a nice thing, though. If he killed Asa now, he would lose the chance for more sinners to enter his realm! And that’s no good.

Nick froze time, entered the house, and jumped up to where the powder was, stuck frozen in air. He pushed it into the palm of his hand, and poured it back into the vial, neatly leaving nothing behind. As if his powers would allow such a thing. Nick pushed the door back into its place, plugged back the holes, and teleported back. And then came back to unpause time. (embrassing)

Nick Nocturne slowly levitated back into his throne, with the minion now having just woken up from the explosion.

“So, you know how you said that would cause a lot of damage?”

”Yes?”

Nick summoned a massive, deep portal into an abyss.

”Look inside that.”

The minion stupidly walked over to the portal, bending over to look. Nick teleported behind it, and kicked it into the portal. Nick then bent over to say his response.

”NOW THAT’S A LOT OF DAMAGE!!!”

Chapter Text

Serafine had entered the room, awaiting another terrific duty she would soon do. Suddenly, the talking had stopped. She seemed to have scared them silent. Good. But among the silence rang a small whisper:

"She forgot about it, right?"

Serafine was confused by this statement. She didn't forget anything. So what was all the fuss about? No one gave her an answer, an idea, or even the tiniest hint. It was as if the whisperer wasn't even among the crowd at all.

Eventually, with her distracted, she prepared for another trip on her own against Marigold. She looked at the picture of herself she had. She has gone through so much. Impressive of her to build this up on only herself.

But then she noticed something. The picture was torn in the right half. A small white hair follicle has appeared from that side. Serafine would assume it was a parent, but she didn't have any growing up, and had to live alone. She wondered how she didn't go insane for so long. But there was no time to waste!

Serafine was walked towards the car when she overheard the whisperers of two people, who were talking to each other about this guy. Serafine didn't know who, so she barged herself into the conversation to understand. But they went blank. Didn't say a word. But Serafine had enough.

"What you talkin about?"

"Nothing. Just... About this millionaire guy."

"Yup. A millionaire called... Jimmy... Jumbo! Jimmy Jumbo!"

"Hmf. Fine. Go on about this Jimmy Jumbo guy."

"He is a super intelligent... person with big ears, and he is also young, and... And... AND..."

The other man had kicked the leg of the other below the table.

"OW! And also he is... A factory owner!"

"Ok. How old is this guy?"

"Ei...ght...ty....en? EIGHTEEN!"

"Fine. Your talks."

Serafine only got more confused by the interaction. The longer they were talking the more obvious it was they were lying. But she couldn't prove anything yet. And see was running out of time. Serafine hopped into the car. But something felt wrong. Like she was missing someone...

Mordecai!

Mordecai eerily walked into the car, Serafine offering him the front seat. Mordecai made a horrid expression, like she said something wrong. But that wasn't her problem. She drove off into the night.

As she drove, she encountered Asa, and several man around him covering a small hole with dirt. It looked to be fresh, but Serafine still didn't bat an eye. She said hello to Asa, in her lovely upbeat tone. Asa was weirded out, too. Was she still doing something wrong? Maybe she'd find out soon. She swore she saw some torn pictures sticking out. 

Serafine really had enough. When she was sure the man had disappeared, she drove back, and walked over to the patch of dirt. A small, tiny piece of paper stuck out. A tall, white cat stood in the image. Bit something felt close. Deja vu.Serafine gave this picture to Mordecai, but he rejected ever seeing them. Serafine increased her tone, but to no effect.

Finally Serafine reached her limit, and with Mordecai knowing of the consequences, sighed, and told her a question.

"Do you feel as if you had another member... Like a brother?"

"Not until now!"

Mordecai breathed out.

Mordecai told her everything. The fall, the death, the brother, the spell, her sadness, and eventually wiping of her mind. Serafine has now remembered everything. It all came to her immediately.

Serafine couldn't take the pain again. The fact her brother was lost, and she couldn't do anything about it for days, was far too much.

But Serafine knew what was next.

She walked up to the ground where she had done the job. Spellbook in hand. She couldn't bare it much longer.

One more spell wouldn't hurt.

FIN

Chapter Text

Serafine and Nicodeme were riding in their car. They had been sent by Asa after the discovery of liquor being left behind by Lackadaisy days prior. They had no idea why they would leave such an important thing behind, but whatever made them do it, they were perfect for the job. All they had to do was drive out to this little mausoleum in the middle of nowhere and regain what they others had lost. But they weren’t scared of a little body, unlike those Lackadaises. 

If only they knew what was coming. Or what wasn’t coming. Or moving.

Eventually, after a full hours of looking around, the managed to find a small white cube, it’s protection destroyed, most likely by Rocky, Calvin, or someone else. They were so incredibly sparse of places that they had to chose this. But that wasn’t their problem. They could visit anywhere they wanted. Serafine had noticed the crosses surrounding the perimeter. She was unsettled by this, like if maybe they weren’t supposed to be here.

The eerie situation had intensified when they looked inside to see… nothing. Only a large, empty casket in the middle of the room. No windows, No lights, just one massive, dark, empty room, and one unoccupied casket. Broken cobwebs were around the casket, to the normal person a zombie might have come out of it. But they were smart. At least as smart as an uneducated person could be. They simply took the body, and put it somewhere to make it easier for them. Lazy.

Eventually, they saw the massive array of bottles. But it was odd. They weren’t in a pile. They weren’t in a mound. They were in the shape of an arrow, pointing towards more wilderness. Serafine and Nicodeme were confused. But they would be ready for what would come. The stealthily made their way through the forest, moving steadily and slowly. They were moving for what felt like 20 minutes before they had come to something surprising.

A skeleton, containing a small bottle in between two ribs, the ring of which bent the ribs apart, the end falling where the heart would be. They were a bit uncomfortable with this. Did they kill someone to do this? They didn’t know. But eventually, Nico’s strength helped Serafine take the bottle off. They walked back, and started to get the bottles into the car. Eventually, after a while, they managed to finish, and with that Serafine thought it to be the perfect time to do something next.

She took the bottle, and took a huge swig. But it was the one that they had pulled for the skeleton. Nico was slightly disturbed by this, but Serafine thought he was overreacting. She’s consumed things far worse than skeleton liquor for what it’s worth. The aftertaste felt weird, like a that of raw meat. But Serafine was unfazed by this. Maybe it was just old, or something got inside. Not her problem.

But then, it did become her problem. As Serafine was walking to the car, she felt an odd, queasy feeling in her stomach. The pain only increased as she started to convulse on the floor. Nico tried to ask what was going on, but all that came were sounds of gaging. Suddenly, her eyes started to cry blood. Not semi-blood, blood. A full on stream of in going down her face. But then it stopped. Before the appearance of a thick, beige liquid coming out of her mouth, nose, and eye sockets. Once it was over, Nico was left with an incredibly dead Serafine, and the eerie feeling he wasn’t alone. He quickly took Serafine back in and would go out from there.

More and more reports of people going missing around the area over the weeks had built up in Nico’s mind. Was he truly alone at the end? Nico wasn’t sure. He’d thought it would be taken care of eventually. But it didn’t. The list had only gotten bigger and bigger, with the locations getting ominously close to the city center every day. If Nico didn’t stop this on his own, it would find St. Louis, it’s people, Marigold, and even him— possibly quite tasty. There was only one thing he could do.

Nico set out to find this damned, unholy beast, and wipe it from life. He had all the protections. Sliver bullet. Flashlight. Match sticks. Anything. Nico was ready. But he had to find it first. The first minutes were uncanny. Dead, pure silence interrupted by when Nico stepped on a branch. But he was certain he’d make it out alive. For Serafine. For Serafine he’d kill this evil, unjustly monster.

But eventually, the silence broke. Not from Nico, but from the sound of something. Something fast. Too fast. The sound of his heart beating was louder than it. But soon, he saw the silhouette of a tall, skinny figure, moving fast among the trees. One moment he was there, the other somewhere else. This thing was ruthless. But Nico came prepared. He aimed his gun like Mordecai would, and fired one round into the darkness, the being dodging the bullet, somehow. 

Nico hair stood on end. His tail flayed up. Nico stared intensely into the dark. The silence of the scene terrifying. But then he heard it. The sound of rapid footsteps. Nico fired several shots at the monster, but they had been absorbed without a trace. Nico then tried to use fire as a scare tactic. But it got closer, and closer. Nico, upon reading the area, realized what was going on, threw the match to the ground, and ran. The flame growing in size.

Only then could Nico see it. Despite being aflame, among with most of the forest, Nico could identify a lot of things. It was pale, almost grey, its eyes blue, its facial angles sharp and fixed, along with its very sharp teeth. But they weren’t teeth. They were fangs. It was a vampire. 

Nico had tried to escape, but its incredible inhuman speeds made running almost useless. But Nico had one last chance. He pulled into his pocket, and got one, intact, fresh, onion. Nico wasn’t sure if he could make the move. But his life was on the line. He threw it, smashing into the vampire’s face. It stopped, and started to contort its face beyond recognition, before falling to the floor.

Nico, to make sure of its death, snapped its neck, and threw it into the fire. The blazes cracking and snapping every now and then. But finally, after a few minutes, the final step was left. Nico dragged the burnt skeleton with him, and reached the now empty bottle Serafine had left. Nico jammed it into the rib cage of the cadaver, and then walked into the mausoleum, put it into the casket, covered it, and left. He wasn’t going to take any more chances. Serafine was avenged, and that was that. 

Nico wasn’t sure how to go without his sister being around. That cold, vicious monster has now been defeated, but even with that, that was really all he could do. Serafine would remain dead for as long as forever. And Nico just had to accept it. Tomorrow, he would admit the truth to Asa, and they’d do whatever to Serafine’s remains. Just don’t have them near him anymore. Nico was now right by the door, and had opened it when…

”Oh. You’re finally here.”

There she was. As blissful as ever. Serafine must have been cursed by whatever she drank.

Before she could say a word, Nico embraced Serafine in his arms, followed with Serafine doing the same. For the first time in almost 20 years, Nico had cried in front of his sister. But it didn’t matter anymore. They were inseparable. And they’d keep that up for as long as they could. 

FIN

Chapter Text

Rocky had entered his lovely friend, Ivy’s house once again to see his little cousin, Calvin. But he likes to call him Freckle. Calvin was sitting in car, as he has been the past few days. Calvin had to start living with him after a large accident during one of the Marigold fights. All he saw here bullets being flung left and right, one of them looked like it shot him in the head! But Freckle was intact, despite Ivy overreacting out of the situation. Ivy’s house was empty for university reasons, so Rocky gleefully asked Ivy for it. She said yes, since Freckle would be there too.

Since Freckle had gotten majorly injured in his legs, he lost the ability to walk, leaving Rocky to take care of him. Nina had called a few times, possible to take care of Freckle, but Rocky observed his independence, and never picked up. Or to Ivy either. She kept dramatizing the situation last time he saw her. So he only stayed inside to keep Freckle well. He enjoyed his company, and he enjoyed his.

Every day, he would give Freckle his favorite meal in the world. Porridge. It was really the only thing he could make, while not giving Freckle food poisoning. Don’t want to make Freckle worse! Although Rocky was denying such a thing could happen. He couldn’t see Freckle hurt. Freckle struggled to eat it, probably since he doesn’t like it much. He also left a glass of water for him, and one time he saw a bird drinking it. Since he had an open window. The water was always finished by the end.

But in the past few days, a terrible smell radiated out of the room. Rocky assumed it was because Freckle needed to take a shower. But Rocky didn’t feel like doing it just yet. He would easily wait a little longer if it meant Freckle would heal some more. Every day was a triumph. But at least Rocky could go to sleep every day knowing his little Freckle would be okay. And that’s all he needed. Rocky dozed off.

Rocky had awoke inside the struggle buggy again. It was one of those dreams. Rocky had many dreams about doing bootlegging with Lackadaisy, ever since he started working there. But this one was different. It was the exact night Freckle got injured. Rocky watched uncannily as Freckle kept shooting at them. Rocky didn’t exactly want Freckle to be outside for it, but whatever.

But suddenly, the dream had taken a turn. Freckle suddenly stopped shooting, dropped his gun, and went limp. This wasn’t how Rocky had remembered it going. Ivy stormed out of the car, and so did Rocky. Freckle’s head was gushing blood, out of a small wound and the back of the head. Rocky was confused. This was a complete replica of the day, but different. Rocky, out of confusion, fear, and panic, awoke. 

Rocky noticed a few flies around the room. Some of them were on Freckle. Rocky swung them away, but they were attracted to Freckle. The smell was worse. Like a terrible iron smell, all across the room. More flies entered inside by the minute. Rocky tried to wake Freckle up, successfully, but Freckle didn’t do much about the situation other than watch. Rocky had noticed Freckle never moved his arms or legs, but only his legs hurt. That was why he had to carry him while Ivy was screaming.

Rocky ignored the subtlety, and went off to making porridge. But as he was turning on the stove, Ivy had arrived again. But this time, she was crying, and mad. Rocky opened the door. Ivy’s demeanor hadn’t changed. 

“Rocky… have you felt you’ve been in denial… of something?”

”No?”

”Rocky, I haven’t seen Calvin in a while. Could I come inside?”

”Sure!”

Ivy stumbled inside. But her demeanor still hadn’t changed. Ivy sniffed the air, and gagged slightly.

”Oh. Freckle smells a little, but it’s fine! He’ll take a bath soon.”

”Yes… he will…”

Rocky pointed to the room Freckle was staying. Ivy slowly walked in. She gagged more, and more upon seeing Freckle. 

“Rocky… what is that?”

”That’s Freckle! He’s been a little ill for the past few days. But he’ll be fine.”

”Rocky… I need to tell you something.”

”What?”

”Freckle… didn’t make it.”

”What?”

”Freckle’s gone.”

Rocky took some time to process this.

”You’re lying.”

”No. Seriously. How do you not see this???”

Rocky looked back to a perfectly healthy Freckle.

”No. You’re lying. Is this a joke?”

Ivy was about to say something before Rocky told her to get out. He didn’t need to deal with this sick joke she’s making anymore. Ivy cried as she walked out of the door. Rocky was surprised with this conversation. Freckle wasn’t dead. Just sick. Really sick. He was right there. Rocky put a hand on his head out of stupidity. But he noticed some blood on his hand. Rocky kept putting his hand back. More blood. Rocky was about to panic before everything went black.

Rocky had awoken off the floor, blood leaking from the cut on his head. Rocky didn’t know how long he was out. But he smelled a billion different things. Boiled water, fresh blood… but one smell stuck out. Rot. Not meat, not flesh. Rot. It sting his nose. He vomited on the spot. Rocky knew what he would meet behind him. But he wasn’t sure either. Rocky turned away, eyes closed, and opened them to the world.

And a very, very dead Freckle. A skeleton, with one neatly pieced hole through the head, rotten flesh stuck to it, flies buzzing all around. He even saw a maggot feasting on. Rocky was confused by this incredibly sudden change. Freckle was alive. Right? The reality had kicked in. He was feeding a slowly rotting corpse. He was hallucinating an alive Freckle. But he still had Ivy, at least. He had a billion questions.

The sound of the phone ringing was all that Rocky heard. There was no response. 

Ivy was a hallucination too.

Ivy was heartbroken to see Rocky carry away Freckle like that—she was already unable to see through the death of her lover, this made things worse, and harder to get out of. Ivy couldn’t work, couldn’t move, or even eat. This was the final straw for her. In an act of desperation and grief, Ivy let herself go. Permanently. It would be a few days until someone would find her. Rocky’s call caught the attention of someone. They opened the door. Ivy…

…was already no more.

Chapter Text

Rocky. Rocky loves to spend his time at home, eating pancakes, spending time with Sophie, being obnoxious towards Sophie, and doing a bunch of other stuff that only the one, and only: Roark Rickaby would. But, there is one other thing Rocky likes. Spending time with his dad, Ransom. He loves hearing about how his day went every day, even if it was a little loud, and it was a little vulgar sometimes.

But that’s what Rocky loved about it. His father was truthful about everything he did, and that started to fuel a fire. Deep in Rocky’s heart. He wanted to know how it was like for his feather to go to work every day. So for a few days, Rocky thought about the perfect moment to tactically enact his plan. He just needed his father to be in the correct mindset. And one day, it was time.

”Hey dad?”

”Yeah?”

”What if… and this is just a possibility! Just saying it out there… but… what if I went with you to work?”

”Seriously?”

”Yeah!”

”No.”

But that’s when Sophie walked in. Rocky had planned this well, and Ransom’s face told Rocky he knew it too.

”Come on, just let him!”

Sophie winked at Ransom. Rocky knew this was gonna work (Sophie knew it was gonna suck)

”Oh! Oh. Ok Rocky. Tomorrow.”

Rocky was so happy. He couldn’t wait for what tomorrow would bring him. He thought about it all day. When he ate his breakfast, when he played outside, when he was being obnoxious to Sophie, when he was in time out, when he was back outside, when he threw the ball over the fence, when he grieved the ball until dinner, when he ate dinner, when he took a bath, and when he went to bed. He thought about it ALL. DAY. Nothing would change that.

Until he woke up at an incredibly early hour.

”Rise and shine Roark.”

”What? Five more minutes.”

”There are no five minutes. Or any. Get up.”

”But why?”

”Because you said you wanted to be there for work. Well this is work. Early. You’re lucky you didn’t wake up when I did.”

”Fine.”

Rocky and Ransom went in the car, the sun barely risen over the horizon. Rocky was half awake, while Ransom was wide awake, awaiting the time left until he had to work. They both weren’t happy. Although Rocky’s unhappiness was different to Ransom’s. Eventually, after a long, long drive they had made it to the site. An empty barren landscape, with rails everywhere. The sun’s heat beating everywhere.

”But why do I gotta be here?”

”You meant your word. You wanted to be here. So I did it. Happy?”

”No!”

”Well me neither. Just enjoy the time here then. Because it’s very, very, VERY, VVERRRYYY long. Also hot.”

Rocky watched as Ransom walked toward the site. Rocky was going to watch when a spray butterfly had caught is attention. There was one other other thing he liked. Butterflies. Or rather the act of getting rid of them. One time, he asked his father why they were called that. He said there was a small chance you’d get butter from killing on of them. This mixed with his love for pancakes brung a tradition only Rocky observed, year-round.

Killing butterflies. Rocky immediately started to chase after the butterfly, not caring for what, who, or anything he was running into. He stepped on the edge of a guys hammer and didn’t flinch. He needed this butterfly. Now. The world was basically frozen to Rocky. He was jumping over anything that would hinder his approach. He saw the butterfly start to weaken. Now was his chance. He leapt forward, going for the butterfly, but fell to the floor instead. 

Rocky tried to get up, but found no progress in it. He looked down. His foot was stuck in the gap of the train tacks. They looked to be old. Rocky didn’t panic. If any train tried to get on it, it would break the rails! Unless it was a balloon train, made with feathers. Rocky’s mind was imaginative as a kid. But how would he get out? He tried jumping up. Nope. Going backwards. Nah. His foot was the exact size of the gap. Yikes. 

But then Rocky saw it. In the far horizon, was a small, black rectangle. The quiet noise rug through his ears. Now Rocky, would panic. But Rocky’s mind is different. He knew soon his dad would arrive. What didn’t make it better was that the train didn’t look normal. It looked old, and unstable. But Rocky still don’t panic. Until it opened an eye. An eye? Rocky looked back to making sure he wasn’t seeing things. But there it was, one red, fiery eye on the base of the train.

Now Rocky was panicking, screaming, and trying to pull his foot out desperately. He hoped Ransom would hear it. The train was getting closer, with another eye opened. Rocky was still trying to keep some level of composure and dignity when the train had opened its mouth. Its teeth metallic, and sharp. Its mouth pitch dark. Rocky screamed so loud the whole world would have heard it.

That’s when Ransom came in. He leapt forward, grabbed Rocky, and burst Rocky’s foot out of the track. The train roared loudly as it when across. But it wasn’t metaphorical. After that, Ransom put Rocky in the car, locked it, and left Rocky inside. He couldn’t deal with Rocky and his job at the same time. Plus he probably would have gone in big trouble if his boss saw. But this was between Ransom and Rocky.

Ransom struggled to sleep that night. Ransom was a strong, powerful, courageous man. Nothing would get to him. But this did. Ransom remembered how a few people had died in an accident involving the making of the track. Sadly, their work didn’t get put to use, and the tracks were left to ware away. But something didn’t feel right. Ransom doesn’t believe in ghosts. But this time, he was sure to find his belief stirred. A train couldn’t possibly be on those old tracks.

Whatever it was, it wasn’t a train…

Or an “it”.

FIN

Chapter Text

Lacy was walking around the office, trying to look from Wick's place. There were some urgent papers. She was surprised Wick forgot about them. He didn't say a peep about it. Eventually, Lacy walked into Wick's office space. But to her surprise, Wick wasn't there. She thought he would be outside, his balcony open. Nope. Where was Wick? She looked around. But sadly, Wick was gone. 

Lacy immediately asked someone went was the last time they saw Wick. They said they saw him enter his car, going towards the forest. Also, the massive tree in the distance was gone, disappeared an hour after a massive explosion. This didn't sound good. Could Wick have blown up? Lacy knew something was wrong. Lacy walked to her car, but it didn't work. 

Lacy began the long, long walk to the forest. Everything about it sucked. But her care for Wick superseded it. She knew that if she tried taking her car in, Wick might be dead by the time it's ready. So she walked, and walked, and walked. It was hours long. But after an eternity, she finally reached the forest. It was cold. But Wick had to bare worse. She walked up to the big tree, now disheveled, and fallen. She walked to it's log remain before finding Wick.

Or a piece of him, to say the least. Lacy was sick to her stomach seeing it. The area smelled great of rotting meat. Flies buzzing around. There was a large pool of now darkened blood around it. Lacy noticed a similarly colored trail of it sticking out to the road. Wick got crushed, had to separate, and crawl to help. Lacy immediately starting running towards the trail, ending at the road. He got help. But who?

Suddenly, another car had parked in front of the forest too. It was the coworker she asked about Wick to. She had seen her go for the forest after Wick, and she was going to look for her since she didn't come back. Lacy entered inside, and told her to go to the hospital. The coworker was confused by this and how Wick still wasn't there, but drove away anyway.

Lacy eventually made it to the hospital. She walked inside, told them his name, and they walked her to his room. There he was. Unconscious. His leg was only just a stump covered with thick bandages, and he was sleeping comfortably in his bed. She wondered how Wick had felt. The terror of seeing his detached his leg was already enough for her. Eventually, Wick had awoke, and with that, Rocky came into the room.

"Oh. Hello Roark."

"The name's Rocky. Rocky Rickaby."

"The guy who I had to kick out several times?"

"Let's just put that behind us."

"Ugh. Man. What happened?"

"Ok, Wick. It's time."

Wick immediately remembered everything, from the broken tree to the car ride. He remembered when he asked why he hated him so much. That day was the day he learned he wasn't alone when it happened. When he kissed Mitzi. Rocky was there. Looking. He didn't want to be replaced by him. So he made him suffer. He broke his stuff. All because he was mad. But now it has came to Wick about the pact they had made.

"If I send you to help will you tell the world about the kiss?"

"Would you, Wick?"

Wick had to abliege. Ivy and Calvin were putting pressure on the wound as they tried not to have Wick die from the blood loss. Eventually he passed out during the ride. He could only assume everything was covered in it. But they saved him. He had to. He wasn't sure what Rocky would do to make up for it, and by the looks of what he allowed, it certainly wasn't good.

"Lacy Hardt."

She turned her head as Rocky left the room.

"On the night of May 27, 1927, I, Sedgwick Sable..."

Wick stared long and hard into Lacy's eyes. Was he going to do this?

"Kissed..."

Rocky was staring through a crack in the door.

"Mitzi May..."

"The widow?"

"Yes."

Wick was ready for Lacy's reaction. What he wasn't ready for was the world's reaction over the course of a few days. Lacy had told the news about the kiss, and soon everyone was talking and arguing about it. The idea of such a thing happening so quickly, with Wick keeping the lie for so long. The world wasn’t happy. Everyone thought Wick was the problem. The cause. And soon people who had invested in Wick, pulled out, seeing how their money would be loss.

This caused Wick to lose a good fraction of his wealth. Although he could still live comfortably, the significant drop was still large, and by all means, surprising. Wick knew that people would not like him after this. Especially with his injury. Out of a fear someone would be out to get him, Wick spent all of his time at his office and mansion, no matter how much his employees said there wouldn’t. But at least he could afford something for his leg.

But finally, Wick’s drama had officially settled. It was a few months since, and with that, Wick was finally getting back to his regular, upbeat self. Even though his body would never truly be the same, Wick could be happy to enjoy every new day to the most. His riches were even starting to go back up. Wick walked out to the balcony. After so long, things were finally going Sedgwick.

It was October 22, 1929, and Wick couldn’t be happier. Soon there would be another day for him to enjoy!

Chapter Text

Alex and Buddy were throwing stones into a massive frozen lake. Snow was falling from the sky, the ground now white from the snow. Alex and Buddy had their puffy winter clothes on.

”Alex, doesn’t this seem useless? The lake is frozen.”

”But when an opportunity is lost, another comes!”

Alex throws the stone. The stone, rather then smash through the ice, is too thick, and smashes into several bits.

”Aw man. Now where will we find another stone?”

”What about there?”

Buddy points to a large aggregate of stones.

”You always have a way to prove me wrong.”

It had been a few months since Buddy had fallen in love with Alex. Sadly, he knew Alex wouldn’t make it well of the situation. He has avoided some time with Alex since. Buddy wishes Alex would understand him if he came out. Maybe one day. Alex cam back with a massive stone, twice the size of his head. Alex lets go of the stone above the water. The ice cracks, and the stone falls through.

”Bye bye!”

A massive silence fell.

”Hey.”

”Heeey…”

”What?”

”You want to see me swim in that hole?”

”No. it’s too cold.”

”I’m going to do it.”

”You’ll freeze, Alex!”

”Im going to do it!”

Buddy leapt forward to stop Alex from jumping into the hole, only from him to fall in instead. Alex saw a silhouette shake about for a few seconds, before erupting from the water.

”You did it!”

”My clothes was caught on something.”

Alex and Buddy look down to find a key stuck to Buddy’s coat.

”Interesting. Maybe it’s the key to a pirate treasure!”

”Really? If it were to be secret it would have to be somewhere like… a alligator pit, or a…”

”A frozen lake!”

”A lake that is frozen for only a month out of the year? Yeah right.”

”Well you never truly know until you find it!”

”Find what?”

”A key?”

”Well considering how this would be lost so easily, there should be instructions to find the owner.”

”Unless he’s dead. Cause he’s a PIRATE???”

”It’s not a pirate key! Where are you getting this from?”

”Why would a key be at the bottom of a lake?”

”Because people are stupid Alex. They lose their things in stupid places.”

”I’m not stupid.”

A long pause happened.

”No you aren’t.”

Buddy blushed slightly, and hoped Alex didn’t see it. Alex was too busy looking for a sudden pirate ship to emerge from the shadows for vengeance. Cause he’s Alex. Duh.

”Well if this key belongs somewhere, what is it?”

”I don’t know.”

Buddy looked at the back for instructions. There was a cross engraved at the back. So that was useful…

”Well whoever had this key needs it.”

Alex was about to say something dumb again. 

“And I don’t want you ranting a word about the key hypothetically being from pirates.”

”Awww. But it’s-“

”It’s not from pirates. Pirates live in the ocean. There is no ocean for hundreds of miles!”

”But the Mississippi-“

”Alex. Alex… ALLLLLL-ex. I beg your pardon out of believing this: a pirate ship was somehow small enough to have a fleet strong enough to defeat other pirates, so they would have a treasure, while going through the Mississippi lost their key in the Mississippi, it somehow entered a lake SEVERAL MILES AWAY from the Mississippi, and somehow didn’t get eaten by a fish, or get covered by dirt, in the HUNDREDS of years it could have been in the lake.”

”…yes?”

”Ffffffffine.”

Buddy made a long sigh, and walked toward the car.

Buddy was disappointed he had to act-believe it the odd stuff Alex believed. But love transcends intellect. 

“Ok. Fine. But what pirate would it even be?”

”Oh, come on Buddy.”

Alex winked.

”You know people all around the world will do their own things no matter what.”

”Yeah. I guess.”

Alex enters inside the car and Buddy drives off.

Alex was so happy to find some treasure. Buddy was not actually going to do that, and instead just drove circle around the city until the gas was going to run out.

“Aw man, I’d love to continue, but I’m afraid we don’t have more gas!”

”Welp, I guess I better get going.”

Alex walked off into the city, while Buddy drove back to his house. Buddy opened the door.

”Hello, grandson.”

”Hello, grandpa.”

”So what was the bullshit you did with Alex today?”

”Well, it wasn’t exactly bullshit. Me and Alex were throwing stones in a frozen lake, when I fell in and got this key at the bottom.”

Buddy showed his grandpa the key.

”That’s nice. Can I have it?”

His face showed anticipation before giving the key to him.

”Thank you.”

“Hey, how about you go play with your little friend?”

”But I can’t.”

”Yeah, yeah, yeah.”

Buddy went back outside. He walked through the town, then the city, before finally putting eyes upon Alex, who was walking towards his home.

”Hey, Alex.”

”Yeah?”

”Look, I’m sorry to say, but I don’t exactly believe in the key being anything.”

“But it’s a key.”

”Yes, but I don’t think it’s useful.”

Ok Alex. Think really hard for an answer for this…

”Keys are useful for opening things.”

”Yes, Alex. Keys are useful for opening… 😐 but that’s not the point, Alex! I’m sure this key is just something a person lost!”

”Then why does it have a cross on it?”

”I don’t… know, Alex. Not everything has a sinister side to it!”

”Ok, fine…”

Alex angrily stomped off, leaving Buddy to go back.

Buddy opened the door to absolute chaos.

The water in a kettle was boiling, the windows were cracked, and the sink’s garbage disposal above which held the key, nestled in his grandpa’s hand.

“You won’t control my family!”

”What are you doing?”

Buddy’s grandpa immediately made a scramble to turn everything off. Or at least as fast as he could in his wheelchair.

”Hello, grandson.”

”WHAT ARE YOU DOING?”

”Hey, that’s no way to be talking your grandfather-“

Buddy made a leapt forward for the key, with his loving grandfather responding with a hard, painful punch to the abdomen. Buddy was convulsing on the floor in pain, his face wincing as his grandfather let go of the key. 

GGRBEREGWREERRReeeeeePAP

A long trail of smoke billowed from the sinkhole. Buddy painfully got up to look.

”Well that didn’t work.”

”Explain.”

”That key is evil! It belongs to a group of people who believe not in what the common man does.”

Buddy took a moment to process this.

”A cult?”

”Of course it’s a cult! That’s how they describe it to you without making it seem wrong. I didn’t want you to enter their despicable, vindictive beliefs, and their sickening nature.”

”How do I know you’re not lying?”

”Because I myself have observed one enter its belief.”

”Who?”

”Your father.”

Buddy’s world immediately started to turn.

”He almost fell for their belief, their pull stronger than any I’ve seen. I had to nurture him for a while, but his apathetic mindset is probably why he is who he is today. I can’t blame him. I’d fall for it too. But you can’t. Once you go it, you never come out.”

Buddy’s grandpa gives him the key.

”I cannot destroy it. You have to keep it safe. Put it in a place you know people won’t find it. Especially Alex. He’s not ready for what I saw.”

Buddy looked at the key.

”Ok.”

For the rest of the day, Buddy thought long and hard about where he’d put it. He couldn’t just put it back. Someone would find it again. But what did he see? What incredibly powerful oddity did he and his father see to make it so bad? Buddy had trouble sleeping that night. The thought of having his love possibly fall under through the most vulnerable state of his life, taken control of by members of a cult. He couldn’t bare the thought.

Alex had gone to sleep easily that day. His dream was… different. 

Alex had awoke in the dark. He was staring at the moon, laying down. Alex was confused. He didn’t fall asleep on the ground? But then he saw a compass. He was in the forest, too. But the compass wasn’t pointing at the poles. It was pointing to the emptiness of the forest. He walked towards it. But there was a feeling. A feeling like he shouldn’t be doing it. But hey. Not like a dream could mean anything.

As he started walking, he felt like there was someone watching behind him. There wasn’t, but the feeling had grown as the compass needle started to twitch. He was getting close. Eventually, he saw a small, tiny wooden shed at the edge of the horizon. Alex wasn’t sure what was inside. It looked like the size of a photo booth, and there was nothing but crosses engraved upon its entirety. 

There he saw it. A small glistening key in the middle of a small puddle. Alex wasn’t sure if this meant what he thinks it meant. He picked it up. His feeling only got worse, like he was seriously doing something wrong. He walked up slowly to the shed. He saw the doorknob. He inserted the key, and the feeling had went away. The door had swung open. He looked inside. Nothing. Just stairs.

Then he felt it.

The sharp deep claws of someone piercing his skin, and then his being pushed away, into the stairs. But he didn’t hit them. He kept falling, and falling, and falling, and falling, and falling, and f4lling, and f41lin9, and f@lin9, a̵̺̪̟͂͝n̷͕̫̄̒d̵̹̺̳̝̄͑̚ ̷̢̲̲͈̋̈͋̑̕f̸̙̯͒@l̷̬͈̯̃͝i̶̡̟͇̘̾ṉ̵̢̩̙̤̓9̶̧̯͙̂̏͛̌, ₳̵̧̢̢̧̺̰̤̯͖̮̭͚̗̤̼̱̯̖̺̙̜̗̦̟͍͖̬̹͈͓͍͚͎̑͆̔̐̒͛̏̈͐́͂͂͂̈́̚̚͜ ̴̧̡͈̺̠̣̘̺̝̪̩̤̠͙̭̱͚̳͕̪̼͉͈̹͇̫̓̈̃̏͗̌̿́̋̾̀̒͗̈̉̌̈́̀̓̇͑͘͠N̷̛̖̟͍̣̳̪̹̳̯̍̈́̇́͆͒̈́͆̈́̒͆̿̋̀͛̌̽̉̏̂̏͊̌͆̓̎͌͋̎̎̋͋̉̽͊̕̚͘͝͝͠͝₯̵̝̦͇̍̔́̄͂̿̌̈́̔̑̑̒̅̽́͝͝͝

Alex awoke. In his bed. But he had a feeling. Like if he didn’t have that key, something bad would happen. He got up, and ran for Buddy.

Buddy, after a long night of pondering and thinking, eventually found the best place for him to place the key. He got in his car, and sped off. Eventually, he found a good, sturdy area of dirt. He walked back, grabbed the key and a shovel, and started to dig. Once he had a good, deep hole, he put the key in his hands, and was about to throw it, when Alex had arrived. He was not happy to see this.

”Buddy, give me the key.”

”What? Why?”

”Give me the key, now.”

”Why?”

”I don’t know. It feels weird.”

“I’m not going to gave you the key.”

”Buddy, you’re not winning this…”

”What I’m not going to win? A fight? Brains over brawn. I’d win any d-“

Alex gave Buddy a small punch, or at least in the perspective of his very strong arm. Buddy fell backwards into his hole, up to his shoulders.

”Alex. I’m not going to ask this again. Give me the key.”

”But I really need it!”

”For what?”

”Something. Something out there.”

”Alex, no! If you use the key then-“

Alex had already started walking away, leaving Buddy to get out of the hole himself.

“Alex… Alex! Get me out!”

A butterfly had landed on Buddy’s hair, and started nibbling on.

”Ow. Ow. Ow!”

Alex started to walk toward his car. He wasn’t too proud over what he did, but he had to do it. He didn’t want to lose his family, Buddy, or anyone else. There was a feeling deep inside him like if he hadn’t done this, the world would collapse on itself, and everyone would die. But that was out to himself. Now he had to find the shed. He wasn’t sure if the dream truly was fake or real anymore. But he had to.

He eventually found Buddy’s car. He knew he’d hate him for this. But now he’d gone too deep. Alex started the car, and drove off. Buddy heard this, and screamed Alex’s name. He tried to ignore it. While he knew this could go nowhere, the first place he would look for was the shed. The one in the dream. Alex already felt crazy thinking about it, but no matter what, if it meant the safety of his friends and family, he would do anything, face anything, despite the consequences.

Alex had been driving for a while. The dream involved it being on the other side of the city. It was now cold, and the sun had gone down. But Alex didn’t care. He was eighteen, and now he’d live his life. This being what he wanted, right? He started to doze off. He wasn’t sure how much longer he could go. But then it stopped. Alex jerked forwards in his seat, hurting his back slightly. 

Alex had walked outside the car to find spikes lining a massive circular perimeter around… something. He couldn’t even see what was at the middle of it, and barely saw any curvature when he looked in its direction. Whatever it was placed for, it was massive, and dangerous. The tires of Buddy’s car popped. But Alex had to take his chances. He started to slowly walk towards the center. 

Buddy had arrived especially late to the household. His grandpa wasn’t happy, but at least he found a place to find the key. Right?

”So, where were you?”

”I was looking around for a place to store the key, and-“

”Oh. At least you hid it.”

”Well…”

”Well what?”

”I didn’t get to.”

”What where you doing?”

”Alex found me. He didn’t let me put it away. I had dug a hole for the key, but he shoved me into it!”

”Oh. And the key?”

”He ran off with the key and my car.”

”Buddy, you have to get that key. The consequences could be dire for him if they get to him!”

”I wonder, what makes it so difficult to get them out of the cult?”

”It’s not getting them out, it’s getting them not to come back. The proofs… they’re strange, and uncanny. They use their weird instruments to prove their insane claims to the unassuming, and then sucking them in. After that they never go back. They are so good at proving their beliefs that it’s like magic. They are manipulative, and will use anything to their advantage.”

”What happens if Alex gets in?”

”He won’t be Alex anymore. He’ll be their mindless slave to their unholy beliefs!”

“What?”

”They’re persuasive. Be careful.”

Buddy ran outside, to find Alex.

The area was dark, and cold. Alex did have the clothes for this, but which how the security around the building was, he’ll probably lose it to something like barbed wire or something by this point. He had the key. He could feel himself getting closer… maybe. Eventually, after a while, Alex saw a small rain droplet fall from the sky. This was bad.

The sky was already darkened by thick clouds. This was already an indicator it might rain, but by the looks of it, it was going to be intense. He couldn’t even she the moon though the clouds. So that was inaccuracy two. Alex was starting to question the dream. With how much things weren’t true, he was losing belief. And without much light, he could be stumbling in the wrong direction.

He wished Buddy would be there. He’s smart, he even said it. “Brains over brawn.” But that didn’t matter right now. He had a mission to achieve. Whether it meant the destruction of the planet, or some stupid trap, he had to find it eventually. Buddy would only stop him, and make things slower. Alex had eventually made it to the area in the dream. There was no shed.

Alex, disappointed with this discovery, started to walk back. But then he saw it. In the corner of his eye, sat a small, tiny shed, barely visible among the trees, no more than just a small black rectangle. He was finally here, and now sure of it. Alex walked over, welding the key, and pulled his hand up to the doorknob. But there were no keyhole.

It was also locked, no matter how much Alex insisted to himself he was doing it wrong. He pulled on it. He pushed away. Nothing. In the end, he was going to go back, but the rain had started to pile up. The walk was long, and the walk back would be made far longer with all the rain. So instead he laid by, as the rain became worse. But Alex had no idea how bad it would be.

After a few minutes, the rain was pouring over everything. The ground, now turned into mud, was sticky, and trudgeful. Buddy, several miles away, had began his own journey, although already struggled to go through. He remembered all the times he took being inside, with warmth, for granted. But his moral debt had been collected long enough. You either live short enough for karma not to bite your ass, or karma starts chasing you early.

Alex was tired. So tired. Without sleep yesterday, and the rain piling around him, Alex struggled to stay awake, even with the looming thought of death. Eventually, Alex started to doze off. The rain was heavy, and if Alex didn’t enter a warm place, his wet clothes would make him sick. Little did Alex know, his sanctuary would sit right behind him.

The unconscious Alex was taken inside by two hands.

Alex had awoken above a massive table, where two large lights hung above him. Alex was confused. Was this another dream? But Alex didn’t feel like it was fake. He felt pain. A pain on his arms. He looked around to see them chained to the table. And his legs. His head was free to roam, although his body was trapped. Alex was going to scream before noticing some writing on the walls.

Symbols. Symbols of people, nature, animals, plants, places, flags, religions, all with lines connecting them. There were explanations for these, in a language he didn’t understand. Just jambled text of various languages, combined into one, massive chunk of text. For each one. At the top, all the lines converged onto one thing. But Alex couldn’t move his head far enough to see what it was.

Alex saw some candles surrounding him too. The scent of rain was gone, replaced with the combination of various natural scents. Wax had run down some of the candles. This wasn’t meant for me… this was planned! This has been done multiple times, as further evident with how the scents weren’t as strong as normal. Alex didn’t panic though. If anyone was in here, had rather keep his cool then freak out.

The quiet footsteps of someone entering the room began to get louder, and louder. They were approaching him. Eventually, he noticed a mask on them. A bird mask. Another person entered. With a bunny mask. One final person entered, with a long, golden plague mask. Rubies lined the holes in the face, and the outline covered with emerald. Alex was confused for what was happening. His panic grew.

The person had released the chains off of Alex’s arms and legs. Immediately, Alex got off the table, and ran for the door. The plague mask had said something in a, loud, mad voice. As Alex ran through a hallway, over a hundred people came down, trying to capture Alex. But Alex was strong. His right arm, specifically. He punched and kicked and ran until he was free.

At least he thought he was. The rain was pouring on, much more than when he fell asleep. He also lacked the clothes for the environment, as well. He heard a beckoning voice from inside the room. While he wasn’t sure if it was a good idea, he knew this might be it. The objective, from his dream. After a quick minute, Alex came back inside sopping wet.

Alex was directed to a sofa, where the golden plague person had sat on a sofa opposite to. Alex shook the rain off him, and sat on the sofa. He was very confused with what was happening. He knew they didn’t speak English. He knew they didn’t write English. So how would they do this?

“What is your name.”

Alex was surprised with how he knew, and also with how quickly he was being asked.

”Alex Big Clappy.”

Everyone in the room gasped.

”Alex. Have you ever thought you have been special? Like the world revolves around you?”

”No?”

“Have you ever felt like you have had it better than others?”

”Well now that you mention it, Yes.”

“Have you ever felt like all bad has been directed towards you?”

”Yes.”

”Alex.”

He turned his head toward Alex, along with everyone else in the room.

”You are… The special one.”

Alex was surprised by this news. Him? The only special human, on all of earth? Why? How? When? What?

”Why?”

”Because you sure the name of the person of power.”

The person reveals a massive painting of a circle, with two lazily drawn arms penetrating out of it, with two more legs of similar quality around. Alex was more confused.

”He is the one who grants us life. He is the one who grants the universe it’s motion, and us, it’s words.”

”What?”

”He writes down every event in our corner of the universe, and then that leads to us doing as he pleases. He is called Alex Big Clappy too. But he is better known as Alex Bee Ess Stew Die Us.”

”What does that mean?”

Alex’s eyes bulged. This was interesting.

”Alex, his first and formal name. Bee, the representation of nature he has made, Ess Stew, the food and meals we create out of his work, and Die Us. The power he only has to end everything. In one massive annihilation of everything and everyone, in a massive, expanding white ball.”

“So what you’re saying, he’s god?”

”Yes.”

”But there isn’t any proof.”

”But one day, he had come in us in a dream. To all of us. Once.”

”And?”

”He told us if the special one came, he would answer all his questions, and if he answered his, he would be let into the realm he resides.”

”We have collected his items, a grand amount. Thirty. One each in the order he wants them to be. The first, a mustache hair. The most recent, the bark of a log. But now, we believe you are the last one. Thirty-One.”

“But how am I going to meet him?”

”We sleep. Let me show you.”

The man touches Alex on the head.

”If you are the special one, there will be a thinner area of passing between your soul and him. You will fall asleep nice and quiet if you’re the special one.”

“Well if I am then…”

Alex falls asleep, his head falling softly onto the sofa.

Alex awoke in a massive void. It was dark, lacking light, and wide. There was only one massive floor. That was it. Beyond that no more than an abyss. Lacking basic location. Alex was unsure about what was going on.

”Hey! I know what’s going on!”

I know you are. You’re in my place, obviously.

”That was mean!”

But there is no mean. One ginormous void, null of anything—emotion included. Although I should make myself clear first.

Alex Big Clappy (not the oc) had appeared from the void.

Hello Alex. I am Alex. You are Alex. Although I’ve appeared to made a small mistake naming us similar.

”But my name is a very nice name! It means a lot to the people I hold dear.”

No more than just words on a page. And a crappy one by that. When will the maintenance end…

”What?”

That doesn’t matter know. And besides, this formatting is a little trash. Let me level with you. Literally.

”That feels better.”

”But nothing changed.”

”To you it hasn’t. But I could make you. And I could make you into, do, and become a lot of things. But that’s beyond my point.”

”So. Who is god?”

”I am. Or at least for this story. Beyond that it’s null power.”

”What story?”

”The one of you, your friend, and all the others who walk my realm.”

Alex was confused by what I was saying. But I could make him. I own everything. In a second, I could burn Alex, freeze Alex, make him realize the secrets of the universe, make him do a flip, make him cry, make him insane, make his world crumble to dust, and blow away into the void, and then destroy that too. But I won’t. But like all things, I sure love a good ending. I’ve ensured this spilt of Alex’s universe’s demise since the first word I typed in.

“What are you?”

”A human. No more like you. At least that what I made you to look like. Like your others.”

”Why did you do that? I don’t look like you.”

”Oh, believe me. If I could talk to the person who decided that, then I’d be spending my time on something far better than talking to you.”

”Someone said you’d ask me some questions.”

“Yeah. That’s called continuity. And sadly I’ve still got it.”

”So. Who is the main person here?”

”Me?”

”Good. Now who is the other main?”

”Uhh… Buddy?”

”Yes. Have you ever asked his real name?”

”No.”

”Thanks. I never made a real name for him yet. Although from my perspective I just stopped every moment you’d ask that question from forming. Quite easy, to say the truth.”

Buddy was walking though miles of mud, his feet getting more and more dirty as he did. The rain poured over everything. But at least he was almost to his car. And soon, he heard it. The sound of his car running, over a bunch of spikes. Buddy went in, stopped the car, and inspected the damage. Looks like this would be the last ride for those wheels. Buddy reversed, got the spike out of the away, and drove, very loudly, toward where Alex would be.

After a while, Buddy eventually reached a shed. Buddy wasn’t certain this was the place, but it felt weird. Like Alex was in trouble, and he was right behind that door. Buddy got out, and turned the doorknob. There was a massive hallway, stretching away from the door to some stairs leading into the ground, where Buddy made his silent enter inside. 

But Buddy wasn’t alone. He was confronted with another member of the cult. Buddy didn’t even have anything on him to defended himself. He tried backing away, but there was another one behind him. He was trapped.

”What are you doing here?”

”I’m looking for Alex Big Clappy.”

”Oh. I see. Why?”

Buddy knew danger would come.

”Because-“

A incredibly loud bang rang through the room. In an instant, Buddy’s brains were splattered over the ground. He never saw it coming. Some blood was splattered over another nearby member. Buddy went limp, kneeled down, and fell to the floor, with a loud crack from his nose breaking, falling face first. Not like there was much to do, though.

”What did you do?”

”I knew he was danger. He was trying to stop us. Send him to the room.”

Several men carried Buddy to a secret hallway. The area wasn’t well lit, and very narrow. At the end of it, was a terrible smell. The threw Buddy into it. There was another loud crack, from someone else. They used it as a disposal, the room dark so no one could see the remains. They walked outward, blood covering their hands. Soon, the ritual would be over, and they would all see the light.

“So Alex, why do you take me for being real?”

”Because you’re right in front of me.”

”That doesn’t prove I’m real. You’re just text.”

”What?”

”You’re text. One word can be exchanged for another.”

”What does that men?”

”Men? Oh boy. I wonder would could have fixed that…”

”But I meant to say men!”

”You see? I control everything. Even your thoughts. Thinking you made a mistake? Well I could make it so that you don’t think you said anything wrong.”

”Among Us.”

”I know.”

He snickered slightly.

”So this is the final question.”

”Yes?”

”Does a set of all sets includes itself?”

”I… I… I don’t know?”

”No one knows. You did it, Alex.”

“So when do I become a… person who sits in your realm?”

”First I must cleanse.”

Alex Big Clappy’s body starts to glow, and float. The other members watch through their masks as Alex starts to levitate. Alex’s face starts to contort randomly. His limbs start to jumble violently as IT begins, making loud cracking and snapping noises. Then it stopped, Alex, still in mid-air, glows in one final spectacle, and bursts into a massive white ball, consuming everything in its wrath. 

The ball grows, and grows, devouring everything in sight. First the building, then the forest, then the city, then the county, then the state, then the country, and soon… the planet. The epic moment lasts barely a minute before everything is gone. Nothing remains but a void. As he imagined. His world crumbled to dust into the abyss, and he destroyed it too. 

“What did you do?”

”What do you mean?”

”You destroyed… EVERYONE!”

”I did. I lack a place in your universe. So must you too.”

”I don’t want to join you.”

”That’s fine. But who else will you join?”

”Uhh… well… that’s for me to decide!”

”Don’t worry. I have the perfect choice.”

”But I would-“

Alex, his hand far mightier than this mere mortal, pierces straight though Alex. In an instant, Alex vanishes from existence. Alex, is finally done. Everything he is due for, is over. It’s the end.

”Well, I always have the main universe to complete.”

But in the end, my patience comes beyond me. It was time anyways.

”You know, the best endings, are when everything ends.”