Chapter Text
Getting killed is one thing. Turning into a ghost and watching your body magically disappear by the hands of your killer is another.
Josh always loved reading about ghosts. He liked the Sci-Fi and Mystery genres, and loved the books Mailman Miles always brought. He wished he knew where Mailman Miles got them, though. But he never wanted to turn into a ghost. It seemed very.. Scary. Scary, in the sense where you’re isolated and never being able to touch other objects for the rest of your ‘life’. But now he was one. Great job, Josh!
Josh was sobbing. And screaming. And trying to grasp where his body was last seen. Maybe he should’ve just danced. That way, maybe his leg wouldn’t have been cut off. Maybe that way, he wouldn’t have been stabbed in the chest and bled out. Maybe that way, he’d still be alive again.
Buddy was walking away, into the clubhouse. Josh followed him. I mean, what else was there to do?
Him feeling stuff now felt.. Weird. He could still feel some stuff, sure, but it’s like there’s nothing to feel. He didn’t feel his feet in his shoes, his legs felt weird, overall everything felt weird. It was kind of like feeling your hair. Cause you think you should feel it, but the only feeling you really get is your scalp getting tugged at. That’s the best way Josh could think of it, anyways. He didn’t really know how to describe it other than that.
He watched Buddy throw his bloodied book in the trash. A Wrinkle In Reality.. This really felt like a wrinkle in reality.
“Hey, Nurse Nancy! Are you having a good time?” Buddy asks Nurse Nancy.
“No Buddy..”
Josh held his breath. Well, what you could consider his breath as a ghost, at least. Was she really saying no to Buddy? Come to think of it, no one had ever really said no before.
“I’m having a great time!”
Damnit.
Josh thought that this might’ve happened to the others. The ones before Oliver, Freddy, and Wade joined. What were their names again..? Amelia was one of them, he thought. Was another one named Micheal? But where were they, if they were ghosts? Did Josh have a curse or something?
Wade had joined after Amelia (?)’s disappearance. He’d been there the longest, other than Josh. They had a neutral-relationship. If Josh ever needed to count on someone to talk to, Wade would be his second-bet. His first one would be Mailman Miles.
Mailman Miles was one of the few people Josh thought as a guardian. Except Buddy, of course. But Josh didn’t think of Buddy as a guardian anymore. He did just murder him, after all. Nurse Nancy was another one he thought of as a guardian. Maybe Betty?
“Hey Buddy! We made up a dance for you,” Wade says to Buddy, cutting off Josh’s thoughts.
“Because we love you.” Freddy says.
Oh, you’re gonna love him when he murders you.
He shouldn’t be thinking like that. The others don’t know any better.
“But where’s Josh?” Freddy asks.
Yes.. yes..
“Well, that’s what I wanted to tell you!” Buddy says.
Oh.
“After I taught Josh to dance, he loved it so much, he decided to go on a dancing tour in Diamond City!”
Oh.
“Well, that seems like something worth dancing about!” Betty says. “Ready, guys?”
Up-beat music fills the room, but Josh is filled with so many questions.
I thought Buddy taught us to never lie? He thinks. That song.. The one that goes ‘Lying, lying, lying is very bad’? Well, he is a killer unicorn after all. Might be a liar as well.
“C’mon, huh, you move your legs like this..” Wade starts singing. Right, The Buddy Glide. That song’s been there for a while. It’s not new. It doesn't even have original lyrics. The song has been there since Josh joined. Thinking about it, Josh doesn’t remember what it was before Buddy. Hell, he can’t even remember his age. Was he.. What, 12? 11? Josh’s pretty sure he’s 12. So he had to grow up with Buddy if he only knows about him, right? But then why can’t he remember anything when he was eleven? Ten? He should have at least a single memory from those ages, but his mind comes up blank. Maybe it’s a side effect of being a ghost? But.. It's still weird. Even a few episodes ago, his memory about it was fuzzy. They were.. What.. cooking? He was pretty sure it was cooking.
“..that’s how you do the Buddy Glide!” Right, right, they were still singing.
“I am so proud of all of you, you put on an amazing show!” Buddy says.
“And Josh learned how to be brave!” Strappy says. Even though he knows Strappy doesn’t know about his death, Josh is still annoyed by that comment. Like, he’s right next to Strappy, scared and definitely not brave.
“But now, he’s gonna be famous!” Trashy says. Josh doesn’t hear Trashy speak all that much, but when he does, it annoys Josh. And the comment is also really annoying. Once again, Josh knows no-one except Buddy knows he’s dead, but still, he hates it that people are saying that he’s ‘loving to dance and is going to be famous!’
“That’s right Trashy, but now, that’s all the time we have.”
Everyone gathers around Buddy, and the kids start hugging him. Recently, ever since Josh got really into books, he always hated this. But he always needed to do so. Why did they always need to do so? It was very strange. Everything now was very strange, ever since he became a ghost.
“You love Buddy, yes you do. And I love each one of you. We’re together happily, we’ll always be best buddies. I love every one of you, I’m so glad you love me too.”
This really was a wrinkle in reality.