Rattlebones (bxbxb)

Well Shit

Sometimes in life, we make choices. Horrible, awful choices that twist the very reality that we exist in and subsequently cause death and destruction.

Eugene and I meet up with Iggy back on shore and he automatically turns his blue eyes on me, pinning me under his gaze.

"Did you bring something home from the gas station? Something skull-shaped that sounds like a reject mobster?" He asks me, and it feels like I'm five years old bringing frogs and dead crickets back to my parents. Iggy wasn't intimidating to or anything, but I had come to the realization that I hated disappointing him. It wasn't as if I'd be referring to him as daddy anytime soon, but if he told me to jump off a bridge, there was a good chance that I would do it, with relish.

Let me just take a moment to say that I had only taken Larry's skull out of the goodness of my heart. It wasn't as if I had planned on finding a dead body in a crawlspace. It wasn't as if I had hoped and dreamed of uncovering my own murder mystery.

But here we were.

"I may have uncovered the body of a dehydrated gentleman in a crawlspace," I reply from where I stand in between Iggy and Eugene. "And I theoretically removed his head and took it with me."

Iggy's mouth falls open, but he makes no sound, so he's like a tree falling in the forest.

"Yo," Eugene breathes, in the most horrified way possible. "Are you sick in the head or something? Did your mom drop you on your emo face when you were little? Normal people don't do that kind of shit! They call the cops!"

I take a deep breath and look up at both of them as seriously as I can. I know what I have to do. This secret that's been eating me alive inside is ready to come out. "There's something that I've been keeping from you," I tell them, and I move to lean against the doorframe dramatically. "Something that could change our relationship permanently."

"I can't handle this, man," Eugene tells Iggy. "If he's actually a girl under all that eyeliner, I might actually cease to exist."

"Darcy," Iggy says, "Whatever this is, we can work it out, okay?"

"I know," I tell him. "It's just hard to come to terms with my power." I take a deep, shuddering breath next and prepare myself. "Iggy...Eugene. I'm The Death Bringer."

There's a long moment of silence between us. In fact, it's so long that I lift my head from where I'm burying it in my arms. Iggy's face is screwed up and he's making this weird noise, and Eugene is flat out smirking. Then they both bust out laughing, absolutely howling in amusement. Eugene holds onto Iggy for support and then he's pounding on his shoulder, dying. "Death Bringer? Oh God, he's like two-feet tall! That's so fucking cute it hurts!"

"Excuse me!" I shout at them, mortified. "This is a significant moment for me!"

"Wait, Iggy," Eugene grabs onto Iggy and they share a serious look. "I'm the Death Bringer."

They bust out laughing again.

I can't believe it. After all that I had been through, they laughed in my face. I felt insulted, and truthfully as if I were back in high school, watching them pick on me again. I purse my lips together and then I turn for the door, grabbing the handle. "Fine," I tell them curtly. "If you don't believe me, then I'm going to handle it myself. I don't need you two peasants assisting me."

"Wait a second, Darce." Iggy grabs my shoulder before I can open the door, his laughter dying down. "We can't tell if you're being serious or not." He says. "But you have to admit, you sound kind of crazy right now."

I'm hurt beyond belief. Especially knowing that Iggy had made out with Eugene without telling me, and was more on his side than he would ever be with me. Worst of all? I still loved him.

"I for sure thought that you'd be the last one to call me crazy," I whisper, then reach out and take his hand, removing it from my shoulder like a parasite. "If I die in there, make sure to bury me in between you and Eugene," I inform him, and then I open the door. "At least that way in death, we'll all be on the same level."

I step into the living room before he can answer, and close the door behind me, making sure to lock it. "Darcy! You can't do this!" Iggy shouts, and he starts pounding on the door and jiggling the handle. "You don't know what it wants! It could kill you!"

I face the floating skull in the middle of the living room, and steel my nerves.

Death was the cessation of all living beings. There was nothing to be afraid of because when it all came down to it, we all ended up in the ground. There was beauty in decay when a flower bloomed among the rib bones of a deer. Wonderful terror in death when an old, corrupt man realized that it was his time.

"You fuckin' cockroach," Larry tells me, and he's floating there, neon green flames surrounding him. "You sleazy shit!  You think you can just sack me? I came to you looking for help, and I get treated like a piece of trash! Death-Bringer my ass!"

"How do you expect me to help you if I don't even know what a Death-Bringer is!?" I shout at him. "Better yet, why don't you fill me in, Larry? Because everyone seems to know what's fucking going on except for me!"

"Oh. Oh, I see what this is." Larry floats towards me, his jaw click-clacking up and down. "You don't think I deserve an afterlife, do you? Well, let me tell you somethin'. I didn't deserve to be murdered either!" 

I take a step forward, "Just calm down, okay? We can work something out."

"No!" Larry screams, and his flames swell. "I spent ten years in a crawlspace waiting for some chump called Death Bringer to bring me death. My last hope! And now I got nothing. Nothing!"

"Larry--!" He flies towards me and green flames burst from the furious skull. Suddenly I'm struck by a force equivalent to a train plowing into me. My feet lift from the ground and I'm thrown backward, screaming as white-hot agony races through my every cell. 

Is this it? 

The end of Darcy Brown? I open my eyes a little through the pain in time to see the front door crash open, Eugene Wilder and Iggy bursting in to save me from whatever this was.

They loved me enough to save me.