As the Crow Flies

After Death

The massive ache in Tommy's ribs slowly faded to a warm fluffy feeling, as if someone had placed a freshly baked loaf of bread on his stomach. His ears rang as daylight danced across his blurred vision.

"That was uncalled for. I could've died, dick." Tommy must've gotten the wind knocked out of him because he could barely speak above a whisper.

Meow.

Tommy bent his chin down to see PussBoy sat atop his belly looking as stupid as ever.

"Oi, get off me ya pussy." Tommy sat up and the cat quickly leapt off his chest and bounded along the shoreline.

Shoreline.

Dream must've hit him harder than he thought. His brain was foggy, like his mind was underwater. He looked up to see the sun beaming in a clear blue sky. Was he hallucinating? What happened to the prison?

"Morning sunshine." Goosebumps spread across his entire body as a familiar voice came from behind him. Tommy turned to see that son of a bitch, Schlatt, sitting in a deck chair in a Hawaiian button-up, reading a book, and sipping on what he assumed was an alcoholic beverage.

"You. You're supposed to be dead."

Schlatt laughed. And that made Tommy angry. Angry and confused. Why was Schlatt here?

"Tommy, do you even know where you are?" Schlatt said with an eager grin.

"I'm..." Tommy looked down at his hands. They were gripping tightly at the grass and sand as his memories slowly surfaced. "I was in prison with Dream. We got into a fight." He reached a hand behind his head and seared as a sharp pain caused his vision to go white for a second. He leaned forward to catch his breath, but the air going in and out of his lungs only made his body ache more. He checked under his shirt for injuries, but regretted it immediately and quickly clutched the collar close to his chest.

"I can't be dead. I can't be. Dream said he wouldn't-" Tommy looked back up at Schlatt who appeared very uninterested. "If I'm in hell then why does it look like you're on holiday."

"Holiday?" Schlatt chuckled as he closed the book he'd been reading. "Did you forget that I'm American? Unpaid vacation IS hell." Tommy was about to dismiss Schlatt entirely, but the book he was holding made him feel very uneasy.

"What book is that?" He asked.

"Oh this? Just some light beach reading. Uh, 'The Art of Revival'."

The Revive Book. It was real.

"Can I see it?" Tommy asked as he did his best to pick himself up off the ground. Schlatt took a sip from his drink.

"No I don't think so." He said in a darker tone.

"Why not?"

"I mean." Schlatt held the book up so that the title was facing him. Then, the book went up in flames in his hands. Tommy watched in horror as the whole thing burned to ashes.

"What the fuck?!"

"Don't freak out. Whatever afterlife we're in right now, the rules are very weird, ok? You can summon one thing at will. Mine is the book."

"What do you mean 'mine is the book'? How did you do that fire thing with your hands? Do you have powers? Do I get powers? That would only be fair, right? Why am I even asking you? You probably have no idea cause you're dumb. What the fuck is going on? This can't be real, I mean one second I'm fighting about potatoes with Dream in prison and the next I'm talking to you. That doesn't make sense. None of this makes any sense."

Schlatt silently finished off his glass.

"You know that stuff killed you."

"That's the great thing about being dead." Schlatt wiped the sides of his mouth with his hand. "Turns out all that stuff about ghosts being transparent is bullshit. We can still feel pain. We can still fucking die, but we just come back here when we do. Every time." Schlatt placed the glass down in the sand. He looked sad. The kind of sad you would use to describe a man who's clearly defeated. A man with no purpose, with nothing left to him. An empty glass.

Suddenly PussBoy, from out of nowhere, ran up to Schlatt's feet.

"Like this dumbass cat. It keeps fucking drowning itself and then immediately running up to me. Jesus Christ Tommy, why did you have to bring your stupid cat to the afterlife with you?"

"I didn't. I killed him in the prison. I didn't think we'd both be dying on the same day ok?" Schlatt kicked sand at the cat from his chair which seemed to get him to piss off.

"God, even Wilbur isn't this annoying about it." Tommy's heart dropped to his stomach.

"Wilbur, he's here?"

"Yeah, he's making drugs in the van." Schlatt gestured to a grassy hill behind him that sloped into the sandy shore. Tommy took a weary step forward. He wasn't sure if he even wanted to see Wilbur, but anyone was better than Schlatt. Besides, if Wilbur was making drugs in a van, he couldn't have changed that much.

Tommy climbed up the hill and spotted the van that Schlatt was talking about. It was an exact replica from the one they had in L'Manburg.

"Tell Wilbur that when he's done we can finally do that bon fire he's been wanting to do." Schlatt called from behind.

Tommy slid down the hill and came up to the van door. Was he supposed to knock? Maybe he should've thought of something to say. His stomach felt sick with anxiety. In the end, he decided that just walking in might be the best.

Tommy opened the door and stepped inside. It certainly smelled of drugs. He creeped around the corner and spotted Wilbur hunched over a counter.

"Schlatt come over here, look at this. I've taken your suggestion about adding blue to the formula and I think it's actually working." Tommy didn't move from the entrance. He waited until Wilbur finally looked up and realized that it wasn't Schlatt who'd just walked in.

"Tommy." Tommy couldn't read his brother's face, so he tried to be casual.

"Hi Wilbur." Tommy leaned against the doorway to keep himself from falling. He did his best to focus on Wilbur's face, but dying must've taken a toll on him.

Wilbur dropped whatever it was he was doing and walked over to get a closer look at Tommy. His eyes were filled with disbelief. Tommy surprised himself by reaching over and pulling Wilbur into a hug. For some reason, being near Wilbur made him feel a little bit stronger. He didn't realize how much he'd missed his brother until Wilbur hugged him back.

"Tommy, you're not supposed to be here." Wilbur's voice sounded broken. Tommy swallowed the lump he felt rising in his throat.

"I know."