𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐇𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐝?~~ Madness Combat oc lore

·10·

Maybe I shouldn't be telling this story. This is probably a bad idea in itself. What am I accomplishing with this? Dear god-- all I'm doing is bringing back all the memories, y'know! I shouldn't be talking-- I shouldn't be talking. This is all a bad idea..

Screams, squelching sounds, thick moisture in the air, coppery smells so heavy you could taste it, all of these things had haunted the boy's dreams. He slept like a rock as far as how he looked to everyone else, but the events of that night were teasing him and making him go mentally insane. He couldn't stop thinking about what he had done. He couldn't get it out of his head at all. It was near impossible to do so. He got maybe a few hours of sleep before he woke up from his fever dream-like nightmares, despite not even having a fever. The boy shot up in his makeshift bed, panic-stricken. His eyes wide with dismay, he looked around his surroundings. The casino hadn't closed up for the night still. He had only been here for a day or two with the belief that most casinos weren't open 24 hours a day, but apparently he was wrong. The luminescent lights hummed quietly in the pale yellowish room. He stood up out of his comfortable blankets and stretched. He  slipped on a sweater and a beanie-- not the sweater from the previous events, oh no-- and walked out to socialize with the few people he talked to.

He approached the front counter to meet up with two of the clerks he met earlier on. He had only seen one of them tonight, but hey, one is better than nothing anyways. He walked up to the rather short and pudgy clerk. She had purple, half-shaved hair, and had a nose piercing. She was a very sweet woman though. "Hi." He said quietly to her with a wave. She turned to Alex and smiled. "Hey kiddo! How's it goin?" She asked with a bright expression and a well done face of makeup. "Better, you?" He asked. The boy didn't particularly like talking all that much, but the people here didn't mind it. They just let him not speak a lot. "I'm doin' just fine. I heard that you went out like 5 hours ago or so, anything happen while you were out?" She asked. Alex did in fact do something, something big. But he couldn't tell her what he had done. The terrible acts he had committed without a single regret or care in the world.

"No. I just went for a walk, that's all." He answered. Of course you and me both know this is a big lie, but she didn't. That's what matters right now really. "Oh. Streets boring tonight?" She asked. He nodded in response. "Knew it. The place hasn't been as packed as it usually is, probably 'cuz of the heat. Did you at least enjoy your walk?" She kept talking. Alex didn't care that she talked a lot, he liked listening. "Yeah." No. He didn't enjoy the walk. He enjoyed the adrenaline and the murder, but not the walk. The more he thought about the whole scene the more it made him sick. He even started questioning himself, wondering what the fuck he was thinking. What even pushed him to go that far in the first place? The world will never know.. for now.

"Glad you at least enjoyed yourself. No problems I'm assuming." She said while simultaneously wiping down the front desk. She was originally doing that anyways. He hummed in acknowledgement before asking, "Have you done anything at all?" In his timid and quiet voice. Nothing new. "Nah, not much. Just usual work, except a lot more boring since there ain't as many people." She answered. "I see." He responded. The boy always kept his answers and his words short, and usually sounded like he was cutting himself off. Despite the person who would cut him off the most being gone forever, he still did it purely out of habit. Thankfully for him nobody ever asked about it, he would rather not go into detail why he developed the habit. He fidgeted with his sleeve while he watched the tiny lady work, basically just cleaning at this point. She didn't have anything better to do, and neither did he. He kind of looked to the woman as a supportive and motherly figure, unlike his actual mom. She was a good role model. He was a bit upset that he would have to leave her and his few other friends behind because of the things he's done, but it is what it is.

Then someone came up to the counter at last. They were here to cash in their prize money. Of course Alex saw them coming from a safe distance away and hid under the counter as to not be seen. Then he heard the voice of the person. Er-- man. A very deep and rich masculine voice, one that meant business. One that rung in the boy's mind. Something about it was familiar. He sounded like one of his dad's friends, so he peeked up from the counter. Luckily the man was staring down at his phone, so Alex could reveal himself without the man noticing he was hiding originally. The boy stared up at the other, the man being remarkably tall. He was bald and had blue eyes. He wore a leather jacket with tacky skeleton and eagle decals all over it. He had a tattoo on one of his hands that said something, most likely a signature. His peach colored skin was a contrast from the usual gray colored people. This man was definitely one of his dad's buddies. Upon further inspection of his voice and his face, Alex knew who he was. The man looked up and saw Alex, waving to him. "Hey kid, how's it hangin'?" He asked, oblivious to the fact that this was Alex. To be polite he answered, "Good. How about you?" The man smiled. "Pretty good. Have you two seen a woman with red hair and a white dress around here? Her name is Lilith Jeffery, and she's been missing for a while now. She's my friend's wife." He said with an increasingly more serious tone. "She was at this casino last." He added. Alex looked at the clerk lady, she looked back at him. They both shrugged.

Except the only difference is the clerk genuinely didn't know where she was. "She was walking towards the steakhouse on the sidewalk in front of here last I saw her. Maybe try checking that direction?" The clerk answered. She only wanted to help, but this was actually gonna make things so much worse. Alex froze up in fear as his eyes widened while she spoke. He knew these men would find the woman for sure now. They check things thoroughly. They don't miss anything. He dreaded seeing the man go, but with a nod and a thank you, the man did in fact leave the casino. Alex tried to get a glimpse of outside the casino, but people were blocking the way. He just slithered back to his spot under the desk and talked to the clerk instead. It was more comfortable that way. Just hidden, spending time with someone he could familiarize with. Safe. That's all he wanted to feel. Safe.

"Why you hiding, Alex?" The lady asked. She crouched down to level with the boy. "Like it." He answered. Some may think he's cryptid with how he speaks sometimes, or at least speaks normally. He tries to cut his vocabulary down until he needs to use full words and sentences. He just doesn't like talking, that's all. The lady nodded in acknowledgement. "I'm gonna have to go work on stock, can you manage the counter?" She asked. Alex nodded. "Thanks kid!" She said with a ruffle of his hair. She stood up and walked to the back of the casino as the boy himself came out of hiding and stood at the counter. He waited for anyone to come up and ask for help or whatever. Compared to the previous clerk he was actually a bit tall. In the past year he's grown a lot, and he's still growing too. He leaned on the counter and waited silently. Just like earlier, the casino was fairly empty and boring. It was about 2 in the morning, so people weren't exactly in casinos right now. About 3 am is when it's the least active so this was going to be boring. And for a while too. Alex sighed and relaxed himself on the counter a bit. He was tired, but the exhaustion was escaping his body and mind fairly quickly. Great..

The boy had dazed off, zoning out for a while. He had nothing to do. Nobody came to the counter for anything for a good hour and a half. Until one man came up to the counter. He was tall, taller than the last even. He looked down at Alex as the boy collected himself and looked up at him. "What can I help you wi-" He cut himself off. He stared up at the man, he looked at his face. The lighting of the place caused the front part of this man to be completely dark and shadowed, his figure looming menacingly over Alex. The boy knew damn well who he was. He hated that he did. He had anticipated this would happen, and had planned out how to get out of the situation. "Hello, son." The man said. There was so much cynical and evil energy in his stance and in his tone, he looked like he was straight out of a movie, and his lead role was the bad guy. Alex trembled under his glare, the color quite literally drained from his face. He didn't even need to ask what the man was here for, he knew all too well why he had looked for this casino specifically. "W-what- why are you h-h-" He choked out, the boy couldn't even speak. He was that scared right now. He felt like screaming, like crying, like calling out for help. Now he knows how his mom felt.

"I'm here because I wanna know where your mother is. Tony told me he saw you here, and that Lilith went missing here. So tell me, did you have to do with anything?" He hissed to the boy. His terrifying gaze was filled to the brim with anger, his tone cold and malicious in some way. He had his hands on the counter as he gripped it tightly. One hand balled in a fist. "I-I-I didn't h-have anyth-thing to do with h-her-" He stammered. Alex felt like he was about to pass out because he was hyperventilating so damn much. It was painful. He was in actual pain from how scared he was. He could feel his heart about to jump out of his chest, he felt how excruciatingly painful each agonizing breath was as he attempted to calm himself. This resulted in him only becoming more and more scared. His dad scowled. "I don't believe you. What did you do." He growled, more pissed this time. Alex went quiet with fear and stared his dad straight in the eyes. He feared breaking eye contact, because that would be distracting. He couldn't watch his dad's eyes and prepare for what he would do if he stopped staring into those narrowed, ashy gray eyes of his. "Answer me, boy!" His dad said with an aggressive grab of the boy's wrist. He wanted to jar him, to get his attention. And it worked.

And all Alex wanted was for him to go away and leave him alone forever.