Oneshots, etc.

I don't even know what to call this

In the words of a friend of mine, "(Character) is dead, (Other character) is sad." So in this case it's, "Mario is dead, Xylo is sad and also hallucinating."

Also, this is set in an apocalypse. What type of apocalypse? I don't know. I just know it's an apocalypse.

Note: Hi, future-me here, I've just realised that this could be read as implied suicide, and just to clarify, that is not the case. That is not a thing I ever write about, and what happened in this oneshot was just plain murder. I apologise if you read it before and thought it was the other thing. Hopefully this clears up any confusion.

TW: Blood, mentions of death, hallucinations, throwing up

"You need to get up. You could be in danger."

"I know."

The eyebrows of the ghost in front of him furrowed.

"You can't stay here forever, you do realise that, right?" He said, placing an unfelt hand on Xylo's shoulder.

"Yeah..." Came the mumbled response.

"So how long are you going to sit there on the floor?"

Xylo stared down at his trembling knees, which hurt from how long he'd been crouching for.

"As long as I can."

His friend sighed, face filled with a fondness that quickly gave way to sadness.

"I'm not him. You know that."

It wasn't a question like the others had been. It was a statement. Both knew why, but neither said it out loud. Xylo looked up at the placid face of the ghost. He didn't understand. What did the ghost mean?

"I..." He started, but stopped before he could finish vocalising his questions.

"I'm not him, Xylo." The ghost said firmly, staring at him with a calm gaze.

Calm? His friend wasn't supposed to be calm, was he? He was always happy, or sad, or angry, or, or...

Always moving, feeling, being. Never calm. That's what he was. Is. Was.

Xylo inhaled deeply, breath shaking.

"I know."

"I'm not real, either."

The ghost's hand was still on his shoulder, so he tried to grab hold of his wrist to prove him wrong. But instead of making contact, of feeling flesh and blood and warmth and most importantly a pulse, his hand went right through.

He stared down at his own shaking hand as his eyes started to burn and prickle with the threat of tears.

"What?" His voice sounded small, even to his own ears. Small, shaky, and about to snap in half, like an old thread of spider silk.

"I'm not real."

"Yeah, okay, I-I... I know. I know that."

"Yes. You do." Said the ghost, nodding slightly, eyes breifly flicking over to something behind Xylo. (Someone? Someone or something? Both, he knows, as he knows all the rest, but he won't acknowledge it.)

"Give me... Give me a moment." Xylo muttered, breathing deeply in an attempt to keep himself from passing out.

"Alright."

Silence ensued for a moment or two.

"You okay now?" The ghost asked quietly, looking at him with a worried expression, as though he might collapse any second. All he responded with was a mute nod.

"Okay. Then, can I tell you something else?"

"...Sure. Go for it. Can't get much worse, can it?" He joked weakly, trying to hold back the tears escaping down his cheeks.

"I'm not so sure about that."

"Just tell me already."

"He's dead."

Silence once again filled the air between the two.

Then, everything caught up all at once and Xylo finally collapsed, the tears and sobs he had tried desperately to keep down all escaping at once with a guttural scream. All the memories came flooding back in.

Of walking into their little apartment, the place they'd been hiding together, happy and content. He'd found a decent amount of food that day, and was hoping that it would last them another week or two. He'd been met with silence, which was unusual. Normally he would be bombarded with complaints from his friend about how bored he was. Maybe he'd just fallen asleep?

But no.

He'd turned the corner, heading to the cupboards in the kitchen. Instead, he had found the dead body of his friend, sprawled facedown on the tiles, laying in a pool of his own blood with a gaping bullet hole in his head.

At first, he'd thought in a fit of hysterics, at least it's on the tiles, we can clean it up with less trouble. Then he'd realised that there was no 'we' anymore. His best friend, his only friend, the one person he could trust in this godsforsaken apocalypse, was dead. Right in front of him.

He'd thrown up what little he had in his stomach, before turning away as fast as he could and collapsing onto his knees. He'd stayed there for a while. Then the hallucination appeared.

The hallucination - because that was what it was, wasn't it? - that was right in front of him. Its eyes drifted behind him, to where his friend's dead body was. To where Mario's dead body was. The same body it looked identical to, minus the blood and bullet wound.

The hallucination waited, humming slightly in an attempt to calm him from the state he was in.

Nearly fifteen minutes later, he was still lying there, curled into a ball, throat hoarse from the screaming and sobbing. He'd run out of tears a good ten minutes before, so he heaved another dry sob and broke into a fit of coughing.

"Feeling any better?" The hallucination whispered, and he gave a dry, slightly mocking laugh. "Right. No, of course not. It was silly of me to ask."

Xylo stayed curled in on himself as the hallucination fretted about, mumbling things about dehydration and how Xylo should drink some water or he'd have a headache. Taking a deep, heaving breath, he turned to it.

"You're some kind of representation of my common sense, aren't you."

It grimaced, and nodded.

The two of them, Xylo and Mario, had had a running joke about how they were eachother's common sense, because neither of them had any for themselves. So he supposed it was understandible that that was what the hallucination was.

"...Are you going to leave?" He asked quietly, dreading the answer. Even if this thing was just a figment of his imagination rather than the actual Mario, anything was better than nothing.

"Do you want me to leave?"

"No."

"Then I'll stay. Besides, you should probably find Bryan and let him know what happened."

"Right. Okay. Let's do that then."