Silver Tongues and Golden Scars (WILBUR x QUACKITY / TNT DUO)

10: The Spiral

CW/TW: Blood, assault, mentions of suicide, suicidal thoughts

Song suggestion: Everybody Loves Somebody for the line "The voices, I realize, have become impossible to drown out" and I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire by The Ink Spots for the line "At once I gasp in relief, collapsing to my knees and coughing for air".

Wilbur's POV:

I burned him. We will burn him again.

* * * 

The voices, I realize, have become impossible to drown out. They build up in my chest, writhing when I strike against them and bearing their teeth when I glance away.

Now, there is nothing stopping them from flooding in like the wild thrash of the ocean or the memorizing pulse of a blazing fire.

It's gotten worse with Tommy's disappearance, the conspiring of Las Navadas, and lying to Quackity. Oh, I pray to the gods that I'm a good liar.

For the past hour, I've been frantically searching for Tommy. He's gone, lost in a world of thieves and murders. I need to find him.

Although Dream insisted that he must have run off with a friend, I'm afraid that the real truth is hiding just out of sight, sneaking around a corner or peeking behind my shoulder.

So of course when I notice Schlatt lurking outside of the wine cellar I immediately spiral into accusing him of Tommy's disappearance.

"Schlatt, I know you fucking did something with Tommy," the voices howl when I have his shirt wrapped up in my fingers. 

I only notice Quackity when he's advancing on me with a deranged expression twisted across his features.

"I will fucking burn you," Quackity spits drunkenly, grabbing a bottle of wine off of the shelf and suddenly shattering it against the wood. Wine splatters almost gruesomely across the cellar.

I pause for a beat, grip loosening on Schlatt. "Quackity, what the hell are you doing--?" I start hesitantly when I see blood trickling out of his hand from the broken glass. "Gods, Q you're bleeding! Schlatt, what--what's wrong with him--?"

"I told you, Quackity. I was right," Schlatt hisses venomously from the corner, hair tangled up in his horns and eyes flashing a dangerous shade of red.

Something malicious glitters behind Quackity's pale eye when he slams me up against the shelves.

Suddenly he has a fist full of my shirt, staining my white shirt red with wine and blood, and before I can even begin to cry out, I'm wrestling the bottle from his grasp.

"QUACKITY--! What the fuck--?" He swings the shattered glass down, but I overpower his efforts by grabbing his wrist. "Schlatt what did you fucking do to him?!"

Schlatt laughs cruelly when Quackity strikes his knee in between my legs. I grunt and slump over, but I notice a chance to knock him down by tackling his legs.

I throw my weight into him, and we tumble to the ground in a heap.

"Quackity, it's me! It's Wilbur!" I try desperately when I have him pinned beneath me, emotion twisting my voice into knots. Nothing seems to break through the raging storm behind his eyes.

Quackity lashes out with the bottle again, cutting up through my upper lip and sending blood splattering on his face.

"FUCK!" I shout, releasing him to hold my face and giving him an opportunity to reach for another bottle.