The End of Yardale Part I

Smoke Clouds

Mole needed time to truly think. When everyone else seemed to be distracted, he slipped away and made his way outside. He had done this quite frequently over the past few days- quietly leaving everyone else and taking out a cigarette to calm his mind. Today, he was slightly worried that smoking would cause his hallucinations to become worse. He wanted these hallucinations to end, but he also refused to quit smoking so abruptly. 

As per usual, he took a cigarette out of a small box he kept in one of his pockets and lit it. Bringing it up to his mouth, he took a deep breath in and out and allowed the smoke to fill his lungs. 

He looked around to make sure Gregory truly hadn't followed them, and sighed disappointedly when he saw no one. Deep down, Mole knew that what he saw wasn't real. He wanted Gregory to return, but that was impossible. Gregory was dead, and Mole had to accept it. 

Just then, he heard someone open the door to the yard and walk near him. Mole was a bit scared for a second before he noticed that it was Estella who had walked out. 

"I noticed you'd left and got worried." Estella simply explained. 

"You don't have to worry about me." Mole huffed through a cloud of smoke. "I'm fine." 

"No, you're not." stated Estella. When she received no reply, she sighed and continued. "I want to believe that you saw Gregory, Mole. I really do. I miss my brother. I just- I don't want to give myself hope when we could be wrong." 

"I wouldn't be surprised if I was imagining shit." said Mole. 

After the two stood against a wall for a moment in silence, Estella suddenly pointed towards Mole's box of cigarettes. "Could I have one?" 

Mole laughed a bit. "I doubt you'd like it." He took out another cigarette and lit it, carefully handing it to Estella. 

Estella brought it up to her own mouth and carefully breathed in and out. Caught by a bit of surprise, Mole said, "Usually when people smoke for the first time, they cough it all up."

Estella shrugged. "Well, this wouldn't be my first time." After Mole gave her a confused expression, Estella asked, "How do you think I lived up to my mother's expectations of being skinny and emotionless?" 

"I figured you were just good at it." Mole said. 

"I wasn't when I was younger. I was absolutely horrid at it." replied Estella. "Over the years, I've learned to rely on smoking much less, though." 

"I've always relied on it." sighed Mole. 

There was another moment of silence which Estella broke by saying, "Tell me more about what you saw back at the headquarters." 

"Well-" Mole began, "it looked like Gregory, but- really different. He didn't look like he was happy to see us." 

"Hm." said Estella. "Usually Gregory would be very happy to see us. That's unusual." 

"He looked hurt." Mole added. "That could be a part of it."

"Perhaps it was his ghost." Estella said jokingly. For a moment, the two seemed to genuinely think of this as a possibility, but they ultimately ruled against it. 

"I think if it were his ghost, he would've interacted with us more instead of just being creepy." said Mole. 

Estella nodded. "You're right. He would've spoken to us in a dream or something dumb." 

Mole was then struck with an idea. "We should go back."

Confusedly, Estella asked, "What do you mean?"

"We should go back to the Yardale headquarters and see if Gregory was actually there or not. If he's in danger, we can save him." Mole suggested. 

Estella sighed. "Mole, if we tried getting everyone else to help us with that, they'd call us crazy."

"We don't need their help." Mole stated. "We can go on our own without them knowing." 

"That's dangerous. Plus, the headquarters was fucking destroyed. There's hardly anything to go back to." argued Estella. 

"They'll probably rebuild it." said Mole.

"Or they'll find a new headquarters that we don't know the location of." Estella replied. "Mole, we can't just go and do this. We'd need someone to help us, and no one is going to want to do that." 

"We could find someone!" suggested Mole. "I bet Damien would help us. We helped save his boyfriend, so he kind of owes us." 

Thinking for a moment, Estella said, "I suppose so. He may also be able to help us figure out if Gregory is dead or not." 

"Exactly!" Mole exclaimed. "Please, Estella. I need to know if he's alive or not."

"Ugh, fine." Estella grumbled, not admitting that she needed to know as well. "But if this all goes shitty, it's all your fault."