Evil Is Pink (bxb)

Chapter 11

It had been months since Tendril last saw his pink-skinned, red haired cellmate. Despite witnessing the boy's demise first hand, Tendril had a feeling that the kid would survive, even if his face was totally crushed by the nuclear bomb that was Gorgo the Unstoppable's fist. However, Tendril wasn't banking on ever seeing him again. Because even if he survived the punch, the guards who took him away certainly would never let him see the light of day again. Back to the mines with him. Along with his inane, lunatic father.

Idiots. The whole lot of them. Only an absolute fool would dare attempt such a bombastic, brazen, seditious escape plan like that. Clearly it must've been Dr. King's idea. What did they think would happen? Trying to brute force their way out of the prison district wardened by Gorgo of all people? Each warden overseeing their respective districts were powerful in their own right, but Gorgo the Unstoppable was especially notorious.

The corpse girl had disappeared soon after the warden had captured Sticks and the rest of his father's army. Later when they met again in class, Pimickie acted as she normally did. She along with Rackus glided through class without so much as a look towards Sticks's empty seat. A seat that was soon taken by a new prisoner. The girl didn't look particularly sad that her new pink friend was gone, and neither did Rackus, aside from one long, curious gaze towards the desk after everyone else had left the room. Aside from that, they didn't appear to miss him. But, what can ya do? That was prison for ya. You never knew when it was your time to disappear. One could only survive. Corpse girl and the blond meathead knew this well. If they were sad, they'd get over it quickly.

Speaking of, as time went on, a new guy soon took Sticks's place as Tendril's cellmate. Another scrawny kid. And like Sticks, he was a crybaby. Tendril always got the crybabies. Whatever. The skinny kid didn't last long though. Not many did.

By the time Tendril cycled through two more people, he had more or less forgotten about Sticks and his strange red hair. That is, until he saw him again one day, sitting alone in the cafeteria.

He could recognize that red hair and pink skin anywhere. He was bandaged up all over the place with strips of rags and other cloths, and seemed to be missing his arms. But it was him. Tendril had to do a series of double blinks to convince himself that he wasn't tripping. It had been so long after all, that Tendril thought he was as good as dead.

Wordlessly, Tendril picked up his dinner, a globby mess of mashed potatoes and fried silkworms, and made his way towards his ex-cellmate. Without asking, he took a seat in front of him. Normally he took his food and liked to retreat to one of his private corners, away from sight and out of mind. But, he could make an exception today he supposed.

"Hey."

Sticks shot up, eyes glistening with terror and worry, as though Tendril had just threatened to kill him instead of greeting him. He relaxed slightly when he noticed it was him.

"O-Oh...hello..." He sounded like he had been crying. Raspy.

"You don't have arms."

Sticks shook his head, sniffling. "Not today..."

"...So tomorrow?"

A little breathy sound left Sticks's mouth. It was either a whimper or a tiny laugh. Maybe both. Maybe neither. "I-I don't think so..."

Tendril dug his spoon into the yellow glob that was meant to be his food. He swallowed it without chewing. There was no need to, really.

"Was it the mines?"

Suddenly Sticks began to cry. Big, wet goopy tears unleashed themselves as though his eyes were a dam. Tendril felt like a deer caught in the headlights. He moved his tray closer to himself, and continued to eat in awkward silence as Sticks let it all out. He normally didn't have the patience for this sort of thing, but two facts kept him silent and tolerant.