✓ DYING MOURNINGS, original

twenty : brothers

┌─────━┿──┿━─────┐

𝐓𝐖𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐘 : 𝐁𝐑𝐎𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐒

└─────━┿──┿━─────┘

The ride to the barn was outside of the gray. Time went by as normal, as if Reed and the others knew exactly what I was trying to do for them and how we needed the world to spin and tick away so Crow could do what was needed.

The barn stood exactly how I had left her, minus the fires in the back from a body too disfigured to identify in police reports. Still unnamed, still unmarked, body still missing. It was now a pile of crunchy ashes in the backyard of Crow's cabin. In the backyard of our home. It made me wonder if Hex was still wandering around the astral or if he'd passed on. I hoped he passed, I didn't necessarily want to hear his side of the gruesome story.

I parked the car and wasted no time getting out. There was old police tape around the backside but nothing more. The police knew better than to keep that investigation from leading anywhere other than stagnant. Too many of them had been paid off by either John or Crow through the years, they were more than corrupt. They were more than just what they were now. I pushed open the barn door, the air not as stale as it had been before when I'd come with the ouija board. I didn't need that now, they were already here and waiting.

The gray came naturally and with no pain. The three men took me by surprise, standing and waiting for me, but it wasn't their presence that shook me but rather the lack of one. I should've known he wouldn't show his face quite yet.

"Took you long enough," said Michael West, hands in his pockets of his monochromatic blue suit. Even in death, he still had style, save for burns that still marred his skin from our little run in together. "Thought you would have figured out all this shit by now."

"Give her a break," muttered Andrew Stone, moving to sit against the old stacks of hay. "A lot has happened since we last saw her." His long hair was pulled back into a messy bun against the nape of his neck so he could wear his beanie over his ears as if the astral was too cold for him. "I'm sorry about your friend, the one you had been looking for."

"I'm surprised you remembered," I said with a sigh.

"Hard not to when it's the only thing we can watch happening from here," he said with a shrug as he looked around for emphasis. "Which means there's only one reason you're here and wanting to speak with us."

"Blame it on curiosity," I muttered before glancing towards Reed who'd been quiet. "I wouldn't have thought twice about you all if it hadn't been for him showing up."

"Wow, send the party parade," muttered West, clapping slowly. "You finally got the balls to show yourself."

Reed scowled and scoffed, looking away with his arms crossed. "I'm not the only one here, Michael. You could've been the one to step forward but no. You've been sitting on your ass trying to look pretty through that busted fucking ego."

"Gentlemen, gentlemen," cooed Stone, holding his hands up to urge them to quiet. "You're forgetting that I could've gone to her too–"

"Stoner piece of shit–"

"You lazy fucking bum–"

Stone chuckled and sat back down. "We all could've made more of an effort but we didn't."