After the burn
"I don't think he's ever gonna recover"
Tad turned sharply to look at Kryptos. Deep down he knew she only spoke what everyone else in this room believed. Maybe some part of him believed it too. But another part was too stubborn to give up on his partner yet.
"Don't say that", Rubik said softly.
"He's been like that for what? 10 years?"
"That's a small time frame considering we're immortal", Tad pointed out.
The room went silent again.
"The girl has a point though"
After they successfully got Bill out of the stone, Pi decided to move in with them. Being the demon of personality and all, they hoped she could be able to bring some sense into him.
But it was all useless.
"I've never heard of one of our kind to ever come back from the Nightmare Realm", she went on. "It could have broken him past repair."
"Enough", usually Tad would have shouted but he was too tired to do so now, just wishing that this nightmare would end soon.
"Maybe you should have a look at him Rubik? You'd know if it was hopeless", Kryptos suggested for the dozened time.
And like everytime, her partner shook his head.
"I'd rather spend my entire life with the lie that we can bring him back, rather than face the truth that it's a dead end"
He wouldn't let compromise with himself. In those ten years, ever since they heard this terrible laugh for the first time, Rubik hasn't even looked once at Bill. And he intended to do so until he was somewhat back. If even only by a little bit.
Tad stood up.
The rest only gave him tired looks.
"I'll go talk to him"
"But you've tried already-", Kryptos intervened but was cut off by Tad snapping at her.
"I don't care, alright? I don't fucking care if I have already failed trying or if I'm gonna fail this time too. I will spend the eternity of my immortal life trying to bring him back if I have to, even if there are zero chances he'll ever come back", he turned around, walking to stairs to the room where they kept his partner chained up in. His voice went only above a whisper now. "You don't have to stay. Rubik, if you want to, I can find a place and move him out of here but I won't give up. I can't give up."
He looked his brother in the eyes.
There was mutual understanding between them.
Rubik nodded at him curtly.
His was the only approval he needed right now.
When the closed door at the end of the hall was in front of him, he hesitated.
Taking in one last shaky breath he knocked softly at the door before opening it.
After ten years the room still looked the same.
When they realized that Bill was too unstable to be left roaming the house, harming everyone around him, they locked him up.
When they realized that without supervision he was harming himself, they put him into a stick jacket.
YOU ARE READING
Joseon Guardians: Season One
FanfictionDipper and Mabel Pines are going to stay over the summer with their great uncle Stanley in a small town in Korea called Joseon Falls. But everything changes within seconds when they meet two strange men in their gruncle's shop looking out for them...