there is only us | wilbur soot x reader

Chapter 43 - Ringing

Tubbo POV

When I imagined the end of the world, I had always pictured something gradual, a deterioration so slow you don't notice until you're dead.

As it turned out, I was wrong. The end of the world was a shattering earthquake, and everything came crashing down all at once. The only thing left was the rubble and smoke, the dust and decay, a burning flag and the ringing in my ears. It drowned out everything else.

I slowly sank to the floor of my room in the castle. I couldn't really think, but I was dizzy, felt like I was going to fall over. I sat on the carpet feeling cold and alone. Tommy was fast asleep in the next room over. He hadn't said a word the entire ride back, and I assumed it would stay that way, but he turned to me at the last moment, hand on the doorknob, and offered a soft good night.

His voice was hoarse and his eyes were red and he swayed a little when he walked. And I felt guilty. Guilty for not doing something about it, for letting him wallow by himself, for not being able to set my own headache aside for him. Wasn't that what best friends did? Stayed by each other's side, through thick and thin, no matter what?

But I had let him retreat into his room, into his own head, to do god knows what. I let him shut me out and didn't even try to find a way in. I left him. What kind of friend was I? A terrible one. A guilty one.

I debated going over and knocking on his door, but my vision was swimming. I didn't think I could make it out of my own room without my legs giving out. So instead, I laid down on the carpet and closed my eyes. The ringing grew louder still. The end of the world, the end of all, all at once.

•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•

I was seven. Mom was crying.

It had been such a jarring thing to come home to, the harsh yelling and sounds of fighting. My parents were screaming at each other, hands waving wildly and moving about the living room. "Shut up!" Dad screamed, one hand balled into a fist and the other loosely holding the neck of a beer bottle.

"You're fucking drunk, John!" Mom shot right back. "Again! This is the fifth time this week!"

"Because you're always bitching at me, Marls, just like this! God, so fucking annoying."

Mom laughed abruptly, but there was no humor in her voice. "Maybe if you got off your ass and got a job, I wouldn't bitch all the time!"

"I'm trying my best!"

"Are you? It's been two months! The kids need-"

"The kids, the kids!" Dad interrupted. "God, it's always about the kids! What about us, Marls? What happened to us?"

"We grew the fuck up and had kids," Mom snapped. "That's what happened. And now those kids, your kids, need you to be a man and get a job so we can keep this roof over our heads!"

Dad mumbled something I couldn't hear from the doorway. No one had realized I was home. Mom couldn't hear him either, or maybe she didn't want to believe what she heard, because she said "What? What was that?"

"I never wanted kids!" Dad screamed, right in her face, and the world fell silent for a minute as the words echoed in the room. I never wanted kids. "I just wanted you, and you wanted kids, so now we have kids that I never wanted!"

It was as if someone had frozen Mom or turned her into a statue. She didn't move. She didn't speak. I couldn't tell if she was breathing.

"I've been here for them because I loved you, Marley. Not them. So who cares about what they want? For all I fucking care, they can starve in a box on the fucking street!" And he was loud, so loud, so angry, he turned to throw the bottle in his hand at a wall, just to feel the release of breaking something.