art stuff

Short Story(?) #3: A Second Chance

Okay so this one's for my Eddsworld OC, Mazikeen Maize. I have a whole set story for her, and this is one of those pieces. Before reading this, I would maybe lightly suggest listening to first Cornfield Chase and then Organ Variation from the Interstellar soundtrack, they capture the feeling of this story, or at least I think they do. The only reason I don't say you should during is because there is no timing to this at all. You don't have to, though. Also, heads up, both characters in this will occasionally speak Spanish, but I can only use this text to translation function I have so it's not exactly the best, so if I do something wrong, I apologize. With all that out of the way,

Onwards and backwards ;)

It's cold. 

That's the first thing she notices once the white has left her vision. 

That, and it's not uncomfortable to breathe anymore. The air is clean, as she looks up and opens her eyes, she can see the blackish blue of the night sky above her, instead of a reddish grey-brown haze of smoke and pollution. She's in an alley, nothing has a dim light to it like it's always a murky, hazy, cloudy afternoon. Which means...

This isn't where she was five seconds ago. 

Did it work? 

She looks at the watch, which has a black screen. It's also smoking slightly, so it must have either glitched, or been a lucky moment. A small droplet of water falls on it, then a few more on her arm. It's beginning to rain. Rain! She hasn't smelled petrichor or felt the little water droplets on her in YEARS! Not since...not since Matt died. Before grief can overcome her, she pushes the thought out of her mind, and begins to walk forward, the rain a soothing comfort to her after so long. Walking out onto the street, she sees street lamps on and not flickering, after-hour store lights on, a car passes by, and a few humans walk around. Humans! Alive, and real! Not dead, not monster hybrids, real, pure, normal people! She exhales in relief, an almost giddy excitement at the sight of life before the apocalypse and end of the world begun. 

Which means...

Mazikeen takes off suddenly, a startled shout coming from behind her as she surprises the person who'd walked past her. She doesn't care, running faster, then turning down an alley again, knowing exactly where she is, taking a sliding turn, vaulting onto an old fire escape, gripping the railings tightly and clambering up so she doesn't fall, before moving over the rooftops, the rain pouring harder, and her hood falling off her head, ears free and visible. She couldn't care less. She has only one thing in her mind: to confirm her hopes. Jumping back down to the ground, she dashes onto and through the achingly familiar street, skidding to a stop in front of a house. Not just any house, but HIS. The smell of blood is faint in the air, a clue to what day it is, but luckily the rain is washing it away and the petrichor is strong enough to prevent her blood drive from kicking in. She takes a step forward, utterly soaked and dripping wet, then another. She's so close, so desperate and hopeful. She can't bear to know it isn't true. But if it is, it's just a few more feet. With that motivation, she closes the last bit of distance, and knocks on the door. Her chest feels hot, she can feel her heart beating, anticipation and trepidation warring within her. "What?" The door opens, a man with brown hair, a grumpy expression, and that green shirt thing that goes over his white one, standing behind it. Eduardo. It's him. It's really him. He's alive. Breathing, standing and speaking in front of her. It worked. She made it. "Who are you?" He asks, taking in her features. "It's hard to explain, Señor." She replies, releasing the breath she was unaware she'd been holding. "Then why are you wasting my time on my doorstep? It's the middle of the night!" He growls, but doesn't close the door, instead he shifts hesitantly. "I needed to talk to you." And oh, how true that is. When Eduardo died, Mazikeen was lost. He had always been there. Always. He would tell her it was okay, he would listen intently and quietly while she explained her feelings and fears to him, he would let her come to him for comfort, not as a friend, but as the father she never had. She's longed to talk to him, even if just one last time, for so long. Far, far too long. "Alright. You, uh...you want to step out of the rain? You're all wet." She smiles, nodding slightly. Eduardo moves aside to let her in, closing the door once she's inside. The smells and feeling that greet her threaten to make her collapse, the joys of home and comfort. She takes a "You look kind of familiar." He states suddenly, she pauses, turning to him. "That would be because I am...but you don't know me like this. Not yet, anyway." She replies carefully, wishing she could just explode the truth onto him. But this has to be done right. Edd wasn't an expert on time travel, and she isn't either, in fact, none of them were. But Tord knew some things, and the general idea was, don't mess up the timeline. Enough movie clichés had told them the most likely things to avoid. Of course, there's the worry that your time travelling was damage enough, but it didn't seem to have any consequences when Edd went back, so they think it's safe. Key word: think. And if it is the day she thinks it is, she has to make sure that she isn't present when it happens. "Well that's helpful. What do you want? You said you needed to talk to me." She inhales deeply, the smell of house and coffee filling her nose. Eduardo must have brewed some recently. "Well, this will be hard to say. I don't know exactly how to say it, but you know me...younger, me." The fact he hasn't noticed her ears is surprising, she thought they were quite blatant. Maybe her practicing hiding them in her hair worked? She deliberately raises them up now, like a rabbit pricking up its own ears. The realization is almost immediate. After all, nobody else can claim to be what she is. The man's face ranges from shock to disbelief to awe, not one most ever see on him. "What are you doing here?" He asks, softly. He believes her! She smiles, lowering her ears. As strong as she is, they're heavy, and she doesn't like to hold them up. "I needed to see you again." She answers, tears welling in her eyes. Slowly, Eduardo reaches out, giving her the chance to back out at any moment, but she doesn't. She leans into the hand that cups the side of her face, letting the tears fall. Not just little ones, no, these are the big, serious kind. He's on the verge of crying as well. "You're so big." He murmurs, pulling her into a hug. She practically melts into it, gripping the back of his shirt like letting go means losing him again, and they stay like that for a few minutes. Once they release, Mazikeen wipes the tears from her eyes. "So you want to go sit down?" He asks. She nods, the two heading into the living room, where she sits in a chair, one she used to always sit in, while Eduardo sits on the couch. "I need to ask, before anything else happens, where am I? What...what happened?" Eduardo glances at the hall leading to the bedrooms. "You just came in maybe an hour ago, apparently there were clones and you killed someone...er, Tord." He summarizes, pausing to remember the aforementioned man's name. "Okay. I should be asleep." She nods. That's good, she won't risk seeing herself. "Now. As much as I love this little moment we've been having, there's larger matters to discuss. I have so much to tell you. So much has happened." Eduardo leans forward a bit, waiting for her to begin. Which she does. However, she does so in Spanish. If someone walks in on them, the least she can do is keep them from knowing what she's saying. 

~time skip to when she finishes bcs I'm too lazy to write out all of that~

When she finishes, her father figure is clearly pained by his new knowledge. "I'm so sorry. And you spent how many years alone, after?" She inhales. "By my count, another 25 years." She replies, earning another distraught glance. He leaves the room for a moment, returning with a new cup of coffee for himself and some hot water for her. She finds it soothing, and gratefully accepts the cup. "And you don't know how or why you came back?" He clarifies. Mazikeen shakes her head. Although, she swears she heard someone yelling, then got pushed through the portal just before she arrived. But there was nobody there with her, she was alone. Right? "It sounds like you got a second chance. I may not know anything about all this time travel and whatever happens in the future, but you explained pretty well, so I got the general idea. You got to come back. Maybe you have something to fix." Eduardo shrugs, taking another sip of his drink. Mazikeen finished hers already; safe, CLEAN water was hard to come by in her time. At least here, she can recuperate and figure out the problem. Wait a minute...that's it! I KNOW the problem! She realizes, lifting her ears slightly in excitement. "What is it?" Eduardo sighs, very well aware of that expression. It's what led to her dissecting the alien spaceship and discovering that it ran on the chemicals produced by vanity, not just vanity itself. "This all started with an illness. A virus, meant to replicate Tom's monster DNA. And in pure Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fashion, it didn't work the way it was supposed to. And I know who was affiliated with that." She stands up. "Wait, Maz..." Eduardo stands too, reminding himself not to reach for her without her acceptance, but she doesn't care. "You...don't have to go right now. You have what, 33 years, you said? Take a break. You look tired." He isn't wrong...but staying is dangerous. "I can't stay. If I accidentally see my future self, that could have awful consequences. It'd be best if nobody else saw me, either." Eduardo glances back to where her past self is sleeping, then looks back to her. "I...okay. You're right." She smiles softly and walks forward. She's never been quite tall, but now at least, she's close enough to his height to hug him better. And that's exactly what she does. "Te quiero. Pero tengo que irme. Por tu bien, y por el de todos los demás." She murmurs, the man hugging her tightly back. When she releases him, his eyes are watering against his will. "Good luck." He says. With a nod, she climbs out the window, onto the ground, and runs off to the lands behind the house. Tom should be just getting out of the trash can now, and won't see her. Speaking of which, she looks down at the ring on her finger, the one she's gone to great lengths to preserve. Don't worry, Tom...I'll fix everything. This is my second chance. Pausing for a moment, she looks back at the place she used to live, fondly remembering all her adventures. "Onwards and backwards."

A/N

Now I didn't cry when I made this but it was probably one of my more emotional moments I've ever written, so sorry if it's super cringe😅 hope it was a nice story tho! 

And for those who don't speak Spanish, at the end there, Mazikeen had said "I love you. But I need to go, for your sake, and everyone else's."

Hope that was helpful!