Eddsworld Ecstasy

Neglected and Faithful

Matt stares down at his feet, trying not to squeak the reflective tiles below him. Tom and Edd up ahead don't have the same issue, shoes frictioning with every step. Every time the sound reaches his ears, he jumps, never getting used to it after all these years. It's what makes him hate shopping centres. Tom groans, trying to rub heat into his arms as he turns to Edd.

"It's so cold I think I'm getting frostbite..." He complains through chattering teeth. "Why are we here??"

Matt's quick to chime in, with a bite to his tone, "Because you broke my stuff?" He reminds, still furious with Tom's careless 'help' yesterday. He looks up with wide-eyed remembrance.

"Oh yeah..." Tom mutters to himself. While listening to their conversation, Edd cocks a brow, then furrows it, before speaking up.

"We're here because I need pain meds." He makes known to both of them. Matt worriedly leans in.

"But we're getting me stuff, too, right??" He begs. Edd stands still a second, wondering the worth of giving in to Matt's plea. He sighs and reaches into his pocket, pulling his wallet out and handing Matt 20 quid.

"Here. Buy yourself something nice." He waves the pound in front of Matt's face.

"With a 20?" He's unimpressed, letting the money sit. Edd shrugs without consideration.

"You don't have a job," Edd's attention lays elsewhere, toward a shop selling sodas of a thousand wild flavours, "either take the money or don't."

So Matt takes it, stomping away and ignoring Edd's complaints of his leave. He scowls at the banknote in his hands, he thinks Tom should pay for what he destroyed. All those thousand year old books, all those trophies(though, yes, only two were legitimate, and neither of those two were recently obtained), and that's not to mention leaving his statue at the apartments! Edd, of course, doesn't care. Every time something in Matt's life is screwed up, and he goes to Edd for help, the only thing he hears is "this'd be solved if you had a job", "maybe if you paid rent...", or "IT'S 3 IN THE MORNING, GO TO BED!!". He's tired of it!

Just as Matt's contemplating homicide, he catches a glimpse of a shop he can't help but find intriguing. Black and red banners hang either side of the large doorway, curtains held open along the frame, atop sits a sign reading "Cult Occult" in another deep, glowing red. It can't be that easy, right? Matt walks in, awing the gorey aesthetics, though with suspicion of their authenticity. He comes up to a gothicly-dressed woman at the counter.

"Excuse me! Do you have any books beyond human comprehension for sale?" As he speaks, he's willing to accept the idea of a raised brow, or an uncomfortable "umm". Instead, the woman points to a bookshelf, filled with items too terrifying for most to look at, with a sign reading 'Limited Edition Hexes! Curses! Others!', and Matt's brimming. He thanks her, moving toward the shelf. Matt picks up a particularly gnarly piece of literature, dried-out leather cover with visible stitching on the bind. The text is burned into the front, reading 'Curses of the Undead: Doing and Undoing'.

"Ooo, this one looks-!" He turns his attention to the price, jaw dropping at the £666 sticker hiding in the corner. He gulps, putting the book back on its shelf. When he scans the whole store, he notices everything else also meets prices far surpassing his given budget. He meets the employee again. He clears his throat, and she pokes her head out from her shirtless goths magazine. "Anything I can buy with this?" Matt hands her the 20. She eyes it with an annoyance that doesn't register to him, groaning when her glare doesn't work. She reaches over for something under the desk, held easily between her palms as she places it down in front of Matt.

What meets him is a small plastic keychain of a beheaded black goat with sunglasses resting their rim on its muzzle and a joint stuffed in its slightly agape mouth, flamboyant text above reading 'Sacrificial GOAT'. He scoffs, yet leaves the store 20 pounds short and holding the trinket despite himself. Disappointed, he doesn't even notice the other patron leaving the store. He crashes into them, dropping the keychain. When the person and him both bend down to reach for their items, Matt notices what they'd dropped. The book he was looking at earlier, he realises, his reaction immediate.