Chase the Nightmares Away

6: Worth

From across the castle, he could hear the terrible, terrible singing. He had banned Nastasia from administering physical punishment, so she had gotten creative. But this...this was punishing everyone in the castle, not just the burly Irishman.

The singing faded away. He had just visited Sammer's Kingdom, one of the first worlds to be consumed by The Void, and wasn't in the best of moods. He had a lot to think about, and welcomed the excuse, er...need to go check up on O'Chunks and make sure the minion hadn't...collapsed from exhaustion or something. He winced as the screeching began anew. And also to put an end to the horrible noise, he thought.

He flung open the door to the meeting room. Nastasia stood on their pedestal, while O'Chunks was on his own, sweat beading on his forehead as he sang with as much gusto as he could muster. Nobody else was present, and Count Bleck hoped they were all safely locked away in their rooms with a load of cotton stuffed into their ears.

"Nastasia!" he tried to shout over the noise. "NASTASIA!"

"Yes, count?" she shouted back.

"Tell O'Chunks to stop!"

"What?"

"Tell him." He pointed at the Irishman. "To stop singing!"

"O'Chunks! You can stop, 'K?" She made a stop motion with her hands.

O'Chunks heeded and quit singing. He slumped over and almost collapsed, knuckles dragging and sweat dripping onto the floor. "'Ey... 'Ey, count..." he panted in greeting.

Count Bleck nodded his acknowledgement before continuing. "That's enough, Nastasia. No need to punish everyone."

She nodded. "Sorry..."

"Don't be. It's rather creative. Now, Count Bleck would like to speak with O'Chunks in privacy, if you would. I will meet with you later."

"Um, 'K. I got the memo." She hopped off of her platform and left the room.

The count turned to the exhausted warrior. "You may rest, O'Chunks."

O'Chunks didn't respond, but immediately collapsed backwards and spread himself out on the floor. Count Bleck blinked, not quite expecting that, but not correcting him either. He floated up to the Irishman's platform and sat down, daintily bunching up his white cloak onto his lap so it wouldn't get dirty. "What is Nastasia punishing you for, if Count Bleck may ask?"

O'Chunks sighed heavily and closed his eyes. "I dun failed yeh again, me count... I doan deserve teh be in your service when yeh got people like Nastasia an' Dimentio around..."

Count Bleck shook his head and tsked. "Nonsense. Count Bleck chose you for a reason. Sometimes...we may feel like we aren't worth anything, but that is never true. You are just as important as anyone here, including Count Bleck." Little did he know how true those words were.

O'Chunks just sighed again. Count Bleck began to fidget with his gloves. "Has...Count Bleck ever told you he is sorry?"

O'Chunks sat up at that and looked at the count incredulously. "'Eh?! Sorry fer what?!"

Count Bleck looked away. "Well, for the way he...'convinced' you to come with him..."

The Irishman looked puzzled. "Yeh didn' do nothin' teh me..."

"Oh, but of course I did... Count Bleck preyed upon your emotions and used them to manipulate you... He can never apologize enough for the way he made you feel." He shook his head sadly.

O'Chunks laughed and grinned. "'Ey, that's all water under the bridge. I would have moped around forever if yeh hadn't talked me out o' it. Sides, yeh dun a lot fer me an' I feel like I gots tah pay yeh back."

Count Bleck chuckled. "Oh, you don't have to win Count Bleck's approval. You will always have it."

The warrior took that in for a moment, then smiled. "Yeh see what I'm talkin' about? Yah really are da best man o' men..."

Count Bleck wondered what that meant, then decided they'd come to some form of agreement. He hesitated, then moved over to O'Chunks' side and laid down beside him, trying not to wrinkle his nose at the man's horrible body odor or fret over the grime he was getting on his clothes. "So, did that song you were singing have lyrics?"

"Of course it did. Nassy had me make up a little ditty that's supposed teh be inspirational an' all that mushy stuff," O'Chunks replied, in wonder that the count has so casually joined him on the floor.

"Ah, I see. Count Bleck is curious as to what those may be."

"Yeh want me teh sing it again?"

"Yes, but very softly please."

"Alright, 'ere goes..."

Later, on his way to his office to prepare for his meeting with Nastasia, the count found himself singing it under his breath, and felt a soft warmth inside of him.

"Raise your chunks in the air,

As the most debonair man of men strides into the room!

Springing forth from his lair as his foes all despair,

For Bleck be the name of their doom!

Whooa-OH! That's our Bleck!

Blecky, Bleckity DOOOO!

Uh, something Bleck...

That's the guy who says...

Woo!"

He laughed under his breath. It seems O'Chunks had run out of ideas towards the end. "Blecky, Bleckity dooo indeed." It felt nice to be appreciated; if only it wasn't for something so despicable. His minions, or rather, most of them, still believed that they were getting their own perfect worlds. He tried to make their time here as enjoyable as he could, but in the end, they were going to be destroyed with himself and everything else in existence.

Why was he doing this? How could he do this to them? It was too late now. He had to treasure what little time he had left, and spend it with the people he cared about. He should embrace what last vestiges of Blumiere there were left inside him.