Things Fall Apart

9. Killjoys Never Die

Life after Us.

That's when and how it begun.

Building up inside their chests like a crooked rusty tower.

Swelling in their throats like a gas-filled balloon.

Spiders' web silently drifting in the dark alleys of their minds.

Tasting like bitterness and as pale as a moon.

The infinite sadness.

The sky had turned grey now,

All clues about Time had disappeared,

And living had lost its taste.

Individuality had been erased.

Eyes had been shut,

And dimples filled.

Names had been forgotten,

There was no We. No Us.

No Alone Stands I.

The Infinite Sadness remained.

It was life after Us.

A nameless boy was being led across black and white corridors, again. He knew where he came from and he knew where he went. He didn't remember his name. It didn't matter much to him anymore.

It had been two years.

He never noticed, how he slowly had ended up forgetting everything, but, even if he had, he would have let it go. He never thought it mattered much anyways.

Maybe, if he had wanted to, he could have remembered, but his free-will had been erased and his individuality tamed under a black and white mass.

Them.

He had forgotten what Different meant, but he knew that's what she was.

Bunny.

Bunny mattered. She was the only thing that mattered to him anymore.

Bunny remembered. She remembered everything. And she kept it warm, in a secret place, for Him.

She knew everything about Fun Ghoul, Jet Star, the Kobra Kid, and his brother Party Poison. And, sometimes, when he slept, she crawled towards him and whispered it in his ear. His name. The one he had chosen himself. Had he been awake, he wouldn't have understood, only looking at her with his bland grey eyes.

She remembered the Fabulous Killjoys.

That was the worst way of killing somebody, she thought, the way the Better Living Industries were slowly erasing their existence while keeping their bodies alive. She couldn't help but admire the Leader's cleverness.

It was Bunny who saved them after all.

Because she knew that Killjoys never die.

Sometimes, when the air was a little too cold, a little too dry, when they thought nobody watched, they would give themselves over to each other. How it happened wouldn't be clarified, whether it was Sex or Love, Needs or Feelings. None knew and none cared.

From these cold air Needy-Feely meetings, a child was born. Nobody ever asked about it. Bunny did her best to hide her. She secretly knew things would get Ugly. She never trusted anyone, not even Him. That's how the child survived. She named her Bandit. It wasn't a Better Living Industries' name, one of those leftover from a former failing society that had put down all the Laws.