Achromatic

Chapter Four

For once in his adult life, Murdoc felt empty.

He didn't feel alone when his good-for-nothing father passed away, or when Noodle had gone missing, but today, he had lost 2D. And he felt entirely responsible for it.

The size of his small bedroom that same night felt infinite. Murdoc tossed and turned in his sheets, but nothing seemed to do any good. A siren wailed outside in the streets, followed by a loud screech of tires...

~~~

"I'm telling you, Stu, this is gonna be the ride of a lifetime, yeah?" Murdoc turned to face the young man in the backseat, who sat, unbuckled with a glazed look in his eye. He remained in his catatonic state, unblinking, completely oblivious to his surroundings. Murdoc rolled his eyes.

"I had a feeling you were gonna say that-If you even knew what the hell I said, you dumb sonuvabitch!" He threw another burnt out cigarette butt at Stuart, who remained completely motionless.

Murdoc cackled as he slammed on the gas and took an extremely sharp 360 around the parking lot. Stuart flew limply across the backseat and landed on the other side with a thump. The tires squealed and went up in smoke across the asphalt. That's when Murdoc slammed on the brakes, causing Stuart's body to lurch forward and slump onto the floor.

"Hm. Forgot to buckle him in...Ah well," As he said this, Murdoc looked around at the jeering crowd, beckoning and pushing him onward.

Despite their joyful cheers, Murdoc began to grow a bit bored of driving aimlessly. He had been dragging the act on for a while now, and was considering giving his crowd the finger and ditching them to go bar hopping or something that would waste the rest of his day.

He glanced at his ward in the backseat, still motionless on the floor. Murdoc glowered at the younger man, reminded of how his life had been recently wasted in countless hours goddamn community service and spoon feeding Stuart crummy hospital food. Murdoc hated him with every inch in his body, yet he almost began to realize that maybe dragging him out here was crossing the line.

That's when the women caught Murdoc's attention. They weren't by far the greatest looking women in the world, but he could always tell when they were impressed. Women to him were like mindless sheep, always easy to entertain. Without warning, one of them flashed him, followed with a smile and a few jabbers from the men around her. That sent a sudden wave of adrenaline through Murdoc's body.

He immediately slammed the gas, accelerating at about 90 mph. There was a crash of glass coming from the rear window and Stuart was no longer in the car. Murdoc saw the flash of azure flying away from his side mirror. After Stuart skidded across the asphalt about half a mile, it was all over.

Murdoc put the car in park and frantically looked in the direction where Stuart had flown.

"Oi, that was bloody wicked!" a bearded man from the crowd exclaimed.

"Muds, you're the craziest bastard I've ever seen!" another man holding a can of beer slapped Murdoc on the back as he exited the car. "Let's just hope that young lad isn't dead!"

Murdoc laughed and slapped the other man in return. "Are you kidding? I hit that dullard with that same damn car last year and he lived! I tell you, he's good as dead, but he could be immortal! He-"

"He's alive!!" a voice from the crowd exclaimed.

The rain started to pour down, and from it emerged a blue haired, black eyed God. It sent a shiver down Murdoc's spine and his jaw froze wide open as he pushed through the crowd towards the limping figure. When they looked at each other, Stuart's eyes had life and emotion rather than the blank, unresponsive stare he had since the last incident.

Then, he spoke.

"Where am I?"

Murdoc continued to stare at Stuart, mesmerized by his zombie like face. He responded with: "You're in hell. But ol' Satan's just gonna have to wait to get you in his grip,"