Achromatic

Chapter Twenty

Murdoc opened his eyes and saw nothing. He couldn't move.

He was buried alive.

His fingertips brushed against a wooden surface, as his heart pounded in his ears. It was a coffin, or at least something that kept him confined and shrouded entirely in darkness.

"Help! Help me!" Murdoc panicked, but as soon as he spoke, the wooden coffin disappeared. He found himself writhing and surrounded by cold soil. The soil got into his eyes, then clogged his nostrils. Murdoc opened his mouth to breathe, but the soil made its way past the throat until his entire body was filled with the substance. 

It was inevitable that he was going to die at any given second, yet the pain Murdoc was experiencing was infinite and grueling. The seconds felt like minutes as his lungs burned and collapsed from the pressure being forced upon him, and as his eyes stung ruthlessly from the soil entering his sockets. Murdoc used a force of strength to kick his way out from the ground, but he found himself sinking lower and lower from every move he made.

This was the end. Murdoc took one last dying breath until his heart stopped.

Stopped.

Stopped.

The soil stopped pouring into him. But Murdoc was still alive. He still couldn't move or see, yet the pain that had enveloped him was beginning to fade away. The soil poured out of his mouth, his lungs, and his eye sockets. Murdoc lied still for a moment, trying to process what was happening to him. Was he alive? Was he dead? Was he going to be trapped in the soil for the rest of his days? He pondered these questions, noticing that he had no heartbeat.

There was only dead silence.

Suddenly, without warning, the soil began to move again, gently falling on Murdoc's head like snowfall. There was a noise above him, a digging sound that got louder and closer until a small sliver of light appeared right above Murdoc's nose. A single hand from above the soil broke the surface, making the sliver explode into a burst of daylight. Murdoc laid fully submerged in the ground with his body exposed to the world above him. 

Murdoc sat up in his grave, looking directly at the tall figure that stood towering above him. That familiar, smiling figure with the gap in his teeth and eyes as dark as cinders.

"Take my hand. You're safe now," 2D said to him. He knelt down next to the grave and outstretched his hand towards Murdoc. 

Those eyes. That smile. Those fingers that were outstretched, desperately waiting and beckoning Murdoc to grasp a hold of them. A voice in his head cried out in joy and desperation, telling him: "What are you waiting for? Do it!", yet Murdoc's motion was slow and prolonged. He took 2D's hand and was instantly pulled up from the ground.

The cemetery was illuminated by soft sunlight, just pleasantly bright enough for Murdoc's eyes to adjust to the environment. There was no snow on the ground, but was replaced by soft grass and dotted with marigolds. Murdoc and 2D eyed the spectacle, with their fingers still intertwined.

"Murdoc," 2D said. "Is everything alright?"

Murdoc turned his gaze towards the singer. He was just as lovely, just as beautiful as he remembered him. This exact moment, being in his presence was enough to bring Murdoc to tears. And once they started, they did not stop.

2D caved to the ground as Murdoc flung himself onto him, shaking heavily with shattering sobs. The ground beneath them seemed to move in rhythm with Murdoc's cries of both joy and deep sorrow. 2D wrapped his arms around the other man, instantly providing a wave of comforting warmth that only made Murdoc cry harder than before. 

"It's not your fault," 2D murmured. "I forgive you."

Murdoc gritted his teeth, forcing his sobs into his throat. "N-no, don't say it...I should be in your place. You didn't deserve it, you didn't-"

"It was an accident."

"And I c-can't take you back!" Murdoc stammered between his tears. "Don't you see? This was all me! I can't live with myself anymore! They can't either! Nobody can!"

"That's not true...I deserved to die, Murdoc."

The marigolds began to wither and shrivel to a dark brown. The sun became shrouded in dark clouds, turning 2D and Murdoc into shadows. Murdoc could no longer feel the warm embrace. His arms became transparent, as well as the rest of his body. 2D was still solid, however. Behind him, Russel and Noodle suddenly appeared.

Murdoc stood up in complete shock, scrambling back from the figures in front of him. "It's not real," he uttered to himself. 

"Real?" Russel snorted with a forced laugh. "When has anything been real to you? Don't be stupid, Murdoc."

"What you did was unforgivable," Noodle chimed in. "We wonder why you're still here. It should be you in that grave."

2D beamed at the two of them, then took a demeaning step towards Murdoc. His warm smile had suddenly turned cold and venomous, his charm becoming crude and heartless. Murdoc tried to step back, but his feet became stuck in a mud pile that had formed around his ankles.

"We know you didn't mean for this to happen," 2D sneered with a small chuckle. Russel and Noodle followed 2D in the same fashion. "But maybe it's for the best. You can find a new singer, better and much less...empty-headed as myself. And attractive. You always said my looks had an advantage...What do you think, Russel?"

Russel pondered the question for a moment, then looked at Murdoc. "It's his fault your life was cut off short. Is it even worth making more trouble?"

Noodle nodded in agreement. "You are right, Russel.  We need to end this ourselves."

2D, Noodle and Russel lunged for Murdoc, grabbing him by the legs and arms. Lifting him out of the mud, they dragged his body back towards the hole in the ground.

"Let me go!" Murdoc cried. "2D! 2D!"

The three of them started to laugh, mocking as Murdoc tried to escape from their grasp. They approached the hole, dangling Murdoc's body over the black abyss. The sky continued to grow cloudier and darker, as it began to rain rotten apples around them. From above Murdoc's face, 2D looked down, giving him a small wink.

"Sweet dreams, Faceache."

Murdoc was let go. He fell down, down into the hole with the laughs of his band pounding mercilessly in his head. He covered his ears, but they were still there, taunting him, torturing him with each second that he continued to fall.

Murdoc felt his back hit the ground with an enormous thump, and the laughter stopped.

~~~

Murdoc awoke with a scream that rattled the walls around him. He shot up in the untidy bed covered in cold sweat and shaking uncontrollably as his chest heaved and repulsed every second. 

He clutched at himself: his arms, his legs, his chest, to see if he was still alive. He had a heartbeat, at which Murdoc began to calm down. But he was still surrounded by darkness, just like in the dream. He switched on the lamp by his bedside, revealing the unkempt mess of his motel room. 

He was alive. 

Murdoc's heart continued to palpitate rapidly, making him feel sick down to his stomach. He snatched a half-empty bottle of vodka on his nightstand and swigged it down his throat. Within a matter of seconds, Murdoc went straight to the bathroom and vomited into the tub.

He was alive, yet his body was plagued with fear and sickness.