Double-Edged Sword - $UICIDEBOY$

GLOOMGLOOMGLOOM

Author's note: forgive my absence I'm fucking dying thx <3

Your body kept moving forward in the shadows, becoming swallowed. It was, if anything, an unfiltered gloom that stuck to your skin. The feeling of touch drifted outside of yourself and reached out desperately. The gloom had a peculiar sound to it. At first, it was chaotic and screeching, but then slowly, it cooled off into steady and slow hums. Small bits of textured anomalies crinkled in your ears, wherever they were, and flittered away. Low mechanical moans visually curled before your eyes. An indistinguishable collection of unrecognizable syllables slurred in and out.
As you became aware of yourself, you searched for your hands. They would not arrive. Still, you grappled with an imaginary concept of hands against each inseparable sable tendril. As you clawed, the sounds around you picked back up. They were no longer calm background noises, but blaring screeches. You tossed your head back and forth, willing yourself to try and see what you heard.
Bright white light splintered through the gloom and shattered it. You would later swear that you heard a faint cry, not of your own, calling out for you to stay. Yet, your eyes snapped open and clouds rested wearily over you. For a minute, you watched the clouds passing. They minded no business but their own. Then, you realized hands waved over you trying to catch your attention. You blinked and nodded at the arms, then let them pull you into a sitting position. The horizon fell for you, and you glanced at your lap. Another blink, and your hearing properly returned.

"Are you dizzy ma'am?"

"Huh?"

"Dizzy, are you dizzy?"

Recalling what those words meant, you replied casually, "Nope."

The paramedic still shoved his fingers in your face and waved them back and forth. When your gaze followed his hand adequately, he stepped back and wiped his brow. Another responded was patching up a cut in your shoulder.

     Everyone looked panicked and strained, yet you felt completely serine. The clutter across the rode didn't strike you as odd, but it should have. When you looked around, the intimidating back end of a loaded semi truck stood bent. A large collection of metal and glass was wrapped underneath it; your car. Both sides of the shit metallic remains were wedged open long ago, perhaps to pry you out of there. The sleeve of a jacket hung out of the mangled back windshield, and the wind that blew made the fabric wave at you.

Upon seeing this, you spoke up urgently with blood surging into your face, "Where is Scr- where is Scott?"

The original paramedic shot a look back at you, "The other man you were with? He's with some other paramedics right now getting a concussion check. Is there anyone that you can contact?"

"I'm sorry I... don't have my phone with me. Scott does though- tell him to call his cousin."

He nodded gravely and laid his clipboard on the ground. While he left and walked around to the other side of the semi, you contemplated what this all meant for the future. No one seemed hurt, or at most dead, but still, this all spun you. The event felt... hollow. Somehow, it evaded reality, and you complacently sat on the hot road without a care. Still, you were glad to see the paramedic return. He crouched in front of you and extended an opened phone out.

"He's busy still getting checked, but if you want to call you can."

"Is he worse than me?"

The paramedic glanced at your forehead, definitely inspecting a wound, "Hardly worse. I'd call it a miracle."

You furrowed your brows, "Sure, whatever you say then."

Quickly, he parted your hair and pushed gauze on, "Just a small cut, that's all ma'am."

You opened up Ruby's chat and nervously dialed him up. The phone rang once, twice, three times, and then finally sprung to life.

"Yuh, Scott?"

"Ruby... uh, it's me Y/N . I don't have a better way of saying this other than we crashed on the way home. No one is really hurt but... fuck it's quite a theatric scene. We need you to pick us up, there's another car right?"

You heard Ruby's breath seize up momentarily, but he forced out words, "Y-yeah, there's another car inna garage I... no one's hurt?"

"We're okay, just hurry down here."

That was all Ruby needed; he hung up.

The paramedic scrubbed the wound on your hairline clean and bandaged it gently. He assured you it wouldn't leave a large scar if one at all, but the amount of blood he wiped away told you otherwise. After checking your ribs and making sure none were broken, he gave you the "all clear". He stood you up, and after a few wobbly steps, you were on your way around the semi truck to find Scrim. Your heart sank to see him still sitting with a paramedic attending to something slightly serious.

"Aye! Y/N!", He leaned over to get a better look of you, irritating the paramedic while wickedly rambling, "I'm so fuckin' sorry I shoulda been looking and, and it won't happen again imma be so-"

"Calm down. You'll do better next time, right? That's what matters.", you knelt down a decent distance from him.

A paramedic was carefully cleaning his skin around a long shard of torn metal, horizontally wedged into a chest peck. It didn't go deeply into his flesh, but it was disturbing nonetheless. Any deeper and he would have been rushed to the hospital quickly. Instead, it was deemed superficial and the piece began to be carefully removed.
Scrim winced and gritted his teeth while the shrapnel was peeled away. A thin split was left in his peck, which welled up with deep red blood- almost maroon- and dripped. The medic pressed gauze to his chest and applied heavy pressure. Scrim was relaxed again.

"Not as bad as getting shanked as a kid-" he laughed grimly, "This scar better look sick or I'm tatting over it."

You rubbed your face and sat down fully, looking down the blocked off roads. Firefighters brought back in hydraulic machines to open the doors of the crushed car to yank out the crumpled bags of clothing. Each crunched up bag at your feet looked cursed. Something about the entire day became bitter.

Scrim spoke up again after he'd been bandaged up and given his shirt back, "Y/N come here-"

He bent over, grabbed your hand, and pulled you up to a stance. You stared into his eyes and felt your lips suddenly tremble.

You choked on a lump in your throat, "We shouldn't have gone out today now it's all shit-"

He kissed you quickly, but firmly. You were shut up instantly. He glanced at the road as a car hummed to the yellow tape and opened. Ruby stepped out, at first blinking heavily, and then quickly stepping over the tape and hustling. A paramedic tried to stop him, but he called out that he knew us. His skin was ghastly pale, and his eyes were sunken into eyebags. How could someone drastically change their appearance in minutes?

His eyes swiveled to Scrim and they embraced. Blood love ignited- they needed each other. Ruby was desperately whispering an unknown message into Scrim's ear and choking up. Scrim simply rubbed his back and nodded, "I know Ari, I know..."

They let go of each other and Ruby scooped you into his broad arms. His lips pressed into your cheek and ear in the form of desperate kisses, "I'm so glad you're okay Y/N, if I'd been sober when you left the other night, I woulda been terrified that I lost ya for good the next morning. You coming back was like a second shot. And now I WAS sober and almost lost you again, just like that. Death ain't fair."
Finally, he let you go and swept his hair back stressfully. He glanced down at the wrinkled bags of crushed clothing and let his shoulders sag. Those bags, once a quiet symbol of joy, now carried irrevocable trauma. Ruby grabbed the bags by their shredded handles anyways and carried them solemnly towards the other car.

Scrim grabbed your hand with a sense of ferocity and protection after giving information to the paramedic with a clipboard and guided you away from the wreck. Your foot kicked a twisted clump of metal, and you wondered how the future would unfold...