He could feel it seeping into his clothing, slowly, eerily. He kept his eyes shut tight. He knew what it was; how could he not? It wasn't his, he knew that too. What he didn't know was who it belonged to. He clenched his hands, feeling the sickeningly familiar outline of a Bowie knife in one and remained kneeling in his spot. He didn't want to know whose it was, he didn't want to open his eyes…But he knew he had to.
The first thing he saw were his fatigues stained with a red substance that could only be one thing. He could feel it drying on his face as well. Bile tried to make its way up his throat, but he swallowed it back down. Just as he thought, it was blood.
So who was it this time? A family man on his way home from work? A young woman enjoying a night on the town who happened to drunkenly stumble into the wrong alleyway? Perhaps a sunken eyed, foul smelling hobo who no one would miss anyway.
Swallowing back saliva and bile, the blood covered man hesitantly raised his head to see who had come to an end by his hands.
He regretted it immediately.
Blood covered the figure's blue locks while more formed a puddle around its head, like a sickening red halo. The figure's eyes, - Oh God his eyes –those blue eyes that at one time had been so bright were now cold and lifeless.
The bloodstained man trembled violently wanting more than anything to tear his eyes away from the unblinking ones that unrelentingly held his gaze. He knew those eyes. How could he not? So many times he had looked into them with nothing but adoration and kissed their lids at night when they began to droop from exhaustion. He had loved them…just as he loved the person they belonged to.
"Tyler?" He called hesitantly, tentatively, as if doing so would make the image disappear. But there it stayed. The bloodstained man's breath hitched and his shaking worsened. "No." He breathed out. "No. Not him. Anyone but him. ANYONE! Just not Tyler." A sob wrenched itself from the man's throat as tears skewed the bloody image. "Not Tyler." He whimpered pathetically.
"Not Tyler?" A gravelly voice questioned. The bloodstained man stiffened at the sound. "Of course Tyler. Monsters like you always kill the people you love most."
"I'm not the monster. It's you. You did this!" The bloodstained man snapped and whirled around coming face to face with…himself. But it wasn't him. The other man was clad in bloodstained fatigues as well and looked as much a mirror image of him as one could, messy green hair and all. But the eyes, the other's eyes were not the green of his but a sickening yellow.
"You're still denying it?" The yellow eyed doppelganger grinned condescendingly. He pointed at the bloodstained man. "That's Tyler's blood on you."
"I would never hurt Tyler! Never! It was you!"
"I AM YOU!" The doppelganger bellowed. "We're one in the same, don't you get that? You killed Tyler just like you killed all those people before him."
The bloodstained man slammed his hands over his ears. "Stop it!" The doppelganger's frown deepened for a moment before he grinned widely.
"I don't know why you're trying so hard to deny it, deny me. You're really only denying yourself you know. I'm just a scapegoat; you're the mastermind here."
"I said Stop it!"
The doppelganger continued. "Come on, don't be like that Marty. Hey, you want me to tell you how you killed Ty over there?"
"Marty" shook his head furiously, letting out a desperate keening sound.
"Well first you punched him nice and hard in the gut. Just hard enough to bring him to his knees and make him the right amount of disoriented. Then you bent down to his level and he looked at you all terrified and oh so confused and gasped 'Martin why?'"
"Stop." Martin ground out through gritted teeth as the heels of his hands pushed harder against his ears.
"Then you smiled at him, almost like you were trying to say that everything was gonna be alright. And he got this little spark of hope in his eyes and that amused the hell outta ya. You ran your hand gently through his hair like you always did. But this time you tightened your fingers and pulled hard. He yelped but before he could make another sound you yanked his head back for a second before slamming it hard into the floor."
"No!"
"Yes. And you did that over, and over, and over again until there was blood all over ya and Ty's eyes got that wonderful cold look. You wanna know what you did next?" Without waiting for a reply the doppelganger grinned and said, "You laughed! You sat back and laughed real hard! Not because it was funny. No, you laughed because you enjoyed it! Because it made you feel so good, it was like a release. You enjoy killing, you love watching the light leave people's eyes. And Tyler? Killing him was the most fun you've ever had."
"LIAR!" Martin lunged at the doppelganger and knocked him flat on his back, his hands grasping his collar so hard, his knuckles turned white. "You killed Tyler! You killed all those people! It was you! It wasn't me, it was you! I wouldn't have. I'm-"
"Me." The doppelganger finished, speaking with a surprisingly gentle tone. Tears returned to Martin's eyes and he slowly released the doppelganger's collar. Limply, he slid off the other and plopped on the cold, hard floor beside him. Martin's eyes roamed to Tyler's, his Tyler's, body and tears slid down his cheeks as he choked on broken sobs.
The doppelganger waited a bit before whispering, "You remember that name they gave you after you murdered your way out of captivity?" Yellow eyes stared at the pitch black darkness above them. "Probably couldn't believe their eyes, seeing "never hurt a fly" Marty with all that blood on his hands. They come to save you but find out they didn't have to. Seeing you sitting there, covered in blood with bodies piled up around you. You were never the same after that, always on edge, couldn't take a joke, hell, you even snapped at your squad mates for something as simple as 'coughing too loud'. Remember what they used to call you?"
When Martin spoke it was hardly above a whisper. "Flippy."
A small smile slowly made its way onto the doppelganger's face. "Flippy. You never liked it but me, I thought it was perfect. Took it on as my own. Now all of Treeopolis lives in fear of that name and the monster behind it." A slight pause. "…And no one is safe." The yellow eyes doppelganger finished quietly, his eyes slipping closed.
Martin dragged his legs to his chest and sobbed out Tyler's name over and over again like a mantra, his tears turning red as they mixed with the blood on his face.
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"Martin." Green eyes popped open and anxiously surveyed their surroundings until they made contact with concerned blue ones.
Martin took a moment to simply stare at the figure who sat up looking worriedly down at him. Gentle fingers combed through Marin's green locks which were in as much disarray as the figure's blue ones. "Tyler." He breathed out softly in what only could have been pure relief. With slightly shaking fingers, Martin grasped the hand that was sliding through his hair and placed it above his rapidly beating heart. Gradually, his heart beat slowed to a normal rhythm and it was then that Tyler spoke.
"You were having another nightmare. You were calling my name out in your sleep." His only answer was Martin's hand tightening around his own. Tyler waited another moment before speaking. "Are you sure you don't wanna talk about-"
"No." Martin responded, cutting Tyler off. Then, realizing that he was a bit harsh, he said, "I'm sorry." Sighing he placed a kiss to Tyler's palm before replacing his hand above his heart. But Tyler just smiled and shook his head.
"It's alright. We'll talk about it when you're ready." He squeezed Martin's hand before sliding off the bed.
"Where are you going?" Martin asked, worried that he actually had offended Tyler.
Smiling that gentle smile that made Martin's heart squeeze with affection the bluette placed a chaste kiss on Martin's fevered forehead. "Going to get you some water, silly." With a slight chuckle Tyler padded quietly out of the bedroom.
Martin kept his eyes trained on Tyler's form as he exited the room. Once he was gone, Martin's eyes moved to the ceiling and he exhaled heavily. He was left alone with his thoughts which, of course, weren't good ones. The doppelganger's final words eerily repeated over and over again in his head. …And no one is safe.
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Hello everyone!~
Here stands my confession of love for FlippyxSplendid. They're absolutely perfect for each other. (I have no idea how we fangirls read yaoi into this one but whatever)
Anywho I know it's most likely confusing with the absence of the original HTF names, so in case you haven't realized Martin is Flippy and Tyler is Splendid. These are simply names I have selected to give the story more realism. As more characters arise I'll make sure to let you know.
This is my first HTF fic, so be gentle, ne?
Thank you for reading.