We're only as brilliant as the people we pretend to be. And suddenly it doesn't feel that good, now, does it?
a/n: this one's for my girl, dee. I don't know, I think its rushed and probably doesn't make much sense at all but there you go haha
tbh I really didn't put much effort into incorporating the prompts I'm sorry
prompts: jack 'o lanterns, halloween costumes replacing flowercrowns, glittering full moons and scarecrows
pairing: massington
The fate of two star-crossed lovers is intricate and twisted, but isn't life rather intricate and twisted on its own?
A brunette faces the torment of sitting through dinner party after dinner party, slumped over and bored. Amber eyes scrutinize all who pass her, all who cross her vision. It's only fair that her wandering eyes get caught on something that would hurt her most.
Her best friend and her boyfriend; entangled in a mess of silk and tweed, dark hair and fair hair, sweet perfume and heavy cologne-all of which suppressing their quite unapparent guilt.
All she remembers after that is runningrunningrunning. Running out of that house, out of that life, out of that town.
Alcohol burns down her throat and into her system. It's dizzying and unrelenting, her heart pounding in her head and sinking in her stomach. She picked her poison and the sickly tingle on her tongue reminds her every second. Massie pounds her glass on the bar counter, requesting-no, demanding- another round. If only the good die young, she has a long and torturous life ahead of her.
She's twenty one and reckless, drunk on tequila and wicked deeds.
.
Derrick Harrington makes the mistake of looking up. A splintering pain shatters across his skull and he crumples to the ground. Shards of glass, ice crystals on a snowy afternoon painted black, fall around him. They scatter across the floor.
Red.
Red slithers down his jaw and seeps into his skin. It tastes like copper on his tongue and feels cold against his sizzling cheek. It's marked by the touch from a ghost of his past, haunted.
His father's lips are moving but he can't hear the angry man. Bells in his ears are ringing like Christmas morning. Shakily, the blonde rose from the ground. He looked at the man in front of him-a stranger he's known his whole life. He's high on adrenaline and his fist swipes across the soulless being before either of them can react.
He disappears into the shadows, fades into the night. A cracking noise echoes in his mind as his father's head connects with the concrete. Cold stone on cold stone. Derrick stares for a second, wondering. His lips are dry, cracked, pale. More blood trickles down his face and he falls through thin air, the world a stony black.
.
She's choking on air, stumbling over pebbles. Jack 'o lanterns line the streets, lighting her path with dwindling candles. Her chest clenches tighter and she can't even breathe. The air is toxic, quipped, and threaded with lies. It sends chills up her spine. It's unwelcoming, unforgiving. With a shudder, Massie reaches to pull something over her shoulders but nothing is there. No rag, no garb, nothing.
She sees two bodies, both unmoving. A bald man with glassy eyes filled with hate is sprawled across stained sidewalk next to a blonde boy with a bleeding skull. Across the ground are broken pieces of a beer bottle, taunting, daunting. Fumbling over nothing, Massie flopped on the ground. Surely its a hallucination. But she wasn't quite that drunk yet and she wasn't quite that crazy yet.
The blonde's eyes slowly droop open and assess the scene before them.
Their gazes lock and throw away the key.
.
"Derrick Harrington," flows out of his lips before their fingers touch. "My name is Derrick Harrington." He's clumsy and awkward as he stands up but neither seem to notice. He flinches randomly and thinks she must believe he's insane. He doesn't know that no one is more than she.
He thinks it will be okay, he's walking on air. He's always been a hopeful but life has always been a let down.
So how could he expect some girl to be a change?
.
"We're only as brilliant as the people we pretend to be. And suddenly it doesn't feel that good, now, does it?" The girl wonders out loud, cracking voice and dry throat.
Massie Block has lived her life pretending. She's an actress and an excellent one at that. She draws people in. She convinces them of complete lies, tales of misguided intention. They think she's perfect but in reality she's just another pathetic little soul.
She's shivering into this stranger's arms and sobbing because noonenoonenoone understands. Frustration and agony thump through her veins and she takes it all back, she takes back the lies and the deceit but no one's listening anymore because they're all pretenders and nothing's new. Their Halloween costumes replace their flower crowns but their just as rotten, just as cruel.
The brunette has been holding back, whenever her mind floated to the clouds she pulled herself back down. She just stares out into empty space for her whole life, nodding away all questions and answers.
Amber eyes, dark night.
.
Derrick hides. He's scared. All the time. He's terrified that one day he'll diediedie and nothing will be left of his existence. And how terribly lonely that sounds, death. Permanent slumber, never waking.
But for now he has a girl named Massie Block who doesn't know who she really is anymore.
And he wouldn't trade it for the world.
.
"We're all kind of impostors though, aren't we?"