It wasn't so bad. Now that Red was gone, Bogey and Alessa were free to waltz about as they pleased. And waltz about they did. Alessa had a delightfully morbid sense of humor, something Bogey appreciated. The two had wandered near to Toluca Lake, peering out at the fog and glancing at the hands that occasionally reached up from the depths. It was times like this that Bogey forgot about the monsters he saw during the day and thought instead about his home. "Alessa?" The girl looked up at him from her crouch by the shoreline, tapping her chosen stick in the water. Bogey folded his arms. "Where d'you think Shepherd's Glen is from here?"
Alessa leaned her head back, looking skyward. "Ummm…" She waved her stick around, eventually pointing it to her right. "That way!"
"Heh. Think so?"
"I dunno." She shrugged. "What's so special about Shepherd's Glen?"
Bogey thought on that for a moment. What was special about it? Why did he even think about it? Red never seemed to think of the concept of home. Neither did any of the other monsters. But maybe they were already home. It was one heck of a home, that was for sure. It had everything he could want. Everything except that one particular thing… "I'm not sure, really. This town just isn't quite where I want to be."
"Why don't you leave?"
"Can't."
"That's stupid."
"Heh. Yeah, it is." Bogey bent down, picking up a rock from the shoreline. "Watch this." Winding up, he pitched the rock into the lake, sending it a safe distance from the shore. As it neared the water, hundreds of arms and hands reached out, grasping for the rock, fighting over it as though it were a piece of meat. Alessa smiled wide, giggling happily. Bogey joined in, laughing heartily. "Pretty crazy, eh?"
Alessa hopped to her feet. "That was cool! So they all died there?"
"I think so, yeah." He scratched a bit at his chest under his helm. Bah, the irritation was always bad when he didn't hold his head up enough. "Always thought it would be cool to take a boat ride. Have you ever gone on one?"
"My GOD, are you two done developing your characters yet?" The two turned around, spotting Red strutting out from the woods, a cigarette stuck in his helmet's hole. "Christ, what is this, Hurt/Comfort?" He shook his head. "Come on. Get back to the jokes. Like Bogey's hellspawn of a video game."
"Red, shut the hell up. We were having a moment." He jabbed a finger at Red. "And at least mine made sense and wasn't some jumble of outdated Freud and Hollywood psychology."
"Watch it."
Red and Bogey stared each other down, their muscles tense and ready to go. Alessa looked up at the two of them. "…I like Origins!" The two pyramids slowly turned their heads to peer down at the girl. "…What?" She smiled. "I like Travis. He was a good sport!"
"But the ritual was supposed to happen in the basement!"
"But it was supposedly the 70's but Harry drives an 80's car!"
"But the weapons break after a few swings!"
"But there were gigantic enemies for no reason!"
Alessa's lower lip stuck out in a pout. "But Travis was nice!"
In unison, they shouted back. "HE WAS A HICK!"
"You guys are mean!"
"Seriously, he was as two dimensional as-"
"Alex!"
"James!"
The two pyramids turned back to each other, growling fiercely. Alessa sighed, shaking her head. "You two… You're going to be terrible parents!" Red and Bogey snapped their attention back to the girl.
"WHAT?"
She smiled innocently at them, bouncing a bit on the balls of her feet. "Well you can't just leave me alone, can you? I'm just a little girl!"
Bogey considered this for a moment. True, Valtiel had said that he needed her eventually. He nodded. "Fair enough." He offered her a hand.
Red considered this for a moment. True, she was just a little girl. How hard could it be to kill her if she started acting up? He nodded. "Right, right…" Red offered her his hand as well.
Alessa smiled brightly, taking their hands and swinging them with glee. "I have parents now!"
Red nodded. "Yeah… Wait, no, you just have dads. Or… Something."
Bogey shrugged. "You're the one wearing a dress, y'know."
"What about your skirt?"
"It's a kilt, Red."
"You don't sound Scottish to me."
Alessa giggled. "You two already sound like you're married!"
