Allo. :3 I apologize for lateness on this chapter (it's a new record! xD) but of coarse, I suffered my usual writer's block... Though while I wrote this, I couldn't help but feel this chapter seems like a filler. Ha...
Special thanks go to Konafox (Write SM, damn you! xD), MyShadowsThorn, and Ekoaleko for reviewing. :3 I really appreciate its.. I read your reviews and ideas, have the all powerful warm and fuzzy feeling inside, and then keep writing…
Ahem. .. To much info there. Well, on with the show!
Disclaimer: Minor language and gore (xD There ya go, Ekoaleko.) are involved in this chapter. Viewer discretion is advised.
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Chapter Six ↔ Dysfunctional
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Dammit.
"Jamie? I thought your name was AJ..."
"Amen to the adorable hobo.."
"A-a-adorable?... M-me?... Wait. I'm notta hobo! I'mma Cliff..."
"Anyways. Why did you lie to me and this hobo?"
"It's Cliff!"
Dammit.
"Well?"
"Uh.. Yeah! Give us some answers!... Uh, why DID you drag me along anyway? Where are we?... It's kinda bright. I shoulda brought my awesome hat!"
"Awesome hat?"
"Yeah! It looks like a blue baseball cap, only it has these things you can stick your drinks on the sides of it, and you can drink 'em through these straws... Uh, I forgot to ask. Who are you anyway?"
"Me? I'm Jill. Oh, and cool soundin' hat. It'd be good to wear during horse races... Anyways-"
"SHUT IT AND LISTEN UP!"
Upon hearing this yelled, the farm girl and the church hobo straightened up like army men about to be examined by one of higher rank, and instantly becoming silent. As did AJ.. er, Jamie.. who stood shifting his icy gaze between them both for a moment and closing his eyes.
"..."
After a few minutes, Jill's muscles allowed themselves to relax, as she looked between the two. Cliff still maintained, quite well I should say, the density of a Totem Poll, while the one who snapped at them a few seconds ago was standing in a trance-like state, eyes closed. Jill waved a hand in front of his face.
"...Um... AJ?"
No answer.
Jill groaned. Time for plan B... Shifting her view down to the hammer gleaming silver in the reddish eyes of the sun, she picked it up and held it over her head, with intentions of giving Jamie one harsh wake up call... Either that, or crack his skull open for being a total Angsty Jackass for the last chapter or two. Your pick. Cliff twitched at the sight of the giant ore chunk on a stick, speaking up once again. Yet, he still managed to stay unmoving through almost everything that happened in the past eight minutes. Impressive.
"...Uh-uh-uh, J-J-Jill, I d-don't think y-you should d-do that..." He stammered, Jill glancing over at him.
"Well, why not? If his head's as hard as his ego, he should be fine..." She stated rather matter-o-factly, Cliff giving her a baffled look at her questionable logic.
"...I don't think... it works like that..."
"HAH!"
Both parties turned to the purple haired male, who had now opened his eyes with a rather triumphant expression on his face. Upon noticing this, three things happened. Jill dropped her hammer out of surprise and killed a rat (Well, Cliff thought it was a rat), Cliff's muscles decided they had enough of this standing nonsense, and they let him fall to his DEATH...
Okay, I lied. He just fell backwards and landed in the soft sand behind him. After this, they both earned quizzical looks from Jamie.
"What was all this about now?"
"We're the ones who should be asking that question... Why'd ya space out?"
Jamie's expression suddenly became distant, and he silently looked away. After a short pause, he spoke again.
"I was having... a spiritual journey."
"Can I use that phrase next time I'm dozing off? I'll give you credit!"
"Wait... Weren't we talking about why A-Jamie lied to us before?"
"Oh, right! So, um, Jamie.. Why? We won't be mad.."
Jamie groaned and put his fingers to his forehead, rubbing his temples. Ugh, this was going to be tough to explain... Maybe if he left out the details they wouldn't notice.
"Well, where to begin? I suppose-"
Crunch.
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Jamie was cut off by a rather inhumane crunching noise a small distance away. Turning towards where he thought the sound came from, he took notice of a small group of people... As well as the all-too familiar scent of fresh blood. If it was logically possible, he'd probably be curling his nose with distaste right now.
"...What in the Goddess's name are they doing?"
Unfortunately one of the people heard him and stood up, turning to them and walking over in a possessed manner.
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By description, it was a youthful looking female with hair the color of cotton candy. Normally, she would have seemed cute to a normal male's standards... That is, if she didn't have that disturbingly psychotic expression on her face.
Not to mention the red liquid which seemed to be EVERYWHERE- covering the area around her mouth, mostly dyeing her bottom lip a deep crimson before running down her chin and dripping onto the ground. Her once pale hands were dipped in the same darkening red, which ran down her slender fingers to mix with the sand below, creating a hideous color which you'd never see in a crayon box.
Cliff by this time was huddled close behind Jill, his usually soft brown eyes showing greats amount of fear. In turn to the events, Jamie's usual natural expression turned into the perma-glare Jill usually identified him with. He ended up positioned in front of his two companions, ready for whatever this psycho woman planed to do. She simply smirked, shifting her ruby red eyes to look at the two behind him.
"...Hello, Cliff."
"P-P-Popuri..."
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Her smirk slowly smoothed itself out to become a smile. A crooked, twisted smile, but a smile all the same. She then examined the people in front of her, shooting a small, yet dagger-like glare at Jill.
"Now, what are you two doing hanging out with this wallflower here? Join the party like the rest of us.. You'll have fun." She mused in a silky voice, looking directly into the two male's eyes. There was something abnormal about them... Something almost hypnotic... Jamie couldn't exactly pick out WHAT made them hypnotic, but either way, he felt his sense of self fading. Just like that day...
But that was a story for another time. Jill watched helplessly as Popuri pierced their souls, into their very hearts... Finally, she got fed up with the silence, and deemed it necessary to snap at this girl.
"What in the name of the goddess are you pulling, you…you…"
She blinked, giving the stammering female searching for the right word a soft glare. One of which perfectly complimented the devilish look plastered on her face. In all, she reminded Jill of a hungry viper eying its prey.
"Hmmm? You REALLY want to know, dearie? Well... I suppose you can be dessert. We just finished our meal, you see." She said, glancing back at a group of people stepping away from a carcass to watch Popuri deal with their "guests".
On further examination of the carcass, she realized some distinguishing features. One, being that the leftovers were bones that probably once were human. She could tell by the shape of the skull lying nearby.
Another thing being a small pile of slightly long brown hairs lying by the bones, covered with saliva and blood.. They were probably spit up by the diners.
On the ground near that lay the bloodied fabric that appeared to at one point be colored in a camouflage type design... Then it hit her.
Oh my goddess... They ate Kurt.
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"Hey! Girl, what you spacin' for? Shouldn't you be running like the little wuss you are?"
"...Huh?"
Glancing at her two "friends", she couldn't help but feel that something was up. For one thing, they were glaring at her, and secondly… Oh, she must have imagined it… But their eyes seemed to have a deep reddish hue.
"Um.. Guys? What are you doing?..."
Either way, neither of the two answered. Jamie suddenly armed himself with his snaplosion rocks, and Cliff seemed to be franticly searching for something. Popuri let out what Jill took to be a cackle.
"Ehehe! How do ya like THEM apples, bit-"
Before she could finish her sentence, she was somehow turned into a potential weapon, flailing as she was swung around like a sword by Cliff. Popuri screamed. "UNHAND ME, YOU IDIOT!" Jill simply watched the scene, occasionally switching her field of vision between them and Popuri's posse, who simply watched in the background.
Run.
Before she could react, she felt a sudden shock of undeniable pain which made her flinch and loose her balance, forcing her to topple over. A rush of pure confusion and fear for her life ran cold down her spine as her scrambled mind tried to identify the source of the pain. Wherever it was, she felt a fresh jolt of it in any random area of her being, along with hearing a hollow scream or the occasional "Ow! Let me go, you jerk!"
The chill slowly warmed up, making her feel as if she was lying in lukewarm water now. Oh, it still hurt to move, but at least upon being battered over to the side, she had noted where the main source of the pain was coming from.
Her vision was a bit blurred from the salty tears that had somehow found their way out of her eyes, but she could clearly see that there were four arrowhead-like rocks projecting out of her legs in random places. From those holes, her blood had slowly crept its way out around the rocks, the massive loss of the liquid making her feel too weak to defend herself, or even speak.
She was powerless.
As she lay down her head, unable to keep it lifted through all this, she shut her eyes as tight as she dared and prepared herself for her fate.
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Cliff FINALLY put Popuri down after Jill had closed her eyes, figuring her dead. After the female, rather battered from the experience, had slapped the boy silly, she walked over to Jill and gave her a harsh kick in the back, smiling contentedly as more blood gushed out.
She didn't seem to be breathing, so she turned to Jamie and Cliff. "Okay, you two, fight. The winner will stay with us. Looser will be the main course for tomorrow's breakfast." She stated, Jamie's eyes glinting with delight at the thought.
The two then proceeded renew the fight from earlier, while Popuri walked off towards the group, who clapped with pleasure over the female's miracle workings. Popuri acknowledged this for a bit before raising a hand when she grew tired of them.
"Well, come then. We'll stop back in the morning… Besides, if I don't get my beauty rest, I get cranky. I KNOW you don't want to see me cranky, right?" She replied with a dangerous tone in her voice. The others simply gave vigorous nods and marched away, intimidated expressions on their faces.
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After the cannibal group took their leave for the night, a sudden wall of sand slapped both Jamie and Cliff in the head, getting in their eyes and noses. Jamie, being used to this business, recovered quickly from the blow. Realizing that a sandstorm was brewing, he put the hood of his cloak up to protect himself.
Cliff, who wasn't quite as lucky, was turned away from the winds of the storm and busied himself with trying to rub the grainy sand out of his eyes, only to realize it just made them sting. He gave a small, almost canine like whine, unhappy with this change of weather.
Of coarse, being the purple haired fiend he is, Jamie took the opportunity to take Cliff off guard and delivered a kick to his skull, knocking him over onto Jill's supposedly dead corps. He growled and made an attempt to get up, despite the throbbing in his head, yet it was in vain. His reddish eyes slowly fading back to brown, he toppled over again into unconsciousness.
Jamie, pleased with his work, contemplated if he should try to drag them back to "Lady Popuri", or if he should just eat them and run…. Wait, something at the back of his mind questioned his sanity as to why he was even CONCIDERING eating another human being. He ignored it, but it kept asking.
Before he could think of a witty retort for this foolish voice, he felt a hard crack on the back of his legs, which knocked him forwards into the sand. Baffled, he weakly tried to get back up, only to be was shoved back down by a hard pain to his back. Daring to twist his head to try and view what dared to strike him, he saw one thing. A rock. A very large one at that. As he reached out to grab it in attempt to throw it back at the source, another one crashed into his skull. As sense mixed with pain, one thing was really evident to his ever-scrambling mind.
His lights were out.
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Weee! Cliffy! I seem to have an unusual liking for knocking people out, don't I? Anyways, hope you enjoyed the chapter. I'll try to write a fresh one sooner this time. xD