People Are All The Same

Chapter 8

Disclaimer: I own nothing.


Dimension C-500-B

Beth yawned as she stretched the sleep out of her joints. Glancing at the clock on her bedside table showed that it was only nine, Beth sighed. Being that today was one of her rare days off, she had wanted to snooze in til noon.

Heading towards the kitchen to whip up some breakfast for herself and Dad; Beth found a note on the refrigerator.

Huh. Apparently there wasn't any food to be found, so Dad had taken it upon himself to go grocery shopping. How considerate of him.

Checking over a few cabinets and the pantry for herself, and finding that there really was no more food in the house. Someone was going to be fired when the holidays were over.

Waiting for Dad to come home, Beth took out a casket of wine to entertain herself with.

Beth- She just loved it when she was all alone. She could do whatever she wanted without any prying eyes. With no one judging her - she could drink anything she want, no matter what the time of day it was.

Who cares if it was only nine-thirty in the morning?

Beth certainly didn't.

And it wasn't like she ever drank anything stronger than some wine.

In some ways Beth found that testing her own limits put some much needed excitement into her life. Seeing how far she could go before drinking got in the way of her real life, because-

Because her life was perfect, except-

The dream job was her's.

Beth was a surgeon of the highest degree. It felt like just the other day that Beth had won a Nobel Prize.

But today she wasn't on the job. It was one of her very few days off! She was going to enjoy it, too.

Beth had all the friends she could ever want at her beck and call.

Rick- Dad, was even back in her life, but.

But their- Her dream house, it was too big, too empty without-

Her friends- They didn't really care about her, really. At least they wouldn't care her if they knew who she really was.

It felt like-

It felt like she was still there, at the side of the road. Just her and-

Just her, and that flat tire.

And that was what it was, wasn't it?

She put up a wall around herself, not exactly pushing others away but always keeping them at arms length.

It would come as no surprise if the people she called friends talked behind her back and called her an icy bitch.

She built her life to cater her castle made of lies and regrets. In reality it was a castle made out of clouds, wasn't it?

And no matter how much emphasis she put on the functioning part of being a functioning alcoholic; it doesn't erase the fact that her hands now shook unless she had at least some small amount of alcohol running through her veins.

Like father like daughter, huh?

Walking through the halls of her house Beth came across a picture that she came across almost everyday. It was a family photo of Beth and her father Rick, just the two of them. It had been taken right after Beth had won that award, actually. She had been in such a good mood that it was the first genuine smile she had since her teenager years. It was one of the few real family photos where Rick wasn't added in in crayon. It was perfectly fitted into a stylish frame like everything else in their home. Looking at it always made Beth loathe herself even more..

Why did she have to do this to herself?

Because now Beth was in the dark of her room, cradling an almost identical picture of the one she kept in the main hallway.

It was exactly the same: Rick smiling into the camera, a hand on Beth's shoulder. The perfect picture of her family.

Except in this one, directly to Beth's left, drawn in crayon was Jerry. She thought she had left behind that part of her life. Beth didn't even know why it was even Jerry. Out of all the men she had dated between him and now.. Why him? Why was it that loser?

Of all of the what-ifs that plagued her life- Why was it always this one that came back to haunt her? She knew- She knows where her life would be if she hadn't done- what she'd done. She'd be less than she was now. She'd be an unhappy, loser like Jerry, because-

Damn that bastardized class clown! Like hell could Jerry ever achieve happiness before Beth! She lived the Life. She worked hard for the accomplishments under her belt. She was the one with the fucking noble prize!

Every rumor, every scandal, every romp at rehab; they all placed a smile on her face!

It mocked her now, the childish depiction of her family. There Jerry was, drawn in a shitty green, cradling in his arms a blue-eyed, brown-haired baby.


White walls, pressed sheets, and sterile ground.

The stark routines were almost a respite to the chaotic lifestyle of before.

This was his life now, and he'd be more happy, more resigned to it if everyone wasn't so dead!


Dimension H-311

"Oh, boy." This dimension gave Morty the creeps. "Oh, man. I can't take this." It was all abandoned, with no people and no animals around to fill it. It was like being home alone without a television to turn on, and give the quiet house some background noise.

"Oo-oh, boy." The portal hadn't opened up in the same place as last time. Or maybe it had- Morty might have took a wrong turn somewhere...

After half an hour of wandering the streets of his neighborhood, both at the same time familiar and unrecognizable. And then there he saw it. Morty ran to the Ship, and opened the driver door. Morty had forgotten about all of the money in the Ship, until he opened the door and some of it fell out. It was a pity, but Morty really didn't want to be here any longer. Also there was still a lot of the alien currency in the back seat.

Flying the Ship high above the skyline and out of reach of the suburb wasn't so bad. The weather wasn't even dreary, it was sunny even. It allowed Morty to plaster on a smile and ignore the fact that this apocalyptic world really got to him.

Hands came out from behind Morty and grabbed him. "Oh my god," Morty could feel the Ship swerve under his hands.

"Here's Ricky!" It was Rick's voice, like a murmur full of madness.

"I know what you are, Morty!" What the flying Fuck!

"What! Oh, God! Let me go, Rick. We're gonna crash!" Rick was pulling at his hair, his ears. Screaming in them.

"I know what you are!"Rick was anything but not persistent.

"Say it, Morty, say it! Tell me what you are!"

"What? What do you want me to say? That- That I'm a- I'm not a vampire, Rick!" Sparkling in the sunlight was not something that described Morty Smith, at least not currently.

"Oh, Morty. Morty. Morty. I know that you're not. I killed vampire Morty, myself. That's how I know!" Rick became uproarious with laughter. He was madness incarnate.

"You're not making any sense, Rick! Tell me what you mean, so that I can help you! Rick!"

"Help me, Morty? Help me? You can't help me, Morty, you are me! You're my demons, Morty. My inner demons!"

Morty had never seen- correction, heard Rick sound so illogical. For the first time in his life Morty actually felt fear.

What Morty was feeling, it wasn't a fear for the safety of those around him. It wasn't the fear of the unknown, or of death. Morty- He was afraid of getting hurt.

It was his greatest fear; getting hurt, and hurting..

"Rick! Rick!? You're covering my eyes! I need them to see, Rick! We're gonna die if I can't see!"

"You're the demons I see every time I look in a mirror, Morty!"

"You're my inner demons, Morty..." Morty couldn't see Rick's eyes, but if he could he'd shit his pants.

Rick's eyes were going every which way; they were going nuts!

"You're the thoughts loose in my head. The ones that rattle around ever since Earth became a little too quiet for my tastes..."

"And you're here to take me hell, Morty!" Morty could see it now. The portal. "To Hell!"

"You're here to take me to hell, Morty!" They were almost to the portal. "Finally, Morty! Finally!" So close.

"You're not making any sense, Rick! Please. Start making sense so that I can help you!" I can't help you. Why can't I help you? Why would I even want to?

"Bring it, Morty! Bring it on~!" And then they were through, and it didn't even matter that Rick was making him bald.


Dimension D-359-A-112

Summer really needed to clean up the garage, but she wanted to have her fill of the morning news. Inter-dimensional cable had its perks, always keeping current events interesting. Her family could always be found on the news if you knew where to look, and this time was no different.

Her father was missing after their house burned down under suspicious circumstances.

She was murdered in her own home by a peer, her parents missing, her assailant dead, and her brother the only survivor.

Morty, a crazed son, who killed his entire family.

Dad, drug addled and riding a moped, the second time actually that she saw him going up a stranger's drive way only for the door to open and for Mom to answer it.

And Mom walked up behind her, not sitting down next to Summer, but watching the news with Summer over her shoulder.


Dimension C-500-B

Beth fed her multitude of tropical birds, all the while looking at her reflection in the mirrors she kept in their cages.

If the people who gave a fuck about these sort of things saw how she kept the birds in cages way too small for the birds, then maybe her reputation will ruin.

Kept in cages slightly apart, the only ones the birds ever saw were their own shallow reflection, and during feeding time all she ever saw was her own face, drinking. Always sipping a wine glass. Always.

The doorbell rang, and maybe Dad had forgotten his key again and needed her to open the door. Beth put down the bird feed and her glass to open the door.

"Jerry?" Jerry. "Jerry Smith?" He was disgusting. Half his head was shaved and he had old drugs hanging off of him. A mess, really.

"Beth Sanchez, I have been in love since high school. I- I hate acting. I hate cocaine. I hate Winston Stuart. I wish you never got that abortion and I never stopped thinking about what might have been."

She has never been happy, and he has never been happy. The two of them were miserable, but for some reason that just made Beth fall in love with Jerry one more time. The two kissed reigniting their old flame.

They kissed until she felt him turn cold underneath her hands. Opening her eyes Beth met with Jerry falling into a million ice shards, and Dad waving to greet her.

"Hey, sweetie. I saw him bothering you. But you don't have to worry anymore, I took care of it."

Beth just froze, years of unanswered questions shattered, as Rick Sanchez put his freeze ray back into his coat pocket, all nonchalant.


AN: This is really dragging on isn't it?

I almost don't even know where I'm even going with this anymore. But I said almost.

This is coming out a lot darker and longer than I first planned.