I think my chapters are all over the place and somewhat random. Tell me what you think.
I use a Florence and the Machine song in here—all rights belong to them and everything, I just think it's an awesome song. Not all of it is used in here, though. (A David Bowie song is also mentioned.)
Chapter 10—Heavy
I was a heavy heart to carry/ my feet dragged across the ground/ and he took me to the river/ where he slowly let me drown…And is it worth the wait/ all this killing time? / are you strong enough to stand/ protecting both your heart and mine? / Who is the betrayer? / Who's the killer in the crowd? / The one who creeps in corridors/ and doesn't make a sound…
The words slowly bounced around in his head, taking their own sweet time to get from one side to the other. It felt like he was underwater. He remembered getting dragged across mud and dirt, staring at the ground, his mind as dirty and rotten as a bloody tomato. He was a ragdoll, tossed into an endless ocean. He used to be the toy that the little boy played with all the time, his favorite. The one he would never leave behind.
Floating in space, like the lost wanderer of the Space Odyssey, possibly dead, possibly still alive, and drowning but still alive. Like some sort of twisting, confusing paradox—and paradoxes never make any sense—Dipper, Pines, Pine Tree, Blue, red, green, grey, black, orange, yellow—an abundance of yellow, black, silver, blue and green—trees.
A forest. A layered house tucked in the folds of the trees, adventures hidden deep inside the forest. Mountains, rivers, Oregon, the great United States, where everything is a conspiracy and aliens had everything to do with a German scientist's discovery and…
Space. Big, blank, black, glittering. Silence.
The thought nauseated everyone, the never-ending expansion of lost and forgotten worlds. Demons and monsters and creatures of the unknown only knew what inhabited those areas. His mind was slipping. It had been for a while know. Ever since he'd made the deal with the floating triangle… No, somebody else had done that.
He couldn't remember who it was. He couldn't remember who he was. Whoever the floating triangle was, he'd kept his promise.
Something echoed in his mind. Doritos… Silly stupid girl… Love potion… pointless…
It felt like his mind was on fire. Something was penetrating his mind and he couldn't stop the feeling. Gripping his head, trying to get the voice out by gripping his head and pressing it against the ground, he crushed the visor of his hat. What was this person talking about? Love potions? He screamed in his head. What are you talking about? Shut up!
The voice went quiet. Pine Tree?
He screamed into his head again, a sharp pain stabbing his mind and not letting go. He screamed, this time louder and longer than the last time. What do you want?
…
The voice went silent. But the boy's head was still reeling, his head feeling like someone had taken an atom bomb and blown it up and sawed all the little pieces back together and sewn them apart…
You can't saw things together. You saw them apart and sew them together—
SHUT UP! The boy screamed in his head. Shut up, shut up, shut up, shup, shup, shup…
'Shup' isn't a word, Pine Tree. What's wrong?
'This!' the boy wanted to scream, but his voice was ragged and he couldn't sit up, his knees stuck into the ground, his arms spread on top of his head as if to protect himself. It wasn't working.
Where was he? How had he gotten there and where was his family and how did he know he had a family and what the hell was a dorito?
What is a dorito? What is it what is it what is it?
The voice in his head laughed. What does it matter?
The pain was slowly ebbing away, but whenever the voice spoke, it flared up, fiery and raging like an angry volcano. All he wanted to do was make the voice shut up.
But how was he going to do that? He needed to find the source of the voice, first, but the only thing it seemed to be coming from was his mind. So how was he going to get rid of the voice? Well, if unwanted music is coming from a speaker, all you have to do is get rid of the speaker, don't you? Get rid of ears and nobody can hear. Get rid of eyes and nobody can see. Get rid of brains and nobody can think. Get rid of memory and nobody can remember.
But everybody can see, think, remember, retain, restrain, understand, blah, blah, blah…
Who are you?
The voice didn't speak at first, but after a moment, answered, what?
Who. Are. You?
You're asking me who I am?
Duh, moron. What do you think I'm doing?
Silent as a cat, quiet as a mouse, as soundless as a killer stalking his next victim, a pure black shadow edged out of the darkness, the pure darkness the boy floated in, the blue-white river floating endlessly through it. He was at the bottom of a black bottomless ocean and he couldn't do anything to get out. The shadow was humanoid, with milk-white skin, a tall, skeletal top hat, dyed with blood and powdered bone. The shadow's ultramarine tuxedo draped over its bone thin body. Bandages covered its head, and a black hole looked like an eye. Slowly, the eye opened, bloody crimson red, staring directly at him.
Moron, huh? The monster's sky blue scarf wrapped around its neck fluttered in the breeze. Just wait until you find out how truly powerful I am, young Pine Tree.
Pine Tree? Who is 'pine tree'?