The girl lay shivering under the black sheets, trying as hard as she could to stay still as she listened to the sounds of Mr. Ginger click-clacking over towards his immobile victim on the gurney. Blossom watched through a tiny sliver in the material, terror momentarily freezing her mind.
Oh god she was going to die, she was going to die...
She saw him standing ram-rod straight over his raven-haired brother, spider-like hands lying flat against his fish-netted thighs. Her heart was pounding so hard, she thought it would burst raw and bloody from her chest, thought she'd collapse into a dead-faint right there and then...
His left hand slid up his bony ribs...she suddenly saw the shining knife glinting in the golden light as he drew his hand up his body...
She couldn't watch this...oh please god she couldn't watch this...
She had to save him, she couldn't just lie here...she had to stay hidden, she couldn't risk being seen...oh god what was she going to do?
Through the darkness of the black sheet, she saw Mr Ginger sliding over to his brother's side, blade still poised delicately in his grip. She saw his wild eyes and his slow, stretching grin, felt the sickness surge up from her stomach.
"Brick?"
He pulled the sheets down and Blossom tried to hold back the gasp of horror. Butch was dressed in a pair of black shorts and his entire body was covered in horrific looking gashes, bruises and burns. Old pus and scabs slicked his sweaty, pasty skin and some of the cuts were even beginning to look infected.
"Hello darling," Mr Ginger whispered, his voice like rustling leaves as he leered over the motionless boy. Butch whimpered hoarsely and Blossom felt her heart grow swollen in her throat. The skeletal man pointed his knife down until it hovered over his brother's throat. The girl wanted to look away, needed to look away, couldn't bear to look any longer...
"Do you remember now, my love?" his voice was soft and gentle, but his eyes were as cold as ice. "Do you remember where your little friend is?"
"N-No...no..." Butch's voice bubbled and cracked from his his raw throat. Mr Ginger bared his yellow teeth for a second, before he turned and tip-tapped over towards one of the walls. He stroked his long nails over one of the symbols and a slot slid open. He reached into the small opening and pulled out a vial of liquid. He was grinning from ear to ear, as he advanced on his brother and his expression sent shivers up and down Blossom's spine.
"I think you're wrong, sweetie," he purred as he climbed onto the gurney, sliding the knife between his teeth and slithering over the raven-haired teen. "I think your lying to me."
It was like watching a bloodied car-wreck...she wasn't going to scream, she wasn't...
The horrific wail echoed through the room as the man poured some of the liquid onto his victim's chest. Blossom tried not to gag at the sickening, sizzling sound. Butch holding back sobs.
"Tell me where she is."
"No."
His scarlet eyes were gleaming as he straddled his brother's hips. He slid the knife from out between his blood-red lips and it glinted in the light as he slowly, painfully sliced away at the boy's flesh. The blood ran in thin rivulets, down Butch's heaving chest.
"I'm your brother..." he breathed in a sing-song voice, leaning down close to his face, eyes shining bright. "Don't you love me?"
Butch spat at him.
"My brother died," he said and his face was set and grim. "Just like you will soon."
"Mmmm...tough words..."
That was the moment when Blossom had to bury her head away, feeling the silent tears pour down her cheeks. She had to save him...she had to help him...the screams rang through her mind as Mr Ginger continued his onslaught. Should she wait until he left? Or should she burst out and stop him now? Everyone would be on her in a second if she attacked...but...but what about Butch?
What was she going to do?
The question was answered for her, when she cracked her eye open and saw Mr Ginger sliding off onto the ground again. He licked his lips and wiped his gaunt, blood spotted cheek.
"Maybe I'll come back later...when you've learnt how to co-operate," he went to put the vial away and with a high-pitched giggle, strutted back out of the room, the door slamming shut behind him. The red-head listened to his steps, disappearing down the hall and down the staircase before she was certain he was gone. She raced to the boy's side.
"Butch, Butch! We have to go now!" she shook him violently and he stared up at her with wide haunted eyes. A burn was eating away at the side of his mouth, like some sort've ghastly lopsided smile.
"Grab the vial," he whispered, voice cracked and desperate.
"What?"
"The vial..."
Blossom, not thinking twice, sprinted towards the wall where Mr Ginger had been before. She quickly retrieved the vial from its hiding place. She heard Butch struggling to his feet behind her as she stuffed it down her bra.
"C'mon! We have to hurry!" she ran back to his side, putting her arm around his waist to steady him. He threw his arms around her shoulder, leaning his whole weight against her, but this was no problem for Blossom. She flew out of the dragon's mouth, supporting him easily, down the grand, golden corridor and towards the black staircase. Her heart was pounding and her throat was dry as she floated as quietly and carefully as possible, down towards the red glowing lights below.
Oh please God, make them think we're just another couple, don't let them catch us please...
Butch was breathing heavily into her hair and she could feel his blood sliding down the side of her face, felt that the arm holding him was coated with it. Her stomach churned and she tried not to gag. They floated down through the darkness, the heat and the throbbing music growing louder, louder, heavier, heavier...
They finally paused in the blackness of the doorway. No-one was looking their way, the whispering shapes watching the innocent lambs backstage hungrily. The two landed on the ground softly and slid unnoticed towards the spiraling black stairs. Butch's breath was shallow and his hands dug around her neck; the cold glass of the vial pushed uncomfortably into her sweaty skin...she was brave...she was brave...
The music pounded in her ears as they walked up and up, growing dizzy as they pushed against the crowding people. They were in the lusty, steamy red-tinted corridors once more. But now...how in the hell were they going to find their way out again?
Butch's feet were dragging, he was a heavy weight against her and his head lolled as he stumbled through the corridors. She tightened her grip around him, the murmuring shadows lurking all around, like ghosts. If only something could point them in the right direction...
They turned a corner and straight ahead she picked out the back of a blonde head, far, far ahead of them in the crowd. Her heart pounded painfully in her mouth...just keep on walking, keep on walking, don't act suspicious, its going to be okay...
Then it happened.
Like a fox, catching the scent of blood, the blond head turned to the side. Her face was sharp and cold and her unblinking blue eyes stared straight into the redhead's bright pink ones. Her thin, pink lips turned up into a horrific smile and Butch made a terrified sound from beside her.
"Butch run...find the back door, run, Butch you have to..."
Bubbles pushed a bunch of people away and started striding towards them...the crowd parted to let their mistress through and Butch and Blossom were immediately stumbling for cover.
"I can't leave you..."
"Run goddammit!"
There was a harsh humming sound emitting from the crowd, as if the people had been replaced by angry bees. She felt their claws and their blank faces pushing in and grabbing at her hair, forcing her to the ground. She saw Bubbles maniacally grinning face growing closer, closer...she was going to die. This was the end...
The blast of energy ripped out of her hand in an instant, tearing the swarm apart and ripping a hole in the ceiling and the canvas walls. People went flying and in the chaos, she saw Butch clambering away down the corridor. Bubbles, who had managed to stand her ground, threw her hand up, her face twisted and vicious. Blossom scrambled away from the violent blast at the last minute and turned to throw another attack over her shoulder, as she raced away from the scattering crowd. She saw her sister deflect the ball of energy easily, continuing towards her.
She sprinted around the corner, almost tumbling over her feet, and the entire wall exploded, dust, canvas and debris almost blinding her and she stumbled backwards, screaming. Bubbles kicked away one of the bodies that had been in the room and thrusted her hands forward. The force hit the redhead in the stomach like a cannonball and she was sent flying through the walls, tearing them apart as she was blasted away.
Blossom coughed up blood as she landed painfully in a heap on the floor. She couldn't understand what was going on. Bubbles had never been this strong...
"Run, run, run as fast as you can..." came the giggling voice from somewhere ahead of her. Every part of her body screamed in agony as she struggled to her feet. She saw Bubbles getting closer. Blossom threw a blaze of energy at her, then another, then another, the blasts destroying more and more of the floors, walls and ceilings. The blond's grin was fixed and her eyes never blinked as she deflected the attacks, one after the other, growing closer all the time.
Choking back the sob, the desperate girl kicked into speed, ripping through the canvas walls, trying to find her way back, trying to find a way out, she had to get out, she had to get away, how was she going to get away...? She flew as fast as she could, legs racing madly. Then, hit with a burst of inspiration, she stopped, picked up one of the beds from a nearly destroyed room, lifted it easily over her head and threw it as hard as she could towards her sister. This finally did the job and with a surprised "oof", Bubbles went flying backwards, crashing through the destruction they had both made, crumpling against the ground. Blossom didn't look back as she ran onwards.
All the corridors were looking the same as the pink puff zapped down them. She could hear the blond's furious screeches behind her as she flew around corner after corner. Blossom didn't know where the hell she was going...she flew through corridor after endless corridor...they were all identical, they were all fucking identical, she was going to be stuck here forever...
"No, nonononono. NO!" she came to a sliding halt. She was back at the spiraling stairs. She couldn't be here again. This couldn't be happening. Butch was probably on the other side of the building right now. She felt like she was being caged in, trapped, like a cat with a mouse.
"Sister, sister trapped in the walls...who will die in the most pain of all?"
The girl turned before she could comprehend what had been said and instantly the white-hot pain exploded from every point in her body. She felt herself flying backwards, as if weightless through the air and her eyes rolled back, tongue lolling to the back of her throat. With a smack she landed on solid ground. There was something hot and slick and coppery running into her eyes, clogging up her nose and her throat...she vaguely recognized that she was in the alcove over the backstage area, before another blast sent her tumbling through the air once more.
The whole world was black and blank for what seemed like an eternity and there was an endless droning in her ears. Everything seemed fuzzy and dead. White light shone behind her eyes and it seemed to take a lifetime for her to regain her focus. There was something sharp and pointy digging into her bare stomach and it seemed she was being supported by something and then...strangely not. A ripping noise sounded in her ears, somewhere very close...
Her vision blurred and then finally cleared. She was dangling over the railings at the top of the huge velvet curtains. Half of her body was hanging on, the other top half hanging down towards the long drop below.
There were angry shouts somewhere far, far behind her. Something was dripping from her nose...and her mouth...and when she realized it was blood, she found she barely even cared. Everything hurt so much...every part of her body was in such awful pain...
The ripping sound grew louder and she felt herself dropping a few inches down.
"Where is she? Where is she!"
She didn't care...
"Tell me where she is!"
She didn't care if she died...
"Get the fuck outta my way! Get the fuck away from me!"
At least she'd see the Professor again.
"Get off...!"
The tearing noise grew so violent, she nearly fell head first all the way to the wooden ground below. All that supported her now was her ankles and her arms spun wildly in the blackness, her breath hitching, the blood dribbling in blobs from her nose and mouth. The darkness was all around her. She could feel her eyes pound as all the blood ran down to her head.
What...what was that?
The heaving, screeching, voice seemed to be getting closer...
Her eyes were steadily adjusting to the darkness...she could make something out down there...
Was that a...figure? On the ground? All the way down in the darkness? Someone who could save her? Her heart pounded wildly as she tried to gather her strength, arms still spinning, helplessly sucking in breath. Why wasn't this person on the ground trying to help her? Could they see her? Should she call out? She tried to focus her eyes even more.
The girl was dangling perilously from the curtains now, inches away from slipping entirely. She could here the panting behind her growing louder, louder still...
Was it...could it be...the sister she was trying to save?
Was it Buttercup?
Her pink eyes shone down brightly to the narrow strip of ground far, far beneath her. She made out the heavy form...it seemed to be lying on the ground. It seemed to be too heavy to be Buttercup. She wanted to yell out...but her throat was caked with blood, too hoarse to make a sound. The quickly slipping girl stared even harder then before, desperately trying to make out the shape.
Then she saw it...the eyes staring back up at her. They could see her! They could help her! They could...
Her breath caught in her throat and she choked back the horrified scream...
The person on the ground wasn't Buttercup at all. It was Mary, from when she'd been backstage, from when she'd been at kindergarten. Her blank eyes stared up at her from the darkness and now Blossom could see...could see the little black shapes crawling over her...like rats...the Rats. Mary was covered in Rats...
They were eating her.
Blossom wasn't going to vomit...she wasn't going to scream...because then they'd turn and they'd see her and they'd crawl up the curtains with their teeth and their eyes...and what if she'd called out before, what would've happened, oh god, that was Mary, Mary her friend since she was five...this couldn't be happening, it couldn't, this was too foul, this couldn't be real...
Her eyes were staring right into hers...wet and desperate. Her lips twitched and mouthed something and Blossom, cold with complete horror, made out the words help me as her body was nibbled slowly away.
She screamed. She screamed and she screamed and she screamed, until her throat tore apart with acid bile and the blood bubbled down out of her mouth. Screamed until her eyes bulged out and the spit flew in stringy rivulets...
Triumphant laughter cackled in her ears and someone grabbed her around the ankle, pulling her upwards, away from the half-alive corpse on the ground, away from the hungry Rats and...a slightly cracked bottle...a vial...it was slipping out from between her breasts and falling...falling. Wait.
She reached out and grabbed it easily. Grabbed it before it fell and shattered on the ground.
Turned around. Look into her face, insane with glee. There's cracks on her face and the make-up is so caked on, it almost drips off with her perspiration. There's red veins sticking out from within her wide bulging eyes...her lips are slick with saliva and her teeth are pointy and orange...
Bubbles was friends with Mary. Bubbles was friends with so many people. So many innocent people.
Up close you could see the bald patches in her hair, her skin so brittle and translucent you could count every bright blue vein, the very outline of her bony skull, see the scars and the cracks and the spots and the tears in her paper-like flesh...
And she let them die...die like that. Die like fucking animals and she didn't even care. She didn't even fucking care.
Her claw flew up in the air, sparking with power. The other pair of long, needle-sharp painted nails clenched vice-tight around her throat...her mouth was wide open like a smiling lion's jaw, her eyes popping out of her skull, spit flying from her mouth...
She was their friend...
Blossom's fist flew up and the vial of acid smashed in the creature's face. She howled and Blossom pushed. She went tumbling over her, over the railings but her claws grabbed the curtain just in time. The girl looked down to see her skin sizzling and burning, her bloodthirsty expression never changing, shards of glass sticking out of her brutally mangled face...
"I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU!" she shrieked and the curtain finally tore completely down, sending her falling all the way down to the starving Rats below.
Get Mary...
It's too late for her.
No...she's my friend...
You have to get Butch. It's too late for her...
There were screeches of agony and tearing, ripping noises below.
You have to run, you have to run now!
Why did everything hurt so?
C'mon for fuck's sake run!
The blood blinded her as she stumbled to get to her feet, nearly falling, before she gained enough energy to fly. She felt the skin from her ankle rip away as it caught on the railings and she screamed. Through the blaze of red in her eyes, she could see the set of stairs that led over the top of the curtains, down to either the backstage or the dance-floor.
She laughed hysterically, her voice almost feral as the wails below her grew louder. She launched herself forward, the pain in her ankle white-hot. She clambered up, struggling and twisting, before she managed to drag herself up onto the black metal stairs. She tumbled all the way down to the alcove below.
You could just go through the door backstage...
But Butch...don't forget Butch...
Her bare feet smacked loudly on the ground, burning pain shooting through her body as she raced onwards not even caring where she was going...through the destroyed remains of the corridors. Bodies were crawling weakly through the refuse...she ran blindly past them.
"BUTCH! BUUUUTCH!"
Where was he, where was he, where the hell was he?
Corridor after demolished corridor...
"BUTCH! WHERE ARE YOU?"
She wasn't going to fucking die here...
"Blossom? B-Blossom?"
She felt like almost crying with laughter. She sped towards the sound of his voice, nearly going head over heels, nearly crashing through one of the few standing walls...
"BUTCH?"
"Bloss-Blossom where are you?"
His voice was growing louder. He was near now. Then she turned the corner and there he was...with his hands up against a wall with a faintly glowing outline. His face was completely dripping with dark, red blood but his grin was wide and happy as soon as he laid eyes on her.
"Les's go!"
They crashed through the wall and down to that strange, unnervingly regal staircase. The huge, carved wooden door slammed shut behind them and they were sprinting down, down...away into the darkness...they were nearly home.
Her footsteps seemed slower...like some old, ancient force was trying to drag her back up to hell. She turned to Butch, saw his face contorted in agony as he tried to fight onwards...he was falling behind. There was a strange roaring in her ears. Everything seemed to be closing in on her.
Then Butch stretched out his hand and looked into her eyes. Blossom took it unquestioningly...and they ran and they ran...and the screaming in her ears was growing so strong now, she though her head was going to burst like a rotten tomato. They ran and they ran...the roaring noise like thunder waves crashing down on them, drowning them...
The rectangle of green loomed ahead. Then...finally...they were tumbling through it, hands firmly clasped together, tumbling out into Blossom's bedroom. She turned just in time to see the glowing red door, blazing like all the fires of hell were raging within, shrink smaller and smaller and smaller, until with a crack of scarlet light, it was simply a slip of paper once more.
Butch collapsed face first onto the mattress, heaving heavily. Blossom, however was still running.
"Where the hell are yer goin'?" he shouted after her, but she didn't bother to listen. It took her five seconds to run through the green-lighted, secret hideout, up the stairs and through the trap-door.
"Gill! Gill I found him, he's okay! GILL!"
She screeched to a stop in the middle of the pub. Her voice stopped in her throat. She looked around, mouth falling slightly open...
Dust, cobwebs and spiders coated every inch of the pub. The cracked walls and ceiling were coated with graffiti and years-old dirt and grime. The bar was falling to pieces, the stools were upturned and she could the nibbling sounds of bugs all around her. Litter, broken glass and rain puddles covered the floor, flying through from the smashed windows and doors. The only objects that looked like they had been used recently was a television, one lone, polished stool and a pet's food bowl on the ground. Other then that, the whole place was clearly deserted.
Blossom stood motionless as the wind blew around her. She heard the creak of the trap-door behind her but she didn't move, mouth hanging dully open. This couldn't be happening. This didn't make sense. This didn't make sense at all...
"For Christ's sake whaddya doin'? C'mon, you'll fuckin' freeze tah death out 'ere..."
She turned around, and her eyes were manic and brimming with tears.
"Where's Gill?"
The teen just stared at her confusedly. She grabbed him forcibly by the shoulders and shook him so hard, his head rattled.
"Butch where's Gill?"
He shoved her away and the tears poured down her cheeks. He looked at her, seeming almost frightened as if she was becoming hysterical.
"BUTCH PLEASE!" it was like her whole world was crumbling down, falling apart around her, all over again. Butch just shook his head and took a step back.
"Blossom...who the hell is Gill?"
A/N another cliffie derp. But yeah, gotta say a massive thank-you to the rather startling amount of people who reviewed the last chapter. You really made my day...made me feel special. And guilted me into writing faster. so yeah, when people review, I really do try to get out another chapter quickly. i feel really bad otherwise. anyways hope you enjoyed, (ya know i really was planning on doing that to Mary from the beginning :D) and peace out fellas!