Author's Note: I can't believe I'm saying this, but there's just one chapter left after this! (Well, maybe two, but as of now, I have only one in mind, but we'll see how long-winded I become in the conclusion!) I really enjoyed writing this story, even if I haven't been able to update as consistently as I would have liked, and I hope you are enjoying this still, too. Thanks again to everyone who has been reviewing and silently following along, as I appreciate it! I hope you enjoy this next installment, and as always, please leave a review! - iamacliche
Chapter 23
As soon as we stepped through the threshold of the door, we were instantly plunged into darkness, and I felt my heart drop into the pit of my stomach. Panic consumed me, nibbling away at my thoughts and my sanity, but I attempted to breathe in and steady myself, and I squeezed Daphne's hand, which was still intertwined in mine, and I hoped she wasn't as horrified as I am. It takes my eyes a second to adjust, but as they do, I began to distinguish my surroundings. I could see the outline of hockey sticks and other miscellaneous sports equipment jammed in the corner of the room the box has dumped us in, and the room itself had a sharp, pungent scent to it, almost like sweat and dirty clothes.
"Where are we?" Daphne whispered, her hand beginning to shake in mine. I shook my head, not realizing that she probably couldn't see me in the darkness. I reluctantly wandered away from the box, trying to temper my hope so that I'm not disappointed again if this isn't our home. I silent the screaming voice in mind telling me that this is it, this world was our last shot, and now we're stuck with whatever we've gotten ourselves into, when the outline of a door frame catches my eye. Propelled by adrenaline alone, I guided us toward the door wordlessly and pushed through, with Daphne still trailing behind me.
The second we stepped outside, I could plainly see the outline of the fence that encircles our school, along with the football field and the stadium perched behind the building, despite the fact that it's evening and the only light outside is emitted from the stars stitched together in the sky. And as I gaze upon the school and the football stadium, somehow I know it's the very same field where Daphne and I were cajoled into marching into the gym at gunpoint. I craned my neck to look at the building we've just emerged from to see that the box has dumped us into the school shed, which is where the coaches and teachers keep sports equipment for gym classes and sports events, and suddenly an idea slams into me. Releasing Daphne's hand, I move towards the side of the shed, looking frantically for the proof I need that tethers us to this world, our home world. Daphne follows me without speaking, and I know she intrinsically knows that I'm looking for the initials the five of us engraved into the side of the shed after our first mystery, the very same mystery I had detailed in the notebook moments ago. The act had been a pact of sorts, something bold and tangible intended to proclaim our friendship and our shared passion for mystery solving. As I run my hands over the wood, wincing when a splinter grates against my finger, my heart knocked against my ribcage, and when my fingers brushed against the "F.J." clustered near a constellation of four other initials that I know all too well, I'm not sure if I want to cry or laugh or throw-up in the grass, or all three.
Daphne placed a hand on my shoulder and rubbed her other hand in circles on my back, and when I felt her touch, I realized I was shaking. "Freddy," she said gently. "There's still a small chance that this world is a close resemblance of our own, but isn't quite – "
She was interrupted by a scream that pierced the night sky; the scream was the kind of pained, guttural shrill that a wild animal emits just before it is hunted and killed, or the kind of scream that insinuates someone has just been dumped by his or her significant other –
Or the kind of scream loosened from the throat of someone who has been stabbed to death.
The thought breezes into my mind, and I feel as though I've been submerged in a bathtub full of ice cubes. Daphne and I shoot each other a frantic look, and I see the panic in her eyes, which are wider than golf balls, and I point towards the school. "I think it's coming from the gym," I say breathlessly, despite the fact that I haven't even been running. Daphne reached for my arm and in a second we're off, running towards the school and shoving our way through the familiar doors of Coolsville High School and fleeing past lockers and poster boards with announcements that were advertised for events coming up from before we were kidnapped, before our lives were uprooted and changed forever, and when we finally reach the gymnasium and heave ourselves through the double doors, both of us stop dead in our tracks as we take in the sight before us, and I instantly felt my heart plummet into my chest as my body went simultaneously numb with fear and enflamed with rage.
Standing before us with their backs turned against us was Velma, Scooby, and a multiverse version of Daphne. The two of them were grouped around Velma, their arms slung around her defensively as tears silently rolled down her cheeks. All three of them were casting angry and disapproving glares at a multiverse version of Fred, who had the annihilated scraps of a net bunched around his feet.
And then I see the multiverse Fred not only standing next to Shaggy, but gripping Shaggy in a neck lock, with a knife angled dangerously close to poor Shaggy's neck.
Immediately a dose of adrenaline slams into me as the room spins and slacks around me; I'm hit with a wall of noise as I register Velma, the multiverse Daphne, and Scooby all screaming and begging the multiverse Fred to spare Shaggy's life. Shaggy's eyes are bulging out of his head and tears are silently streaming down his neck, and when the multiverse Fred leans in real close and narrows his eyes into thin slits, I can hear him whisper faintly, "Any last words then, Shaggy?"
Before anyone can move or breathe or cry another tear, Daphne and I rush forward, moving in tandem and boosted by blind rage, and somehow I manage to scream out without so much as a waver in my voice, "STOP IT!"
Immediately, everyone pauses, even me and Daphne. Velma stops crying and slowly drags her gaze towards us, and when she sees us, her mouth drops open, but no words come out. The multiverse Daphne's hands fly to her face and I hear her gasp, and Scooby's tail begins wagging. But the best reaction is the multiverse Fred, who clearly wasn't expecting me and Daphne to ruin his plan. He looks as though he is staring at a ghost, which, I guess is true to a certain extent. His face has drained of any color, and his mouth is opening and closing shut rapidly, like a fish. Thankfully, he is so thrown that he lowers the knife from Shaggy's throat, and Shaggy shimmies out of Fred's loosened grasp and speeds over to his friends, collapsing into Velma's arms and sobbing as Scooby licks his best friend's face over and over.
"No way," I hear the multiverse Fred mumble. "No way – it…it can't be!"
The multiverse Fred stumbles back a few steps, and Daphne and I step towards him. My body feels as though it is on fire; my face is burning and the tips of my fingers feel as though I could shoot flames from my limbs, and my legs are throbbing, screaming with the desire to take the multiverse Fred down and end this whole nightmare for good. But then he seems to regain his composer, and a new emotion floods his face, one I can't easily distinguish. He smirks, as though he knows a secret that everyone else is dying to hear, and he speaks, pointing the knife in me and Daphne's general direction as he talks, saying, "Well well well, look who actually managed to make it home. Sorry, if I had known the two of you would actually come back, I would have had a nice Homecoming party all ready for you."
Every part of my body is trembling, from my arms and hands to my legs, and my heart is pounding so loud that I feel as though certainly everyone can hear it, but this is a powerful kind of rage; this rage has been brewing since the moment Daphne and I discovered we were uprooted and planted in a world far from our own, and now I was ready to spit all that blinding white heat into the multiverse Fred's smug face.
"How. Could. You." I snarl as I eye him, taking a step towards him as I spit my words out vehemently, which causes the multiverse Fred to take a step backwards. "How could you do this to me and Daphne?! Do you know the shit we had to go through just to find our way back home! We honestly thought we would never make it back here and see our friends and family again! How could you do something so selfish?!"
"And you, too!" my Daphne adds, turning to point an accusatory finger at the multiverse Daphne, who gasps and reels away from Daphne as though she has been struck in the face. "How could you live with yourself, as well?! What the hell is wrong with the both of you? Don't you have a conscience?!"
The multiverse Daphne looks visibly upset; she keeps swallowing, as though she can't spit out any of the words she wants to say, and her eyes are glazing over, indicating that she is about to cry. "But I, I, I– " she stammered.
"Oh, she thinks she feels guilty, but I certainly don't regret this one bit," the multiverse Fred interrupted his own girlfriend as he rolled his eyes, as though he's above this whole exchange. "And I'm still going to get away with it," he adds, nodding subtly towards the knife he's holding in his hand, which causes my heart to stutter.
"Just what do you think you're going to do, stab us all?!" I ask, hoping the panic doesn't bleed into my voice as I eye Daphne beside me and my friends shaking as they stand across from Fred. The roof of my mouth suddenly was coated in a sharp, metallic taste, and a shiver snakes down my spine as a sense of foreshadowing ghosts across my mind, but I attempt to breathe slowly and calmly, telling myself that there is no way we can lose because he is outnumbered. Without breaking my eye contact with the multiverse Fred so as to tip him off, I sweep my gaze around the gym, attempting to mentally calculate how to take him down without harming any of my friends.
The multiverse Fred chuckled, his laugh ballooning to the point where he's nearly crying as he looks at me, and I feel my anger flare. "Ohh Freddy, how sweet of you to try and play the hero," he laughs. "You forgot one thing though – you and I are essentially the same. In fact, I would venture to say we're better than best friends, you and I, and that I know you better than you know yourself – "
"Don't listen to him!" Daphne whispers vehemently beside me. "He's just trying to get into your head – don't let him do it!"
"And I know you want to play hero and save the day and beat the quote unquote 'bad guy' here, but you're the only bad guy I see here," the multiverse Fred continues. "Why don't you just admit it to your pathetic little friends, Freddy? I gave everyone what they wanted here."
I feel the goosebumps spread across my arms, as though a breeze has skirted through the gym. "Fred, like, what is he ta-ta-talking about?" Shaggy asks from where he is standing, sandwiched between Velma and Scooby, with the multiverse Daphne strangely close to them, as well.
"Awww, Freddy," the multiverse Fred croons with fake sympathy, his voice dripping with saccharine, which makes me want to smash my fist into his face. "You mean you didn't tell your friends and your girlfriend how you wanted to go into the multiverse the millisecond Velma unveiled it at school? You didn't tell them how you knew that they were going to leave you behind the second you all graduated from high school, and you wanted to see if the multiverse could show you a world where you were mister cool and mister popular, a world where you actually had a future as bright as they all did?"
"You're disgusting!" Daphne spits her words out as though she's tasted something bitter and raw, her piercing glare aimed directly at multiverse Fred. "And look who's talking, Mr. Hypocrite! Freddy may have been curious to see what his life was like at other points, but what human isn't curious, even a little? And he would never be fucked up enough to actually kidnap someone at gun point and coerce them into the box itself! You can't even compare him to what you and your girlfriend have done here!"
"She's right, Freddy," the multiverse Daphne chokes on her own tears as she watches beside our friends, and I flinch, confused as to what her angle is here. "You can't talk, because you went and took things one step further!"
"Oh for crying out loud, you did it too!" My Daphne snaps, and again the multiverse Daphne looks stung, as though she is offended. "Why are you acting all innocent here? You were right there next to him with a gun in your own hand! As far as I could tell, no one made you do it, sweetheart!"
"Daphne," Velma says, quietly and gently. "You don't understand – "
"No Velma, she's right," the multiverse Daphne says, tears streaming down her face, and I'm too stunned to say anything in response. Is the multiverse Daphne truly remorseful here, or is she trying to lower our guard? After all, her boyfriend has a knife and she came here with him, so what other reason is there for her to act this way? What does she have to gain? And why are Velma, Shaggy, and Scooby standing next to her as though she isn't a liar?
As if she can read my thoughts, my Daphne cried, "Oh, cut the bullshit act – it's obvious you're just trying to play us all so you and your boyfriend can try and get away with this, but Freddy and I are back now, and we aren't going to let you two usurp us from our own lives any longer!"
The multiverse Daphne is crying harder now; she is gasping for breath as her mascara trails two dark streaks across her cheeks, and in a shocking moment, Velma tenderly wipes the tears from her face. I can't help but shake my head, baffled that Velma would be bought over by her crap. "I don't know how I can ever convince you both that I do feel guilty about what I've done," the multiverse Daphne says through hiccups and sniffles. "But Daphne, I mean it – I am truly so sorry. I never meant for things to get this far, and I –"
"Okay Daphne, that's enough!" the multiverse Fred cut his girlfriend off again. "Okay, fine, maybe she feels guilty, which is strange, because I sure as hell don't feel bad at all. And Fred, your little girlfriend is right; maybe I was a hypocrite for getting on your case about wanting to investigate the multiverse a bit. Fine, I'll admit it; I wanted what you had in your world. I'm sure my ex-friends all told you once you figured out what was going on, but we disbanded Mystery Incorporated months ago, and even though I had an awesome car and the hot girlfriend and a football scholarship to pretty much any school of my own choosing, I craved the mysteries and the memories with my old friends. Sure, I definitely had everything I ever wanted, but losing my friends haunted me. None of them would talk to me anymore, for whatever reason, and Daphne and I were starting to miss their company," – and here the multiverse Daphne bowed her head toward the ground, as though the guilt was physically pressing her shoulders; her eyes were closed, and more tears escaped from her eyes – "so I came up with this plan to swap lives with you and your girlfriend. It took some persuading on her part, but she missed everyone too, so it all worked out, or would have if you hadn't so rudely returned."
The multiverse Fred narrowed his eyes at me as he continued speaking, his face hardening, and he spat, "Just admit it, Fred; I handed you, both of us, what everyone secretly wants. You wanted to know what it felt like to be mister hot shot and have a promising future and adoring parents, and I wanted my life back the way it was. I even sent your girlfriend with you so you wouldn't able alone – aren't I considerate? So I'm not sure why you're so mad at me, Fred."
I'm trembling and shaking violently, and I'm so blinded with pure emotion that I'm not sure if I can answer him concisely, but I point to where my friends are standing and screech, "I'm mad because I don't want the life you tried to give me, Fred! I'm mad because you took the life I built around solving mysteries and being with my best friends."
"You had your chance with your version of Mystery Incorporated back home!" my Daphne adds, her voice just as wobbly and strained as mine. "You should have stayed with them all those months ago, instead of fucking up our own lives and making us go through the multiverse to get back home!"
"You just don't get it," the multiverse Fred sighed, as though he was growing impatient. "You see, every moment contains a choice, but life isn't perfect, and sometimes, we make the wrong choice. When we make the wrong choice, especially one that drastically alters our lives for the worse, we live in a state of regret, and isn't that the worst feeling in the world? Right, Daphne?" he looked to his girlfriend for support, but she was still sobbing and sniffing, and looking towards the ground, so he shook his head as though he was disappointed and shifted his attention back to me and my Daphne. "Well, I know that at the very least, Velma – both my old friend Velma, and your Velma – can relate to that feeling to a point, because she built something that would eradicate that horrible feeling of regret. All Daphne and I did was find a world where we still had the friends and the mystery solving, and then we rectified that feeling of regret."
"But you abused my invention!" Velma screamed, her eyes aflame with an anger I had never seen Velma exhibit before. "I most certainly did not build the multiverse with this intention! I swear, my plans were pure; I wanted to eradicate world hunger and war, not the feeling of regret as you keep insinuating! Life doesn't work the way that you've described; you have to live with your choices, and learn from your mistakes. You don't cheat the system!"
"Ahhh, very wise words coming from the inventor of the multiverse herself!" the multiverse Fred began to clap his hands sarcastically, and again, my mouth feels as though it's filled with copper or pennies, and I know I'm dangerously close to puking. "You can say what you want, Velma, but you're only contradicting yourself as the creator of that box. And besides, it doesn't even matter now, because I'm still going to get my way. I'm going to take out these Fred and Daphne imposters, and then my Daphne and I are going to take their place as the real versions of those two!"
In spite of the dark circumstances and fatal situation the multiverse Fred is suggesting, I can't help but chortle. "Okay Fred, so your plan is to kill us, and then take our place? So let me get this straight here; so you kill me and Daphne in front of everyone else, and then what? What does that get you? It won't make our friends want to be friends with you, obviously."
I watch this piece of information register with the multiverse Fred, who flinches for a moment, but his posture and the knife in his hand don't waver. "Fine then, Freddy boy – you make a great point," he sneered. "But then if I can't have them, neither can you, so I'm going to make you sit back and watch me take down everyone you love!"
"If you even try to come near any of them with that knife, then I'll take you down first," I snapped. "You're too far away from everyone else, and I'll reach you before you can hurt them, and I'm going to stop you from getting to them, even if it kills me doing it."
"Freddy," Daphne murmured beside me. "You won't do this alone, we can take him down together, I know – "
But then he reaches into his back pocket and pulls out a small gun, and when he aims it right at my Velma and Shaggy and Scooby, who scream and cry out in terror upon seeing the gun, I feel as though the air has been sucked out of the gym.
"WAIT!" I screeched, throwing my hands up in the air. "Don't do anything! What if we make a deal?"
The multiverse Fred's face hardened and he glanced in my direction, but the hand holding the gun didn't falter. "What are you talking about? What kind of a deal are we talking here, Jones?"
I take a deep breath as I attempt to steady my nerves, and I feel something prick at the back of my eyes and my heart gallops in my chest at the proposal I'm about to vocalize, but when I look at Velma and Shaggy and Scooby, I've never been so sure of anything else in my life.
"Take me instead, and leave my friends and Daphne alone," I say as calmly and slowly as possible. "This is between you and I now. Let's fight it out and see who wins here; if you win, then you can stay here and have my place, and you and your Daphne can keep your lives, but you have to promise not to hurt my friends and Daphne. But if I win, then you and Daphne have to leave, and go back to your Coolsville."
"FREDDY!" My Daphne shrills, gripping my arm. "There's no way we're going to let you agree to those terms! Are you crazy, Freddy?! He has a gun! There's no way you're going to beat him in any sort of fight!"
The multiverse Fred laughs, and for a moment, I've never been so horrified in my life. "Your girlfriend is right, Freddy; surely you know that you won't win in a fight against a man with a knife and a gun, but your idea is good. All right, let's make a deal then. I promise to fight and kill you, right here and right now, and in exchange for your life, I'll take your friends, and I'll claim my place as Fred Jones, leader of Mystery Incorporated in your world."
"NO WAY!" My Daphne is screaming now, incredulous, as she looks between me and the multiverse Fred and grips my arm even tighter now. "There is no way I'm going to let you do this, Fred! We can fight him together, really!"
"You better reason with your girlfriend there, Fred," the multiverse Fred chuckles. "Because in a minute, I'm going to make you watch me shoot her, and then you're next!"
I felt a lump rising in my throat, and my tongue felt thick and heavy, like sand paper. I turned to Velma, Shaggy, Scooby, and the multiverse Daphne, who are all silently crying as they watched us. "Can you guys come here and get Daphne for me, please?" I managed to croak, my voice cracking with emotion as I speak.
"Freddy, don't do this!" Daphne begged, the tears falling from her eyes shamelessly. As Velma, Shaggy, and Scooby, wordlessly moved towards us, they trudged slowly and painfully, as though they were marching in a funeral procession. Seeing them walk to us, Daphne flung herself into my arms, and I could feel her heart beating erratically in her chest as she sobbed into my arms. I bit my lip to keep from crying as I inhaled her apricot scented hair one last time.
"It isn't fair!" she wailed. I could feel the sleeves on my shirt soaking with her tears, but I just ran my hands through her hair and tried to focus on holding back my own tears; instead, I committed to memory the way she felt in my arms and her apricot scented hair, and I allowed myself to be consumed with memories of our first kiss and first dance. "It isn't fair!" she repeated, as she continued sobbing and hiccupping. "We just made it through the multiverse and we were almost killed multiple times, and now that we're back home, I have to lose you?! This isn't right! I won't leave you, Freddy! I won't let you go through with this!"
"Baby," I whispered, and I instantly hated myself for the hitch in my throat that betrayed the tears in my eyes. "I love you so much, but I have to do this to save all of you. Please don't make this harder than it has to be. I can't let anything happen to you all; this is the final thing I have to do as the leader of Mystery Incorporated."
"You don't have to do this!" Daphne wailed. "Let me fight him with you!"
"There's no way," I said more adamantly. I pulled my face out of Daphne's hair to see that Velma, Scooby, and Shaggy were now encircling us, and I willed myself not to waver as I stared at their tear stained cheeks, instead affirming how lucky I was to be dying for four amazing people who I loved so much. "Daph, there's no way I can let you fight him with me. You're right, it's awful that we had to go through the multiverse, but I promise this is almost over, and you were so brave. This isn't easy for me either, but I have to do my part as leader of Mystery Incorporated and make sure you are all safe. I promised to keep you safe when this all started, and I'm not going back on it now."
She leaned in and kissed me then, and that one kiss was filled with all the passion and love she had conveyed in our entire relationship. It was laced with sadness and crushing despair, and she tasted salty, like the tears that slipped down her cheeks, but there was still that familiar tinge of warmth layered beneath her kiss, and I vowed to let this kiss be the final thing I remembered when the multiverse Fred turned the barrel of the gun into my face.
"Okay, tick tock," the multiverse Fred snapped. "Come on now, I'm doing waiting around, Fred. Have your friends take your girlfriend, and let's move it!"
Daphne gripped my arm even tighter, and I thought she was going to wrench my arm right off from how hard she was holding onto me. "I'm not moving!" she cried. "None of you can make me go!"
I felt hollowed-out and numb as I turned to Velma, and luckily I didn't have to say anything before Velma stuttered, tears trickling down her face once more as she turned to Daphne and gently said, "Daphne, sweetheart, Freddy is trying to save our lives. If we don't move right now, then this selfless gesture is going to go to waste. Please take my hand, and let's stand beside your, er, let's go stand next to the other Daphne."
I didn't think it would be enough to convince Daphne, who looked at me with a blank look in her eyes, as if I had already been shot right in front of her. "Like, please don't make us carry you, Daph," Shaggy whispered softly. Scooby whined and pawed the ground.
Daphne shook her head and kissed me once more, softly, and pulled away, covering her hands in her face as her body was wracked with tears. Shaggy clapped my back, once, and murmured that I was the best friend I could ever ask for, while Velma's eyes filled with tears as she told me she was so sorry for ever inventing the multiverse. I just smiled at them and gestured towards Daphne, who was still trying to cling to my arm. Shaggy and Velma sighed, defeated, and gently looped their arms through her's and pulled her towards the multiverse Daphne, who stepped towards my friends and Daphne tentatively, like an uncertain child. I had to blink my eyes and do a double-take when I saw both Daphnes standing together; both were somehow wearing the almost exact same outfit, with the small difference between their purple skirt and matching jacket being the green scarf wrapped around the multiverse Daphne's neck.
"Daphne, I am so sorry," the multiverse Daphne said softly, as she moved gingerly towards my Daphne. The multiverse Daphne tenderly placed her hand on my Daphne's back. "I promise you, I will do anything I can to prove that I'm sorry and to make this right, and –"
"MAKE THIS RIGHT!?" My Daphne yelped incredulously. She slapped the multiverse Daphne's hand away from her, causing the multiverse Daphne to flinch as the hurt flooded her face and crimson filtered into her cheeks. "It's a little too late for that now, Daph! Thanks for kidnapping me and taking my boyfriend and I far from our home and now letting your boyfriend shoot mine right in front of us! I'm not so sure what there is you can do to make this right at this point, so just shut the hell up and leave me alone!"
The multiverse Daphne set her jaw firmly as she stared at my Daphne, but her eyes still looked visibly pained and crestfallen. "I mean it," she murmured. "I'll show you, I can make this right again!"
"Okay, now that that's over with, it's time to get this over and done," the multiverse Fred said. "Freddy, prepare to – "
But he didn't get to finish his sentence, because in an instant, I had unzipped my jacket and thrown it onto his head, causing him to become distorted, and I rushed him before he could even have a chance to recover. We both fell onto the ground, and the knife he was holding in his left hand clattered to the ground and slid somewhere out of my peripheral vision, while the hand that was holding the gun smashed against the smooth gym floor. Somehow, he kept his grip locked firmly around the barrel. I drew my fist back to smash his face but in one fluid movement he yanked the jacket off of his face and shoved me off him, hard. Slightly thrown, I rolled onto the gym ground, and before I could jump back to my feet the multiverse Fred drew his foot back and kicked me swiftly in the gut three times, knocking the wind right out of my lungs every single time. In the distance, I could hear Daphne screaming and crying, and I could hear Velma and Shaggy begging the multiverse Fred to stop.
"Ohhh Fred, you thought you stood a chance, and I can't blame you; I would fight for these friends of your's, too," the multiverse Fred sneered as he stood over me. He thrust the gun just inches away from my face and grinned, and he placed his fingers around the trigger. "Any last words, then?"
They say your life flashes before your eyes just before you die, and as my ears registered the distant noise of Daphne and Shaggy and Scooby and Velma all screaming, I could actually see my death coming on the horizon, and I was speechless as a fleeting image of me as a little kid floats into my mind. In the memory, I'm five years old, and I'm dribbling a soccer ball through the backyard of my grandparent's house. It's a warm spring day, and I can practically feel the sun kiss my cheek and see the clear blue sky stretched above me, and I'm guiding the ball towards a space between two maple trees, which I've designated as the "goal." And in that moment, in spite of everything, I can't help but think, "Why is this the last memory of my life as I'm on the brink of death? Was I the happiest I had ever been in that moment? The most pure, the most myself, the most innocent?"
The multiverse Fred is about to pull the trigger when we both pause, stunned to hear Daphne scream, "STOP!"
And then everything happens in slow motion, and time feels as though it stops.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw Daphne running towards us, with the knife that the multiverse Fred had dropped when I rushed him yielded high above her head. Her face was streaked with tears and her hair was sticking up as though she has just run through a storm, but her eyes are fixed upon us firmly, and the blue irises are enflamed with intent, and she's staring at the gun in the multiverse Fred's hand. I feel as though I'm swimming underwater, trudging too slowly against a current and hearing noises from below the surface of a wave as the sound of everyone else's screams are muffled. The multiverse Fred slowly and calmly raised his gun and aimed it at Daphne, and I feel as though I've been zapped by electricity. I jumped to grab his arm, but I'm too slow and it's too late, and I watch as his finger presses on the trigger, and I know I'm screaming because my throat is raw and hoarse, but I don't hear my screams or my friends screams or even Daphne's screams, I don't hear anything except the bullet that is dislodged from the gun, and I just stand there and watch helplessly as a small black hole pierces Daphne's sternum and the bright red blood spills out of her and streams down the center of her chest, and her mouth drops open in shock while the knife plunges from her hand and onto the floor, and just before she collapses I see her mouth trying to work, I see her pink petal colored lips sputter, trying to form a question, a name, my name, she squeals, "Freddy?" and in an instant she topples over and crumples to the ground in front of us, and I'm still screaming and crying, even as I collapse to the ground beside her and cradle her in my arms, even as my hand flies to her chest to check for her heartbeat and feels no rhythm beneath my palms, and when I pull my hand away my fingers are stained with her blood, it's too bright and red and it's everywhere, and I never thought I would see the day when her blood is everywhere it's all over me, it's sticky and warm, and I keep screaming, and I keep begging her to be okay, even though I already know she isn't okay, even though I already know I'm already too late, even though I already know she's dead and gone forever.