The house was filled with the delicious smells of Boomer and Bubbles' homemade pork roast, the aroma twining in and out of the room as the fresh air blew in from the windows. The two blondes had gotten along so well during their first 'hang out' that they decided to do it again. Meanwhile, empty bags of chips and candy wrappers littered the living room floor as well as a pile of video games. The TV was split into two separate screens as Butch and Buttercup competed with each other in Mario Kart. Today was the first time that the greens weren't at each other's throats and it was mainly because they were so caught up in the game. There wasn't any talking going on between the brunettes, but the blondes were as chipper as ever. All in all it was a beautiful day and everyone seemed to be getting along, well...everyone except for two read heads.
Blossom sat on the stairs, watching her siblings and the ruffs, but never really focusing on them. She wanted to be happy for two pairs but couldn't dig herself out of the pit of guilt she had become buried in. All she could think about was how badly she had messed up and how she wished the Professor was still around to help her. She was a leader and it was her job to find a solution to the problem. It was up to her to help Brick. But how?
"Blossy!" She lifted her head as Bubbles bounced over to her. "What do you want for dessert?"
She tried to summon up a small smile but found it to be impossible. Instead she simply shrugged. "Whatever you want to make."
A frown instantly formed on the blonde's face. "You've been really quiet today...is something wrong?"
Blossom shook her head. "No, just a bit tired is all."
Bubbles raised an eyebrow and glanced around. "Hm, now that I think of it, Brick isn't here...could your sad mood have something to do with him?"
Blossom sighed, there was no point in lying to her. "You know me too well. Yes it's about him and what happened a few days ago."
"You mean during the monster attack?" Bubbles questioned.
She nodded slowly. "I don't think I ever told you, but when I saved Brick...well, I had to sort of crush Him's heart over him and now he basically has Him's powers plus his own."
Bubbles' jaw fell.
Blossom continued, needing to get it off her chest. "And one of his new powers is dark magic which you can tell from the name is...dark. I told him not to use it but the monster had pulled me under water and I got electrocuted, he didn't really think, he just was so mad that he chose to use the magic in order to take down the monster. But the magic possessed him and he lost control. No matter what we said he wouldn't stop hurting it, even when it was already defeated. He was going to kill it, so Butch was forced to knock him unconscious." She massaged her forehead. "I thought when he woke up he'd be fine but he wasn't. He was...different. So I took him to the training room hoping I could figure out a little bit more about the magic. Instead he lost control again and came after me."
"Oh Blossom..." Bubbles wrapped her arms around her sister and hugged her close. The gesture pulled at Blossom's heart strings.
"I just don't know what to do. I have no way to help him. No way to protect anyone if he goes after them. I don't have a single idea as to how to handle this except for-" She bit her lip. "F-for-" She began to shake and Bubbles squeezed her, laying her head on Blossom's shoulder. "Bubbles, what if I-what if Brick...never gets better? What if this is where it ends? What am I going to do?" She hugged her knees to her chest. "I-I love him, Bubbles."
The young blonde rubbed her sister's back soothingly. "I know, Blossy, I know. But you can't put this on your shoulders alone...we all need to help you. Brick's brothers are worried, I'm certain of it. Boomer has been off today, more distant. And you can even tell that Butch is distracted, look." She turned her head and indeed, the green ruff was looking at the TV but his fingers were still, he wasn't even playing. "They care about him and want to help. And Buttercup and I care about you and we are not going to let you do this on your own."
Blossom looked at her. "But what can any of you do? We can't just take away his powers, it doesn't work that way. I don't want to say it but...he's dangerous right now. If things get worse he could hurt other people and no prison could hold him, there's nothing that could stop him. What, Bubbles, what can we possibly do?"
Bubbles now bit her lip and glanced away, her blue eyes widening with concern.
"Bubs! The blue one started a fire!" Buttercup's shout came from the kitchen, which she had apparently just walked into without their noticing. Bubbles flashed Blossom an apologetic look, the latter giving a subtle nod, before immediately getting up and running in to address the situation. Butch decided to join in on the entertainment, leaving the pink puff by herself in the living room. Blossom knew that her presence was a disturbance to the sunny atmosphere, and chose to get to her feet and walk out the door. A short stroll could help ease her mind and hopefully it would give her an opening to think of an idea.
The vision came when she turned the corner onto Malum street. At first it was a plain sidewalk lined with mailboxes and flowers, a peaceful neighborhood that glowed in the evening sunset. Her thoughts were just beginning to slow into present time, her mind settling, worries being pushed aside. And then she blinked herself into a nightmare. The ground transformed into one of cracked rock, splattered with blood and littered with bones. Her head rose and she saw no houses or sunsets, but peeling walls, ashes raining from the ceiling, a cave of death. The air immediately left her lungs and a thick smell of rotten, mucky decay filled her nose. She turned and keeled over, dry heaving. Her sinuses were on fire from the invasive toxic stench. It was then that the cold overtook her, sending her into a fit of shivers, even though it was the middle of summer. A breeze swept by, frozen and carrying the essence of death. It was so familiar, too familiar. She knew where she was. She simply didn't want to remember.
But the dissevered eye that rolled by her feet was unforgettable. A gleaming yellow iris winked up at her and she felt a sudden, sick yearning to see Him. Without thinking, she followed the entrails of blood and guts to the same body that she had left behind, devoid of a heart. It was as ghastly as ever, with moss growing out of the empty eye socket, worms weaving through the chest cavity, pulsing underneath the red skin, and a brain now resting on the floor. The gash on the side of the head had deteriorated into a large hole which the brain had fallen out of. This was where the smell was strongest.
She knelt down, despite herself, and looked at the decaying body of her childhood nemesis. She almost felt a flicker of sympathy for the strange demon, being killed by your own son wasn't a death she hoped to ever endure. But she didn't know the qualms between the ruffs and their 'fathers', so the sympathy was short lived. Instead her mind became drawn to the open chest cavity.
"Could this be the way to save Brick?" She asked herself. Him had been the solution before, could he be it again? She frowned and leaned back on her heels. Her gaze flicked up to the surrounding darkness. 'What even is this? Am I actually here, or am I hallucinating?' She couldn't explain it even if she tried, but for some reason being there felt normal. She didn't fear the fact that she could be seeing things nor that some ethereal magic could have brought her there. All she knew was that it was necessary. But why?
She got to her feet and began to walk around, looking for some form of an answer or clue. The pile of bodies was still there, now stripped of all flesh. A cloud of ash fell over her as though there was a disturbance up above. She looked to the ceiling.
There wasn't one.
She shuddered, turning away from the deep, dark, endless abyss. Nothing in this place made sense. It went against basic physics and questioned all science, even more so than her own existence did. Then again, Him was a demon and demons weren't real according to science...but clearly Him was real. She went to the wall and slowly brought her fingertips to it. At her touch, the peeling debris broke off and fluttered to the ground in small pieces, just like burnt paper. She reached out to place her hand on what was behind the pellicle fragments.
Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.
She whipped around at the sound, her heart leaping into her throat, and squinted into the darkness. A large shadow moved against the others in long, thin shapes. The tapping continued in a synchronized pattern, almost like heels clicking against the floor. She held her breath. It was getting closer. The shadow was stalking forward, towards her. Her heart thudded loudly and she feared the thing could hear it.
Tap. Tap.
She didn't move a muscle. It stopped, directly in front of her, but still hidden by the shadows. And then a long leg stepped into her line of sight and a body followed it.
She shouldn't have been surprised and deep down, she doubted that she was. Yet a gasp still escaped her lips.
"Well hello, Blossom." Just like it used to years ago, her name still came out in a vicious growl from the demon's mouth.
Despite the body lying nearby, he didn't look the slightest bit dead. Hell, he even looked better than the last time she saw him alive. He flashed her a malicious smile, sharp teeth shimmering, and looked at her with a pair of still-attached, golden irises. Her knees buckled.
"...Him?" Her voice was pathetically weak in the silence and the demon laughed at it.
"Why so scared? It's not like we haven't met before." He was still dressed in his signature red, pink dress and styling thigh high stilettos. It made her cringe. He pinched his goatee with one of his claws and hummed.
She narrowed her eyes at the taunting demon. "No, but you're dead. Or at least I thought you were..."
A high-pitched chuckle split her ears and she winced. "Blossom, I thought you were supposed to be the smart one?" His frilly voice echoed in the otherwise silent cave as he moved closer to her and she shifted to the side. He lifted one of his red claws and slid it along her cheek, his face much too close. She could smell death on his breath and her core trembled as she looked deep into his luminescent glare. All at once, fear seized her and she darted away from the demon. Her legs carried her off, to another wall, dead end. She turned around and tried to find an exit. Wall. Again. Wall. There was no way out. A sharp, solid grip caught her forearm and she was yanked back to her original spot with a squeak.
Him's eyes still glowed, but this time it was with rage. He didn't even attempt to talk sweetly. "You listen here you little brat! This is not a game. I'm here for a reason and I only have so much time to explain. Don't you dare run away." She gagged on the reek of his breath. "Do you understand me?!" He roared so loudly that a pile of ash rained down onto them.
'You're the one playing mind games.' She thought bitterly but held her ground, forcing back the terror. She had faced worse. "I don't understand, actually." She hissed back with just as much authority. "How and why are you here? You're supposed to be dead."
He had to take a moment to turn away and salvage what bit of patience he had left. With a sharp breath, he whipped back to her and it was like a switch was flipped. His face split into a huge grin and the recent rage disappeared from his glare. His voice took back it's honey-like tone. "I am dead, yes, but I am also a demon so my soul can travel wherever."
She narrowed her eyes, ignoring the fact that the demon was terrifyingly bipolar. "And the why?"
He turned his nose up at her but explained anyways. "You should know why. It's been eating away at you for days."
She paused momentarily, raising her brows in question, and then her gaze traveled to the side, where she presumed the body to be. "Brick."
He nodded. "Brick." She hated the sound of his name on the demon's tongue.
"Are you here to tell me that I've failed and that Brick is now your puppet?" Her voice came out empty and gray, a reflection of her inner emotions.
"Not quite." Him purred as he began to walk around the room, his body seeming to radiate like a red glow stick. "You see, my son has a very critical situation at hand. Ever since you transfered my powers to him, he has been fighting an inner demon. Dark magic was intended for evil deities such as myself. Our composition is able to contain the powerful magic, but a half human like Brick's is not. He now has his original superpowers combined with my own, an unsubstantial amount that will possess and ultimately destroy him, along with everything else in this world. No non-demon should ever hold that much energy. The effects will be catastrophic."
Nothing he had said was surprising to her, nor was it news. But if he wasn't here to laugh in her face then what was he here for? "Why are you telling me this?"
His pernicious gaze locked on hers. "Because I can help."
Her eyes went wide for a split second and then she narrowed them, questioning the demon's intentions. There was no reason for him to trick her, he already had Brick wrapped around his claw. But why would he help? They hated each other, not to mention Him had always wanted to watch the world crumble and Brick had killed him.
"You're over thinking it." Him suddenly said, pulling her out of her thoughts. She blinked. "Of course I would love to see this world crumble, but only at my hands, not my corrupted son's. Unfortunately though, I'm dead, so I can't destroy it. And my only other option, as degrading as it is, is to-..." He sighed sadly and put a claw to his forehead. "...save it."
She was silent for a moment, tilting her head at the demon.
"You can...read my mind?" She asked.
He looked at her as though she was stupid. "Do you not recall Brick's ability to control that monster you were fighting? You can't control someone's mind and not be able to read it."
She blinked again. "...oh." So that meant Brick had been able to read her mind this entire time. Oh god. Her cheeks changed color. 'Maybe he doesn't realize he can read minds.' She tried to reassure herself but failed and resorted to covering her face with her hands.
"As embarrassing as that probably is, we have more important matters to discuss." He spoke to her and she simply nodded along. "Brick has a lot of power threatening to burst from within him, dark magic specifically. And as surprising as it may be, the solution is quite simple. All you have to do is-" He paused.
She frowned and looked up from her hands questioningly. "...what are you doing?" The demon was moving his mouth, but not speaking.
Upon hearing her words, he turned to her and his eyes immediately narrowed. His lips began to move more rapidly, but all she heard was her own heart beat.
She stepped forward, hoping to hear better, when Him vanished. She jumped back. "Him?" Her voice echoed against the walls. "What's going on?" In Him's place, a cloud of darkness began to roll towards her. She stumbled away but there was no escaping it. Her head tilted back as the void of shadows above her collapsed. It fell over her head in a deafening roar and her eyes slammed shut. She swayed as her body became weightless, her knees gave out, and she was scooped up into the darkness with a scream.
Her eyes shot open to the sight of a paved sidewalk stretching into a horizon full of bleeding colors, bordered by a set of peaceful houses. She bent over suddenly and gasped as though she had not been breathing for the past few minutes. Her lungs felt like they were on fire, sizzling with every breath she took. 'Must've breathed in too much ash.' She thought jokingly to herself and her heart stopped. She looked around at her surroundings. It was her neighborhood, nothing changed, even the same time. She knelt down and touched the pavement, the rough surface grazed her fingertips and she flinched. Had it all been a hallucination? Was she going crazy? A flock of birds flew over her head, their melodious singing reached her ears. If it hadn't been a hallucination, then why couldn't she hear Him? Why was she back here? It didn't make sense, she had to be over thinking. The stress was getting to her, that's all it was. She just needed some sleep. Yeah, she would just turn around and forget about all of this. She was going to go home, lay down, and-
She rubbed her arm out of habit and pulled away at the odd lump she felt. Her gaze flicked down and her stomach instantly dropped.
A red welt wrapped around her forearm, it's jagged outline resembling the razor sharp edges of a claw. Her eyes went wide.
It was directly where Him had grabbed her.