The silence was somehow deafening. It seemed like seconds ago when V was lying on the cold ground, rain pouring down on her, blood pouring out of her wound while she was waiting for death or whatever salvation Judy could bring to her. Now, she was stuck in some sort of a surreal, vacant space, a dark abyss of sorts. Was she in a dream she might've found herself in because of her unconscious state? Or was she dead and this is what afterlife actually looks like? The thought alone was terrifying enough, but she did the best she could not to lose hope.
She was all alone, with her only companion being her mind. No Judy, not even Johnny was anywhere to be seen. While this dream state of sorts was confusing, she also found it somehow soothing in a way - a part of her didn't really feel like waking up, while the other part screamed out to whatever greater force could've been keeping her in this abyss, as she wanted to be back to normal and to see her loved ones again. Suddenly, a stabbing, severe headache appeared out of nowhere, causing her to scream out in pain. Even though her vocal cords were being used to their best capability right now, no sound came out.
The headache never disappeared, only getting worse and worse with every second. She felt as if her whole world was burning around. So many thoughts came in, filling up her head quickly as if she was in a state of hypermania, she couldn't process what was happening to her. Overwhelmed by the pain, she found herself collapsing on the ground and as she looked up, she actually saw fire surely burning down whatever this abyss was. The fire was starting to surround her, until…
"V!" a distorted voice called out, sounding like straight from an old, broken braindance recording
Sounds started to reappear suddenly, hurting her ears.
"Wake the fuck up"
The dark abyss around her collapsed.
/
Back to reality, the merc woke up in a dark, albeit familiar room. She was laying on her back on a comfy bed, staring up into the ceiling, with every inch of her body still hurting. She instinctively placed her left hand where the wound at the back of her head was, only to feel bandage wrapped around it. Her vision needed some time to adjust to the sudden change of scenery, but when it did, she instantly recognized this place as Judy's bedroom, but the girl was nowhere to be seen. The blinds were almost completely closed, letting only a little bit of light into the room. The door was opened and she could see a small part of the apartment through it, but she immediately noticed that orange light was effortlessly making its way into the kitchen, so it must've still been the early evening, the sun was already setting. After V's hearing was back to normal as well, she heard the muffled sound of water coming from the bathroom, so she figured that Judy must've been in the middle of a shower at the moment.
Her head still aching like hell, V turned to her side to see a familiar figure. It was Johnny, leaning on a wall next to Judy's wardrobe and taking a puff of his cigarette as he did so often. He was lucky to be just an engram inside her head, as the techie would probably kill him for smoking inside her apartment all the time. It was funny how even in this terrible condition, the first thing V thought about was Judy. This made her realise why she was here, as the memories of the terrible Relic malfunction she'd suffered through flooded her mind. Judy must've been worried out of her mind, seeing her in this state. Who wouldn't be, though? Seeing your output collapse on the floor in pain, bleeding from a wound in her head and losing consciousness rather quickly would send anyone into panic. V shivered as she imagined what Judy must've been feeling in the last couple hours.
"Finally." Johnny sighed, taking a puff of his cigarette "You've given your girl quite a scare, y'know?"
V liked how that sounded like - her girl. She smirked at the thought, but her mood was quickly ruined once again by her coughing and the constant headache.
"How long have I been out?" she looked at Johnny desperately, as if he knew all the answers
"I dunno, must've been a couple hours at least" he shrugged
"Fuuck…" V sighed, trying to get her up. She was stopped, however, by the overwhelming aching in her brain, so she decided to lay back down.
After a couple moments that felt like eternity, she noticed that the water in the room to her right has stopped running, meaning that Judy has probably finished washing herself. Some dirty thoughts of the two of them showering together, bodies touching each other came into her mind, but she tried to repress them to the best of her ability in order to focus on how she was feeling and find a way to tell Judy about how severe her condition really is. She knew that at this point, her output just had to know what was going on, she couldn't just run from the hard truth for eternity.
A couple more minutes passed and she heard the sound of a door closing just outside of the bedroom. The girl she adored so much walked out of the bathroom and instantly headed into the kitchen, not looking at the room V was resting in. Looking at her movement, V instantly noticed that the girl was feeling really anxious and tired, as well. Judy opened the fridge and spent a couple moments looking inside, probably searching for something to eat and/or drink.
"Judy…" V tried to get the girl's attention but her voice was so raspy and tired, that only a quiet, barely audible whimper could be heard.
After clearing her throat somewhat awkwardly, she tried again.
"Judy" she called out once again, trying her best to not sound as weak as she felt since the second she woke up.
The other girl instantly stopped what she was doing and turned around to see V laying there awake on the bed, trying her best to suspend herself with her elbows and look Judy in the eyes. Her heart was flooded with relief and happiness as she rushed to her weakened girlfriend.
"V!" she cried out, tears of happiness filling up her eyes. She sat at the side of the bed and embraced V into a warm hug, although being careful enough not to hurt her even more, all while repeatedly giving her soft kisses on the forehead.
"I-I was so fuckin' worried…" more tears fell from her face as she pulled out of the hook and sat there on the bed, all while cupping V's right hand in her own,
V smiled. She just felt so safe and comfortable with Judy right beside her, which made her instantly push away all the pain caused by the hell she'd just lived through before falling unconscious. She slowly cupped Judy's cheek with her other hand, wiping her tears.
"Th-thank you, Judy" V said in a weakened voice
Judy sighed and looked into the other girl's eyes. This time, a more serious expression was painted onto the techie's face.
"V, you seriously need to tell me what's going on." she said "I mean, I-I know it's because of this Relic thing, but… I didn't expect it to be this bad. I mean, you a-almost drowned yesterday, and now this… I was so fucking scared when I saw you there on the parking lot, I genuinely thought you were dying or something… I wanted to call your ripperdoc, b-but I didn't know his number, so I tried my best to make you feel okay…" she stumbled on her words, tears appearing in her eyes again
"Shh… it's okay." V said, a weak smile appearing on her face "You did very good."
She lightly pulled Judy in for a kiss, making the other girl calm down a bit.
"But please, V… tell me what's really going on…" Judy said in a serious tone
V sighed. She knew exactly how this revelation might take its toll on Judy, whom she loved so much. The poor girl has already suffered so much after losing Evelyn and, now, worrying about V's health. But… it had to be done and V couldn't let Judy be unaware of the terrible state she was in anymore.
"Judy I…" V's voice was trembling, as she looked for the right words to say "I don't know how much time I have left." she finished in a more quiet tone
She saw Judy's hopeful look turn into a painful, bordering on devastated gaze as she tried to process what she'd just heard.
"W-what…" Judy swallowed the gulp she suddenly felt in her throat "What do you mean?"
"This is killing me, Jude" V tried her best not to break down into tears "I feel worse and worse everyday."
The tattooed girl looked as if she was on the verge of absolutely breaking down into the tears. She closed eyes and took a couple deep breaths, holding tightly onto V's hand as if that would cure her from the curse brought by the Relic. V couldn't blame her for reacting this way, but she also hated to see someone she loved so much, hurt this way.
"I-I'm so sorry for not telling you about all of this earlier." a couple tears fell from V's eyes. "I'm so, so sorry, Jude… I just wanted to make you feel happy and safe but I can't stand the fact that when I'm gone someday… it would ruin you so fuckin' much…" V felt as more and more tears fell from her face, she was breaking down "I-if y-you wanted to… walk away from me or… I-I'd get it"
She looked up to see Judy breaking down into tears as well, with them leaving traces of her black eyeliner across her cheeks. Taking a deep breath again, the techie closed her eyes for a moment and shook her head.
"D-don't even say that." Judy said through the tear "I love you, ya gonk" she forced a smile onto her face
This calmed V down a bit. That would be the first time any of them openly declared love to one another.
"I-I love you too." she said, pulling Judy in for a hug again.
The two girls hugged for a long while. After pulling away, Judy kneeled beside the bed and laid her head on V's chest.
"Is there any way to help you?" Judy said softly, her voice barely audible
"I think…" V said "Me and Johnny are figuring something out but… y'know"
She felt Judy's cheeks move as she smiled a bit at the news. Her hope was back, at least a little.
"I'm just really fuckin' scared" the merc added after a while
Judy pulled away from V and looked her straight into the eyes.
"Whatever happens…" she started "I'll be here with you to the very end."
V felt a sudden heaviness on her eyelids again. She was really tired and all of those emotions made her want to fall asleep even more. It was like it was some sort of an escape from everything happening around here, and in that moment, she could really use some escapism. Although her mood was certainly elevated by how supportive Judy was towards her. That girl truly was a gem and she felt so happy to have her beside her.
"Go get some rest, mi calabacita" Judy smiled. She must have noticed V's tired expression. "I'll get you some water."
She softly kissed V's forehead before getting up and turning to the kitchen.
"Wait, Judy…" V called out, causing the girl to turn around in the doorway, raising an eyebrow "Thank you, for everything."
Judy smiled and turned around again, heading to the kitchen.
Johnny's flickering image appeared in V's vision.
"Wasn't that hard, was it?" the rocker said with a smirk, leaning on a wall with his hands crossed
"Telling her?" V asked, and he nodded "Yeah, it was pretty fuckin' hard. Thanks for your support"
"I'm not your damn babysitter, V" he laughed
"Yeah, yeah, stop with the bullshit" V sighed "What do you want?"
"My point, V, is that we need to act real fuckin fast" Johnny said "You got lucky that you were with your output this time, but what if it happens again. I don't want to see you dying in a dark alley somewhere in this shitty city, believe it or not."
V was about to reply with something, but she was cut off by Judy, who had just walked into the room, carrying a glass of water. She handed it to V, who instantly downed the entire thing.
"Damn, you must have been really damn thirsty, huh?" Judy laughed, surprised
"Mmhm…" V smiled, wiping her wet mouth with her wrist "By the way… what hour is it?"
"7PM"
"Fuck… I've been out for a long time, right?"
"Yeah…" Judy sighed, looking at the ground. She definitely didn't feel like coming back to the memory of rushing to a bleeding V, laying there in the parking lot in the cold rain.
"Anyway… try to get some sleep, okay?" she added after a moment "Make yourself at home" Judy smiled, before walking out the door and heading into the kitchen again.
V was left there alone, laying on the bed and staring out into the ceiling. After the terrible Relic malfunction, she was feeling at peace. With Judy by her side, everything seemed like it's going to be okay, even if she couldn't find a way to believe it sometimes. Maybe one day, after she finds a way to stay alive, they'd run away together and start a new life somewhere else. Together. That was a dream for which V would have given everything to come true. She never felt like this towards anyone and in a seemingly short time, Judy has proven herself to not only be a great person who could be trusted with everything, but also someone with whom V wanted to spend her entire life with. To be by her side all the time, make her happy and grow old together.
"You are my home, Judy…" V whispered, taking one last look at the techie, who was in the kitchen, before falling asleep.
/
The merc found herself in a dark abyss again, the same one from her last dream, although this time there were no signs of the fire that burned this place down the last time she was here. The atmosphere all around seemed a bit more somber, in a way she couldn't really put her finger on. She wandered around the vacant space, wondering about the meaning of those dreams that haunted her so much lately for no apparent reason. She noticed a car-like figure at the horizon, so she decided to approach it. Surprisingly enough, it didn't take her that long of a time to cover the distance - it was way shorter than it looked initially. That was another thing she noticed in the dream state - everything was so surreal and time and space felt very much distorted. The car turned out to be… a Delamain cab.
When merely a couple meters were left between her and the car, the back door suddenly opened. She hesitated before getting in at first, but an unknown force pushed her forward, forcing her to enter the cab. For a couple moments, everything was dead silent and nothing happened. That was the case until she suddenly heard gunshots. V looked out the side window to see… nothing. Nothing, except for the infinite void. She looked to her other side to see… Jackie. Dead. In the exact same position he was left there after the heist. V was frozen, staring into her best friend's dead eyes over again as all of the horrible memories of that initial moment flooded her brain again. What was the meaning of all of this? Was this supposed to be some soft of a representation of all of her fears, guilts and bad memories?
She closed her eyes for a moment, thinking that perhaps this would let her wake up from the nightmare. But after she opened her eyes, Jackie's dead body was replaced with something… way worse - something she'd never imagine to see in her darkest fears. The corpse of… Judy. V completely froze when she saw the bloody dead body of the person she loved the most. After a couple seconds, the terrible vision flickered, just like Johnny's engram, and disappeared, but the image of the dead girl was already burned into her brain. She remembered every single detail. Her girlfriend's blank, dead eyes staring straight into her soul with some sort of sadness, that made all of it feel too real. The blood that was slowly dripping from her nose and mouth… V closed her eyes and tried her best to make the horrible image fade away.
/
V woke up in sweat, fighting to catch her breath after what she's just witnessed in that horrifying nightmare. She looked around the room anxiously, as if she was expecting another terrible thing to happen. It took her a minute to adjust to reality again. After a second, she breathed out in relief. She was still in that same bed, this time she was covered with a blanket. V felt herself smile at the thought that Judy must've covered her in the night when she was still sleeping, to make her feel a bit more comfortable. The thought of her girlfriend reminded her of this fucked up dream she'd just woke up from, sending shivers down her spine, but the negative feeling disappeared immediately when she noticed a sticky note placed just at the side of her bed.
"Hey sleepyhead
I had to go to my studio at Lizzie's but I brought u some breakfast, mi amor :)
It's on the kitchen counter!
Enjoy 3"
V smiled at the note and felt a feeling of warmth and love fill her heart. It was something about the way Judy wrote all of it, that made it really adorable. After looking at an alarm clock which was sitting at Judy's desk, she noticed it was already 6 AM. Damn, she really did sleep a long time that night.
"Ugh, I'm gonna puke from all that fuckin' sweetness" Johnny appeared in her vision with… a cigarette in his hand… as he always did.
The girl rolled her eyes at his remark and tried standing up. Her knees almost gave up on her as she did it, making her have to grab onto the desk for a little bit of balance at least. Even though everything hurt like hell, she started walking. One step at a time, she slowly but surely made her way to the kitchen all whilst leaning on a wall.
"Hmm, Johnny, I've been wondering about this thing." she suddenly said, making him turn his attention to her "These fucked up dreams, do you think they mean anything?"
"What they mean is that your psyche is beyond fucked up cause of this Relic" Johnny took a puff of his cigarette
V rolled her eyes again. He was right though, she knew that she didn't have much time left if she didn't do anything, and these dreams could've been a sign of her degrading health as well.
There was a bag of some food and a cup of coffee in the kitchen. V immediately recognized them as they were from a local diner she frequently visited whenever she was doing some gigs in the neighborhood. She opened the bag to see a big sandwich with locust pepperoni, cheddar cheese, salad and some BBQ sauce. The merc started eating immediately, a grin appearing on her face. She hadn't eaten this good in days, probably. After taking a sip of coffee, it instantly occurred to her that this was a latte with sugar, her favorite kind. Even though it got a bit cold, it was still very damn tasty. It was so sweet of Judy to remember what V's favorite drinks and food were.
A couple minutes later as she was finishing, V decided she'd text Judy to thank her for the food and everything else.
"Hey Judy, just woke up, haha. Anyway thanks for the food, I'll be on my way out now. Love ya!"
After a couple more minutes, a response appeared on her phone's screen.
"no problem :) love ya too :*"
"be careful tho. and if whatever happens, call me immediately okay?" another text appeared a second later.
V smiled upon reading Judy's text.
"Don't worry Jude, I'll be careful! Thanks again :)"
After throwing the empty bag and cup into the trash can, V got dressed. She made a mental note to immediately go to her apartment to get some new clothes as these ones were still wet and dirty from when she collapsed in the rain.
Smiling on her way out, V smiled and walked out of the apartment, locking the door behind her.
