Welcome to Chapter 11.
After the house Alex leaves to find the others. This chapter is about them finding Warfstache. It is right after and around the events of "Wilford Motherloving Warfstache".
Side note: if you have already read this something is different. I changed the original 40 years to almost 100 years.
I am sitting around in a hotel room. Waiting. There are bright clothes strewn about the place. A single bed and a nightstand. There is a strange device on the wall that if you press buttons it shows moving pictures. He is not very clean. This is not my hotel room.
When I left the manor I had managed to find a newspaper. According to the newspaper almost 100 years had passed. It does not seem possible but it is true. The world is so different. New kinds of cars. Strange handheld devices that people can talk into. New clothes. It all seems… chaotic.
I have been able to track down William fairly easily. Abe seems to always be right behind him. I am in his hotel room now to try to talk with him. I know Mark is somewhere out there. Doing hell knows what. I can feel it. His power
But Damien…. My Damien. I cannot find him. It is almost like he has disappeared off the Earth. Maybe he is just in hiding for some reason.
I walk around the room more. My powers have been growing more and more. I discovered aside from my new wings I am able to teleport and make objects move. The more I begin to think about what the mysterious voice said it makes sense.
The sound of keys jingling pulls me away from my thoughts. The door opens and a man with a black mustache with pink on the edges walks in. He is wearing yellow pants and a silk long sleeve pink top. On his head is a bright pink afro wig. As he walks in he does not notice me even though I am standing close to the door.
That must be another trait. Hidden in plain sight. I stay quiet and watch what he does. He pulls off his wig revealing his messy brown hair underneath. His hair has grown quite a bit more now. He sets the wig down on the bed.
"I guess I need to leave this place now. The Detective found me." The unmistakable sound of William's voice comes from his lips. It sounds… different somehow. He starts picking up some of the clothes on the ground and a suitcase seems to appear on the bed.
Interesting. I keep watching him move around. Maybe I should say something. "William." I say and step forward.
"What the hell?!" He pulls out his revolver from his side and points it at me. His eyes… his eyes seem different from before. Not so full of life like they used to be. "How the hell did you get here?" He pulls the hammer back on his gun. I hold up my hands to show him I am unarmed.
"I wanted to check on you." I say with a small smile. He studies me and squints his eyes.
"Have we met?" William asks and slowly lowers the gun.
He does not remember? Well it has been a long time. He has not seemed to have aged a day. "Yes we have. Remember me?" I keep my distance but lower my hands.
"You…" He pauses for a minute. "Alex?" He slowly says and his eyes widen. "Alex is that you?" At the sound of my name I almost break down.
"Yes. It is me. William." I smile a little bit more and he tosses the gun onto the bed. He pulls me into a hug. I can feel him shaking.
"You are here! Where have you been?" He questions after a minute of him hugging me.
"I… it does not matter. I am here now. How have you been." I ask and pull away. I look up into his eyes.
"I have been on the run from the Detective. He has been trying to 'hunt me down' and put me in jail. I just want to have fun." His smile reaches almost to his eyes. But there still seems to be pain in them. "Oh! I no longer go by William anymore. These days I go by Wilford Warfstache."
"Interesting name." I comment and make a mental note to call him just Will from now on.
"You look great." He puts his hand on my shoulder. "But why are you here? Not that I do not like seeing you or anything. Just why now?" He questions with a puzzled look on his face.
"I… I only just a few weeks ago made it out of the house." I admit and glance away. He is so different now.
"Good different or bad different?" Will asks and picks up a glass. It has some kind of pink liquid in it. I stare at him for a second.
"How did you…" I shrug it off. "You must have gotten something from the house as well." He takes a sip of his drink. "And I am not sure yet. Change is sometimes good."
"Very true very true." He goes back to cleaning up the mess he has.
"Listen Will… I… I wanted to tell you something." I watch him as he cleans up.
"What is it Alex?" He looks up at me from a bent over position while picking up a shirt.
"I… I had a lot of time to think at the house… I wanted to apologize for how I acted during the party." I say and look at my hands.
"I do not remember much from that time… memories start to get jumbled after a while. It is hard to keep everything straight." I look over at him and there seems to be some kind of flicker about him. Like he shook be he is still standing there still.
"Well… I blamed you. I blamed you for everything that happened. But… but after Mark." I clench my fists and can feel my anger rising. I take a deep breath before I continue. "I realized I was starting to turn into Mark." I look back at him.
"Oh… well I forgive you. Nothing heals like a good apology." Will stops for a minute. He picks his drink up again and sips it. He sets it back down and keeps picking everything up.
"Where are you going?" I question and sit down in a cushion chair. It sounds like it squeaks as I do so
"I am not sure. I am wanting to see if I can find Damien where ever he is. I have not seen him…" He trails off and finishes packing.
"I have been trying to find him as well but… I am just not sure. He… he could not have gone very far…" I think aloud and walk out of the hotel room with him. The sun is just barely starting to set. It is casting a beautiful orange hue across the sky.
"Then we go back to where it started." Will simply says and walks up to a car. He pulls out keys. I watch him warily.
"That is all so far away. How are we going to get there?" I question and slowly get into the car with him.
"Well we can drive for about 4 days or we could fly there." Will states and starts up the car.
"Fly?" I question. How do we fly…
"Yeah. It only takes about 8 hours." He looks at me as he drives onto the road.
"I guess we should do that." I look out the window trying to figure out how we are both going to fly. After a few minutes of silence he Will speaks up again.
"So you have really been stuck there for almost 100 years?" Will asks as he swerves around cars in traffic. I grip onto a small handle coming off of the ceiling.
"Y-yeah… I was alone there…" I shake my head to get rid of the memories.
"Well the world is a lot different now." After a few seconds he adds. "A lot more accepting too you know. You will fit right in." He smiles as I look over at him.
"You mean… I do not have to worry about…"
"You do not have to worry about it. There are still some people set in the old ways but most are very accepting." He glances over at me. The pain in his eyes seems to slowly leave.
"I am very glad about that." I look back out the window. We pull into a parking lot. The sound of something loud almost like thunder rolls overhead of us.
"I am guessing you don't have an ID do you?" Will questions as he parks the car.
"No… why do I need that?" I ask and he pulls out a small card. It has a picture of himself on it with his name and a few dates. I chuckle at the birthdate. "That is definitely not your Birthday."
"It is how you will get on the plane. Hmmmmm." Will looks around the car like it will have answers. I stare at it for a minute.
"I wonder…" I whisper to myself and close my eyes. If the manor could do it… maybe I can. I concentrate on an image of my very own card with my own information on it. I open my eyes after a few seconds and there is a second card in my hand with my information on it. "Here." I turn to Will who is looking in his shoe. "I… I got one."
"Great!" He exclaims and takes his card back. "Let's get going. Do you have any luggage with you?" He questions and looks around again.
"No I am fine." The next thirty minutes or so is filled with hundreds of people pushing through each other. Loud beeping noises. People yelling at everyone. It is utter chaos. I have never been around this many people before. I cling onto Will's arm.
Do not worry. Ol' Warfy knows how to get through here. The sound of Will's voice is suddenly in my head. I glance over at him and blink a few times. He winks at me as we finally make it to what I think is called a gate.
"There are so many people here. And so many… new things." I look out the window. "I still do not quite understand how we are flying."
"You will see. So you have never flown before?" Warf asks as he sits down next to me and offers some of a muffin that he has. My stomach growls a little as I take a little piece off the top and pop it in my mouth.
"Well…" My mind goes to me flying around in the air. He stands up and grabs my hand.
"Here let me show you." He walks over to the window and points at a strange… metal object? "We fly in that. It is called a plane."
"It… does not look very safe… I vaguely remember hearing about it..." I comment doubting the soundness of the weird object. I watch as one goes up the road and goes into the sky making that loud roaring noise as before. I shake my head.
"I promise. You will be fine." We walk back together to our seats. I watch the people walking around me. Some are in suits others are in what seems like skin tight pants.
"Everything is so different now…" I press my fingers to the side of my head. I can feel Will's hands press against my back gently in comfort.
"The world is beautiful now though. Well kind of. Here." He hands me a small device and pushes a button. The screen lights up. "Read through some things in here. It should help you get a feel of the new world." He presses a button and shows me how to work it. I spend the next hour or so reading up on a few things.
"Now boarding flight 2702 to Los Angeles, California." A lady's voice calls over head. William gets up and grabs my hand gently.
"That is us. Follow me." He gently pulls me into a line of people. I can feel my heart starting to race.
Too many faces. Too many people in one space. I can feel myself shaking a little. Warf touches my hand gently and pulls me closer. The warmth comforts me a little. Once we get up to the podium I hand my ticket to the woman.
"Thank you Miss Costello. I hope you enjoy your flight." The woman says with a smile and hands our tickets back to us. We walk down a hallway.
"It is going to be okay. I promise." Warf whispers in my ear. I nod slowly as we walk through a circular door. There are rows and rows of seats that are slowly being filled. We find our way to our seats. We find our row and Warf gets into the middle seat. There is some young looking man sitting next to the window. I take the aisle seat.
"People are looking at me." I whisper to Warf. It feels like everyone is watching me.
"No they are not. It is okay." He places his hand on mine which is gripping the arm rest. I slowly close my eyes for a minute to calm down. I take a deep breath and concentrate on one thing. The feeling of his hand on mine.
It is going to be okay. I slowly open my eyes again and look at Warf. I smile gently and pull my hand away. "Thank you for this." I take another deep breath as the people slowly seem to stop entering onto this plane. I pull out the phone again and flip through a few more things in the news.
A few minutes later a woman's voice calls from some kind of speaker overhead. She talks about safety procedures that do not help my rising fear again. I take another deep breath. I can feel the thing start to move. I grab Warf's hand as I can feel the plane start to get faster. A high pitched noise seems to get louder as well. There is pressure on my chest as the plane seems to be taking off into the air. After a minute the pressure goes away.
"See it was not so bad." Warf smiles and pulls his hand away. "Here look at the menu and get anything you want. It is on me." He hands me a folded paper. I glance through the little book.
"What the?! This is really expensive!" I say in surprise but try to keep my voice lowered. Warf looks over my shoulder at the prices.
"Oh yeah… Well they are a little higher here but it is about normal." He comments and grabs his own booklet. It has pictures of wine bottles and other alcoholic drinks on it. I shake my head and decide on the veggie wrap.
After a few minutes a woman walks by asking what everyone wants to drink and if they want to eat. Warf and I place our orders. I start to look around where we are. Looking at some of the people. Warf takes the phone away from me for a minute while he pushes some buttons.
"Here you should be able to look at some more things online now." He hands it back to me as well as these things that go over my ears. He calls them headphones and sound comes out of them.
I flip through more articles. Something catches my eye. Youtuber Markiplier Donates to Cancer Funds the title reads. I click on it and am met by the face of Markiplier. My old boss…
What is going on? I read through the article. His full name is Mark E. Fischbach and he apparently make gaming videos on the internet. I keep looking and see that in some photos he has the golden streak in hair but in others he doesn't. It cannot be two people… can it? I press a few links and it sends me to some videos. Is this what he has been up to this entire time.
My thoughts are interrupted by the woman passing back by with our drinks and food. I put away the device and take off the headphones. I pick up my wrap and take a bite. I close my eyes enjoying the taste. I can hear Warf beside me opening his small bottle of alcohol and putting it into his own drink.
"So what do you think of the new world?" Warf questions as he brings his cup to his lips. I touch my own drink in thought.
"It… it seems very chaotic… and I think I found Mark… but it is confusing." I slowly sip my own drink. There is a faint taste of alcohol in mine. Warf winks at me and sips his. "But I have been finding out what I am. Or who I am."
"Oh?" He asks and takes a bite of his own food.
"Yes… I believe it is called Genderfluid." I say with a small smile. "I never quite understood before but now it makes sense. I am glad I am not alone." I eat a few more bites into my wrap.
"Yeah in my time out of that place I have discovered more and more about myself as well…" After a few more minutes I finish up my meal and let out a small yawn. "Get some rest. We have a whole day of searching when we land." Warf adds.
I close my eyes and drift off to sleep. Everything is black for a minute. I hear the faint sound of wind blowing through trees. I concentrate harder.
My vision seems to get brighter. I am in a forest covered in snow. The faint sound of grunting and the crack of an ax hitting a tree sounds above the howling wind. I slowly follow the noise. There is a man standing there in front of a large tree. He is wearing a large coat. White snowflakes land in his messy black hair. His hair goes down to his shoulders. With a sound like thunder the massive tree falls. The man turns revealing light grey eyes and a scruffy beard. He does not seem to see me.
"Damien?" I question. It has to be him. He looks…. He looks almost directly at me.
"Who is there?" The unmistakable sound of Damien's voice comes out of his mouth. I hold my hand to my mouth to suppress my emotions. They all come flooding in.
He cannot see me. Damien…. He steps closer to me. I take a step back. He looks at the ground where I was standing. There is a small pink flower directly where my feet were.
"Huh… You do not die easily do you…" His beautiful voice trails off. He shakes his head and gathers the wood together. He slowly trudges his way through the snow for what seems like miles. The soft crunching noise of his boots sinking into the snow is added to the symphony of sounds.
Maybe this will give me a clue where he is at. I keep following him quietly trying to suppress my urge to scream at him. We make it to what looks like a cabin in a clearing. There is smoke coming out of the chimney. There is a glow coming from inside. I can see the figure of Celine standing in the window. Her eyes lock on mine. Can she see me…
Damien chops the wood into smaller pieces. I stay outside while he walks inside. I can hear faint chatter as they talk amongst them. I look around and start to notice something. All around looks like it is trapped in glass. Like we are in a box. My thoughts are interrupted by the sound of the front door slamming.
Celine walks out of the cabin and walks into the woods. I follow her. Once can no longer see the cabin she stops and turns to me. She raises her gun at me.
"How the hell did you get here?" Now that I am up close I can see her eyes are grey as well. There are dark bags under her eyes like she has not slept in years.
"You can see me?" I question and hold up my hands. "Why can't Damien?"
"Because I am protecting him. You need to leave this place. We are happy here." Celine slowly lowers her gun. "I repeat. How did you get here?"
"I am not sure… I just fell asleep and then I am suddenly here." I admit. Her voice does not have the usual sting it has when she talks to me.
"If you can find us… he might find us soon." Her voice trails off a little. "You need to leave this place. There must be a crack…"
"We are trying to find you guys." I start to say more but she glares at me.
"Stop or else you will ruin everything again." She growls.
"I did nothing. I did not cause any of this." I try to explain. The wind seems to be blowing harder now.
"If it wasn't for you he would not have killed Damien." I can see her red aura start to show as her anger rises.
"He killed Damien because he is a psychopath!" I can feel my own anger rising. Celine gets a… scared look on her face.
"You… your aura. It looks like that house. Why?" Celine questions.
"It does not matter. We are going to find you two." I say and watch her eyes turn darker. not in anger… but in defeat. She looks tired.
"I have worked so hard trying to protect him. I… I do not know how we will survive outside. Everything is different now…" I can see tears starting to form in her eyes. She looks down at the snow at our feet.
"I know we never agreed in the past… but yes, the world is different. I will be there to help you and him. No matter what." I calmly say. She slowly looks up at me.
"Maybe… maybe I misjudged you… Maybe… maybe you are okay." Celine says with a small smile. "If anything does happen here… and he gets out. Protect Damien for me. I won't be able to." I nod and can feel something shaking me.
"I will find you guys." I slowly disappear and wake back up to Warf shaking me.
"Good morning sleepy head. We made it." His bright voice says. I look around and people are getting up.