Disclaimer I do not own anything from Code Geass or The Crooked Man.
So, someone asked me why America exists here. I don't know. I guess it slipped out of my mind that America didn't exist anymore. Well it does now!
By the way, in this story, Fluffy is not a ghost or whatever, he's just a regular boy and he never met David, because then it'd be so weird because I have to deal with how old he is by now and yet still make sure it matches with C.C.'s time line.
C.C. licks the grease from her pizza as she walks down the hallway. Just about everyone knows who she is by now. They did question her existence. Nobody knows where she came from. Not even Jeremiah knows that she's actually what the 'poison gas'. When Nunnally announced that C.C. is allowed to stay here, many people have asked many times where she came from. She always answers vaguely. Then, she pauses in the middle of gnawing the end of her slice. Where is her fuzzy orange blob? She must've abandoned her poor squishy creature in Lelouch's room, she hopes that Cheese-kun does not hold negative feelings against her for forgetting him. She opens the door to Lelouch's room, ready to retrieve her stuffed object.
"Ah?" C.C. lowers her eyes at the woman sitting on the desk, holding a clipboard. "Oh, I'm sorry, but can you leave us in peace? I'm just a therapist," The lady asks politely.
C.C.'s eyes attach themselves to the cheese blob within Lelouch's arms. Aw, how cute. Lelouch flushes, after all, he's caught squishing C.C.'s lovable stuffed creature. He really is cute that way. However, the adorableness of the scene in front of her isn't going to keep her from attempting to kill Lelouch for touching Cheese-kun. "Don't worry, I'm just here to collect an item of mine," C.C. glares at Lelouch. Lelouch tosses Cheese-kun, and it goes flying over the therapist's head, and C.C. easily grabs onto the item, and automatically pulls it to her chest, snuggling it close. Then, as she's about to leave the room, she hesitates. Something's wrong. No, she's wrong, she has to be. She twists her head back. Where is the Crooked Man? He's nowhere hanging around Lelouch. Fear causes C.C. to dig her long nails into Cheese-kun. Where is he? C.C. stalks out of the room, slamming the door shut behind her as her mind quickly spits out every single idea and conclusion she can make from what she just saw.
Her senses heighten. Why would he just suddenly leave Lelouch? The only reason for that is if he found a new target. But Lelouch is broken, most likely willing to give into him, he was so close to getting him. So...why would he just abandon his weaken prey? Oh no. Is he going to go after her? Her hackles rises at that thought. No, she's just being ridiculous. She got over him, a long time ago. Even though he stayed around for so long, he finally left, going after this other man after losing interest in her, and possibly realizing that their lives weren't as close as he thought. She quickly shoves the rest of the pizza into her mouth, grinding the gooey cheese. So that means there's someone else here that he wants.
"Do you wanna know another story?" Fluffy chirrups happily to his new-found friend. "My mommy isn't my real mommy."
"Oh, so she's like a step-mom?" Miss Kallen concludes. Fluffy nods.
"Yeah, but like, my old mom left me behind." Fluffy explains. Miss. Kallen's eyebrows scrunch together, as her wide smile curls downwards.
"I'm sorry to hear that."
Fluffy chooses not to cry right now. Rather, he blinks back the tears on this subject, and continues to have his smile plastered across his face. After all, Mom doesn't like it whenever he cries, she gets mad. Kind of like his current mom right now. "Yeah, she left me in a hospital." Fluffy explains. "I was in this hospital place. It was dark an empty. Mommy went to go get whatever she left behind, she told me to not move, and that she was looking for something. Then I saw the same man."
"Oh, What man?" Miss. Kallen asks, her tone light as though she knows that she's treading on thin ice. Fluffy doesn't like that she thinks that he'll cry at her words. He knows better.
"It's the same man from earlier," Fluffy whispers. "I saw him in the hospital." Fluffy stiffens, and he's unable to continue smiling by this point. "I-I thought maybe that was why he was in the hospital. Because his neck was bent. But the hospital was abandoned and dark, it was nighttime, I don't know why he was here so late. And...when I asked if he saw my mom," Fluffy is reluctant to continue by now. He turns to Miss. Kallen, who is listening attentively. "He said...'Found you'. I locked myself in a bathroom stall," Fluffy's breaths are now coming out uneven and his voice becomes raspy. "He tried to get me!" Fluffy's volume rises to a shout.
Miss. Kallen grabs onto Fluffy's shoulder. "Whoa, don't shout please," Her voice echoes in the empty ballroom.
Fluffy shakes off her hands. "He tried to get in! He started to bang on the door, he wouldn't let me go!" Fluffy hiccups, but he refuses to cry by now. He might've cried then, but not now. "Then, this man walked in. He said he heard me screaming and shouting, and asked me why. I pointed at the monster, but he acted as though he wasn't there! He then sent me to Mister Policeman. Mom didn't come and get me after that."
"A monster? Are you sure?"
"Yeah!" Fluffy sniffs. "I didn't know who he was though. And...there was this rubber, plastic embryo thingy, and he ate it!" Miss. Kallen's face contorts into disgust. "Finally, this woman took me in after a day or two. She became my mommy after that." Fluffy says. "I saw him standing behind Mister. Lushlush."
"Okay, first, just call Mister. 'Lushlush', Mister. Lulu, it just sounds less weird that way," Miss. Kallen demands. Fluffy murmurs an 'okay', but he's unsure what that has anything to do with this. "And...you know, I think you were just imaging things, you said you were in a dark hospital, right?" Fluffy nods. "You probably just imagined it. I get scared of monsters in the dark too," Fluffy scowls. this might've cheered him up long time ago, but he's sure that Miss. Kallen right now is just fibbing to make him feel better. "After all, how can someone eat something rubber?"
"I know it sounds stupid! I know it sounds like I'm lying, but really! There was this monster, I didn't imagine him!" Fluffy hisses. Don't cry, he repeatedly commands himself. He's not going to cry right now. He won't. He shuts his eyes, waiting for a couple seconds before opening them, making sure that the tears have retracted. "You think I'm just a little boy scared of the dark?" If so, she guessed right, but Fluffy doesn't mention that. "I know that he was there! And-" Before he can continue to vent out on Miss. Kallen, the double doors yawns open. A woman clutching an orange thing walks in.
"I thought I heard someone shouting," The girl's dull, feminine voice is surprisingly soothing despite the lack of emotion. She walks closer, and crouches downwards, her bangs flopping as she does so. "Who are you?"
"I'm Fluffy." Surprisingly, the girl doesn't question his name, which is the first. "Who are you?"
Rather than answering his question, the girl turns around. "So, are you the new victim the Crooked Man is after?"
Kallen watches silently as Fluffy stares at C.C. Then, a smile adorns Fluffy's angled face. "Ah! I know a song called the Crooked Man!" Fluffy cheerfully laughs. "Do you want to hear me sing?"
"No. I want to know your story. About why is the Crooked Man after you." C.C. asks, and Fluffy cringes at her harsh tone. Kallen bites her bottom lip, C.C. could at least try and be nicer. "After all, why would such a monster be after a young boy? How did you ruin your life so quickly?" Honestly, nothing really startles Kallen anymore. After learning about Geass, she's just about willing to believe whatever C.C. says, which often leads up to her taking advantage of Kallen's trust. However, Kallen doesn't understand why now she's talking to Fluffy.
"I saw a monster before!" Fluffy gasps. Kallen frowns. Is his supposed monster real? "He was really scary!"
"Did you happen to have a bad life? Or did something bad happen?" C.C. asks curiously. "Even the smallest thing, because the monster eats off of sorrow, I'm guessing that even if something smaller, like parents dying or something? If that happened, the kid, especially at such a young age, would have more emotions and that'll attract the Crooked Man much easier."
"My mommy left me in a hospital. And then the man tried to get me! His head was all bent! I trusted her, I kept on waiting in the hospital," Kallen flinches Fluffy's eyes water, causing them to shine underneath the light cast down from the chandelier above them. "I stayed there, for so long, waiting for Mommy even though I knew the monster was in there!"
C.C. crouches down, so that her head is slightly lower than Fluffy's. "You still waited, though you have obtained the knowledge that the monster wanted you? Of course that'd make the monster more eager, you put too much faith on your mom, causing your heart to break even harder." C.C. muses.
"Wait are you saying that this monster is real?" Kallen scoffs. Then, she hesitates to continue onto her next sentence. After all, didn't she see something remarkably similar to how Fluffy described his monster earlier. "Actually...there was this thing, I don't know, I couldn't find a logical explanation, so I told myself it didn't happen." Kallen admits.
"Tell me." C.C. commands.
For once, Kallen is eager to follow C.C.'s words, even though she's usually annoyed by C.C.'s demanding orders. "He was behind Lelouch. I was talking to him, and then, I just saw him! His head was all bent, and he had a huge smile." Kallen struggles to define the man. After so much effort of trying to forget him, she's sure that she also tried to blur his face out of his mind, causing Kallen to have a hard time to recall his actual visage.
"That's enough." C.C. mutters. "I get it. After he gets Lelouch, I guess that you're his next victim." C.C. explains, leaving Kallen threatened.
"What'd you mean by that?" Kallen hisses. C.C.'s eyes are still focused on Fluffy, who's failing to discreetly wipe away his tears, but Kallen decides not to mention him crying, she's pretty sure that he wouldn't like that.
"I know a lot about you. You and your brother was close, and then he died. You and your step-mother would always mistreat your real mom," Kallen flinches, and she clenches her fist. How can C.C. talk about this so nonchalantly? This unfeeling asshole! "Then, finally, you decided to fight when it's too late when your biological mother was arrested for overdosing on Refrain."
"Shut up! How do you even know about this?" Kallen hisses.
"What's wrong Miss. Kallen?" Fluffy asks anxiously. Kallen however, focuses her anger and attention on the female alien who doesn't even bother to make eye contact with her. There are times when Kallen and C.C. gets along, usually to insult Lelouch, but other than that, Kallen always feels like she's constantly battling with C.C. And she doesn't even understand why. Maybe it's jealousy, but Kallen opposes that.
"I hear things," C.C. answers simply. "I do not understand why the Crooked Man didn't go after you then. After all, you could've related with him by then. I guess it's because you continued to fight at that time. However, he started to notice you when Lelouch came back, I think. Seeing him must've made you confused. I have a feeling if Lelouch wasn't the center of his attention at that time, he would've went after you. I guess he revealed himself to you just to scare you." C.C. slowly stands up. "I guess that even if Lelouch does die or get over the Crooked Man, which seems quite unrealistic by this time, it doesn't matter. He'll go for you two. Of course, unless, Kallen," C.C. actually addresses the girl while looking her in the eye now. "You're able to fix your life before that happens. Which is doubtful, as Lelouch will most likely end his life before then, and that'll just leave you broken as well."
"I do not understand what you're saying!" Fluffy gripes. "I wanna know what you're saying!" He grumbles.
"Basically you two are also dead if Lelouch decides to kill himself before you guys decease." Kallen stares at her.
"Lelouch is immortal, right? He killed Charles, who also had Geass, making him immortal, right? Am I doing this correctly?" Honestly, Kallen's brain cells were fried days earlier when C.C. explained how and why Lelouch could be immortal.
"Actually-"
"Never mind!" Kallen really doesn't want C.C. to try and explain everything all over again. It's just going to end up with Kallen unsure of whatever the hell she's saying. "I just want to know, how do you even know all of this? How does this make sense? And why didn't you say anything earlier about this, you could've helped Lelouch out that way!"
C.C. does not seem troubled by Kallen's questions, and Kallen is conscious on the accusing tone hidden underneath her shouted issues. "Only people who encountered the Crooked Man or have a life similar to his can see him. I know this because..." for once, C.C.'s words falter, and Kallen inclines her head, narrowing her eyes, waiting for an answer. "There was this time, I was in a really dark place. It got worse when he came around. The Crooked Man is a jealous creature. If he sees another person with a life just as bad as his, and unlike him, they live peacefully, he'll try and drag them down. I sometimes wonder if he's just warning us, telling us not to end our lives."
Again, Kallen is unable to comprehend the girl's unfathomable message. "That makes no sense, he seems really...inconsistent and contradicts himself. So, he wants to drag you down, but also warn you?" Kallen scoffs.
Apparently Fluffy can't understand C.C.'s long proclamation either. Then again, what is he, seven? "What are you saying Misses?" Fluffy asks. C.C. glowers down at him.
"Oh, he's not being offensive, he calls me Miss. Kallen as well." Kallen explains. C.C. then halts her glare at Fluffy, and turns to Kallen, rather. For some reason, when their eyes meet, tension appears, and Kallen feels herself stiffening, her spine rigid.
"Okay." C.C. says. "The thing is, the Crooked Man tries to help. I think that he hung himself, at least performed some sort of suicide, judging by the poem based off of him. But, at the same time, he detests that you live comfortably. That's why he's after Lelouch. He's jealous that Lelouch gets out free of his cage, even though he had a horrible life just like him, Lelouch still gets to live inside a huge mansion, free of any worries. So while trying to kill Lelouch, he also wants to warn him not to suicide, even though I doubt that's possible for him to do so."
"Then we have nothing to fear, I mean, that means Lelouch lives forever, we just wait until the man goes away," Kallen blinks.
"He won't leave unless if here's someone else who has an even worse life with the best luck. Which I bet is no one. He'll leave Lelouch's side though, for moments, but he'll always be back. And the man's stronger than Lelouch. He might be immortal, but with the Crooked Man, there's no one he can't kill either mentally or physically." C.C. exclaims. "The man won't just leave. If he does, he'll just go for an afternoon snack. Possibly Fluffy."
"Wait, so he wants a snack, but he wants me?" Fluffy blinks.
"Yes. You are the snack," C.C. pets the blue hat jammed onto Fluffy's head.
"What?" Fluffy comically waits a minute before blurting that out.
"So...there's no stopping him?" Kallen asks. C.C. shrugs in response.
Fluffy has no idea what the two girls are bickering over. "Misses," Fluffy tugs the white hem hanging off the thin frame of the older girl with the long, glossy, neatly trimmed hair. "What is your name?" Fluffy echoes his previous questions. Finally, the woman acknowledges him.
"Just call me C.C."
"Okay Miss. C.C.!" Fluffy chirrups. The woman is surprisingly composed. Fluffy just thinks that Miss. C.C. doesn't like smiling. Her eyes, the shade of molten gold, flicker to him, before averting the gaze and returning to Miss. Kallen. Fluffy stares at the plushy cheese-colored item squished in the crook of Miss. Kallen's elbow. Fluffy, sighs, bored of the two arguing females, and skirts around them, ready to leave the ballroom. It's not like he likes dancing. He'd rather sing. The door remains open from when Miss. C.C. entered the room. He's about to slip through the gap between the two doors. Then, he yelps as he slams against something, and he staggers back, his eyes on the floor, trailing up to a dull, scratched heel of an ebony colored shoe.
"Oh, I'm sorry, I-" Fluffy gasps, and he quickly straightens his spine, looking upwards to face whoever he accidentally ran into. His words die, his eyes growing wide. The oily, matted hair that dangles down from the scalp of his upside down head leads up to the crinkled forehead, and large, hollow eye sockets. Underneath his large, hooked nose is a large smile, showing rows of crooked teeth with random splotches of red staining the yellowing teeth.
"Found you." Fluffy is unable to catch the scream and force it down his throat. Rather, his shouts and cries are thrown at the man, echoing in the vast room. His feet don't move, his knees locking, losing the ability to react to the outstretched, gnarled hands splotchy and yellow, ready to grab him. Then, actually, something clamp onto his shoulders, and upon contact, Fluffy shrieks, desperate to get away.
"Dammit Fluffy, stop fighting!" A familiar, voice in a harsher state causes Fluffy to go still, and allow the pair of hands to jerk him backwards.
Lelouch continues to listen to Forsythia's patient questions. He's honestly bored. He knows that the Crooked Man won't kill him while other people are in the room. Most likely, he wants them to base his death upon suicide. Which actually is kind of the case of death, actually, if Lelouch decides to stop fighting. "So, anything else you want to tell me?" Forsythia asks, ready to wrap things up.
Lelouch opts to shake his head, rather than to actually verbally response. He chooses not to talk unless if he has to. "Are you sure? I'm going to be here for a while, after all, I locked myself out of my car," Forsythia chuckles awkwardly. Lelouch doesn't respond, leaving the atmosphere even more uncomfortable. "Well, I better find my son before he destroys something while singing aloud and disrupt everyone." Forsythia sighs, gathering her papers along with a small notebook, clipping all of them onto her clipboard. She slips her two pens into her pocket. She sighs. "I really need to find my son. He's learning everyday, things I don't want. He always sings this song, and for a while, it was fine, but then, today, he started singing things that he should've never said."
"What's your son's name?" Lelouch asks, though he's sure to keep his tone dull and flat.
"His real name is Kizami," Forsythia answers. "Now, if you excuse me, I have to real quickly call someone to help get the keys out of my car."
"Oh, just ask Ohgi, you'll usually find him downstairs in the basement, maybe Kallen, they have their experiences with vehicles." Lelouch recommends.
"Thank you, Lelouch." Forsythia smiles, before exiting the room. Lelouch then realizes that he's in his room. Alone. He cranes his head around. The Crooked Man still isn't here, even though he's completely vulnerable in his room. Why? For some reason, even though this creature is the bane of his existence, Lelouch can't help but actually search for him. Lelouch actually questions if it's a smart idea to go looking for the man who's driving him into insanity and causing him to be paranoid.
Then, all thoughts of his own demon vanishes as distant shouting, muffled by the distance, causes Lelouch to spin around on his feet, and run. The voice's volume rises, implying if Lelouch is closer to the mysterious screaming. Oh, okay, there are various and multiple people screaming. He finally stops at in front of the ballroom, where the voice is the loudest. Against his own conscious, he enters the room.
Oh.
Oh.
"I was hungry." The Crooked Man continues to grin happily at Lelouch, a crimson liquid staining his chin, faint like a raspberry stain, however, dark around the edges of his mouth. He was definitely hungry. Lelouch clutches his stomach, fighting to keep his lunch down. His legs begin to tremble, and he collapses onto his knees. Clutched in the grasp of the Crooked Man, is a crying boy, gasping for breath.
"Lelouch!" A very familiar, feminine voice echoes in the large interior of the ballroom, but Lelouch continues to just stare at the boy. The source of the blood is from a large tear in his the boy's neck, the laceration deep enough for the ivory white of the neck bones to peek through the ample amounts of flesh. His very own blood is splattered across underneath his chin, staining his shirt. The boy is crying, sobbing in the sleeve-covered arms of the Crooked Man. No. This boy is done for. There's no way to save him. Lelouch finally reacts as the scarlet liquid gushes upwards, welling from the wound that the monster created as he snaps his teeth shut, digging deeper into the neck of the boy.
"You...he was just a boy." The boy halts his feeble thrashing, his azure eyes glistening from tears that streams down his cheeks, and drips down his jaw. "How could you?" Lelouch wheezes, feeling the mashed potatoes Nunnally forced him to eat gather in his throat, ready for him to upchuck his previous lunch. The Crooked Man doesn't respond. Not even with a growl.
"Lelouch, run!" Lelouch is yanked up to his feet, and he blindly allows the person to drag him out of the room, whimpering as he hears another crunch as the Crooked Man snaps his teeth together with the boy's flesh between them.
Forsythia scowls. Where did Fluffy run off to? After following Lelouch's suggestion and having Ohgi call someone over to retrieve her keys out from her locked car, she scurries around the whole mansion, looking for Fluffy. Didn't she tell him to not to run away too far? "Kizami!" Forsythia snaps, digging her nails into her palm, creasing her skin by indenting crescent marks from her nails. Forsythia flicks a blonde ringlet dangling in her vision. "Fluffy!"
Forsythia finally comes upon an ajar door. She sighs, unprepared to stumble upon the limp body of her boy, collapsed in his own pool of blood.
I really have no motivation to finish this story, but I know it'll bother me if I don't. So I will. It's just because I'm running out of ideas. And no, Fluffy!
The next chapter is going to be the last, probably.