He could hear them up there, moving around on his boat. He could hear 2D's high pitched laughter and the calm soothing tones of Elle, cooing to her unborn child. Sometimes he could hear them, in his bed, going at it like a couple of rabbits. It disgusted him and for hours he would scream silently up at them, his voice rasping against his throat.
Occasionally that dunce, 2D would come down to give him a glass of water and some food but Murdoc never ate in front of him. He wouldn't give that treacherous singer the satisfaction. He could see the disappointment in the singer's eyes as he eventually came back to retrieve the dish, still untouched. He could see the worry lines etching themselves into 2D's forehead.
The Satanist was determined to waste away.
It was early morning a few weeks after they had left when he finally saw someone other than the idiot.
"Muds?" He heard a voice call so softly that for a moment he thought he imagined it.
He knew who it was before she appeared in front of him. Elle Mede, smiling uncertainly at him, only visiting him to get him to try and eat.
"What do you want?" he whispered.
She looked down at the plate of scrambled eggs. He looked away, scowling. She couldn't even look at him. He could smell the eggs and his stomach gave a treacherous rumble. Out of the corner of his eye he saw her tuck a lock of hair behind her ear and place the plate of eggs in front of him. As she eased herself onto the floor beside him he could see a tiny bit of rounded stomach, poking out from beneath her t-shirt. He looked away repulsed, he didn't realize she would be showing so soon.
"Come on, I brought you some food." She said scooping some eggs onto a fork she had been carrying. She held it up to his mouth, hovering, inches from his lips.
He glared at her, but, with the eggs so close to his face, he could smell the aroma coming off of them and he lost all resistance. Reluctantly he opened his mouth and, smiling, she fed him.
It was a little degrading being fed by the woman who would never love him but it was the closest she had been to him since that moment in the recording studio. She smelled like the sea.
"Why won't you eat?" She murmured to him feeding him a little bit more.
He thought about it as he chewed. Why did he think that things would be better if he didn't eat? With her so close to him he seemed to forget why dying was better than being chained up in the bottom of his own.
"You've chained me up in my boat." He said as though that was an answer.
She nodded and shoveled more eggs into his mouth. "Yeah, but that's hardly a reason to starve yourself."
He stared up at her, chewing absently at the eggs still in his mouth. They had suddenly lost taste.
"Why do you care?" He whispered to her. "You're happy with 2D and that thing in your belly."
She looked down at her stomach and placed a soothing hand upon it.
"I don't know why I care. I just know that I do." She said to him, spooning more eggs into his mouth.
He spat them out, disgusted by her care. "You only care because that thing," he pointed at her stomach, "is making you."
She looked back down at her stomach and shrugged. "Who cares? At least someone is still here to care about you."
She didn't mean to make it sound so cruel but he still felt a twist at his heart. He turned away from her.
"Leave me alone to rot." He hissed.
She reached out a hand as if to comfort him but a voice called her back.
"Elle? Where'd you go?"
She turned and gave him one last exasperated look, opening her mouth as if to say something but, hearing her lover's call once more, turned and left him in the dark. The plate of eggs, lying in front of him, was the only thing that proved she had been there. Angrily he kicked out a leg, shattering the plate of eggs and showering himself with them. She had been there and he had pushed her away.
His next visitor came as a surprise to him. He had been drifting in and out of consciousness for a few hours. One moment he had been alone in his torment and the next a woman in a cat mask was staring down at him.
"Who are you?" He whispered to her, pulling himself upward.
She leaned over to look at him and slowly pulled the mask off her face.
"Hello Murdoc-san." She whispered to him.
He reeled backwards, she was a ghost, she had to be. Yes, he had saved her from Hell but he had lost track of her. She had to have been dead for a long time.
"What are you doing here?" He rasped his back against the wall.
She chuckled and tossed the mask at his side.
"How are you Murdoc-san?" she asked, not even bothering to sit next to him. I guess she wasn't going to stay for long.
He scoffed, "How am I? Well, let's see Noodle. I'm chained up in my own boat listening to those two going at it like a couple of bunnies. All in all Noods, I'd say I'm doing pretty bad."
Noodle furrowed her brow at him. "You're alive, aren't you?"
The question threw him off so much he took a moment spluttering for an answer.
"Well, yeah—but—!"
"You're not stuck on your island all by yourself, are you?"
"Well, maybe I liked-!"
"Don't kid yourself." Noodle sneered, rolling her eyes at him.
He stared at her for a moment, unable to answer. She just glared back at him, her arms crossed in an agitated gesture. Suddenly he felt like a child being reprimanded by his mother that is if he could remember his mother.
"What do you want?" He asked, eyes on the floor.
"I heard you made a robot of me." She murmured. "I'm here to figure out why."
He looked up at her sharply. "What?"
"That Android thing that Elle destroyed, it was a copy of me, yes?"
He nodded dumbly.
"Why?"
He had never really asked himself why he had made that copy of Noodle. For years he had repeated to himself that it was all because he needed a good guitar player and bodyguard but now that the real person was asking him he truly understood why.
"Because I didn't want to have to accept that you were gone." He whispered and he automatically felt lighter.
She smiled and placed one tiny hand on his shoulder. "There, isn't that better?"
And before he could answer she had turned and left, leaving the strangely beautiful cat mask behind.
Here you go Fantasy-In-Love, some more Murdoc for you. I have to say I enjoyed writing this.
VISIT THE GORILLAZ SITE. THE STORY BOARDS FOR RHINESTONE EYES.
Yeah, that's basically why I wrote this chapter. Just so I could tell you that.
The quarter ends on Thursday, I don't have school on Friday. Perhaps I'll write another chapter. :)