Fic - The Irregularity of Death - Chapter Eight - Legendary

[elfowlgirl]

This is the chapter where the deaths start getting a tad more... gruesome.

Chapter Eight: Legendary

“If the cause of death is written within the next 40 seconds of writing the person’s name, it will happen.”

It was no longer a regular day for Etho.

He seemed relaxed enough, reclining in his small chair as much as the paltry furniture would allow, idly poking at the orange chicken in its cardboard box with his chopsticks, but all the same he watched the screens before him with a gruesome mixture of horror and amazement.

There, lying unconscious on the gritty cave floor, were Guude and Bdubs. A night vision filter had been applied to the camera, rendering the scene a desaturated, near-grayscale monochrome. Zisteau had been floating in and out of the camera’s field of view for a handful of minutes, mouthing words quietly to himself. Finally, the pigman leant down before the men and shoved them each roughly with a hoof.

“He waits exactly five minutes after their delivery, then wakes them up and returns here,” Vechs explained in a hushed tone. His eyes flicked to the corner of the screen to check the time, then lowered his goggles over them. Zisteau disappeared from view.

“Now, as they get up and before we begin, I have several rules to go over. One, it’s obvious when my microphone is on by the red light on its side. Do not talk during this time. Two, no giving help, however indiscreetly. No calling the police or anything like that, and we both know that I’ll know. Third… well, I can’t think of anything at the moment other than do as I say. You are aware what will happen if any of these rules are broken. Got it?”

“Yes, your majesty,” Etho grumbled crossly as he bit into his piece of chicken.

“Good.” Vechs lightly patted the boy’s silver hair with one hand while keeping his goggles pointed directly at the screen, though it was easy to imagine that the manic genius could be watching anything at any time without his companion noticing. Guude and Bdubs had, during Vechs’ little spiel, begun talking between themselves in hushed tones. Not that the cameras seemed to care - there must’ve been bugs in the walls, in their supplies, along the floor … the voices were crystal clear.

Guude propped himself up on one arm. “The hell is going on, John?”

“I dunno. What d’you think’s goin’ on here, Jas’?” Bdubs slowly climbed to his feet, looking warily around their cavern with obvious apprehension. “Seems like…”

It was at that moment that their gamemaster decided to flip on the switch to his mic. Vechs didn’t even clear his throat before he launched into his speech, eerily familiar, word-for-word, as he spoke.

“Welcome, gentlemen. Glad to see you are awake. You each might be familiar with this concept.” He applied a dramatic pause. “Tonight, you are going to play a game.”

Etho could see both men on the screen stiffening and glancing around.

“Meanwhile, I will be serving as your gamemaster for the night, or however long you end up stuck in these caverns. You are only the newest pair in a long series of trials I have been putting forth in an attempt to give those I find… less than worthy the chance to prove themselves. The rules will be introduced now and then the game can begin.” This time, Vechs actually did clear his throat.

Etho was privately convinced that was just a dramatic farce, as well.

“First, if you disobey any of these rules in any manner, you will die. I know both your names and your faces… You cannot hide from me. Remember that.”

Etho cringed inwardly at the expressions flaring across the faces of the two men on the screen, and the looks they shared between each other.

“Do not remove the earpieces you’ve been given. Keep within the green lights on the floor-” Guude and Bdubs flinched visibly as said lights lit up along the ground. “-at all times and do not stray from them unless your life depends on it. … speaking of which, keep a close eye out for monsters and traps and whatever else I might’ve hidden to keep you on your guard.”

One last dramatic pause.

“Any questions?”

“Yeah! Who do you think you are, asshole?!” Bdubs abandoned all thoughts of keeping calm and quiet, his voice echoing back at him moments later.

“Vechs.”

The two men on the screen paused for a boggled moment.

“You’re that lunatic from the papers!” Guude then chimed in angrily. “You goddamn sunuvab--”

At this point, Vechs smartly muted the hidden mics, leaving the onscreen duo to soundlessly flail their way through was was clearly a loud - and invective-filled - tirade.

“They’re the feistiest yet,” Vechs murmured with a only minutely deranged grin. “Let’s get this show on the road.”

Etho could tell this was going to be a long night.

---

Guude and Bdubs were, to their credit, quite ferocious. They dove into everything they came across with equal parts vigor and tenacity. However, for all the fight they put up, it did little to assist them when it came to their intelligence. They had gone past the entrance to the mineshaft, Vechs explained, and were set to wander about a lone, unconnected section of corridor that went positively nowhere… and they had now been at that, for the last hour.

It was at once mind-bogglingly boring, and blood-chillingly terrifying, to watch.

Guude and Bdubs are as much my friends as Pause and Beef are, even if I haven’t seen them in months. We should’ve hung out together more before… I… I don’t know if I’ll be able to handle this. Freedom for one, damnation for the other… but what choice do I have?

Etho drew a shaky breath. And if I do anything outrageous, Vechs is likely to kill me, too. Which means I’ll never be able to… stop him…

Stop him.

Something vaguely resembling a plan twinkled to like in Etho’s mind. He drew another, more deliberate breath.

“I’m allowed to ask questions, right?” He paused briefly when Vechs shot a meaningful glance at him. “It’s a bit off topic, but…” He swiveled his own head around to return the look. “Nebris. You know he’s got a Death Note. You know he’s the ‘Justis Killer’. Why don’t you just… kill him?”

“I told you I watch crime shows, right?” With one hand, Vechs reached beneath the desk and revealed the drawer that contained his own Note. “You know those criminals, the ones who only keep the protagonist alive to toy with him like a cat with a mouse?” Vechs flashed a brilliant smile. “That’s exactly it.”

Etho didn’t even flinch. “But… what if he finds out your name? He’s well aware of your face, you weren’t even wearing your goggles when you met him. Don’t you care if you die? Especially considering it might not even be me when it happens.”

Vechs pursed his lips in thought, pushing the drawer shut and sitting back. “Hm. Point. Anyway, if he manages to somehow get my name… then sure, let him kill me. I have nothing to fear. You on the other hand… hm, hm, hm.” The manic genius smirked suddenly. “And I am far ahead of him in every way. I’m sure he’s seen already that I have a Death Note, what with what happened to his brother.”

Etho tried to tell himself that his blood hadn’t run cold just now.

He jumped slightly when Vechs went on, seemingly glibly. ”Now, how about I get to throw out a question? Are you sure you still haven’t seen ‘Paul Soares’ or whatever his real name is?”

“I’m sure.” Etho turned his attention back to the screen while he set aside his empty chicken box. He insisted privately that it wasn’t to avert Vechs’s piercing, probing gaze, even behind his opaque lenses. “He missed picture day last year, Google has no results, no one’s seen him in months… it’s like he doesn’t exist. Some kind of alias.”

Vechs sighed in what was most likely feigned disappointment. Etho hoped that was it, at any rate. “Damn.”

They watched Guude and Bdubs stumble about for roughly ten more minutes before the blond suddenly fell against a large, offset stone. A click sounded, and a section of the wall fell away, revealing… a hidden staircase.

“What--I don’t--how--goddammit!” Vechs screeched as he slammed one fist into the desk, flinching back a moment later as the pain registered in the appendage. “How are those two that lucky?! And, of course, they’re taking it, despite my explicit instructions not to…”

Etho cheered silently in his chair.

“No matter. I’ve been meaning to try something new out… a change from the same-old-same-old of suicides.”

Etho felt his spine seize up when he heard a pen against paper. As casually as the silver-haired teen could manage, he risked a glance over his shoulder.

Vechs was still at his desk, pen in hand, and its tip flying across his Note’s pages, then clattering to the floor seconds later.

Etho had never put much stock in those cheesy drama novels that rattled on at length about “heart stopping in their chests”.

Now he knew exactly what it felt like.

The duo onscreen climbed up the seemingly endless staircase, emerging after several minutes on a hillside, conveniently captured by yet another security camera.

John walked off across the small ledge they had found themselves on, stopped a few steps away from Jason, and looked out over the city below. “It shouldn’t take more than half an hour or so to get down there, don’tcha think?”

Guude was standing with his feet riveted, still framed by the crudely hewn cave exit. He shook from shoulders to knees, and gripped the supply kit tight with one hand.

Bdubs turned on one heel, giving his friend a concerned glance. “… Jason?”

A single heartbeat of uneasy silence, and then Guude flung himself forward with a flash of bright metal in hand.

It nearly happened too fast to see. It was both an eternity and a blur.

Before Etho knew it, it was over.

The remaining man panted as he stood over his fallen comrade, fresh, bright arterial blood still dripping from the swiss army knife clasped in hand like an iron vice. He was still shaking - like a leaf in a hurricane.

The way Vechs casually flicked his back on mic on was almost too much for Etho, but the silver-haired boy found his limbs turned to water and his mind churning through thick mud.

“What, are you nervous, Guude?” Vechs smiled around the sing-song tone of his taunt.

With an incensed cry, Guude tore the earpiece from his head and flung it into the grass with every ounce of his might. Then he stumbled backwards, away from the deed in front of him, his knees buckled, and he collapsed onto all fours, heart-rending sobs tearing themselves from his throat that carried with agonizing clarity into the hidden bugs on the ledge.

Vechs turned to the horrified Etho, Death Note open to its most recent page. “Here, you can see the entry, if you like.”

And there it was.

John Bubble, after emerging from Croft’s Quarry, is stabbed multiple times with a swiss army knife by Jason Boulderfist and succumbs to his wounds less than a minute later.

It would have been heartbreak enough for Etho, to see one friend dead at the hands of another.

… it didn’t help when the manic teen beside him started to laugh.

Comments

[justicetom]

No. You. No. I don't. I don't. Ok. I don't like you now. You. Evil. YOU. Yeah, you broke me with that.

[syfy_girl]

...God damnit Elfy

[halcyonlioness]

I helped write this chapter. Much regret. I still feel sorry for Bdubs. I really feel that the poor guy just doesn't deserve the maiming we gave him.

[tuan_taureo]

... and I helped beta this chapter, too.

You'd think we're accomplices or something ...

[halcyonlioness]

... I think we are.

...

... We're doomed.

[ex_writeitinsharpie308]

Is it wrong that I enoyed this chapter?

[justicetom]

Yes. Very wrong.

[ex_writeitinsharpie308]

In my defense, I can write much greusomer and more depressing stories if I want without me going "What is WRONG with me?!" easily. I also tend to enjoy depressimg things. Not real life deaths though.

[darknight307]

You know... at sometimes in this fic I want to punch Vechs in the face. He would probably kill me for it, but still. Good job though! :3

[theropod]

Aaaaaaa why ;-;

[tjmachado]

Oh... Kay... So, Vechs is *slightly* psychotic, no big deal at all-EVERYBODY RUN! CRAZY KILLER!

[bookworm2692]

I'm ok with other, more gruesome things in fics. But this? No. I don't know why, but this is Not Ok. Other times it's ok, but not this fic. I don't know why, but there you have it

[elfowlgirl]

Not Ok in a good way or a bad way?

[bookworm2692]

Good way. I think. Because I don't want Guude and Bdubs to hurt each other. But in other fics I've read previously... Even though they were horribly, gruesomely hurt, they were still alive, if that makes sense? I barely understand it myself right now, but yeah