Just Say "Please."

There is something to be said... about accepting death.

There was a place between here and there. A road. An endless road beneath a Golden Sky...

About that time we all reach in our lives... when we've pushed ourselves as far as we are capable of reaching... and we come to accept it right down to our deepest core. When we are mentally spent. Physically wasted. Emotionally shredded. When you can only gaze at The Wall that's risen in front of you... and, one by one, the realizations sink in that... This Is It.

That you will not be crashing your way through it this time.

You will not be running down its length to cut around it in a detour.

You will not be climbing its front to conquer yet another obstacle in your path.

You can beat on it until your hands shatter apart and bleed down your forearms.

You can scream out in anger. Pointless justifications. Rights and Wrongs. Until even your own voice abandons you.

You can run along its length until every last one of your muscles pull apart... shredding like paper in water...

But The Wall will simply watch you destroy yourself. Unmoving. Unfaltering. Inevitable.

When you realize that... when you accept it...

The fear starts to die with you.

And when fear starts to die... all that you really have left is...



The steps came too close.

And yet I still waited for Him to come even closer.

This was to be my final performance. My last hurrah. Nothing but cockroaches, prostitutes, and Cultists as my waiting audience...

Even they deserved a good show.

And, just like with any good Act... timing was, indeed, everything.

He entered my Play with a flare of shadow and a slight distortion of the room. A strange twist, or tilt, of reality that brought Him straight through the wall - as if it was not even there. As if it was but a certain of rain for Him to step through and nothing more. 

I caught but a glimpse of that sickening face beneath the wide brim of His hat... and the very next instant glass was exploding around me. A burst of flames licking at my back amongst a forceful gust of hot wind as I hit the ground with staggering steps. Hands and knees again. Only the beginning of the Scene... and I was so tired. So very tired... 


No rest for the Wicked. 


I stumbled back to my feet. 

I hadn't planned to glance back. I had told myself I was not to, under any circumstances, let my focus drift from the road ahead of me... and yet, I still found my steps pausing if only for a second or two. Glancing back over my shoulder. My eyes behind my own mask... locking with the gaze of the black abyss itself from the God of Disease. A cloak of shadows seeming to practically swallow the light of the roaring inferno around it. Flames licking up all around Him. Spreading across the ceiling. Doming over. Surrounding Him.

He stared back at me.

I knew.

He was not amused.

Despite everything, I think I managed a smirk. Though it may have just been in my head...

"Tag. You're It... You fucking bastard."

A rush of something came at me through the air... and I was running again before my head was even on straight. Boots hitting the road with a shock up my legs that didn't seem... real. That seemed too sharp, too deliberate, to be just the normal jolt of running strides. It felt as though each step was tearing at my muscles. As though every move towards my target only earned me an electrical shock. Burning away at muscles. Tendons. Nerves. Forcing me to demand a strength my body didn't have anymore...

And His steps followed.

I never stopped hearing them coming after me. Cane tapping alongside every other step. Sounding off in my mind again. Shattering through my thoughts and vision. Gunfire. Fireworks. Thunder. Nothing seems sharp enough to compare...

It hurt.

The run seemed so much longer than it was supposed to have been. My vision continuously splitting as I ran. Doubling. Contrasting the darkness of the night around me with a blinding gold only interrupted by the trees that passed by on either side of me...

...Ink-spilled trees with charcoal branches...

  
I just kept running forward. Pushing forward. Pushing through the agony of Present and the times that echoed in my head of Past like raindrops in a pool of water. Defined for only a second before disappearing into the flood of memories and faces...

I fell once. It felt as though the Grim Reaper had clawed its grip down my back... but, somehow, amongst the blur that became the world, I was back to my feet. Somehow, I kept running. Somehow, I found the strength to pound my feet to the ground again...

...pavement with the texture and grain of chalk, trees and street and sidewalk stretching out into Forever... 

Then, at all once, it felt as though the Town simply rose around me from the very trees themselves. The landscape that I had been trapped in seemingly evaporating with but a blink of an eye. Replaced by sidewalks and buildings and people... and smog. A thick cloud of sickly green that descended upon the area right in stride with me. Rolling through the streets. Thick. Tainted. Choking.

Death.

It was then, in the middle of the road in that little town... that my legs finally gave out. That I collapsed to the pavement. Gasping for air. Everything burning. Like I was still in the motel room I had left in a blazing inferno behind me. Being incinerated by my own trap. His steps nearly deafening me... as I watched from the corner of my eye as Cultists clawed at their throats. Their eyes. Their bodies. Screaming. Crying. Not understanding. Unable to understand. Blood and vomit and boils rising to burst with thick pus and skin peeling off from their very flesh...

Suffering. Convulsing. Dying.

Each being consumed a different way by His Sickness.

Men. Women. Children. Young and old. Even the animals. The cats and dogs. Anything that breathed would be swallowed by His presence... 

And I had brought it upon them. 

All according to The Plan.

Every one of them just Tools. Pawns. A hopeful means to a different End...

...slate eyes paired with a wry grin made in greeting. Taking a long walk down the endless road...

I remember trying in such vain to pull myself forward as He approached for the last time. Trying to just delay that little bit longer... and then I was in His shadow. Skin crawling with a feeling I haven't the words for, as if His gaze alone went straight through my skin and He had plain viewing to every inch of what clockwork still allowed Life in this beaten and battered shell of mine...

...and was deciding which gear to remove first.

I saw His cane come at me... and, with fresh memories of the last two times we "played"... I did the first thing that came to mind. I fisted my gauntlet... and cracked it across His cane. Curving my arm in front of it. Blocking Him. Body twisting on the ground to allow the movement even as pain flared up my arm...

I felt His stare sharpen.

Two movements. Too quick. One hit back my gauntlet. The pieces of it shattering apart. Raining down on me just as His cane snapped down upon my chest. Pinning me to the ground. Teeth bared in the agony that spread from that center point like blood in water. Filling everything. A grip that took me in whole before narrowing its focus brutally. An invisible hold that tore. Twisted. Dug. Pierced. Burned. That contorted and manipulated my body only to please Him...

I can still feel... the hot blood that ran down from my eyes. Nose. Ears. Surging into my mouth to trickle down my chin and throat... 

I can still feel... how my body shook and convulsed with a force that I was sure would shatter my bones to pieces...

I couldn't even scream.

...A choice offered amongst the drifting leaves.

 On one hand, a long road to walk and a terrible friend as the only company for a terrible friend... 

And then... something changed.

The cane lifted from my chest.

Even as I pulled my awareness out from beneath that blanket of agony, I could FEEL something heavy fall upon that Town. A presence I knew all too well...

Father had come.

The combined pain of one of His Towns.

The combined screams.

The combined death.

It called His attention.

As I had hoped it would.

The Beak had turned its attention away from my pathetic sight at that point - His gaze turning to the tall, silent figure on the edge of town. My head pounded too much against me to offer any kind of vision for that distance... but I could mostly definitely feel Him. A pressure that weighed heavy at the best of times. The world seemed to sway, and a scarce second later, He was much closer. Presence even more potent than before. Crushing. Smothering. Suffocating.

Angry. 


Territory.

It is interesting to think... that even Gods such as They still have such a... basic system between Them. Nature's most basic system...

The Pecking Order.


I knew this was going to get Bad. And fast. 

I started forcing muscles to work again. Started pulling myself away. Clawing. Crawling across pavement for something - anything - to help me to my feet...

The sounds I heard...

There are no words to describe what I heard between The Slender Man and The Plague Doctor.

Strange, twisted noise. Gargling growls and throaty sessions of clicks. Grunts and hisses and rushes of whispers... and, from amongst it all... sharp, cutting shrieks. Startling breaks in otherwise quiet, yet deadly, tones that tore through my mind just to hear...

...Or to turn around, and go back. 

Neither option seemed all that much better or worse than the other under that Golden Sky...

I pulled myself to a wall. I think it was a window ledge that I used to force my body up again. Staggering to hold balance. Nearly losing it as my foot hooked a corpse on the sidewalk. Breathing hard with an aching chest. World swaying. Distorting. Odd flares of light. Vision clouding into black... 

CRACK. 

Cane again. A step forward... 

Tentacles curling around... 

I forced myself to walk. One foot. Then another. Using the building for support. Just trying to get away in time...

"My, oh, my. You're quite the mess, aren't you?"

The voice came from everywhere. All around. In my head. Followed by an amused chuckle. I thought I was hearing things, as that would... more or less be the next line to cross over. In any case, I ignored it. Pushing myself around a corner of the building to go down the alley in between... only to stagger and hit my shoulder to the building opposite. Broken ribs screaming from the jolt. Body trembling, begging, for rest...

Stumbling steps pressed on.

There was a God almighty screech that should have been heard for miles... and the entire town shook right down to its foundation. The sound of buildings coming crashing down entering just after. Shrieks and cries and inhuman screams filled the air as The Beak and Father clashed. The entire world seeming too hot and too cold at the same time. Detached. Everything seeming to be vibrating with an almost-silent hum. Reality bending. Twisting. Contorting.

All by Their Wills.

Fighting Gods.

It felt like a whip to the mind to even... 

It was peaceful under that sky. Beautiful even. A few flaws here and there... 

...but flaws tend to only enhance beauty.

"Going to ignore me then?"

A sharp edge hidden beneath a covering of honey.

Another shift. A shadow twisted into Real on the other end of the alley. Finding form in the dark.

Another laugh. 

"You'll find I don't like that very much, Brother." 

Another stumble as the world swam, catching the wall for balance. To just remain standing. To just...

It hurt to even breathe.

"...Who... who is... 'I'?"

Everything felt wrong. Like the alley itself was set to consume what was left of me itself...

"Easy there; seems you've been through quite the ordeal..."

Footsteps next.

And though my fog of vision... there became one thing that never distorted. Never lost focus or blurred away...

Those eyes that approached from the dark. I recall the figure wearing a deep red fabric... but those eyes caught, held, and remained. 

Amber. 

Brilliant, near-glowing amber.

Unblinking.

Inhuman.

"You're right, I've yet to introduce myself. How rude of me..."

I knew that feeling. I'd felt it before. With the First. 

Only this time it felt far worse. Suffocating, even.

He who needs no introductory. 

"I heard..."

I had known of his existence for a while now...

The Sky, the company... made the choice to take the long walk so very tempting...

...but there was still work left to be done.

There was still had a job to finish. 

He leaned in. Close. Amber the only clear thing in my vision.

"...that one of our Brothers was near death, suffering what amounted to an execution for no crime." 

A too-wide grin. 

"That doesn't seem fair at all!"

I couldn't help the pained laugh I gave. Head lowering, gaze drifting away from him. Wearing a weak smile, but a smile nevertheless. Even as my limbs shook to just remain standing. Leaning heavily on the wall for support...
 

For him to find me at such a time... in such a state...
 

The Town was being demolished by the anger of two Fears... and yet it all seemed so far away in that moment. The shrieks and cries and clicks and hums that tore into my head... becoming but muffled background noise. 

Father was winning.

"...And Sam?

...Do you regret it?

Any of it?

Any of this?

What y'did to me...?"

Words fell off my tongue. I won't remember what they were. I think... it was to do with the mission that began this mess. My decline. My... return to Running... how I came to be but a sliver from Death's hold...
 

It was probably nonsense to hear. 


"Listen to me."

From amongst the fog over my mind... he had reached forward, tilting my chin up. Forcing my stare to return to the sharp amber.

"Such vaulting arrogance! Such hubris! Are you too proud, Brother, to beg even in the face of death? I came today to offer you a choice."

Even closer still. 

"The others left you to die. They seemed to have the view that you were dangerous. Useless. You're lucky I disagree. All you need to do, Brother... is ask me to save you. Strangle your pride until it stops breathing, just for now."

His grin grew wider.  

"I need you, Nightscream. Don't disappoint me and make the wrong choice."

My hand found his shoulder. Shaking with effort for such a simple movement...








 























"...Help me..."











"...Please."







A last-second deal stuck... with The Devil himself.










And then everything turned black.

There was a place between here and there. A road. An endless road beneath a Golden Sky.

When I woke again... it was with a jolt back into Life. A rush of everything flooding over me at once... and I thought... just briefly... who I saw through blurred vision was an Afflicted member. A Cousin instead of a Brother... experimenting instead of... piecing back together...

He didn't hold it against me.

And the relief that washed over me when I came to recognize that voice...

Ha. I didn't know whether to laugh like a fiend or cry. Say what you want, but one doesn't exactly go from "You're going to die, Nightscream" to "You're going to be okay, Sam" flawlessly.

Nevertheless... The Devil has awoken. Redlight lives. He brought me here. A place I have been since that night. Recovering under the care of the only person alive who has the expertise to bring someone back from falling that deep into Death's grip...

And, for such, I doubt I will ever be out of "Joseph's" debt.

The man nearly bled himself dry trying to replace what I had lost. Trying to convince my body to keep fighting...

Apparently... my heart had even stopped beating at one point.

"Joseph" gave me absolute Hell for that.

Called me a "lazy bastard."


Heh.

The Game is just starting to get interesting.


It's good to be back, my friends.

I left him there. Waiting for me.

One day, I will return to take the walk in the other direction.

But not yet.