noonelaughed

Entry tags:

cassie,
debut

Debut

The last thing he remembered was forgetting Jal's name. It was fucking mental, really-- how could he have forgotten Jal's name? Jal was his fucking world, she was. The one person who gave enough of a shit to get him to try, and suddenly he couldn't remember her name, only that he needed to show her...

...show her something.

That was the thing about brain hemorrhages, the pain was so much that you couldn't properly remember your own name, let alone the love of your life's. It was probably just as well; Jal was brilliant and it was really only a matter of time before she was gone anyway, off to music college to become something great, leaving him behind with his extra hole near his balls and his flat that wasn't really his anyway. That was how it always went, and even if Chris wanted to think that love could conquer something as fucked up as what he and Jal had gone through, his past had told him differently.

Either way, his head fucking hurt.

Somewhere in the background, he thought he heard Cassie, yelling or leaving or something, but with his hands over his ears and his eyes shut tight to keep the world from both spinning and blurring, he couldn't be sure. He used to like it when things spun and blurred, when the lights were bright and the music was so loud it was hard to think about anything else, but this was different. It was like his fucking head was about to split open or something, like the worst headache or hangover in the world.

Maybe this was it, then. He didn't know what dying felt like-- despite having been properly dead for three whole minutes-- but this felt fucking awful enough that it had to be it, right? The end. If it hadn't been for how much pain he was in, he might've wondered just what was going to happen to him after. He didn't know if he believed in clouds and harps and angels and all that, but if that sort of thing was true, at least he'd get to see Peter again. That'd be alright.

But suddenly, just when Chris was sure he couldn't take the pain anymore, when it felt like his head actually would split open, it all stopped. Like someone had turned off a switch or something. The pain was gone-- which was fucking brilliant, by the way-- and he felt normal again, like it had never even happened. It didn't make any sense, but he wasn't about to question it.

He took his hands away from his face and opened his eyes...

...and then immediately closed them, and tried it over again. This wasn't his room. It wasn't his bed. And he definitely didn't remember lying next to whoever this was lying next to him.

"...what the fuck?"

Fucking spliff.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

She'd awoken with the first warm press of another body against her hip. Surprised and pleased, Cassie had pressed closer, only to sit up when the wrist her fingers closed round was far too thick to belong to Sirius.

"Hullo, Chris," she says softly, looking down at him, something unreadable in her normally expressive face. There are simply times when Cassie isn't certain how much of her madness is affected, and how much is all too real.

She holds up a joint. "Spliff?"

"Yeah, alright," Chris said. She didn't have to ask him twice, though he had absolutely no idea where they were or how they'd gotten there. He'd only just been smoking one, before whatever had happened to him happened. This was properly weird.

"Hey, Cass? Have you got any idea where exactly we are? Did I black out or something?" That wasn't completely outside the realm of possibility.

"You died, Chris," she replies, pulling heat and cloying smoke into her mouth as the joint flares to life.

He's wearing the same pajamas. There's no blood on them, and there's no blood on his face or on her hands, but inside Cassie's fighting that same urge to run.

"Don't you remember?"

"I remember the worst fuckin' headache of my life," Chris said, which was probably putting it lightly. It'd felt more like his head was about to split open or something. But if he'd died, did that mean Cassie was dead as well? None of this made any sense at all.

"We were watchin' that Adam Sandler movie with the sound down, yeah? And then you gave me this shirt, and then... well, now we're wherever the fuck this is."

"Yes," Cassie says in answer to all, and she can't help herself then. She reaches down to tidy his hair, smushed into mad tufts and in need of a wash, and smiles as she sticks the joint between his lips.

"But. You're safe now. We can only die once, yeah?"

Chris took a long hit then, and let the smoke properly settle in his lungs as he turned the joint over in his fingers and inspected it. It wasn't the worst he'd ever smoked, but it definitely wasn't his, and he definitely hadn't rolled it.

"Speak for yourself. I was dead for three whole minutes, remember?" Chris said, with a bit of a smile, despite the fact that he still didn't know exactly what was going on. "So is that what this is, then? Are we dead?"

"They all say no, but I think they're wrong." She plucks the joint from his fingers and back between her own lips. He's smiling now, whole and alive, and Cassie feels the sadness loosed inside her at the sight of him be joined by something else, something better.

"They say it's an...alternate dimension," she giggles.

"Well, I don't know if it counts for anything, but I don't feel dead," Chris said, then checked his arms and his shirt for some sign that he was different or something. He didn't know what dead was supposed to feel like, but this felt pretty much just like being alive.

"So. Alternate dimension. Who's this 'they'? You mean, like Jal and Sid?"

"Mmm, no," Cassie hums. "I was alone for such a long time, and then Effy came, and now you, but no one else. The rest are strangers. Very strange."

She lays down next to him and breathes a ring of smoke up at the patchwork ceiling of her tent. "Superheroes. Film characters. Goddesses."

No Jal. As much as this didn't make any sense, Chris was starting to think this wouldn't be half bad until Cassie'd said that. His head had stopped hurting, he thought he heard the ocean outside...

Chris took the joint from her and took another hit.

"So I guess this means we've got to get back, then." Jal'd probably be fucking livid if she came back and he wasn't there because he'd gone to some alternate dimension by accident.

"Can't go back," says Cassie. Even if they aren't dead, that much is true. "All we can do is wait for them to come here." She turns her head, long tumble of blond hair softening her view of him. "She'll come, Chris."

Right about then, Chris was hoping this was just some really weird hallucination or something. But it'd been ages since he'd done any LSD, so that wasn't right at all, was it? It all made sense, though; Jal had been the one thing in his life he'd actually managed to hang onto, so it was really only a matter of time before she was gone as well. It was just how things usually worked out.

He sniffed once and frowned, handing the joint back to Cassie.

"Yeah. Yeah, you're right," He said, "Of course she'll come. She'll probably be pissed off with us for leaving her behind though."

"Could do," Cassie agrees, even though she's not convinced she's left anyone behind to miss her. Only Chris, but he's not there to miss her, he's not anywhere anymore but right here beside her.

"It will be all right, you'll see." She nudges his elbow. "There are dinosaurs, too."

"Dinosaurs? You're jokin', right?" Chris asked, though he was more excited about the idea than freaked out. He'd always wanted to know how they really looked, not just how people drew them in picture books or whatever.

"I thought they were supposed to be extinct. Fuckin' ace."

Cassie giggles and wraps her hands around his arm, pulling them together. She's always been lonely, even with Sid, even with Sirius, it's something she's learned to live with, but she feels lighter now with Chris here. Happier. "I've not been to see them. We'll go together."

"See, now that's a fuckin' travesty, Cass," Chris said, not terribly concerned with the fact that Cassie had somehow been there longer than the few minutes he had. That would have been one of the first things he'd have done after showing up.

"There are dinosaurs out there, and what are you doin'? Asleep. In your tent on the beach."

Wonderful Chris. Of course he isn't afraid. "Little else to do here, apart from dinosaurs," she says. "All proper, grown up parties, not like home." She sighs and rolls onto her back. "No drugs."

"No drugs?" Chris repeated, not really believing it, even though he'd heard the words come out of Cassie's mouth. The last time he'd been to a party without drugs was...

...actually, he couldn't remember the last time. Chris didn't really see the point of going to a party without them. That was half the fun. "Well, that's gonna have to change."

"No dealers, either," says Cassie, her soft voice regretful. "I had loads, but. I buried them when I tried to kill myself. Properly this time. And when I was allowed out again I couldn't find them." She sighs. "It was a very rainy month."

As disappointed as Chris might have been that Cassie'd apparently buried a decent stash of drugs, there'd been a few times when he'd found himself without a dealer. He'd be alright. At least there was decent spliff.

The thing was, he remembered the last time Cassie had tried to kill herself. He hadn't actually been there-- that'd been Jal-- but he'd definitely heard all about it and how it'd been Sid's fault. He couldn't help but wonder if she'd done it again for the same reason.

"But that's all behind you now, yeah?" Chris said, hopeful.

"Sure," says Cassie, and she even means it, so long as Sirius is around. "Don't worry about the drugs." It doesn't hurt her to remember the water closing over her head, but neither is it what she wishes to think about just now. "I'm sure something will turn up, and there's alcohol, and there's spliff. Loads of it."

Chris found it a bit hard to believe that no one had any sort of drugs, but he figued he'd take Cassie's word for it for now. Besides, it wasn't like it was the end of the world.

"Well, all right then. I mean, that's all you really need though, right?" Chris said, seemingly unbothered by the matter, "Now... is there anywhere around here where I could find some pants? I don't think mine made the trip."

"Oh yes." She loves the clothes box, so full of so many lovely things. "There's a box up at the military compound. It never runs out of clothes. But."

She grins. "I'm afraid you'll have to walk there like this. Or." Her face lights up. "We could raid a nearby hut!"

Chris frowned at the prospect of having to walk any distance-- let alone to some military compound-- in his pink and white pants.

After a moment of contemplation, he sighed. "Fuck it." He started to head outside then, so he could stand properly. "Look. We're in an alternate dimension where there are dinosaurs. Somehow I don't think anyone's gonna give a toss about seein' my thighs."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Debut

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject