You’re more than ready to do that—third time’s the charm, right? You’ll admit (only to yourself) that your freak outs in the previous attempts weren’t exactly the coolest thing you’ve done; downright shameful (actually completely understandable, if you’re being honest with yourself, which you are not) you think, and you definitely gotta make it up this time. And also save John.
Gotta get your priorities right, Strider. Shut the fuck up, John’s always been your first priority, always always alwaysalwaysalwaysalways.
You’re running to the centre of the palace as fast you can; faster than you did other times, as you’ve memorised some of the turns you’re suppose to take down the vast blue tunnels to reach your goal. You briefly wonder if there’s any shortcuts you could take—fuck dammit you took the wrong turn again—but you’re not about to waste time on trying to find them and end up not getting to John on time (little asshole is already in here shit fuck shit shit fuck). You strain your ears as you get closer, occasionally hearing the echo of a “hee” or “hoo” from Calsprite whom you ditched back at the entrance. You are sure John’s not dead yet, because if Calsprite’s stupid laughing can float down from all the way up there, then any indication of John fighting his Denizen would definitely reach your ears with much uproar.
What you get isn’t war cries or even screams of pain from John. What you get is… music.
You don’t expect it at all—the low sound of an organ vibrating throughout all of the metal piping around you; the music is fast and loud, the beat getting faster and faster until the piece it gets to short pause (oh god oh god oh god was that loud ass cry thing Typheus oh god what if it gets to John before you do), resonant notes building up to its climax. The music suddenly booms throughout the pipes and you can see them vibrating slightly; the notes drag out and the song has gotten more dramatic, more sorrowful. Your legs are working even harder to get to where John is; your breathing getting heavy and shorter, but you don’t care; you force yourself to keep going, because a John playing an organ means a John who is alive, and that’s good enough to you.
==> Dave: Get to where John is already
Your heart’s racing—not from running so much, but the second you got to the stairs leading up to the circular platform (to where John is), you started flipping the fuck out because you could see the tail of Typheus wrapped and weaved around the copious pipes encompassing you; his upper body hidden away from view, but you knew where he was looking. You kept yelling for John the entire time you ran up the steps, attempting to pester him over your chat client, but getting no response in return. It was when you reached the upper steps of the staircase that allowed you to have a view of John that the music stopped. John’s hands limp on the white keys of the blue instrument and his head angled up to the ugly monster. You vaguely realise in the back of your mind that the monster is talking to him now rather its occasional piercing howls, and you think John might be crying, but you’re too preoccupied yellingscreaming at John to run before it’s too late, get out go you’re going to die please oh god run run run run.
John’s body whirls in around to your direction when hears your voiceyour screams, bright blue eyes widen in shock at your sudden appearance (fuck, he really is crying), and all he can get out is your name before the beast interrupts him with, “GOODBYE, HEIR.”
Then the real screaming starts.
You can’t even react. The best you give is taking a step back in complete shock at the sudden burst of flames.
Holy shit, what are you even suppose to do?? John’s being burned alive, and if you try to run and get him out the inferno, you’ll just end up being burned too. Oh god, oh fuck, oh god. This is the first time you are actually witnessing him dying, let alone him being killed by fire. His screams are agonizing to you; they’re loud and get more hoarse as they go on, and you’re pretty sure he’s screaming your name, for you to do something, for you to help him. But all you can do is stand there shell shocked, mouth slightly open like a fucking idiot, and listen to to him scream until he completely stops and collapses to floor, presumably dead.
Yeah.
Just like that.
When the flames completely disappear, Typheus looks up at you, and you look up at him, your eyes constantly glancing back down to John on the floor (oh god oh god oh god, that doesn’t even look like John anymore, oh god, you think you’re going to puke). You take another step back. The Denizen moves forward when you do, and the next thing you know, you’re absconding the fuck out of there. He doesn’t actively chase after you, but he does follow you somewhat out of the room.
You don’t look back until you’re back at the entrance of the palace. Calsprite is flying around you, laughing even harder than ever. You want to tell him to shut the fuck up, your best friend just died and laughing isn’t a thing he’s suppose to do, christ don’t you have some fucking decency??? Instead, you start retching on the floor the second you open your mouth, and you start sobbing after the third time bile comes up to make itself acquainted with the ground. You don’t know when your head got placed between your knees, arms thrown over it protectively, but you openly break down without a care, occasionally choking out fuck’s, god dammit’s, and I’m so fucking sorry’s.
Time becomes defunct to you, so you don’t really know how long you actually cried for, but when you start to calm down, you notice that you have messages from Rose and a couple from some of the trolls. You ignore them completely and pull out your turn tables from your sylladex. Finger tips lightly touching rough edges of the discs, and you drag them back until something clicks against them, rewinding time once more.
its time to try again
