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 Posted: Sun Sep 21, 2014 8:21 am
Once the vehicle was in park, he unbuckled his seat belt. "Another hour, at least." He opened his door and got out, making his way around to the driver's side. "The back seat is yours if you need it." Poor kid was groggy, that much was obvious. He was pretty tired too, but he wasn't about to give in to that just yet. After, maybe, and again in a neighbouring town, just in case.
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Posted: Sun Sep 21, 2014 9:39 am
An hour? That wasn't too bad. Otto got out of the car to switch places with Ripley. "Nah, I'll live for another hour." He bragged with a yawn.
Otto fell asleep in the passenger seat after five minutes of driving.
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Posted: Sun Sep 21, 2014 12:23 pm
The silence from the passenger seat was bliss, and he settled in to enjoy every minute of it.
An hour and a half later, he pulled into their destination. He slowed the car to a careful stop, as if trying to not wake his passenger up. Just as carefully, he shut it off and climbed out, moving to the back seat to pick up the flowers that he had bought after picking up the car - and the ones he had never admitted to their purpose.
Then, with Otto quite forgotten, he made his way down the dark road, and then onto the grass onto an unwitting walkway formed by two rows of equally spaced, though varying sized monuments. By the time he stopped, the car was nowhere to be seen in the darkness, and that thought didn't bother him. After all, he had the keys.
Finally, he stopped in front of a wide monument, and stooped to lay the flowers in front of it.
"Hi Mom, Hi Dad." He whispered to nothing and nobody all at once.
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Posted: Sun Sep 21, 2014 12:33 pm
Otto woke up some time later. All around was darkness, save for faded dim lights reflecting off of his surroundings. Where had Ripley taken them? Wait, where was Ripley now? Otto got out of the car and walked the few steps until he was able to see where he was.
A grave yard?
Why had Ripley ventured here? Did he dare look for him? Otto stood waiting, his artefact shades in his pocket at the ready should it become too dark to bear. Somehow, just having them handy made the darkness not nearly as terrifying as it used to be.
If he looked for Ripley, he might come back while Otto waited. If he waited.....
The silence of the night was deafening. Even the chirps of bugs felt intrusive. Silence was difficult to think in. Otto started walking, keeping an eye out for a white haired loser who abandoned teenagers in unattended cars in Canada at night.
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Posted: Sun Sep 21, 2014 1:26 pm
Ripley didn't say anything. He was silent as the graves around him, and just as unmoving as he carried on a very one-sided conversation in his head. In the safety of his own mind, with only Wilhelm to listen, he told them everything; where he disappeared to, what he did now, how many times he had almost died, and of course about the friends he had made since then.
It was something of a shock as he realized, right then and there, that he had more of a social life now that he was technically dead.
That thought was quickly laid to rest as another one surfaced: He hated where he was. He didn't like where he ended up. It kept him busy, and it kept him alive, but he didn't enjoy it in the slightest. It was nothing but pain, and agonizingly so. It challenged who he thought he was, and made him retreat even further into himself than he ever had before; all the progress he had made prior to the accident was lost in the wake of those who didn't demand change from him. He closed himself off more, because he was allowed to. There was nobody there to make him try to change.
He didn't realize how much he regret he held over his choices in life until he was away from it.
Crunch.
Someone stepped on a twig, and as the snap echoed in the air, Ripley's head shot up, scanning the darkness for a sign of the enemy - because clearly, this was the work of zombies. They were in a graveyard. It was zombies.
"Stupid." He grumbled to himself, lightly smacking his heel against his temple in reprimand...and passed off the motion as he smoothed his hand back through his hair. "Otto? I'm here." He called, imagining who it was, because quite frankly, who else could it have been?
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Posted: Sun Sep 21, 2014 1:52 pm
Otto approached, now that Ripley's voice could be traced. "I got half a mind to kick your a** for leaving me in a dark parking lot." Otto grumbled, his hands shoved in his pockets. He stood still once he was near, his eyes scanning the names on the grave.
Otto had a lot of sassy things he wanted to say. Things like, visiting your parents is against the rules. But when your parents were dead, the rules probably didn't apply. He then wanted to ask how. Why. What. Questions were a natural urge of the former Death hunter.
He thought better of it.
"Um.. did you want me to go back to the car?"
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Posted: Sun Sep 21, 2014 3:05 pm
He expected sass, and he wasn't sure why - where they were didn't quite call for it, not in the slightest. Still, when none came, he felt at least some surprise, but at least it was easy to shake off.
"No." He shook his head slightly at the offer. It was a nice one, of course, but not necessary. "I'm finished." He hadn't intended on being here long, but he needed to be. He never did get to give them flowers, and he wasn't above taking a loophole in rules to do it. He paused only a moment after he turned to leave, and frowned down at the monument next to his Parent's.
Ripley Bryce Crowell
Dec. 24, 1990 - Aug. 29, 2013
Gone too soon
He read the inscription a couple times, blinking rapidly between the read-throughs as if imagining it was a trick of the light. But the more he read it, the more real it became: That was his name. That was his date of birth. That was the day he woke up in Deus.
He was staring at his own grave marker. He was standing over his own grave. Six feet below him, was where his body should be, and yet -
Without meaning to, he heaved a choking sound, followed almost immediately by a dry, humorless laugh.
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Posted: Sun Sep 21, 2014 3:12 pm
Otto's lip curled as Ripley paused yet again. Weren't they leaving? What could it be now? Otto turned his head to match where Ripley had been looking. The sight he found was enough to render most thoughts silent.
It always so easy to forget that they were all considered dead. That in this, the real world, they no longer existed. That in their place were well built golem bodies and a gravestone. It was hard to breath. It felt chillier.
Ripley's dry laugh broke his paralysis. Blinking he looked back up at the man before his eyes drifted back down to the ground. He wondered what hs grave looked like. He wondered if it had been forgotten. If he had been forgotten. It was painful. But for Ripley, who had no one left here... was that worse?
Otto's discomfort led him to leave Ripley where he stood. He crossed his arms over his chest and hurriedly made his way back to the car.
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Posted: Sun Sep 21, 2014 3:23 pm
Ripley stayed behind for a while longer, finding the sight of his own grave more amusing than he could ever properly express - it was such a sham, this stone. He was mostly alive and mostly well, the only difference was that the man he was then was different than the man he was now. In a way, he supposed, that marker wasn't as bullshit as he thought; that Ripley did die, in a way.
Eventually he shook off the laughter and cleared his head, spending one more moment alone in the dark to remember what it was like to not be afraid of it.
Then, turning, he headed back to the car, and to Otto, where a new worry rose: He hoped he didn't have to talk about it.
"Alright. Beer?" He invited, the moment he was back in the car, already reaching for the ignition.
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Posted: Sun Sep 21, 2014 3:27 pm
Otto got inside once Ripley was back. The offer of a beer was enough to quell some of his curiosity for now. He'd be asking later, once he had it. "Sure. I mean, I'm legal age here and all." On the island it didn't matter. But the real world had rules. Thankfully, Canadian rules were a lot more lax about drinking than the States.
The questions burned and lingered. He'd wait as long as he could until the curiosity would burst.
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Posted: Sun Sep 21, 2014 3:34 pm
"We're going to the next town over." He simply assumed that Otto would understand why. Apparently, the need to avoid questions went so far as to turn the radio back on, to the same station that had been played earlier, the volume up just enough to make any voice at normal range a little hard to hear.
Then, he left the cemetery, and began to drive - well, speed - towards the next town.
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Posted: Sun Sep 21, 2014 3:38 pm
"Why?" But the question got drowned out by the music. The teen huffed, but leaned back and enjoyed the ride. Good tunes while speeding down the dark road. Why not. He was appeased thanks to the radio. For now.
The graveyard..... Had that been Ripley's purpose for this trip? Or was there more to do yet? What happened to his parents? Questions ate and ate. The music he loved was failing to keep him quiet.
Otto became impatient and turned down the radio.
"Okay, I gotta ask..."
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Posted: Sun Sep 21, 2014 3:44 pm
Either he didn't hear, or he simply chose not to answer. Whatever the reason, he remained silent, and listened to the loud music pound through the car and subsequently his thoughts.
Then, too soon, Otto turned down the music. He could hear himself think again, and it took everything in him to not sigh.
"If you must." But he didn't willingly supply any pre-emptive answers.
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Posted: Sun Sep 21, 2014 3:58 pm
"........Where we goin' now?" He settled on a simpler one. Asking what happened to his parents, or why Ripley was on this trip suddenly didn't feel right, even if inside his head it had nagged so loudly.
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Posted: Sun Sep 21, 2014 4:50 pm
He hadn't realized how tense he was until Otto asked his first question, which was...a lot easier to handle than the ones he was expecting.
"We're going to the next town." He explained again, casting a suspicious glance towards Otto, though it would likely be lost in the dark of the car. "Most people in this town know who I am." Was? Hrm.
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