[ Fun, as fun as flayed knuckles smashed into the floorboards. As fun as pulling off skin with your teeth. Anger comes hot and comforting compared to the nauseous fear; he leans into that. ]
Fuck you. Fuck all of you, I did the ritual, you have to leave him the fuck alone!
[ Again, that endless scrolling. Each line quavers more uncontrollably than the last. Quentin has said a lot of things since that first message, maybe more than what should be advisable given the circumstances, but this. This.
This is by far the funniest. ]
THERE WAS NO RITUAL THERE WAS NO MAGIC NO MIRACLES ALL YOU DID WAS SPILL INNOCENT BLOOD
[ Breathed, shaking his head. He spent months. He did the research. He made deals, shaking in Lisa Sherwood's hovel and wringing his fingers out of their joints as she took a hot knife into his mouth. He trapped and drugged and ripped apart his friend, his friend, his own friend, it can't have been for nothing.
[ He moves deeper into the woods, scouring for the path to the cabin, leaking (praying): ] no no no no no no...
THERE WAS NO RITUAL HOW COULD THERE BE IF WE HAD NEVER TAKEN HIM?
[ In the video, Ash has stopped sobbing. Tap out of the message, and Quentin will see that he's begun to stir from his place on the floor. He wipes his tears. He has the same look in his eyes as he did when Quentin had him on his back in the basement in Backwater. Desperate, determined, agonized — and now, pissed.
He picks himself up and starts staggering to the front of the cabin. The messages continue in the background. ]
THERE IS NO SALVATION FOR ASHLEY WILLIAMS HIS DESTINY WAS INKED IN BLOOD AND BOUND IN FLESH MILLENNIA AGO WE ARE ENTWINED FOREVER
BUT YOU, QUENTIN SMITH
[ The video flickers to black. ]
YOU'RE JUST A LITTLE BOY WITH A DIRTY SOUL NOT EVEN THE MAGGOTS WANT YOU AFTER WHAT YOU'VE DONE
[ It wiggles, worms somewhere deep. He'd shove it off as lies, as manipulations, just something he needs to clarify with Ash, his Ash, not the mad person these videos keep showing him. But the last wobbling words grinds against something so deep, so sore, so true that it rings through his body like a twinged nerve.
[ Maybe the rest is true, too.
[ He stills where he stands, face contorting at the phone, at the overcast sky. He twists the device in his hands so that the screen hides in his palm. What has he done? ]
[ The phone rumbles gleefully in his hand, spitting truths Quentin might not want to see. But eventually he will. He will. When he pulls his palm away from the screen, he has one final message waiting for him: ]
THE CHOSEN ONE MIGHT NOT LOVE YOU ANYMORE BUT WE DO WE'LL ALWAYS LOVE YOU QUENTIN SMITH
YOU'LL ALWAYS HAVE A PLACE DOWN IN THE CELLAR WITH US ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS UNLOCK THE DOOR AND LOOK INSIDE
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
THE SAVIOR IS SO MUCH FUN TO PLAY WITH
[ Savior. The word jitters on the screen. ]
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Fuck you. Fuck all of you, I did the ritual, you have to leave him the fuck alone!
no subject
RITUAL
RITUAL
RITUAL
RITUAL
RITUAL
[ Again, that endless scrolling. Each line quavers more uncontrollably than the last. Quentin has said a lot of things since that first message, maybe more than what should be advisable given the circumstances, but this. This.
This is by far the funniest. ]
THERE WAS NO RITUAL
THERE WAS NO MAGIC
NO MIRACLES
ALL YOU DID WAS SPILL INNOCENT BLOOD
no subject
[ Breathed, shaking his head. He spent months. He did the research. He made deals, shaking in Lisa Sherwood's hovel and wringing his fingers out of their joints as she took a hot knife into his mouth. He trapped and drugged and ripped apart his friend, his friend, his own friend, it can't have been for nothing.
[ He moves deeper into the woods, scouring for the path to the cabin, leaking (praying): ] no no no no no no...
no subject
HOW COULD THERE BE IF WE HAD NEVER TAKEN HIM?
[ In the video, Ash has stopped sobbing. Tap out of the message, and Quentin will see that he's begun to stir from his place on the floor. He wipes his tears. He has the same look in his eyes as he did when Quentin had him on his back in the basement in Backwater. Desperate, determined, agonized — and now, pissed.
He picks himself up and starts staggering to the front of the cabin. The messages continue in the background. ]
THERE IS NO SALVATION FOR ASHLEY WILLIAMS
HIS DESTINY WAS INKED IN BLOOD AND BOUND IN FLESH MILLENNIA AGO
WE ARE ENTWINED FOREVER
BUT YOU, QUENTIN SMITH
[ The video flickers to black. ]
YOU'RE JUST A LITTLE BOY WITH A DIRTY SOUL
NOT EVEN THE MAGGOTS WANT YOU AFTER WHAT YOU'VE DONE
no subject
[ Maybe the rest is true, too.
[ He stills where he stands, face contorting at the phone, at the overcast sky. He twists the device in his hands so that the screen hides in his palm. What has he done? ]
no subject
THE CHOSEN ONE MIGHT NOT LOVE YOU ANYMORE BUT WE DO
WE'LL ALWAYS LOVE YOU
QUENTIN SMITH
YOU'LL ALWAYS HAVE A PLACE DOWN IN THE CELLAR WITH US
ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS UNLOCK THE DOOR AND
LOOK
INSIDE