Chapter 1: Betrayal
Chapter Text
Richie was nervous, to say the least, he honestly didn’t know why he agreed to be a part of what he may consider to be the most stupid prank he’d ever seen. But not only that, they were planning on pranking THE Max Jagerman. How stupid is that?? It’s a recipe for disaster, and yet, here he was, walking into what is the creepiest and likely most haunted house in the entirety of Hatchetfield. Richie should know the best out of any of them that this never ends well, provided the plethora of horror animes he had seen where nobody was able to escape with their lives by the end. Yet again, he considers that this is real life, he is with real people who he has known for most of his life, he has his Peter and Ruth who he knows with his life will protect each other no matter what happens.
He, Pete and Ruth had been close friends since they were practically babies, their family members all finding a way to have some relationship reach other, Richie’s parents were close with Ruth’s parents, and Ruth’s family was friends with Pete’s. Of course, a lot of things have happened since then. Pete’s parents died, leading to him having to live with his older brother, Ted, who was an interesting character to say the least, but hey, he cared for Pete and that seemed to be enough for everyone. Richie’s family had practically abandoned him after he came out as gay, so he lived predominantly with his uncle, Paul, but occasionally spent time over at Ruth or Pete’s houses when Paul had to leave for work trips. And, while Ruth’s family was still around for her, she enjoyed spending time at the other’s houses.
Because of these very close relationships since they were young, the three were inseparable. They knew basically everything about each other and knew how they ticked.
As Richie is considering this, he steels himself, and walks across the threshold of the old Waylon Place, preparing himself for the worst. Richie hates that he’s doing this, but at least he’ll be with his best friends, and the least he can do is make sure they stay safe, even if it means hurting himself in the process.
--
As the group got themselves settled in the house, Grace, of all people took up the mantle of directing them all and giving each person a role. Richie was delighted to find he’s been given the task of filming the prank. He decides to ignore the thoughts creeping into his mind that they all wanted him to be as far away from the rest of them as possible, just in a corner hiding the entire time. No, of course not, they cared for him and he was as crucial of a member in this prank as the rest of them, plus, nobody’s as good at camera work as he is!!
After hyping himself up and pushing his intrusive thoughts to the back of his mind, Richie walks over to where Grace had signalled for him to stand.
Minutes later, and maybe 4 minutes into the prank, Richie is standing in an empty hallway, discretely filming Max as he stumbles around the lobby frightened of the newly appeared skeleton.
‘Oh fuck, a skele’on! I didn’t realise there would be skele’ons here!’ He proclaims, fear tracing his voice.
‘I should just run so it can’t get me!’ He exclaims ‘Where Max? Back home so dad can call you a little cuck? Can’t even fight off one lousy skele’on? Alright, come here!’ Max lunges towards the skeleton, who quickly stumbles backwards to get away from him, before Max is interrupted by Steph quickly putting herself between Max and the skeleton who had now revealed itself to be Ruth after taking the mask off.
Everyone quickly rushes over to where Max and Ruth are standing in a desperate attempt to get Max to understand what is going on, so occupied with Max that they hadn’t noticed one crucial member of the group is missing.
Richie was stuck in the hallway, he didn’t know how it happened or what caused it, but his ankle was stuck in the floorboards, and he felt himself being slowly pulled down by some…thing. As he desperately made attempts to remove his foot from the hole and release himself from the grasp of whatever was pulling at him, he slowly felt his vision getting darker and darker, until he couldn’t see anything other than the endless black. As he tried to call out to his friends for help, he found that all attempts at doing so were futile. No matter how hard Richie tried to shout for help, no sound came out of his mouth. Fearing for his life, Richie desperately tried to find an exit to the void he found himself in, and after what felt like minutes or maybe hours of searching, he gave up and accepted what was to come for him.
Curling into a ball with his arms tucked under each other, he tries to calm himself down.
‘It’s fine, I am fine, this must just be a dream and when I wake up, I’ll be in my bed next to Rei and Asuka. The way things should be!’ Richie states as he slowly rocks back and forth from his spot on the ground.
Richie’s thoughts are unfortunately interrupted by a booming voice calling him.
‘OH, WHAT DO WE HAVE HERE?? A LITTLE RI-CHIEE? HOW EXCITING! COME TO JOIN ME ON MY CONQUEST, HAVE WE?’
‘W-who are you?’ Richie stutters
‘OH RICHIE, WHY, I AM ONLY YOUR BESTEST FWENDY WEND IN THE WHOLE WORLD!! I WON’T SPOIL THE STORY FOR YOUR DEAR READERS HERE, BUT WE HAVE A WONDERFUL, WONDERFUL CONNECTION YES!!’
‘O-ok uh, why am I here? A- and you didn’t answer my other question, who are you?’ Richie asks, fear coating his voice
‘WELL, I CAN ANSWER ONE OF THOSE QUESTIONS FOR YOU MY DEAR FWEND! MY NAME IS WIGGOG Y’WRATH AND I AM THE RULER OF THE PLACE YOU FIND YOURSELF IN RIGHT NOW! NO, NO NEED TO ASK ANY MORE QUESTIONS, I KNOW WHAT YOU’RE GOING TO ASK. THIS IS THE BLACK AND WHITE, ONLY THE BESTEST OF PLACES WHERE I AND MY DEAR BROTHERS LIVE!’
‘There are m-more of you??’ Richie asks, feeling his chest seize up on him as he scrambles to understand what’s going on. Why was he here? How was he of all people in this situation? Beginning to hyperventilate, Richie’s vision swims as he attempts to inhale a sufficient amount of air. Of course his asthma would come back now.
Suddenly, he feels an object appear in his hand, looking at it, he sees a puffer that looks identical to the one he has at home, it even has his name hastily scribbled on the side of it so he can find it easily.
‘COME ON, STOP STARING AT IT AND USE THE DAMN THING, I CAN’T HAVE YOU DYING ON ME NOW’ Scared yet slightly endeared, Richie takes two puffs and feels the medicine slowly working to allow him to breathe more freely.
‘GOOD JOB RICHIE, NOW, IT’S TIME FOR ME TO SEND YOU BACK. BUT BEFORE YOU GO, I NEED YOU TO HEED THIS…DO NOT TRUST THOSE YOU ARE CLOSEST TO, YOU DON’T KNOW THEM AS WELL AS YOU THINK YOU DO. BE CAREFUL RICH-IE, AND KNOW THAT NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS, YOU WILL HAVE AT LEAST ONE FWENDY WEND IN YOUR CORNER, ME!!’
Richie sat, stunned. He didn’t know what to do, why was an eldritch being talking to him and calling him his best friend? How and why did he say they have a connection?? Reeling from these thoughts, he didn’t notice when he had been launched back into the present time where he found himself sitting comfortably against the wall of the hallway, no hole that his foot was stuck in, no tentacle dragging him to his death.
Confused but even more concerned about what his friends may think about him just lounging around, Richie rushed to stand up and sped over to where the rest of the group was standing, trying his best to insert himself into whatever conversation they were having.
In an attempt to act in the most inconspicuous way possible, as if he didn’t talk to what could potentially be a god, Richie decides to act the way he always does, his gaze finding itself on the floor and examining the shoe wear of his companions. He saw his own tacky running shoes, Ruth’s red sports shoes, Pete’s Converse knockoffs, Stephanie’s black sneakers, Grace’s white indiscernible shoes and Max’s sports sh- oh my god, Richie visibly flinches as he notices a massive crack in the floorboards growing rapidly directly underneath Max’s feet.
‘OH MY GOD, MAX MOVE OUT OF THE WAY’ He screams as he rushes towards him and pushes him off of the dangerously cracking spot of wood and ensures that everyone else is clear of the danger zone.
What Richie does not notice, however, is the fact that HE is now standing directly on top of the rapidly progressing crack, which suddenly groans making him jump, only making the breakage even worse. Unsure what to do, Richie calls to his friends for help, maybe they could reach over the broken wood and grab his arm? But they just sat there on the floor, staring up at him. Then suddenly, the floor underneath him finally breaks and Richie is falling. With one final look at his friends, he swears he sees a glint of happiness, even excitement as he falls, and Richie can’t help but be reminded of what Wiggog Y’Wrath had told him about not being able to trust them.
Richie ends up falling three floors, ending with him being impaled on some floorboards that he had fallen with.
While he was still alive when his ‘friends’ rushed down to check on him, the amount of blood loss severely impacting him as he was clinging on to stay conscious. As Richie heard them enter the room, he lifted his head slightly to look all of them in the eyes.
‘So, you don’t help me when you could have easily just grabbed my arm and pulled me to safety, but you have the gall to gaze on me in my dying moments, how hypocritical.’ Richie spits with as much venom in his voice as he can muster in his current state.
‘Richie, no, we wanted to help truly-‘Ruth starts.
‘NO, no you didn’t Ruthie, I saw how you were looking at me as I fell, you were all excited to see me go, weren’t you? He was right, huh.’ Richie muttering the last part.
‘Rich, what are you talking about? Who is he?’ Pete asks.
‘Don’t you dare say ANYTHING to me right now, Peter, I know what you’re thinking right now, you think I’m crazy, and maybe I AM? But that doesn’t prevent the truth from shining through, now DOES it? No, now I need you all to listen to these words very CLOSELY.’ Richie close to yells.
‘You are all traitorous little shits, and you must pay for what you have done. Traitorous rats must pay. TRAITOROUS RATS MUST DIE. I’LL SEE YOU ALL IN HELL FUCKERS.’ Richie’s eyes begin to fade to a muted grey colour, unfocused.
His head drops back and an unholy sound escapes his lips, akin to a gurgling noise, blood bubbles through his lips and dribbles slowly down his neck onto the floorboards surrounding him.
And on that final, gory note, Richard Lipschitz died.
‘What the fuck just happened??’
Chapter Text
Pete knew something was on Richie’s mind the moment they stepped into that stupid house. Every time he had looked over at him, he saw a flash of fear in his eyes, and that hurt Peter beyond anything. He just wanted to embrace Richie in the biggest hug and tell him everything was going to be ok, but he didn’t. He was there with the others too, he was with Steph and Grace and hell, even Ruth, and that made him fearful, what would they think of him if he suddenly just embraced his friend out of nowhere, would it be weird? Would Steph think less of him because of it? And in that moment, Pete decided that just for tonight, Richie could fend for himself. This is Pete’s time to shine, maybe Steph might even ask him out after this?
The prank had started perfectly, Max believed Pete was a real ghost! Well, at least initially, but then he decided the best approach was to try punching a ghost. That was when Pete’s self-preservation kicked in and he fled. Right at that moment, Ruth came in as the skeleton, distracting Max and saving Pete from his fate as the next actual ghost of Waylon Hall.
--
Ruth was terrified as she saw Max approaching, he didn’t seem to want to stop or run away, no matter how much he ranted to nobody about how scared he was, Ruth could feel his aggression continue to increase as he slowly stalked closer and closer to her, until he pounced, grabbing onto her and winding up for a punch.
Steph stepping out and saving Ruth felt like a blessing from God himself, complete with a heavenly glow (or maybe it was just the dust particles being illuminated in the moonlight, either way).
The interruption had brought about the ending of the prank they were attempting, and it seemed as though everybody slunk into the lobby from their respective hiding spots to see how Max would react, but then also have a better vantage point to run away from him from. Unexpectedly for all of them, Max seemed super excited by their little stunt and was complimenting Ruth’s acting skills as Richie slunk into their little circle unnoticed by the rest of the group.
Things seemed to be going incredibly well for the whole group, Pete and Ruth were even gaining confidence and started complimenting the rest of the group on their jobs, happy that they weren’t being actively harmed by Max and were holding a pleasant conversation with him. Then, out of nowhere they hear Richie scream ‘OH MY GOD, MAX MOVE OUT OF THE WAY’ and rush over, pushing Max onto the ground and out of the way of whatever threat he had seen.
Max falling over had caused a domino effect, leading to everyone but Richie comically falling to the ground, as they all stared up at him, he begged them for help, asked them to reach out and grab his arm to save him from falling, but as they looked down, they saw nothing, they saw no cracks or any signs of the floors breaking, so, when suddenly Richie fell through, they all were incredibly surprised, looking at him as he fell, they saw a look of betrayal and sadness in his eyes.
They all stood there for a second, dumbfounded about what had just occurred when Pete spoke up,
‘We need to go see where he is!! He could be hurt!’
This prompted everyone to get up and run down the stairs to where they thought Richie had fallen, stopping on each floor to see if he was there. To the whole group’s despair, Richie was found lying face-up with two wooden planks lodged into his chest on the bottom of the third floor they had descended into. They approached him to see what they could do, but they were met with nothing but hostility, Richie’s eyes boring into each one of them, and then he suddenly spoke up, voice rasping slightly,
‘So, you don’t help me when you could have easily just grabbed my arm and pulled me to safety, but you have the gall to gaze on me in my dying moments, how hypocritical.’
Pete and Ruth share a look, nobody else noticed.
‘Richie, no, we wanted to help truly-‘Ruth starts.
‘NO, no you didn’t Ruthie, I saw how you were looking at me as I fell, you were all excited to see me go, weren’t you? He was right, huh.’ Richie muttering the last part.
Pete was shocked at what he was hearing, excited? No, if anything, they were shocked and scared for him, they had no idea he was even going to fall. And what was Richie on about, who was he? Had he been talking to someone else out of the group? Surely he would have told him and Ruth, they’re his best friends after all.
‘Rich, what are you talking about? Who is he?’ Pete asks.
‘Don’t you dare say ANYTHING to me right now, Peter, I know what you’re thinking right now, you think I’m crazy, and maybe I AM? But that doesn’t prevent the truth from shining through, now DOES it? No, now I need you all to listen to these words very CLOSELY.’ Richie close to yells.
‘You are all traitorous little shits, and you must pay for what you have done. Traitorous rats must pay. TRAITOROUS RATS MUST DIE. I’LL SEE YOU ALL IN HELL FUCKERS.’
--
The group stood around Richie as they watched the lights leave his eyes and his body sag with the sweet release of death.
‘What the fuck just happened??’ Max speaks up for the first time since Richie had fallen.
The group share looks, all terrified and incredibly confused as to what happened over the past four minutes, how had Richie died? Why had he fallen, the floor looked perfectly stable, hell Max had been standing on it for at least a minute prior to Richie falling to his death.
As several members of the group opened their mouths to speak whatever thoughts they were having, Grace’s voice cut through them all.
‘Ok guys, we are going to have to find a way to dismember his body and hide any evidence of us having anything to do with this death. Peter, I want you to find any sort of bag we can use to dispose of his limbs in, Ruth I want you to find any weapon of sorts that we can use to chop him up, preferably something small like a hatchet, and Stephanie, can you grab the tape roll I have in my bag and bring it back down here? Oh Max you’re also here, uh can you run down to the shops and buy some bleach for me? My card should be in my wallet which is also in my bag!’
Max, forever faithful to Grace, jumps up immediately, gives Grace a thumbs up and rushes up the stairs to go buy bleach.
The rest of the group, however, stay put and stare at Grace like she had grown a second head.
‘Grace, why the hell would we cut up a body and dispose of it? This was an accident, we should just report it to the cops and explain what happened, we are not at fault here!’ Steph practically yells.
‘Stephanie, you need to seriously consider this, why would a group of teenagers head to an abandoned house in the middle of nowhere, besides, look up! There are literally no breaks in the wood, how would the police explain that? Oh right! Those teens probably grabbed him and purposefully impaled him, and who are we kidding? It’ll be so much easier to say he’s just gone missing! People go missing in Hatchetfield everyday!’ Grace explains with a smug look on her face.
She watches as the group’s faces pale with realisation.
‘Oh, oh fuck’ Pete mutters.
‘And, now that you have realised the implications of the situation, can you all please get onto the tasks I gave you?’ Grace asks with a polite but slightly evil-looking smile.
The group nods and rushes off to complete their tasks.
--
Twenty minutes later, the group meets up once again, prepared with the items they were tasked to find.
They approach the body with apprehension, none of them wanting to be the one to pull his body up and off of the planks that were still residing in his chest. Eventually though, Grace forces Max to do the honours, seeing as he’s the strongest and second tallest of the group. However, once Richie’s body was laid on the ground, the group found themselves having the same problem they did earlier, nobody wanted to strike the first blow. But then, they felt the air in the room change, and suddenly, all their minds were filled with feelings of hatred towards Richie. It got so bad that each person had to take turns attacking his body while yelling obscenities and how much they hated him. By the time they had finished, his body was a pulverised mess, if the group hadn’t been so brimming with hatred towards the body they desecrated, every one of them would have vomited at the sight.
The group worked to scoop what remained of his body parts into the bag Pete had secured, taping it up tightly and hiding it under the floorboards of the entrance to Waylon Hall.
As each member of the group left the building, the haze that had clouded their senses making them incredibly violent towards Richie dissipated, and suddenly the group had no memory of the past thirty minutes spent in the house, other than the vague knowledge that they had disposed of the body in some way.
Each person smiled to each other and waved goodbye, heading off in their respective directions towards their houses.
Little did the group know, but Richard Lipschitz was not dead at all, in fact, he had just watched them all desecrate his body, not even blinking a single tear. And he was not happy.
--
Richie sank deeper and deeper into the black and white, he was confused and angry, how could his friends just treat him like dirt? They didn’t even try to defend themselves. What had he ever done to them? Why was he being treated so terribly after he did nothing but care for his friends? Richie felt confident in his final words to the group, no matter what or how, if he came back as a ghost or something else like he’d seen in some of his animes, he would make them all pay.
Suddenly, the ground underneath Richie began to shift, looking up he saw walls begin to form and take shape into what he assumed was a strangely warped version of the hallways of Hatchetfield High, why was he here?
‘OH RICHIE, WELCOME BACK! I WASN’T EXPECTING YOU TO ARRIVE HERE QUITE SO QUICKLY BUT IT’S A WELCOME SURPRISE NONETHELESS! AS YOU CAN SEE, I HAVE MADE A WONDERFUL REPRESENTATION OF A PLACE YOU KNOW WELL.’ Wiggog Y’Wrath spoke.
Ah, so that was why he was here, makes sense…kind of. Richie still didn’t understand why he ended up here though, and why what could very well be God wanted with him of all people, hell, even Grace Chastity would make more sense than him, Richard Lipschitz, the local anime nerd who stinks due to his overactive sweat glands, why would anyone ever want him?
‘Uh, hi Wiggog, it’s nice to see…well hear you again. I um, what am I doing here? How did I get here? Is this the afterlife or something else? A-and why are you so kind to me? Aren’t you like a God? What do you want with me of all people? I’m like the weirdest, most disgusting person to walk this earth, why?’ Richie asks, tears budding in his eyes. Maybe his friends were right to hate him.
‘NOW, NOW RICHARD, SLOW DOWN, FIRSTLY I WOULD LIKE YOU TO CALL ME WIGGLY, ALL MY BESTEST FWENDY WENDS CALL ME THAT, AND WE ARE FWENDY WENDS AREN’T WE?’
‘Um, I don’t know, are we? I know you’ve been saying that, but I just don’t understand why you care about me. Clearly, my friends didn’t want me around, and I didn’t want myself around, so, what is it about me that makes you like me out of all people?’ Richie whimpers, tears now streaming down his face.
‘I- I died, I died and my friends didn’t even care, a-and in the heat of the moment, I got so angry, I was so mad, I yelled at them, I told them I would enact revenge for them being traitorous, but what if I deserved it? What if I was meant to die so they could thrive?’
‘OH, RICH-IE DON’T SAY THAT ABOUT YOURSELF, YOU ARE MORE POWERFUL THAN YOU COULD EVER IMAGINE, TRUST ME ON THAT. RICHIE-POO I WANT YOU TO KNOW THAT I AM AND ALWAYS WILL BE ON YOUR SIDE, NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS, I TRULY CARE ABOUT YOU AND WANT TO SEE YOU FLOURISH. YOUR LIFE IS NOT OVER MY FWEND, IN FACT, IT HAS JUST BEGUN, WE JUST HAVE TO WAIT FOR SOME THINGS TO BE SET IN PLACE BEFORE WE CAN GET THINGS STARTED!’
Richie heard Wiggly mutter something under his breath, and he felt a powerful wind rush over him.
But then, just like what happened with his inhaler, a stuffed toy of some form appeared in Richie’s hand, immediately distracting him from the weird wind. It was actually really cute, from what he could see of course, and incredibly soft and fluffy, all Richie wanted to do was cuddle it, maybe it would help him feel better in this lonely space he found himself in. Pulling the toy closer to his chest and giving it a gentle squeeze, Richie is surprised when he hears the voice of Wiggly, but slightly…cuter coming from the doll.
‘Hewwo Wichie, I am here to be your bestest companion here in the black and white!’ The doll says.
‘Oh, you’re really cute, actually’ Richie says, a smile forming on his face.
‘I’M GLAD YOU’VE TAKEN TO MY LITTLE TOY, HE WILL BE HERE FOR YOU WHEN I AM NOT, WHICH WON’T BE VERY OFTEN, BUT IT WILL HAPPEN FROM TIME TO TIME.’
‘Oh uh ok, Wiggly, I need to ask you something.’
‘GO AHEAD RICHIE’
‘What did they uh do…after I die? I was pretty harsh with them right before I died, in the heat of the moment, you know?’
‘I WOULD BE MORE THAN HAPPY TO SHOW YOU WHAT HAPPENED RICHIE, IN FACT I’M GLAD YOU ASKED, I BELIEVE IT WILL PROVIDE YOU WITH A MUCH-NEEDED IDEA ON THEIR PERSPECTIVES OF YOU, AND MAYBE EVEN HOW YOU SHOULD TREAT THEM IN RESPONSE!’ Wiggly states with a hint of something undecipherable in his voice.
Richie hears a noise akin to the snapping of fingers, only slightly wetter…and he is suddenly transported to his place of death, but not in his body, he is instead floating in the air. He has to almost swim through the air to move around, a strange feeling but not necessarily a bad one. Richie swims closer to where the group is standing, it seems as though they’ve managed to lift his body off of the planks that had impaled him, and were now debating who should be the first to take a blow at him, assumably to dismember his body, making it easier to hide, they were being smart with it at least. Suddenly, he sees Pete’s face contort into one of rage, Pete screams some jumbled words filled with obscenities and lunges at Richie’s body, tearing at it with his bare hands, over the chaos, Richie can vaguely make out what’s being said,
‘Fuck you, you fucking asshole who thinks he’s better than all of us because he’s nice, you’re actually a fucking monster who deserved to die, thank god you’re gone, we’re all going to be better off without you!!’ Pete screams into the unhearing ear of Richie’s dead body.
But, Richie did hear, and it tore him apart.
Richie then watches as each member of the group takes turns tearing his body apart and yelling at him, telling him how awful and undeserving person he is. As he hears this, he feels parts of him break, firstly his heart, the people he loved once all turning against him the moment he wasn’t there, and then secondly, his care for human life, if humanity didn’t care for him, why would he care about them? Then finally, his wish to remain liked, clearly despite all of his efforts, nobody wanted to be around him anyway. As he watches more and more, he gets angrier, maybe he could ask Wiggly for help with fulfilling his dying wish. All he knew was, that he needed those traitorous brats gone.
‘I think I’ve seen enough, Wiggly.’ Richie states, eyes not leaving the scene before him.
‘VERY WELL RICH-IE, DO YOU NOW UNDERSTAND WHY I TRIED TO WARN YOU BEFORE YOUR DEATH?'
‘Yeah, I do Wiggly. I think you’re my only friend now…’ Richie says, tears forming in his eyes, shaking his head to dispel them. He can’t show any weakness, not now that he’s realised these terrible truths about his life. He turns away from the scene and finds himself in the void once again.
Richie walks over to where the doll, which he aptly named Wiggly lies, sits down and grabs a hold of Wiggly, squeezing him tightly to his heart.
‘Thank you for being here for me, Wiggly.’ He says to nobody, but knows the one he wants to hear it does. Richie then lays down on the ground, still holding the Wiggly doll tight to his body, and falls into a weary slumber.
--
Richie awakens with a start, firstly, he isn’t on the floor anymore, rather he’s in his bed from his room, and he’s been covered by his blanket. Still cuddling Wiggly, he opens his eyes slightly and immediately jumps back. Someone had been watching him incredibly intently, but when Richie took a closer look, he found he was looking at an identical version of himself, only this version was dressed in a very…interesting get-up, all green, a crown, and of course, green hair to match the rest of him. Shocked, Richie gapes at what he’s seeing before him, who is this man? And why does he look exactly the same as him?? It appears the man notices Richie’s confusion and answers his unsaid questions.
‘NOW RICHIE, DON’T YOU RECOGNIZE YOUR BESTEST FWENDY WEND??’ The man, who is also apparently Wiggly asks.
‘I- Uh Wiggly? Why do you look like me? What’s going on?’ Richie asks, confusion clouding his voice.
‘RICHIE, CAN’T A GOD TAKE A SHAPE THAT’S MORE FAMILIAR TO YOU?? I JUST WANT TO MAKE YOU FEEL COMFORTABLE IS ALL!!’ Wiggly lies
‘Oh, Wiggly, that’s actually…really sweet! B-but why are you being so accommodating to me? Aren’t I just a waste of space in this whole…place?’ Richie asks as he gestures around him.
‘RICH-IE, WE’VE BEEN OVER THIS, WE’RE BEST FWENDY WENDS, I CARE FOR YOU, I WANT YOU HERE, WHY DOES THERE NEED TO BE ANY OTHER REASON FOR ME TO BE TAKING CARE OF YOU?’
‘I-I guess? I’m just not be used to all of this attention being placed on me…’ Richie mutters.
‘AND WE ARE GOING TO FIX THAT, I CAN’T TELL YOU MUCH, BUT KNOW NOW THAT YOU ARE VERY SPECIAL, MORE THAN YOU COULD EVER KNOW, AND MY BROTHERS AND I WANT YOU HERE, WE WANT YOU TO BE COMFORTABLE AND HAPPY, AND LIVE THE LIFE YOU COULDN’T LIVE ON EARTH. AAAAND, THE FIRST WAY WE CAN HELP YOU DO THAT, IS TO HELP YOU GET REVENGE ON SOME TRAITOROUS FUCKING BRATS, DON’T YOU THINK RICHIE?’ Wiggly says, a smile growing on his face.
Richie can’t help but also feel a smile growing on his own face.
Notes:
OOOOOO THINGS ARE GETTING INTERESTING, I HOPE YOU ENJOYED IT, UPDATES WILL BE A LITTLE SLOWER AFTER THIS ONE JUST BECAUSE OF THE SHEER NUMBER OF WORDS IN THE NEXT COUPLE OF CHAPTERS. Chapter 3 is literally over 10,000 words in length, so look forward to that I guess!
Have a nice day!!
Chapter Text
Richie walked down a long hallway, following behind Wiggly. He wasn’t sure where he was being taken, but he knew he could trust Wiggly and that he only wanted the best for Richie; a few days or, at least, what felt like a few days had passed after Richie’s last proper conversation with Wiggly, he had then been left to his own devices, though he mostly just spent the time sleeping and regaining the energy he lost while dying. One constant remained, however, and that was being visited by Wiggly each day to have a short rundown of what life would be like for him, as well as discussing Richie’s plans for what he would do once he returned to the mortal realm.
Richie found that he was actually getting along quite well with Wiggly, he could be quite forward at times, but Richie could tell it was coming from a place of goodwill. He enjoyed talking to Wiggly about anything and everything, even his favourite animes which surprised him, but Wiggly was always willing to listen and learn more. This made Richie feel incredibly welcomed, more so than he had ever felt when he was alive, which may be the reason Richie was more than willing to listen whenever Wiggly asked Richie to follow him.
‘THIS WILL MAKE YOU MORE POWERFUL THAN YOU COULD EVER IMAGINE.’ Wiggly says calmly as he holds a bottle filled with some green liquid.
Richie watches as it sloshes around the bottle, chest tightening slightly. What was Wiggly going to do? Of course he wanted to be more powerful, that way he could prove all of those puny people on earth wrong, he was worth spending time with and keeping alive . But still, this unknown liquid had just been sprung on him randomly without any prior conversations.
‘Uh, Wiggly, I’m not too sure about this. What even is that liquid? What will it do to me??’ Richie asks, breathing becoming uneven.
Wiggly is there at his side immediately, handing him his puffer and holding him up as he consumes the medication. Apparently being dead didn’t stop him from having asthma attacks, good to know.
‘RICHIE, THERE’S NO NEED TO GET SO WORKED UP ABOUT THIS LITTLE THING, I PROMISE YOU IT’S SAFE, I WOULDN’T GIVE IT TO YOU IF IT WASN’T, SURELY YOU TRUST ME NOW? IN FACT, THIS LITTLE CONCOCTION WILL REMOVE ALL WEAKNESSES YOU HAVE CURRENTLY, LIKE THAT LITTLE SETBACK WITH YOUR ASTHMA. RICHIE-WICHIE YOU CAN TRUST YOUR FWENDY WEND, CAN’T YOU?’
‘I-I know I can trust you, Wiggly, sorry for being apprehensive , I guess I just worked myself up a little about that, hah. I mean, I know you wouldn’t do anything to me, you’re my fwendy wend after all, and I love spending time with you. O-Ok, Wiggly, I’ve decided, I will take that, I want to be all-powerful, just like you.’ Richie says, slowly hyping himself up to drink the unknown liquid.
Wiggly smiles that comforting smile, and hands Richie the bottle. Richie quickly uncorks it and brings the bottle up to his lips, moving his head back, Richie chugs the liquid, hoping that doing so would eliminate any bad taste the liquid contained. But to his surprise, the liquid tasted incredibly sweet and homely, almost as though he was always meant to consume the liquid at some point in his life. Ignoring this feeling, however, Richie looks up at Wiggly’s slightly taller form and gives him a small smile, unsure if there were to be any side effects, he quickly sits down, expecting the worst. Surprisingly, nothing comes, and Richie sits comfortably on the ground for maybe five or so minutes before he hesitantly stands and looks at Wiggly again.
Wiggly squeals in delight as he looks Richie up and down, confused, Richie begins to look himself up and down as well, not noticing any difference, he looks at Wiggly with a slightly confused look on his face.
‘Did anything happen?’ He asks.
‘OF COURSE SOMETHING HAPPENED, OOOOH I’M SO EXCITED TO SHOW YOU RICHIE, WAIT THERE WHILE I GET A MIRROR’ Wiggly exclaims, the most excited Richie thinks he’s ever seen him.
As Wiggly scuttles back into view, hand-held mirror in tow, Richie looks at him excitedly, wanting to see the change that has occurred. He eagerly grabs the mirror from Wiggly’s outstretched hand and looks at his face. He immediately notices the change, his eyes which used to be a strikingly bright blue had turned green, the same green as Wiggly’s eyes.
‘NOW, I KNOW THIS IS ALL VERY SUDDEN, AND I PROBABLY SHOULDN’T BE DOING THINGS SO QUICKLY, BUT I WAS JUST SO EXCITED TO SEE MY LITTLE RICHIE GROW UP AND BECOME MORE OF A MAN!’ Wiggly exclaims, staring at Richie’s face again.
‘IT SEEMS THAT IT WAS WORTH IT, I THINK YOU’RE READY TO GO BACK INTO THE MORTAL REALM ONCE MORE RICH-IE, NOW THAT YOU LOOK THE PART AND WILL SOON FEEL THE PART! YOU’RE GOING TO DO SO AMAZINGLY, I HAVE FAITH IN YOU. AND REMEMBER, IF YOU EVER NEED TO COME BACK HERE, JUST CALL MY NAME AND I WILL BE THERE TO TAKE YOU BACK, NOW GO, DO ME PROUD.’ Wiggly states as he snaps his fingers, transporting Richie back to the living world.
--
Richie wakes up inside Waylon Hall, assumedly underneath the floorboards where they had disposed of his body, struggling to get out, Richie punches the floorboards above his head, and surprisingly breaking through immediately. He isn’t sure whether it was due to the floorboards being incredibly brittle or if it was from that liquid Wiggly had him drink, either way, Richie was using it to his advantage. He made quick work of the floorboards and found himself standing in the entranceway of his death place. They hadn’t even bothered with properly hiding his body, what fucking assholes.
Walking over to the front door, Richie kicks it open, breaking the latch in the process. Looking outside, he sees it’s currently nighttime, and unsure of where to go, he finds himself walking to Hatchetfield High, he couldn’t go back to Paul’s or any of his ‘friends’ houses, so this was the only place he could go.
Richie stands on the threshold of Hatchetfield High’s entrance, he’s a ghost now, right? Or…what was he? He wasn’t sure, but seeing as he came back from the dead, surely he had some sort of supernatural power? Deciding he wanted to try it out, Richie forces his hand forward, imagining it breaking the doors open, and to his surprise and delight, it works. Richie stares in awe as the doors that kept him trapped in that hell hole for nearly four years straight opened with so much intensity they buckled and cracked, falling off their hinges and collapsing on the floor in front of him.
Richie grins and enters the building as excitement is radiating from him, what else can he do? Wanting to test out his new abilities, Richie rushes to the gym, looking for something else he can use his powers on, he quickly spots dolls used for tackling practice, those will be perfect! Richie quickly grabs five of them and drags them to the centre of the gym. Richie closes his eyes and focuses on making them explode. After a few seconds, he feels something soft hit him, opening his eyes, Richie finds that the interiors of the dolls have now been strewn across the entirety of the gym.
‘Oh my GOD! I can’t believe I did that with my mind!’ Richie practically jumps up and down in excitement, a grin tugging at his lips. ‘This is so cool! I wonder what else I could do, maybe I can ask Wiggly to help me? He did say that I would become more powerful… anyway’
Richie trails off, looking around at his damage, it’s not enough he decides. Balling his hand into a fist, he runs around the perimeter and punches anything and everything, he breaks ladders, smashes glass, he even manages to bend the basketball hoop to the point where it’s unusable. Satisfied with his work, Richie quickly exits the gym, not bothering to clean anything up, hey, he isn’t alive, it isn’t his problem anymore and, they deserve it, those stupid teachers never did anything for him anyway. As Richie continues wandering around the school, he notices the sun is starting to rise, excited, he sneaks into a locker room, hoping that an unassuming student will enter at some point, and he can give them a scare.
As Richie sits around, he notices a flash of green light in his peripheral, looking over, he notices that it’s coming from a mirror. Curious, he wanders over to see what could have caused such a thing. Once he reaches the mirror that the flash had seemed to come from, he looks up and into it. Richie then jumps back when he sees not his own reflection, but rather Wiggly looking down at him with a smile on his face.
‘WELL, DONE RICHIE, I SEE YOU’VE ALREADY BECOME ACCUSTOMED TO YOUR NEW ABILITIES, I’M VERY PROUD OF YOU. BUT I MUST ASK, HAVE YOU LOOKED AT YOURSELF IN A MIRROR YET?’ Wiggly asks.
‘Uh, no, I haven’t, has something other than my eyes changed?’ Richie asks, slightly confused.
‘WELL, IN THE BLACK AND WHITE ALL THAT HAS CHANGED ON YOUR FORM IS YOUR EYE COLOUR FOR NOW, BUT ON THE MORTAL REALM, YOU’RE DEAD, MEANING THERE HAVE BEEN SOME CHANGES TO YOUR BODY. AFTER ALL, BEING BROUGHT BACK TO LIFE IS NO SILLY BUSINESS. HOW ABOUT YOU GIVE YOURSELF A LOOK OVER IN THE MIRROR BESIDE ME AND COME BACK TO ME ONCE YOU’RE DONE, HUH?’ Wiggly says.
Richie abides and slides over to the mirror on his left, bracing himself, he looks up into the mirror and flinches slightly when he looks himself over. He’s in the clothes he was in when he died, but now there’s the addition of a massive hole in his chest, continually oozing blood, which falls down his front and would then land on the floor if it weren’t for it magically disappearing every time it gets close to reaching it. His now green eyes are sunken deep into his skull, and he looks gaunt, having lost all fat, assumingly during the decomposition process, he didn’t know, science wasn’t his strong point, maths was. But then again, nothing about this was natural, so who was he to say what can and can’t happen to him. Tangent aside, Richie then notices he also has blood continually dripping out of his mouth, but not just that, when he looks at his skin, it makes sense that it’s lost its natural colourings, what doesn’t make sense is the fact that replacing the normal red colouration of his skin, is a faint sickly green colouring. Noticing this, Richie then notices other strange things, like his veins, they’re massive now but, they’re also…green? What the fuck? Then, why is his blood red? Richie then looks in the mirror at his blood and to his shock, he sees bright green blood replacing the previously red blood he had sworn he’d seen just seconds before.
‘DO YOU LIKE IT, RICHIE?? I TOOK SOME CREATIVE LIBERTIES WITH SOME THINGS, YOU LIKE THE COLOUR GREEN, DON’T YOU, RICH-IE??’ Wiggly asks, a smile growing on his face.
‘H-how did you do this? Why do I look like this?’ Richie asks, face morphing into a look halfway between disgust and shock.
‘WELL, LIKE I SAID, YOUR BODY WOULDN’T HAVE LOOKED THE SAME IF I HADN’T CHANGED THINGS ANYWAY , I JUST ADDED SOME FLAIR. I THINK YOU LOOK WONDERFUL, AND I THINK YOU SHOULD TOO, DON’T YOU WANT TO LOOK LIKE YOUR FWENDY WEND ANYWAY?’
‘Y-you’re right, Wiggly, I should be grateful. Thank you for making these changes, and to be honest, I really like the green, it was just a shock initially, you know?’ Richie says, expression becoming neutral once more.
‘OF COURSE, RICHIE I UNDERSTAND. DYING IS A BIG THING, AND BEING BROUGHT BACK IS EVEN HARDER. OOH, RICHIE I HAVE AN IDEA! HOW WOULD YOU FEEL IF WE WERE ABLE TO COMMUNICATE MENTALLY TO EACH OTHER? WON’T HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT THIS MIRROR NONSENSE ANYMORE!’ Wiggly asks
‘I think I would like that- ‘Richie is interrupted with the sound of the door to the locker room closing, ‘Hello, is anyone there?’ He asks, concern growing in his gut, but when nobody answers, he begins to think it was the wind.
‘As I was saying, Wiggly, I think that would be a good idea, I enjoy spending time with you anyway!’ Richie says, a gentle smile making its way to his lips, this is amazing! He can spend more time with his fwendy wend uninterrupted by stupid humans.
‘GREAT, RICHIE, I JUST NEED YOU TO REACH THROUGH THE MIRROR AND HOLD MY HAND, AND I’LL ESTABLISH THE CONNECTION BETWEEN US.’
Richie does as he is told, and slowly pushes his hand through the mirror, he quickly grabs hold of Wiggly’s hand and feels a small amount of electricity flow throughout his body, leaving as quickly as it entered.
‘THE CONNECTION HAS BEEN ESTABLISHED, HOW DO YOU FEEL, RICHIE?’ Wiggly asks, lips not moving in the mirror.
‘I feel fine.’ Richie responds in his head.
‘EXCELLENT, NOW THAT THIS HAS BEEN DONE, I’LL LEAVE YOU TO YOUR OWN DEVICES, REMEMBER, IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS FOR ME, I’M JUST A THOUGHT AWAY!’ Wiggly giggles to himself and then disappears, both from the mirror and Richie’s mind.
This is going to be fun.
--
Max headed to school two hours early the way he always did to shower and eat his breakfast away from his dad who… wasn’t the most caring man in the world. Despite his terrible situation, he honestly didn’t mind it, school can be quite fun when you’re the king, plus having the whole school to yourself for the first two hours of the day was awesome, it was like his own personal playground. But all this to say, he was having the time of his life walking through the school that morning, whistling a song stuck in his head and heading to the locker room to have his daily shower and relax when he heard a voice… which sounded eerily familiar.
Max slowly crept towards the locker room, he was almost certain he had heard Shit-Lips talking to seemingly himself in there, but that wasn’t possible… he was dead! They had killed him over two weeks ago, and he was very thoroughly eviscerated and buried under the floorboards. The group had made sure of that, was he imagining things? Surely not, he got enough sleep last night, and he ate at least some amount of food, So, the only way to see whether he was going insane or whether Richie had somehow managed to come back to life was to check. Approaching the door, Max pushed the handle down as slowly as he could to make no noise and leaned on the door to push it in gently. Looking into the room, Max is more shocked by what he sees than he ever thought he could be. Standing in front of a mirror and talking to nothing stands Richie, dripping in green blood, skin strangely tinged the same colour of his blood and bulging green veins, Jesus what is it with all the green? Max doesn’t have to see anything else; he knows what he saw, and he knows it was real, he quickly scurries away from the door, it closing loudly, Max cringes internally and sprints the other way, hoping he won’t be followed by the newly revived boy he helped dismember.
Max spent the two hours he had before school started cowering in a bathroom, and, while he wouldn’t admit it to anyone, he was really fucking scared , obviously he was scared of the idea of ghosts and skeletons haunting people, of course, they’re terrifying, but seeing what was practically a real ghost, one that was tangible and visible to him made his fear feel all the more real. There was the ghost of the boy he helped dismember in the school, he was real, and talking to himself in a mirror, what was he planning? Why was he back? Was he going to seek revenge? Thoughts such as these and more filled his mind for over two hours before the bell signifying the start of school shook him out of his thoughts.
Max stood up from where he had crouched in the toilet stall and rushed to his locker, despite his status at school, and people’s assumptions regarding his lack of care for studying, Max tried in school, he made sure he went to all his classes, and he got a passing grade. So, Max ran to his class, luckily it was the one class he shared with some of the nerds, he had to tell them what he saw, who knows how much of a threat ghost Richie could be.
Max and the nerds had become quite close to each other after the Waylon place, bonding over trauma or something like that, Max didn’t really know what that meant, but he was happy to have a new group of people he could spend time around without them just being too scared to act up. Max thought it was quite refreshing having a group of people who didn’t mind sharing their actual thoughts with him, and it seemed like they enjoyed or at least tolerated his presence which was enough for him!
As Max enters the classroom, he immediately spots Ruth and Pete sitting next to each other, rushing over to the two of them and sitting down, Max whispers to them.
‘Hey guys, I- I need to talk to you about something that happened this morning, it’s important.’
‘Oh, shut up Max, we don’t need to hear about your latest sexcapade.’ Pete sighs.
‘Wait, wait, no Max, I do want to hear about that!’ Ruth whisper-yells at him.
‘NO, I mean, no guys, it’s nothing like that, it’s actually important, it had to do with the Waylon place incident.’ Max whisper-shouts back at them.
He watches as Ruth and Pete’s faces simultaneously drop and turn to stare at Max with bewildered expressions.
‘What do you mean? What happened?’ Pete asks.
‘I fuckin’ saw Richie talking to himself in the locker room this morning, he was like covered in green blood and he was all green all over it was fucking scary!’ Max exclaims.
Ruth and Pete’s faces drop their scared expressions and change to varied looks of exasperation.
‘Max, we’re fine with you pulling little pranks on us, but please don’t joke about something serious like that!’ Ruth exclaims, Pete nodding in agreeance.
‘But guys, I’m not joking, I swear I saw him, and he was all bloody and weird and he was talking to himself like I don’t know, some sort of crazy person!’ Max almost yells at them.
Why wouldn’t they just listen to him? He was trying to warn them about a very real threat that he saw with his own two eyes, and they were just brushing him off like he was joking. This causes Max to start panicking, and he races out of the classroom, to go where he doesn’t know, but he just has to get to someone who would listen, and he knows exactly who he has to get. Reaching out an arm, Max stops an unassuming student who had been running to their class.
‘Hey, you, find me Grace Chasity and bring her to the boy’s bathroom, NOW.’ He yells at the student. They quickly nod and run in the direction that assumedly Grace was currently.
As he runs to the bathroom, an announcement is read over the intercom: ‘Will all students please head to the oval for an emergency assembly.’
Max stopped dead in his tracks, what was this about? Could it be… Richie? As he stood and deliberated, he felt his body be pushed around as a rush of students came through the hallway, normally he would have shouted at people and thrown punches to get people to stop and let him through, but he just felt too scared to do anything, so he let his body get pushed and moved with the crowd until he found himself outside the school, with enough space that he could finally move on his own, he practically sprinted his way to the oval, scared as to what he would hear.
--
Richie felt like a new person, well… ghost, he could do so much more than he could ever do when he was alive, and this was truly the best outcome for him. Not only did Richie have new incredibly powerful abilities, but he also had an incredibly strong ally in Wiggly. Richie knew in his heart that things would turn out exactly the way he wanted them to, and that in turn made him so incredibly happy. And now he had an even deeper connection with Wiggly, he felt as though his life was finally turning around and things were looking up for him.
‘HEY RICHIE, I HAVE AN IDEA OF WHAT YOU CAN DO TO GET BACK ON THOSE FUCKING BRATS.’ Wiggly states talking to Richie in his mind.
Richie lifts an eyebrow and mentally prompts Wiggly to continue.
‘YOU SEE, I’VE BEEN WATCHING THOSE LITTLE TRAITORS FOR YOU, AND HAVE SEEN A LITTLE WEASEL… HE MAY OR MAY NOT HAVE SEEN YOU EARLIER ON WHEN YOU WERE TALKING TO ME IN THE MIRROR, AND I THINK YOU HAVE THE PERFECT OPPORTUNITY TO GIVE HIM A GOOD SCARE, AFTER ALL, HE DID SAY HE WAS TERRIFIED OF GHOSTS, DIDN’T HE.’ Wiggly giggles.
‘Ohhh, Max saw me, huh? That’s perfect, I can finally put that asshole in his place, no more punishing me for just being in his presence, finally, the roles are reversed.’ Richie says with a smile.
‘AH AH AH, RICH-IE, NOT YET DON’T YOU WANT TO PLAY IT OUT A LITTLE BIT, HAVE SOME FUN WITH IT? I HAVE A WONDERFUL PLAN, THAT INVOLVES SOMETHING SPECIAL I CAN TEACH YOU. HOW WOULD YOU LIKE TO LEARN HOW TO SHAPESHIFT ?’ Wiggly says, excitement blooming in Richie’s mind.
--
At the assembly, the teens are scolded for apparently having caused significant damage to school property, both the front doors and the gymnasium had been destroyed to the point where structural integrity was being questioned. Until further notice, all gym classes were suspended, and students had to use the side entrance. The teachers then urged the students who had done the damage to come forward, promising a lesser punishment if they did so, but after five minutes of waiting and nobody admitting to anything, the teachers sent the students back to their scheduled classes, highlighting that they would find the students who did this no matter what.
Max made his way back to the bathroom, hoping Grace was still on her way there, because, God, if Richie was the one who did that, then what else could he do and what would he do to them? He swore he would enact revenge, didn’t he? Max picks up his pace just hitting the halfway mark on the oval when someone caught up with him and started speaking to him.
‘Fancy seeing you here!’ The stranger speaks, confused, Max looks over to see who was addressing him so calmly, and nearly falls over when he sees who it is.
Standing next to Max was a completely normal-looking Richard Lipschitz, smiling at him with an intensity that made Max’s skin prickle with fear. In that moment, it seems as though Richie is looking him up and down with his green eyes- wait, aren’t his eyes usually blue? Max would know as he had spent the past three years gazing at them with a feeling of superiority as Richie trembled below him. But things were different now, now it felt like Richie held the upper hand, it felt like Max was being examined by a butcher who was trying to figure out the best first cut of meat, Max was terrified.
‘Uh, hi Richie, how are you… here?’ Max almost stutters.
Richie looks at him with a smug smile, rolls his eyes and then states,
‘Oh, nothing big, Max you know, the usual.’ Richie declines the answer, instead opting to flash Max with another chilling smile.
‘Now, go tell your friends what you saw today, I’m sure they’ll believe you, just like they believed you this morning! Ha, good luck bitch!’ Richie smiles and walks away from Max, then disappearing into thin air.
Max, unsure of what to do, sprints in the opposite direction of where Richie disappeared, knowing he had to get to Grace immediately.
Max moves to the bathroom and stares at himself in the mirror, flinching when he swears, he sees Richie’s silhouette looming behind him, but when he looks behind, there’s nothing to be seen. He’s not having a good time, what’s going to happen to him? To his friends? How did he even come back? God, he just kept spiralling and couldn’t stop, even as he heard the door to the bathroom open.
‘Max, are you ok?’ Grace asks, her voice dripping with concern
‘I heard you thought you saw Richie this morning, are you feeling, ok?’ Grace continues.
‘I didn’t just think I saw him, I did see him, and he talked to me out on the football field!! He threatened me! I swear on my letterman jacket!’ Max exclaims, and while this may seem silly to the average person, all students in Hatchetfield High know how much Max’s jacket means to him, nobody but him is allowed to wear one, and he always keeps it in pristine condition, no matter what.
Hearing this, Grace’s face drops slightly. She looks him up and down and realises, she has never seen him this afraid, he clearly wasn’t acting, and she knows he would never be seen dead on the floor of the school bathroom. Considering this, Grace stands up and starts pacing around the bathroom, noting she’ll have to give herself a detention for being in the boy’s bathroom, but that can wait for later, firstly, she needs to figure out a way to calm Max down, secondly, ask him exactly what he saw and what Richie told him and, thirdly, come up with a plan to sort it all out. Ok, ok, she can do this, she’s heckin’ Grace Chasity, she can do anything!
‘Max, I believe you.’ Grace states, moving back over to him and crouching down to be on his level, ‘I know this won’t sound great to you right now, but I’m going to need you to tell me everything you saw and what he said to you.’ Grace watches as Max slowly lifts his head up to meet her eyes and nods slowly.
Good! She’s at least managed to get to him!
‘Ok, did you want to go somewhere a little bit nicer than the floor of the boy’s bathroom? It’ll almost be lunch in a couple minutes, so did you want to head outside to a secluded spot and tell me what’s going on?’ Grace looks at him with pity in her eyes, only God knows what this man saw, but goodness it mustn’t be good for heckin’ Max Jagerman to be this shaken up about it.
Max simply nods again and stands up, grabbing onto Grace’s arm as a support as she leads him out of the bathroom. As they walk, Grace spies a few strange looks being thrown their way, but a sharp look from her made them all look away almost instantaneously, the judgement of other teenagers was the last thing Max needed right now.
After a few minutes of slowly walking outside to find the perfect spot, Max suddenly perked up and pointed to a spot under a tree.
‘This is the best spot; nobody comes over here!’ Max exclaimed, quickly pulling Grace over to sit down, nearly forgetting the reason they were looking for a spot to talk in the first place, but as Max sits down, Grace watches a look flash over his face and suddenly he’s terrified again.
‘Ok, now that we’re here, I’m going to need you to tell me exactly what you saw.’ Grace states.
‘Yeah, I- I can do that.’ Max stutters, ‘Uh, so I was in the school early as per usual, going to the locker room for my daily shower, when, I heard somebody talking, it sounded like they were in the locker room, and as I got closer and the voice became clearer, I could have sworn it was Lipschitz talking to himself. I needed to either prove to myself that I was going insane or that Richie had come back in ghost form to haunt us, and guess which one it was?’ Max stops, clearly actually wanting Grace to answer the question.
‘Well, um, based on your reaction and your general fear, I’d say Richie had come back as a ghost.’ Grace deadpans.
‘Yes! Yeah, I opened the door slightly to see, and there Richie was, looking all dead and talking to himself in front of a mirror.’ Max asserts.
‘And what did he look like?’ Grace questions
‘He was all weird looking, I’m going to be honest, like I was kind of grossed out but also scared at the same time, you know? His skin had a weird green tinge to it, but he still looked dead, his wound in his chest and mouth were dripping blood but get this! It was GREEN blood! What the actual hell? And like, I couldn’t see properly, but I swore his eyes looked green too. And, then when I saw him again after the assembly- ‘Max explains, before being stopped by Grace.
‘Wait Max, you said you saw Richie again? After the assembly? That was only like twenty minutes ago, where did he go?’
‘Oh yeah, he like talked to me and threatened me and stuff, then he like fully disappeared. But he looked different this time, he looked normal other than his green eyes, and like, he had blue eyes before he died, right? What on earth happened to him? Does death and being resurrected suddenly give you green eyes?’
Max gasps, finally breathing after not having done so the entire sentence. He looks at Grace with worry in his eyes, who knew THE literal monster of the school could look so small and terrified of a nerd, but not only that, his primary victim at that.
Grace confirms Max’s suspicions regarding Richie’s eye colour and asserts the fact that she will make sure nothing happens to him or any of the members of their little group. She watched as Max’s face slowly morphed into a smile at Grace’s kindness and reassuring words. He pulls her up from the ground and they walk back to the school, heading to the cafeteria and spending the rest of their lunch with the other nerds.
--
‘Shit, shit oh my god, why the fuck did he have to go to Grace of all people? And why the hell did she believe him? Isn’t this whole thing against her religion?’ Richie exclaims, punching the wall in anger.
‘CALM DOWN RICH-IE, I GET YOUR FRUSTRATION AND WANT WITH ALL MY HEART TO GO OUT THERE AND RIP THEM ALL TO BLOODY BITS RIGHT AT THIS MOMENT, JUST AS YOU DO. BUT WE NEED TO BE SMART ABOUT THIS, HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT PLAYING WITH THEM A LITTLE MORE TODAY? THEN YOU CAN COME HOME AND WE CAN DO SOME MORE PLOTTING!’ Wiggly exclaims.
‘Wiggly, you know just what to say to make me feel better, it’s like you’re a part of me, you just know what makes me tick!’ Richie smiles ‘I think I may have an idea on how to get them, just for a little fun!’ Richie begins pacing as he formulates the plan in his mind, stopping to look at himself in the mirror and pausing, ‘Wiggly, is there a way I can make myself invisible? Like, I know I can go omnipotent and watch what others are doing without my being there, but I want to be invisible and taunt the group up close, you know!’ Richie asks.
‘THERE IS A WAY, I JUST NEED YOU TO RELAX YOUR ENTIRE BODY, AND IMAGINE YOU GOING INSIVIBLE, REALLY AS SIMPLE AS THAT. I TOLD YOU YOU’D BE ALL POWERFUL DIDN’T I?’ Wiggly explains.
Not responding, Richie instead immediately tries to turn invisible, he closes his eyes and wills with all his might that his body will turn invisible, and wouldn’t he know it, when he opens them again, he can’t see himself in the mirror. Overjoyed, Richie began jumping up and down in excitement, he couldn’t believe he was this powerful, but Wiggly was right, he deserved it, it was meant for him, whatever that meant. Feeling incredibly powerful, Richie walks over to the door of the locker room, flicks his wrist and watches as the door flies open. He was getting more and more used to these powers of his, and it was awesome. It's truly like he was an anime protagonist.
Richie then strides down the hallway ready to spring his trap on the group of mostly unsuspecting nerds. It didn’t matter that Max and Grace knew; he would simply blow them all away with his performance this afternoon.
--
At lunch, Grace and Max saunter up to the table that seated the nerds and Steph, sitting down quickly and staring each member of the group down.
‘Ok, guys, I need to tell you something, it’s incredibly important that you all listen to what I say, but we need to go somewhere more private than this, and no, Ruth, Max and I didn’t finally get together, this is more important than that.’ Grace impatiently says, standing up and grabbing the hands of Ruth and Stephanie, Max in turn grabs Pete’s hand and leads them to one of the most forgotten bathrooms in the school, the one next to the science wing.
Barging their way into the bathroom one by one, Max and Grace force the remaining three members of the group to sit on the ground in front of them, much to their displeasure.
‘Ok, now that we’re here, I can finally tell you about what’s going on, you see, Ruth and Pete, I know you heard this from Max earlier, but it appears as though Richie has come back from the dea-‘Grace starts when suddenly, a freezing gust of air washes over the group, making them all stop in their places. Looking around the bathroom, nothing seemed to be wrong though, it was probably just a broken air con or something like that, it makes sense provided the dire state of the entire science wing. The group looks at each other, and Grace opens her mouth to start again when the cold wind starts up again, more aggressive this time, making even Max’s heavily gelled hair move significantly, lights start flickering and some of the stall doors begin to open and close rapidly.
Running to the main door, Grace tries to yank it open so the group can escape, but she finds it impossible to pull it open, no matter how hard she tries.
‘I THINK WE’RE LOCKED IN HERE GUYS!’ Grace yells over the continuously growing wind strength.
‘WHAT THE FUCK ARE WE SUPPOSED TO DO HERE?’ Stephanie yells
‘I THINK HE WANTS TO TAUNT US, BUT HOW DO WE GET HIM TO STOP?’ Ruth yells in agreeance
‘I-I HAVE AN IDEA’ Pete stutters
‘GO AHEAD, PETER’ Grace prompts
‘H-HEY GHOST, I DON’T KNOW IF YOU’RE RICIHIE OR NOT BUT, I’LL DO ANYTHING TO GET YOU TO STOP TAUNTING US AND HURTING US.’ Pete yells, not truly considering the implications regarding what he just said he would do.
Suddenly, the wind stops, the lights stop flickering and the stall doors stop slamming open and shut. The entrance door is still locked, but at least they weren’t being actively haunted.
A voice that sounds vaguely like Richie’s but with an odd twist pipes up suddenly,
‘WHATEVER I WANT? MY YOU ARE A NAÏVE BUNCH OF TRAITORS AREN’T YOU?’ Richie’s voice booms throughout the room, causing the group to cover their ears and flinch away. It was Richie speaking, the group could determine that much, but he was speaking strangely, a weird lisp and accent were present, and he spoke so much louder than the entirety of the group had ever heard him before.
What had happened to Richie?
--
Richie does not want to give those assholes the satisfaction of seeing him after they so awfully killed him, so he remains an invisible entity, preferring to taunt them from his corner in the bathroom.
Richie honestly couldn’t believe his luck, how the hell did these idiots manage to fuck themselves up this badly so quickly. It was honestly laughable that their first thought was to give him whatever the fuck he wanted? He felt Wiggly in his head, he seemed very pleased with the direction this was going, but he didn’t say anything, apparently trusting Richie enough to let him do his own thing with this promise.
His smile grew wide as he proclaimed to the group,
‘VERY WELL, I WILL LEAVE YOU ALONE FOR NOW, BUT PET-ER DON’T GET TOO COMFORTABLE, WHILE I MAY NOT CASH IN YOUR PROCLAMATION RIGHT NOW, IT WILL REMAIN IN MY BOOKS AS YOU SAY, AN I OWE YOU IF YOU WILL.’
He watches as the group shuffles around on the floor uncomfortably, unsure whether they can leave or not, this annoys Richie to no end, he swore these people were smart, but apparently not. So, he pipes up,
‘YOU CAN LEAVE NOW YOU IDIOTS.’ A bite in his voice.
The group quickly stands up and exits the bathroom, looking at each other in fear. Richie just remains where he is, floating slightly above the ground. A smile larger than what should be humanly possible grows on his face as he considers what he can do with his freshly acquired ‘I Owe You’, deciding to consult Wiggly on it rather than make the decision on his own, Wiggly always has the best ideas. Richie would be lying if he said he didn’t want to be like Wiggly, there was obviously a reason he was the king of the black and white, and Richie loved it. In turn, Wiggly kept reminding Richie that they were more similar than he could ever know, whatever that meant, Richie didn’t know but it was a comforting thought, nonetheless, knowing that the literal king of the gods of the universe likened himself to Richie. It was an insane thing to think, like, how had he, a nerdy little nobody from a tiny island town in America, become allied with God? It made no logical sense, yet here he was.
As Richie considers all of this, he feels himself being transported, presumably back home in the black and white, seeing as Wiggly did say he wanted to bring Richie back after he taunted the group.
Finally, the feeling ends, and Richie looks down, finding himself seated on his bed, he smiles, glad that Wiggly decided to drop him somewhere comfortable, reaching his hand behind his back, he finds the Wiggly doll exactly where he left it. Grabbing it, Richie gave it a quick hug and squeeze, it had been a big day for him, learning how to use his powers and being able to taunt those little shits back down on Earth. Richie lays down, staying there for maybe five or so minutes before he almost closes his eyes when he feels a presence walking towards him, sitting up slowly he looks to see Wiggly slowly approaching. Richie smiles at him gently and gets up off his bed. Then, in a burst of courage, Richie walks over to where Wiggly now stands and pulls him into a bear hug.
‘Thank you so much for everything you’ve done for me, Wiggly, I owe you everything. You have truly given me purpose.’ Richie says with a smile.
Wiggly quickly reciprocates the hug, filling Richie with hope and appreciation for the future he will have in this world. Then suddenly, an electrical feeling, like the one he felt earlier today ran throughout his body. Richie flinches slightly and grips Wiggly tighter, but is quickly comforted by Wiggly who explains,
‘RICHIE, THIS IS A PART OF YOUR TRANSFORMATION, YOU KNOW HOW YOUR EYES CHANGED COLOUR EARLIER ON? WELL, THE LONGER YOU SPEND IN THE BLACK AND WHITE, AS WELL AS WITH ME, THE MORE CHANGES YOUR BODY WILL GO THROUGH. IT’S PERFECTLY NATURAL, AND WHILE I CAN’T TELL YOU EXACTLY WHY THEY’RE HAPPENING TO YOU CURRENTLY, JUST KNOW THAT THIS WAS MEANT TO HAPPEN AND I’LL BE WITH YOU THE ENTIRE TIME.’
Richie, now slightly more comfortable with the feeling now that Wiggly partially explained what was happening, let’s go of Wiggly and walks back over to his bed, sitting back down he asks,
‘Why can’t you tell me now? No pressure or anything, but like, the suspense is killing me.’ Richie chuckles knowing how stupid and immature he sounds right now. But as he looks back at Wiggly, all he sees is a gaze full of endearment and care. Again, how the hell did this happen to Richard Lipschitz, the local anime nerd who always smelt like shit? Either way, the way Wiggly looked at him was real, and so was everything else.
‘RICHIE, I’M SORRY, BUT I CAN’T TELL YOU YET, YOU AREN’T READY QUITE YET. YOU WILL BE SOON, TRUST ME, YOU ARE SO STRONG AND POWERFUL ALREADY. JUST KNOW, I SEE MYSELF A LOT IN YOU, AND THAT HAS INCREDIBLE BEARING ON YOUR FUTURE…AH OH NO, I’VE SAID TOO MUCH!’ Wiggly stops himself from saying any more and mimes himself zipping his lips closed, Richie lets out a giggle at that. How did a literal god act like this around him?
‘OK RICHIE, I KNOW YOU’RE RARING TO LEARN MORE, SO HOW ABOUT I TEACH YOU SOMETHING I CAN TELL YOU NOW? HUH, I CAN TEACH YOU HOW TO SHAPE THE BLACK AND WHITE TO YOUR WILL, YOU SEE, YOUR POWERS ARE VERY STRONG, AND THAT ALLOWS YOU TO BEND THINGS TO YOUR WILL, SEE, WATCH ME DO IT AND TRY TO COPY ME.’ Wiggly explains before moving his hand slightly.
Richie watches as a wall is formed out of the black, creating the shapes of Richie’s old bedroom wall. It looks simple enough, and Richie follows, assuming Wiggly just imagined what he wanted to create and willed it into existence. Flicking his hand the same way Wiggly did, Richie closes his eyes and imagines the next wall of his bedroom, filled with shelves of figurines and posters of his favourite animes. Richie smiles as he opens his eyes, knowing not only that he did it, but now he also has more of his possessions with him in his new home.
‘WOW, YOU ARE A FAST LEARNER RI-CHIE, I LOVE TO SEE SUCH AN EAGER INDIVIDUAL!’ Wiggly looks at Richie, eyes brimming with pride.
Richie simply smiles back at him and wanders through the partially constructed room. He gazes up at his posters and figurines and hums to himself. While he no longer has a need for these worldly possessions, it’s nice to see an echo of who he was when he was a human as a reminder of how far he’s come, don’t get him wrong, he still loves anime and the stories they tell, but they just aren’t as important knowing now that the world is incredibly small in relation to a place as vast as the black and white, and even that was now his and Wiggly’s.
Richie felt strong and powerful now, not weak and vulnerable like he was when he was a human, it was an incredibly intoxicating feeling, like a high he never had to come down from. He finally had the ability to do everything he wanted to when he was alive and more. He has a purpose. He is truly alive for the first time ever, and it’s after he died, how ironic is that?
Richie turns around to look at Wiggly who also appears deep in thought, but before Richie queries what Wiggly is thinking about, Wiggly pipes up,
‘RICHIE, I THINK YOU ARE READY TO MEET MY BROTHERS, WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE THEM?’ Wiggly asks, a look almost like that of apprehension on his face, as though he is afraid of what Richie will think.
‘Oh my god, are you serious? You want me to meet your brothers? Holy shit, Wiggly I’m so excited! If they’re anything like you are, I’m sure they’re awesome!’ Richie exclaims, nearly jumping up and down in excitement.
Wiggly looks Richie up and down, a fond look crossing over his face, he then smiles and nods. He quickly grabs Richie’s hand and leads him to a door which had appeared out of nowhere. Wiggly gestures for Richie to enter first, he abides and walks through, slight apprehension covered by his incredible excitement, he can’t believe he’s finally meeting the other gods, Wiggly’s brothers! He’s so sure they’ll be as cool as Wiggly, and he can’t wait to have more friends here.
As Wiggly walks through the door, he grabs Richie’s hand again and continues leading him through the black, before suddenly an incredibly large room maybe the size of a stadium comes into view, but it’s incredibly difficult to see due to the darkness of his entire home. Either way, this place was fucking massive, and incredibly ornate, as Richie noticed getting closer to the entrance. The building was covered in carvings and columns designed incredibly strangely, detailing events Richie couldn’t even comprehend, at least not now, but what Richie did recognize and understand was the incredible number of carvings including Wiggly in them, he looked different, sure, but he was certain it was him, it felt real and familiar to him. But perhaps that was just because he knew Wiggly was a god and, therefore, why wouldn’t it be him? Approaching the doors, Richie spies a familiar scene, the Waylon place, a death, it looks vaguely like him, but he ignores that for now, Wiggly will explain it to him at a later point in time, he knows. For now, Richie watches as Wiggly pushes the massive doors open with a flourish, sending them flying open at a speed Richie didn’t think was possible, but instead of bounding back or even breaking slightly, they remain open. This whole place was so cool it astounded Richie that more people didn’t know about this place and what Wiggly could do.
Richie continues forward into the massive building, looking in awe at what was, essentially, a massive throne room complete with five thrones all different colours, blue, green, pink, yellow and purple, the green one in the middle being the largest and most ornate of course, but what Richie also notices is another throne, or what used to be a throne, it was made out of pure white stone and had been shoved to the side, crumbling due to its lack of use. In front of the thrones appears to be a pit of some sort, seemingly used to house lesser individuals. Maybe their minions, Richie wasn’t sure, and really hoped Wiggly didn’t do anything like that, it wasn’t like he needed any help anyway, he was incredibly strong as is.
Richie and Wiggly start heading down a large staircase into the lower part of the building that houses the thrones. As Richie gets closer to the bottom of the stairs, he spies individuals materialising from nowhere and then sitting on their presumably respective thrones. Still, Richie didn’t even have to assume as the people were very fittingly wearing colour-coded outfits , similar in style to Wiggly’s green get-up.
Once the whole group of Wiggly’s brothers appear, they look around to see if they can spot him and the newcomer, of course Blinky is the one to notice them, and gestures over to where Wiggly and Richie are, showing his brothers without having to speak, just the way he liked it. The rest of the group looks to where Blinky had gestured and lo and behold, Wiggly and the newly acquired Richie Lipschitz are getting closer and closer to the group. Tinky jumps up and down in excitement, laughing manically, while Nibbly begins licking his lips in excitement, Poky simply smiles gently at the two of them, who have now made their way to the rest of the group.
Richie shifts awkwardly, unsure as to whether he should be the first one to speak and introduce himself or whether he should let Wiggly do the honours. He quickly glances at Wiggly for help and Wiggly simply smiles, then takes a step forward, addressing his brothers.
‘HELLO BROTHERS, I’M GLAD YOU’RE EXCITED TO SEE RICHIE HERE, HE IS VERY SPECIAL, NOW ISN’T HE, UNLIKE YOU IDIOTS!’ Wiggly exclaims with an incredibly proud aura to his words.
Richie shrinks into himself a little at the compliments.
‘YES, AND HE LOOKS JUST LIKE YOU, ISN’T THAT A FUN LITTLE COINCIDENCE?’ Blinky pipes up, not without Wiggly shooting him a look that would kill any mortal. Blinky shrinks back, not daring to disobey his king.
‘BLINKY, DON’T TALK ABOUT RICHIE LIKE THAT, HE’S HIS OWN PERSON AND, AN INCREDIBLY TALENTED AND POWERFUL ONE AT THAT. RICHIE, WHY DON’T YOU SHOW MY BROTHERS SOME OF THE POWERS YOU PICKED UP JUST TODAY, SIGNIFICANTLY QUICKER THAN ANY OF YOU, MIGHT I ADD?’ Wiggly says, a gentle smile landing on his face as he looks at Richie.
‘Oh, uh ok. I can do that.’ Richie stammers slightly, looking between the group, not certain as to why he was so anxious now. Maybe it had to do with the fact that he was showing off his abilities to five literal gods? Maybe, just maybe, that was it. But Richie was strong now, so he shrugs off his thoughts of doubt and begins working to shape the black around him, deciding he truly wants to impress the group, Richie works on sculpting the group that stands before him. It might be a little cheesy and grandiose, but that’s exactly what Richie wants to do, he wants to leave a good impression, and hey, if they’re gods, surely they’ll enjoy a little bit of caricature work.
Sculpting them takes significantly longer than creating the bedroom wall, but Richie is still done within a minute or two. He opens his eyes to look at his work and finds what is essentially a photorealistic sculpture of the five gods stood before him. He looks over to where they stand and sees incredibly large smiles on everyone in front of him, but of course, Richie focuses in on one specific individual. He sees Wiggly’s incredibly proud-looking smile and almost tears up at how Wiggly is looking at him currently, he looks so incredibly proud of Richie, it makes Richie almost want to run over to Wiggly and give him the largest hug, but he doesn’t. He doesn’t want to embarrass himself in front of Wiggly’s brothers after all. He instead opts with walking over to Wiggly and standing next to him as he watches the rest of the lords examine the statue more closely. Blinky then speaks up,
‘THIS IS AN INCREDIBLY IMPRESSIVE WORK, RICHIE, I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU LEARNED HOW TO SHAPE THE BLACK JUST TODAY?’ Blinky speaks with palpable adoration of Richie’s work.
Still unsure of how to take compliments, one of his few traits that transferred to him after his death, Richie looks at the ground, grabbing at his baggy long-sleeved shirt and fidgeting with the hem. Clearly Wiggly notices this, however, and quickly grabs Richie’s hand, squeezing it in a comforting way.
‘Uh, thank you guys. I hah, I tried hard with that one.’ Richie says a small smile on his face.
‘AND IT IS NOTICEABLE IN THIS WORK, GOOD JOB RICHIE!’ Tinky speaks up, jumping up and down once again.
‘YOU ARE TRULY IN TUNE WITH THE ARTS.’ Pokey speaks, smiling gently at Richie once again.
‘Thank you, guys, I mean, it wasn’t that much work, but I appreciate it, nonetheless. I was wondering, if uh, you could all introduce yourselves to me. I’m still uh very new to this whole thing.’ Richie looks at the group.
‘OF COURSE, HOW RUDE OF US, DIDN’T EVEN REALISE YOU DON’T KNOW WHO WE ARE, ASSUMING WIGGLY DIDN’T MENTION US, AND WE KNOW HE WOULD NEVER DO THAT!’ Pokey smiles, the rest of the group joins in, beginning to giggle.
‘OHH OHH, I’LL GO FIRST! I’M TINKY OR T’NOY KARAXIS, I’M ALSO KNOWN AS THE BASTARD OF TIME. I ACTUALLY HAVE QUITE A CONNECTION TO ONE OF YOUR FRIENDO’S BACK ON EARTH, OR SHOULD I SAY OLD FRIENDO’S HAHAHA.’ Tinky explains.
‘Wait, who?’ Richie pries
‘DO YOU KNOW TEDDY BEAR? HE HAS THE MOST FUN TIME IN MY TOY BOX!’ Tinky giggles, shaking the yellow box he holds in his hand. Richie faintly hears the screaming of a damned soul but ignores it.
‘Teddy bear? Like, Ted Spankoffski? OH, MY GOODNESS, THAT’S SO COOL!’ Richie starts to yell, but cools down, ‘I mean, ahem, I like the continuous motif, sticking with one man. And how much emotional damage must that cause Pete oh my goodness thank you Tinky!’ Richie finishes.
‘I CAN SAY THAT TED RECENTLY DIED IN THIS TIMELINE, AND PET-EY IS SUFFERING SIGNIFICANTLY! I’M BLINKY OR BLIKLOTEP, MY WHOLE THING IS WATCHING , I ALWAYS HAVE MY EYES EVERYWHERE, I LOVE OBSERVING, AND MY OH MY, YOU ARE QUITE A SPECIMEN, RICHIE!’ Blinky says calmly.
‘Ohh, that’s so cool! So, do you just watch, or do you change things up for your entertainment?’ Richie asks, jumping up and down on the balls of his feet.
‘OH YES I INTERVENE TO MAKE THINGS MORE INTERESTING, IT’S ALWAYS SO FUNNY WATCHING CLOSE FRIENDS AND FAMILY TEAR EACH OTHER APART BECAUSE OF ONE SILLY LITTLE DISAGREEMENT!’ Blinky smiles, euphoria exuding from their being as they talk.
Richie simply smiles back at them, completely understanding their motivations and goals, its fun being able to toy with those idiotic little beings on earth.
‘OHH, I WANT TO GO NEXT! I’M NIBBLY OR NIBBLENEPHIM, I LOVE EATING THINGS! I LOVE A GOOD SACRIFICE AND WILL ALWAYS BE HAPPY TO EAT ANY UNSUSPECTING HUMAN WHO COMES AROUND.’ Nibbly finishes their statement with a clacking of their teeth as they mime chomping down on an unsuspecting human.
Richie smiles wide at this, ‘I love the enthusiasm!!’ Richie simply says, knowing Nibbly doesn’t need to be complimented to know what they’re doing is right.
‘GUESS, I’M GOING NOW, I’M POKEY, BUT I PREFER TO BE REFERRED TO AS POKOTHO OR THE SINGULAR VOICE. I CAN POSSESS PEOPLE AND MAKE THEM A PART OF THE HIVEMIND, I LOVE TO CONTROL THE PUNY LITTLE HUMANS, AND MAKING THEM DO WHATEVER I TELL THEM IS EXHILARATING.’ Pokey grins from underneath his mask.
Richie nods at him and says, ‘I understand, I love being able to control people, the absolute power you feel is incredible!’
Pokey smiles at Richie, finally, somebody understands why he acts this way. He’s going to fit right in.
Richie smiles at the group, feeling as though he’s met a group he can truly get along with well, he quickly squeezes Wiggly’s hand and looks at him and smiles, he’s about to say something to him when a terrible pain causes him to seize up in pain. Richie falls to the ground, everything hurt so much, but luckily the pain only lasted for a few seconds before it got too much, and he consequently passed out.
--
Richie wakes up back on his bed, feeling all kinds of wrong, he felt like he couldn’t move any of his limbs, stuck in a paralysis of sorts. All he could do was move his neck slightly, so he did just that. Moving his head around to see what was going on, he sees the eyes of Wiggly watching him. Upon noticing Richie being awake and looking at him, Wiggly immediately grins and moves closer to Richie. Wiggly reaches out a hand and begins stroking Richie’s hair, confused, Richie shoots him a look but Wiggly just laughs.
‘I’M GLAD TO SEE YOU AWAKE SO SOON RI-CHIE, IT SEEMS LIKE YOU’LL BE RECOVERING IN NO TIME.’ Wiggly comforts Richie, and notices Richie attempting to speak.
‘AH AH, NO RICHIE DON’T TRY TO SPEAK NOW, YOU’LL JUST HURT YOURSELF FURTHER, HERE TAKE A DRINK OF THIS INSTEAD!’ Wiggly produces a bottle of what could be water out of nowhere. He unscrews the lid, lifts Richie’s head up slightly and puts the bottle to his lips. Grateful that the liquid was in fact water, Richie consumes gulp after gulp of water until Wiggly finally removes the bottle from his lips. Richie nods slightly in thanks and Wiggly just smiles softly in response.
‘DID YOU WANT ME TO TELL YOU WHAT HAPPENED?’ Wiggly asks, looking down at Richie, he nods his head again and looks up at Wiggly expectantly.
‘OK FWEND, ANYTHING FOR YOU!’ Wiggly giggles, ‘IT SEEMS YOU HAVE REACHED THE SECOND PART OF YOUR TRANSFORMATION EARLIER THAN EXPECTED. WHICH IS INCREDIBLE! IT’S TESTAMENT TO YOUR POWER AND ABILITIES OVERALL, YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW PROUD I AM OF YOU!’ Wiggly beams at Richie who can’t help but feel a smile stretch across his face as well.
‘AND, BECAUSE OF THIS TRANSFORMATION, I CAN FINALLY TELL YOU SOME MORE THINGS ABOUT OUR SPECIAL LITTLE CONNECTION!’ Wiggly continues, piquing Richie’s interest significantly, Wiggly laughs at the look Richie’s giving him currently, and takes that as a queue to continue speaking.
‘SO, HERE’S A FUN WITTLE FACT FOR YOU RI-CHIE, WE ARE RELATED! WE COME FROM THE SAME BLOOD AND BONES, AND THAT MEANS, JUST LIKE ME YOU ARE VERY POWERFUL AND BELONG DOWN HERE. WHY DO YOU THINK YOU APPEARED IN THE BLACK AND WHITE AFTER DYING INSTEAD OF GOING TO HELL OR WHATEVER , YOU’RE SPECIAL, YOU’RE LIKE ME. AND BECAUSE OF THIS RELATION TO ME, YOU ARE STARTING TO LOOK LIKE ME MORE AND MORE. SO, TO ANSWER YOUR QUESTION, WHILE THIS WILL NOT BE VISIBLE IN THE MORTAL REALM FOR NOW, YOU HAVE DEVELOPED MORE TRAITS OF MINE, IN FACT, IF YOU CAN SIT UP A LITTLE, YOU WILL FIND THAT YOUR HANDS HAVE BECOME LIKE MINE, DON’T THEY LOOK WONDEROUS?’ Wiggly exclaims.
Richie does in fact feel well enough now that he can sit up with Wiggly’s help, and he does as he was told, looking down at his hands, he finds that replacing his fingers are strangely fuzzy tentacles, and not only that, but Richie has only six fingers in total now. As Richie gazes at the rest of his body, he finds that his skin now has a strong green colouration to it, the same strangely fuzzy texture covering it.
As Richie looks at his body, he knows that logically, he should be terrified of what is happening to him, this isn’t natural, but then another part of his brain tells him that this truly is right, the way he looks now, it just fits like a glove, like Wiggly said, he is related to him and therefore would look the same way, it just makes sense. So, instead of cowering in fear like he would have when he was alive, Richie turns to look at Wiggly and smiles a now incredibly sharp-toothed smile.
Wiggly was incredibly pleased with this transformation, while he wasn’t expecting it to occur so quickly, it was just a testament to the fact that Richie was The One. He smiled back at Richie with an equally dangerous smile and proclaims,
‘I THINK IT’S TIME YOU HAD AN OUTFIT CHANGE!’
Notes:
Chapter 3 is FINALLY here! Sorry for the wait guys! I hope it's up to standards, I really like this chapter, it was incredibly fun to write!
In case you wanted to get in touch,
My twitter is @Cistus_Icarus
And My tumblr can be found here! cistus-icarus.tumblr.comI hope you enjoy
Chapter Text
Richie smiles up at Wiggly as he suggests an outfit change, finally, he can get out of these stupid nerdy clothes he died in, thank… Wiggly? He is a God so, yeah, thank Wiggly. As per usual, Richie found himself following Wiggly through the black and white to some unmarked buildings that appeared completely miscellaneous, yet whenever he entered one of them, he felt like his world had changed drastically. How could a place that was so empty and void of light have so much? So much detail and beauty, it truly made Richie want to do what he could to shape it, he felt powerful when he saw the expanse of the black and saw these little dark galaxies of detail and blessing. Seeing these places makes Richie truly think he does have a connection to Wiggly, the black and white fit like a glove on his tentacle hands, it was beautiful.
As Richie pondered what he could potentially do with the space, he didn’t realise he had stopped, then suddenly coming out of his dissociative state, he jolts back as he notices Wiggly is looking at him almost as thoughtfully as Richie had been looking at the void moments before. Richie quickly jogs up to where Wiggly is standing and apologises profusely for leaving him waiting, but in response, Wiggly simply holds up a hand and Richie stops speaking.
‘NO NEED TO APOLOGISE RI-CHIE, I CAN TELL YOU WERE DEEP IN THOUGH, WOULD YOU MIND INDULGING ME AND TELLING ME WHAT YOU WERE THINKING ABOUT?’ Wiggly asks, an eyebrow arching slightly.
‘Oh uh, nothing much haha. I was just thinking about how I can make things out of the black now that you’ve taught me and uh, I was just pondering what I could make seeing as everything is already so haunting and beautiful, it’s just wonderful and like…can I even make things that are of the same value?’ Richie asks, feeling his eyes begin to tear up, and over what? Some stupid thought that he can’t equal the works of gods. Of course he can’t, Jesus Christ, he really needs to get a grip.
Richie can’t help but let his tears fall, not noticing they are in fact now green due to the darkness. Because who is he to come storming into this unknown terrain and claim sanctuary, then go around and change things to his will, he’s so stupid, God, Wiggly probably doesn’t even like spending time with him. Of course, he had similar motives and that prompted them to work together, but Richie is certain that if it hadn’t been for Richie wanting to kill those traitorous bastards, Wiggly would have never even touched a hair on Richie’s head. He was so replaceable when he was alive, who’s to say he isn’t the same in death?
Wiggly regards Richie with an incredible amount of thought and care, he knows what’s going through the boy’s mind at this very moment, hell, he had similar thoughts when he was around Richie’s age, so Wiggly’s first thought is to comfort him. Likely too quickly, Wiggly launches himself at Richie and smothers him in a hug, causing the boy to jolt and flinch at the impact but quickly reciprocate the hug, sobbing quietly into Wiggly’s shoulder, but he didn’t mind, if he was being honest with himself, he would do anything for this boy, no matter what, hell, he’d even sacrifice himself for him.
Wait… that thought jolts Wiggly out of whatever stupor he had put himself in while consoling Richie, he hadn’t realised how much he cared for the kid, not that it would matter particularly much in the end, knowing the course of time would continue and no matter what he does there will always be the same outcome. So, what Wiggly does next doesn’t really matter in the infinite course of time. He reaches out, picks Richie up in a bridal hold and takes him back to his room, clearly, he wasn’t in the right mindset to have fun trying on clothes. So, he’ll instead leave him with his Wiggly doll to calm down and rest, despite his obvious strength, dying and dealing with the mental toll that his entire experience had caused was incredibly draining and Wiggly didn’t blame him at all.
Wiggly carries Richie over to his bed and gently places him down, covering him with his duvet, all Wiggly receives in response is a slight whine, but that’s enough for Wiggly, at least Richie was still responsive. Wiggly then grabs the doll of his likeness and tucks it under the covers, he watches as Richie reaches to grab the doll and tucks it in the crook of his arm. Wiggly notices that his face has found his usual expression for when he’s around Richie, a gentle smile. For now, Richie could spend some time down in Drowsy Town.
--
Wiggly approaches the throne room roughly half an hour after he left Richie in his bed. Apparently, his brothers had something incredibly important that they needed to discuss with him immediately. Wiggly’s happy to join, but he’ll be dragging his feet the entire time, as usual for him, he honestly hates his brothers, they’re all blabbering idiots, well except for maybe Pokey, on a good day if Wiggly was feeling generous with his judgements. But no matter that, they had called him in for an emergency meeting, this never happens, what on earth would they need to talk to him about specifically? What could he have possibly done wrong?
Wiggly walks down the stairs with purposeful slowness, hoping to annoy his brothers further. As he nears the thrones, Wiggly notices no excitement or endearing looks thrown his way, simply grimaces or the aversion of eye contact. What the hell had happened while he was gone?
‘HI WIGGLY, UM, HOW ARE YOU DOING?’ Bliklotep tries, not wanting to get on Wiggly’s bad side.
‘DON’T, BLINKY.’ Wiggly holds up a tentacle, ‘WHAT’S THIS ALL ABOUT THEN? WHY HAVE YOU DRAGGED ME AWAY WHEN YOU KNOW VERY WELL THAT I AM TAKING CARE OF RICHIE?’ Wiggly nearly shouts, unable to contain the rage he felt knowing that Richie is alone in the black and white currently, with nobody to help him but himself. All because of these blathering idiots who don’t know how to solve a stupid problem on their own. Wiggly continues this tangent in his mind until he’s finally interrupted, quite rudely, by Pokotho.
‘WIGGLY, WE ALL KNOW YOU HAVE GOOD INTENTIONS, BUT WE FEAR YOU MAY BE GOING TOO FAR, BLINKY SAW THE STUNT YOU PULLED JUST THEN, AND WHILE I KNOW THE BOY WAS UPSET, YOU CAN’T JUST BABY HIM LIKE THAT!’ Pokotho says in his musically inclined tone of voice, still not managing to hide the slight edge that surrounded his words.
‘OH, SO THIS IS AN INTERVENTION THEN? I DON’T KNOW HOW TO CARE FOR MY OWN. HUH? IS THAT IT? YOU DON’T TRUST MY JUDGMENT. I KNOW WHAT THIS BOY NEEDS BETTER THAN ANYONE ELSE COULD, AND YOU KNOW THAT VERY WELL. SO SHUT THE FUCK UP WITH YOUR ACCUSATIONS.’ Wiggly shouts at the group this time, no longer hiding the absolute fury bottling inside him.
‘YES, BUT WIGGLY, CAN’T YOU JUST USE YOUR POWERS TO REMOVE ANY SETBACKS FROM THE BOY’S MIND? WOULDN’T THAT BE SO MUCH EASIER?’ Surprisingly Nibbly speaks, a questioning gaze landing on Wiggly.
‘NO, I WILL NOT BE DOING ANYTHING OF THE SORT TO THE BOY, MAKING HIM DRINK MY BLOOD WAS NECESSARY AND HE WOULD’VE DIED WITHOUT THAT, BUT I DRAW THE LINE AT THAT. NO ALTERATIONS WILL BE MADE TO HIM BEYOND WHAT HAS ALREADY BEEN DONE, NOTHING, AND I MEAN ABSOLUTELY NOTHING CAN CHANGE THAT. HAVE I MADE MYSELF CLEAR?!’ Wiggly screams at the group, and a heavy, unsettled aura settles amongst the group, all the unsaid words hanging heavily over them.
‘OKAY, WIGGLY, YOU KNOW BEST, I GUESS. BUT BE CAREFUL, YOU KNOW WHAT’LL HAPPEN IF SOMETHING GOES WRONG.’ Pokey sighs.
Wiggly simply smiles at the group and walks away a sense of finality filling the room.
--
Ruth struggled to breathe as she and the rest of the group sprinted from the bathroom that had been their torture zone for the last five minutes. It appeared that the entire group had decided they couldn’t complete the school day like this, so the group left through one of the side doors and headed towards their designated meeting spot, the parking lot of Pasqualis, as decided by Max. His reasoning being, it’s still his turf, nobody can hurt them while they’re there or else they face the wrath of Max’s fist. The group hadn’t fought him on it, hell, Pete and Steph were excited, maybe this could be their chance to finally get that date.
But right now, the vibe is completely different. The group stood awkwardly around each other, Max was shaking, like physically quivering in fear, and Ruth swore she never wanted to see him look this way ever again, he was somehow even scarier, or maybe it was just the fact that nobody should ever be seeing Max afraid, it just wasn’t something that was supposed to happen in the natural order of things, so seeing Max act this way was deeply unsettling.
The group goes to sit on the curb, they need to know what happened to Max, who the hell was haunting them, was it Richie? Ruth’s internal monologue was going 100 miles a minute, and she was beginning to panic, how the hell had this happened? What-
Her thoughts are cut off by the shouts of Steph,
‘WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT? WAS THAT FUCKING RICHIE? HOW DID HE COME BACK? WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK IS GOING ON?’ Steph almost screams at Max and Grace, who are both sat on the curb, the latter trying her best to comfort the former by rubbing circles on his back.
Grace flinches slightly either at the volume of the yelling or the swearing, but manages to speak,
‘I-I don’t know, okay? I think it was Richie, but I didn’t know he had those powers? What on earth caused him to come back and be some incredibly powerful ghost or something?’ Grace stutters slightly.
‘Well, how do we even know it was Richie, sure, it would make sense provided the contexts but, how do we know it was him? It didn’t even sound like him? It was a weird British guy ?’ Ruth interjects.
‘It was Richie, I swear. When I saw him this morning, he was talking in a similar kind of accent, but it wasn’t as strong as it is now if that makes sense?’ Max speaks shrilly, as he glances around the carpark, almost as though he’s scared, they’re going to get attacked again.
‘Okay, okay, uh, well, doesn’t matter if it is Richie or not particularly, does it? No, what we need to focus on right now is how to get away from whatever that thing is. I-I made a deal with that thing… oh my god why the fuck did I do that? What do I do?’ Pete begins hyperventilating as he realises the gravity of the situation, he helped put the group in.
Ruth watches as Pete collapses to the floor, she quickly rushes over to him, opens her bag and offers him one of his bars of chocolate he always kept stashed in there for his low-blood sugar.
Pete quickly accepts it and calms down quickly.
‘There’s no point in us getting worked up over what’s happening, we just need to come up with a game plan on how to protect ourselves and maybe even get rid of the ghost.’ Grace says incredibly assertively, it almost makes Ruth want to believe her, she begins nodding to Grace’s words until Steph pipes up.
‘We don’t know what he’s capable of doing at all, for all we know, he could be all-powerful. There’s nothing we are going to be able to do against him on our own. I think our best bet for now is to stick together, we have a higher likelihood of survival if we stay in a group. But other than that, we’re fucked.’ Steph looks at the ground as she speaks, clearly understanding the significance and difficulty of the situation they’re in.
How does a group of teens stop a ghost that could have an unlimited amount of power? They essentially can’t do anything other than what Steph suggested, so after a resounding downtrodden agreement sounding from the group, Ruth perks up and suggests the group eats at Pasqualis provided they were already in the vicinity. Seeing the group in need of a little more prompting, Ruth quickly stands up and grabs each of the group’s hands until they’re begrudgingly standing up, and then snaps at the group, telling them to get a table at the restaurant.
Ruth herself doesn’t follow immediately, instead walking into the restaurant’s bathroom, ducking into a stall and seating herself on the floor. Only then does she let the sobs escape her. Why does no one else feel fucking bad about his fucking death? What did Richie ever do to them to make them not give a shit about him? How can they just go about their days and not break down realising he’ll never be there with them ever again? They just let him die and buried his dismembered body. Richie was the most caring person she ever met, he always stood up for her no matter what, and they just left him to die in some old dingy house that shouldn’t be standing anymore. And what did the rest of the group do in response? They decided to cosy up to each other more, Pete and Steph clearly canoodling after school and Max appearing even more down bad for Grace than what should be possible. Where did that leave Ruth? Nowhere. The only one to grieve Richie, the only one who apparently cares.
Ruth sits continuing to cry for the next five or so minutes, when she sits up from her crouched position, getting ready to leave the stall and join her friends when a voice sounds in her head. This voice, while sounds like her usual inner monologue, is off in some way.
Ruth, are you sure you miss Richie? What did he ever do for you, didn’t he just ditch you every time you tried to catch up? Wasn’t he always snappy and disrespectful towards you? Richie was not a good person; can’t you remember that?
Ruth freezes, processing what the voice in her head had just told her, it did make sense to her now that she thought about it. The voice was right, Richie wasn’t a good person, hell, he was a terrible person, but…why had she been crying? Had Richie coming back affected her so much that she was crying from fear? That makes sense, she would never cry for him, he was a fucking asshole who deserved to die, and now, she just had to work to get rid of him again or die trying, either way, it would mean she could finally escape his disgusting and abhorrent presence.
Ruth smiles, finally coming to terms with what happened, she feels so much better now. She swiftly unlocks and opens the stall door, goes to the sink and washes her hands. After drying them, Ruth glances at herself in the mirror to check how she looked. Finally satisfied, she smiles to herself and heads in the direction of the door, not noticing as the slight green tint that had appeared in her eyes faded away slowly.
--
Wiggly smiles to himself and pretends to dust his hands off, satisfied with his job. After all, he did say he would only refrain from interfering with Richie, nothing about his friends. He would be lying if he said he wasn’t a little bit guilty about manipulating Ruth, after all, she was the only one who felt bad about killing Richie, in all timelines. Maybe he can convince Richie to let her live and work in the black and white once she inevitably dies.
Wiggly begins his trek back to Richie’s living quarters, intending on waking him up and hopefully finally getting him ready to get changed out of those nasty clothes he died in. Wiggly couldn’t say he wasn’t excited to see Richie’s new outfit, it’s always fun seeing frendy wends change into who they’re meant to be.
After roughly two or so minutes of walking through the black, Wiggly finally reaches Richie’s bedroom and opens the door to find Richie sitting up, he is looking down at the Wiggly doll but lifts his head to look at Wiggly as he enters the room.
Wiggly examines Richie and notes that Richie appears much better and healthier than before, skin becoming progressively greener and shinier, the transformation was going off without a hitch.
Wiggly smiles at this, of course, nothing would have happened to Richie, he was meant to be here! Perhaps he just needed a little more rest, to help his body settle into its new changes. Wiggly knew he would have to work on Richie’s self-esteem issues though, those couldn’t stay.
Maybe he should convince Richie to kill someone, that would be SO fun to watch! He did say he would help him plot his next move against the group of nerds. Oooh, maybe he could kill two birds with one stone and get Richie to kill Ted Spankoffski, Wiggly was sure that would put him back in the ‘good books’ of his brothers, not that he cared particularly. It would be a nice thing to have though, maybe then they’d get off his back about how he was approaching his mentoring of Richie. Wiggly smiles, knowing what he’s doing is truly the right thing to do. Richie will love him for what he’s setting up, after all, who doesn’t want to rule?
--
Richie sits up in his bed after sleeping for an indiscriminate amount of time, his brain is incredibly fuzzy, and as he opens his eyes, he must quickly lift a hand up to shield them from the bright light emanating from the television which had somehow been turned on. Richie hisses quietly and fumbles to find the remote. After maybe ten seconds of reaching around his bed as his eyes remain covered, Richie finally finds it, it’s on top of something fluffy, like a stuffed toy. He opens his eyes and quickly presses the off button, noting that the remote had in fact been sat in between the arms of Richie’s Wiggly doll, and he glares accusingly at it, as though that thing could move and turn on a fucking tv. He faintly scoffs at himself, thinking about how stupid that was when the doll suddenly begins laughing.
Richie gazes down at the doll as its laughing gets progressively louder, he launches one of his newly tentacle’d arms at the doll and lifts it up. Richie then lets out a strange sounding growl at the thing and begins threatening it, occasionally interjecting the threats with random insults. How dare a thing interrupt his peaceful and dreamless sleep just to watch stupid fucking tv? It should know better than that, so instead on making his threats come true, Richie instead sits the doll down on his lap and scolds it gently.
‘Sowwy wichie, I didn’t mean to wake you up.’ The doll says dejectedly, and Richie knows it truly means it.
So, Richie reaches his tentacle hand thing over to where the doll is now sat and begins to stroke it gently. Richie then apologises for his outburst.
‘I’m sorry, I didn’t know what came over me then. I-I guess I really needed that sleep hah.’ Richie laughs at the absurdity of the situation; he was talking to a fucking stuffed toy, and it was responding to him!
‘Hey there wichie, it’s okay. I forgive you; we are bestest fwendy wends after all!’ The doll begins laughing again.
Richie begins to chuckle along with it. This thing really was super cute. He opens his mouth to say something else when he’s interrupted by the sound of his door opening.
Standing in his doorway, looking Richie up and down and apparently scrutinising his appearance. He then breaks into perhaps the largest smile Richie has ever seen on him. It really suits him. Richie can’t help but smile back at Wiggly, he just has a happiness that’s contagious.
After what felt like minutes of just being watched by Wiggly, Richie notes that the god is making his way across the room towards him. Wiggly then sits on Richie’s bed.
‘RI-CHIE, I NEED TO ASK, HOW HAVE YOU BEEN FINDING YOUR STAY HERE? HAVE THINGS BEEN TREATING YOU WELL ENOUGH?’
‘Yeah, things have been going well, Wiggly, what’s going on? Did I do something wrong? Why are you asking this now?’ Richie asks, his brow creasing in worry.
‘NOTHING LIKE THAT RI-CHIE, I- DO YOU REMEMBER WHAT HAPPENED BEFORE YOU FELL ASLEEP?’
‘No- I mean, not really. I remember like being carried or something like that. D- did something happen?’ Richie’s now on the verge of having a panic attack, breathing quickening. He clutches his hands around his hair and begins unconsciously pulling at the strands, until he feels another hand wrap around his arms, gently moving them back into his lap and then wrapping around each other so that Wiggly is holding and gently squeezing Richie’s hands.
Richie sits there in the same position with Wiggly for the next five or so minutes. Slowly, Richie feels his non-existent heart rate slowing down, he really needs to stop panicking over every little thing. But he guesses for one of the things to keep from when he was alive, it does make sense that his mental health issues would remain a constant in his life.
‘RICHIE, PLEASE DON’T FEEL BAD, YOU HAVE DONE NOTHING WRONG. PLEASE, KNOW THAT YOU SHOULDN’T FEEL GUILTY FOR ANYTHING, YOU HAVE NEVER DONE ANYTHING WRONG. RICHIE, YOU’RE INCREDIBLE AND POWERFUL. RICHIE, YOU CAN ALWAYS COME TO ME AND TALK TO ME ABOUT ANY PROBLEMS YOU HAVE, YOU KNOW THAT RIGHT?’ Wiggly’s eyebrows begin to crease similarly to how Richie had done not even five minutes ago.
Surprisingly, Richie believed him, despite all his awful self-talk, it was as though he felt compelled to believe what Wiggly told him. Why would he, a person who was related to a god need to be worried about puny human worries?
Wiggly caresses Richie’s hands gently and Richie feels nothing but a deep calm washing over his being. He honestly wasn’t even sure why he was feeling so bad, of course, he deserved the power he had, it was all the better to kill those fucking assholes back down on earth. He did not need to feel bad when he had Wiggly on his side. A bright and too-large smile forms on his face, and he turns to Wiggly.
‘We were going to get me new clothes, weren’t we?’ Richie suddenly moves to get out of bed. He grabs Wiggly’s arm and begins pulling him to the door.
Richie watches as Wiggly’s smile returns to his face and opens the door for the pair to exit through. This was going to be so much fun!
--
The walk through the black felt as though it didn’t even happen, it was as though Richie blinked and was suddenly in front of the room where he assumed the clothes were stored. He wasn’t going to complain though, travelling that way almost made him feel like he was a god, incredibly exhilarating and fulfilling. Richie could get used to this.
Wiggly opens the door and signals for Richie to enter the room. Richie complies, walking in and looking around.
He is dumbfounded by the sheer number of clothes, all varying shades of green which lined the walls and essentially every crevice of the room. It was almost overwhelming, almost. But something stopped him, an itch in the back of his mind that told him he should be happy with the sheer number of items available for him to pick and choose from. So, Richie does feel happy. He’s filled with an ecstasy that makes him want to jump and dance around the room because all of this was HIS, and he could claim more and more to be his, nobody can stop him.
Instead of jumping and dancing like a child, Richie opts to grin at Wiggly who mirrors the look back at him.
‘YOU CAN PICK OUT ANYTHING YOU LIKE RICHIE, I MUST SAY, I’M VERY EXCITED TO SEE WHAT YOU PICK OUT! I AM A SUCKER FOR ECLECTIC LOOKS , SO I SAY GO FOR IT, CHOOSE WITH YOUR HEART!’ Wiggly smiles brightly at Richie and then signals for him to go ahead and choose.
Richie begins walking through the aisles upon aisles in this tiny room, partially shocked at how these could all fit in a building this size but decides not to question it. He instead thinks of the most emotionally and mentally harmful outfit he could choose. He wants to make those bitches cry when they see him.
After maybe ten minutes of looking and picking out the perfect outfit, Richie walks out of the cubicle fittingly sitting in the corner of the room. He watches as Wiggly looks him up and down and hears Wiggly let out an excited gasp which then devolves into his incredibly charismatic and kind of cute laugh. Richie finds himself smiling and beginning to laugh along with Wiggly, he knew that when his old stupid friendy wends saw him, they would be shocked.
‘WOW, RICHIE, YOU HAVE OUTDONE YOURSELF WITH THIS LOOK! I AM VERY PROUD OF YOU!’ Wiggly smiles so wide Richie thinks his skin might just split. ‘I THINK WE SHOULD GO CELEBRATE, HOW ABOUT I TAKE YOU FOR ICE CREAM WHILE WE PLOT YOUR FRENDY-WEND’S DEMISES HUH?’
‘Where would we get ice cream?’ Richie stares at Wiggly, perplexed.
‘RICHIE, I AM A GOD, YOU DON’T THINK I CAN GET US ICE CREAM? HELL, I’LL TAKE US TO A PLACE YOU’RE A LITTLE MORE FAMILIAR, HOW DOES THAT SOUND? MY TREAT?’ Wiggly smiles at Richie once more and moves to grab Richie’s arm gently, but Richie beats him to it, walking next to Wiggly and putting his arm over his shoulders.
‘I hope this is ok, I just want to hug my bestest frendy wend after all!’ Richie smiles gently at Wiggly who smiles back and reciprocates the gesture by moving his arm to rest on top of Richie’s.
‘OF COURSE THIS IS OK RICHIE! AND I’M GLAD YOU SEE NOW THAT WE ARE BEST FRENDY WENDS! I HOPE THIS MEANS WE CAN CONTINUE GETTING CLOSER AND BE ABLE TO DO MORE PLOTTING TOGETHER!’ Wiggly starts shaking gently, Richie assumes it’s in excitement over the fact that he gets to work towards hurting those who hurt Richie. Richie couldn’t lie to himself and say that he wasn’t also incredibly excited to watch those traitorous assholes tremble in fear as he cuts them down one by one.
Comfortable in Wiggly’s presence, Richie begins bouncing up and down gently as they walk, if Wiggly notices, he doesn’t say anything, happy to see Richie happy.
--
Richie wasn’t entirely sure what Wiggly meant he would take him to a place more familiar, but them travelling to the actual human realm certainly wasn’t it. Apparently Wiggly had taken him to a completely alternate dimension to the one he came from, which was insanely cool, but also incredibly confusing. Either way, Richie was happy. He could even take over his alternate’s body in this universe, meaning he got to experience the joy of eating ice cream with human taste buds.
As he and Wiggly sat down to eat, Wiggly began to explain how they were able to just be in this universe. Apparently, Wiggly was trapped in the black and white in most timelines, but this timeline was one of the few where the lords in black had managed to take over meaning they had free reign over the earth and could visit whenever they wanted.
It was wonderful, the absolute power that Wiggly possessed, and the fact that he would spend it on Richie. To do what? Get ice cream of all things, it made Richie feel truly loved.
‘SO, RICHIE, I WAS THINKING ABOUT WHAT YOU COULD DO TO THOSE BETRAYERS ON EARTH, AND I HAD AN IDEA! I THINK YOU SHOULD KILL TED SPANKOFFSKI.’ Wiggly smiles gently at Richie.
Almost instantly, Richie picks up what Wiggly’s putting down and a maniacal grin appears on his face.
‘I’ll target Ted and make Pete watch! Oh, that’s genius Wiggly! I’m sure I’ll be doing Tinky a favour too by delivering his precious Teddy Bear straight to him. Oooh maybe I hurt Pete too! He deserves it, especially after pretending he was my best friend for so long and then killing me in cold blood. The least I could do is send him to hospital huh?’ Richie looks to Wiggly for approval and watches as Wiggly’s already large smile gets larger once again and begins nodding.
‘I LOVE YOUR PLAN RI-CHIE, I’M SO EXCITED TO SEE YOU TEAR THOSE FUCKERS TO BLOODY BITS!’
Richie smiles and takes another lick of his ice cream, chocolate chip in case you were wondering. He then hums, thinking about another thing.
‘What if I hacked one of his limbs off, the way I was disposed of?’
Richie’s evil smile deepens, he can finally use his powers to enact proper revenge on the group. And they’ll be helpless against him! He has a fucking god on his side, what do they have? The power of friendship or some other bullshit like that? No, he would get them all and then he and Wiggly could live happily in the black and white, going and conquering whatever they wanted.
Richie quickly finishes his ice cream and gestures for Wiggly to join him as he stands up.
‘Wiggly, I want to go for a walk, can we go to the witchwoods? I want to scout out a potential spot for our plan!’
‘OF COURSE WE CAN RICHIE, THAT’S VERY SMART OF YOU, BUT YOU’VE ALWAYS BEEN INCREDIBLY INTELLIGENT, HAVEN’T YOU? THAT’S WHY EVERYONE GAVE YOU ALL OF THE SHIT WHILE YOU WERE ALIVE, YOU WERE TOO SMART, TOO INCREDIBLE FOR THEM. THAT’S WHY YOU BELONG WITH ME IN THE BLACK AND WHITE, AND I THINK YOU UNDERSTAND THAT NOW DON’T YOU?’ Wiggly giggles and jumps up and down once he comes to the realisation.
‘RI-CHIE WICHIE IS AN INTELLIGENT MAN ISN’T HE?’
‘Hah, yeah, I guess I am kind of smart, I was in all honours classes, I was on track to go to MIT before I…you know.’ ‘But I’m going to have so much fun with you now, Wiggly, I won’t lay my skills to waste!’ Richie smiles at Wiggly, grabbing his hand and leading the two of them in the direction of the Witchwoods.
The two of them make quick work of their plotting, Wiggly coming up with ideas and Richie adding to them flawlessly, it was like the two were two sides of the same coin. They quickly prepared where Wiggly taught Richie how to work his powers, allowing him to work on effectively trapping and tormenting his first two targets. They made quick work of it all and quickly travelled back to the black and white where Richie would be sent back to his respective universe.
--
It had been a couple of days since the initial attack by Richie, and the group had assumed the best. Maybe he got bored of hurting them already or he went off to kill some other unassuming victims, who could be sure, they knew who Richie was alive, but what was he like in death? He could be willing to get anyone if he was able to release his pent-up anger, who knows?
While the rest of the group seemed relatively content with the lack of Richie in their lives, Pete found himself the outlier. He knew Richie well, and even if he might be incredibly evil and hell-bent on killing them as a form of revenge, Pete swore he still knew Richie inside and out. He knew wholeheartedly that Richie was biding his time, maybe plotting and scheming, but he hadn’t gone after anyone else, no, he would take his sweet time killing each and every one of them, and Pete felt truly helpless. All he could hope was that he was first, maybe he could be enough warning for the others, and they could skip town or something along those lines. No, he knew that he would be the first to go. He’d known Richie the longest, they had been friends since they were three years old, of course, Richie would want to hurt him first.
While Pete expected he would be the first target of Richie’s, he wasn’t expecting the way it would happen.
Pete was at home, studying for his upcoming chemistry exam when he’s rudely interrupted by the buzzing of his phone, who the hell would call him at 3 am? It must be important. Pete scrambles to grab a hold of it, he looks at his phone and his screen flashes with a name Pete certainly wasn’t expecting to show up. Ted’s name sits accusingly on Pete’s screen, shit, he’d forgotten to call him today, and knowing him he was probably piss drunk wallowing in his sorrows wanting to call Pete to complain to him. Pete considered not answering and just continuing his studies, but something in his gut told him he should answer the phone, something sinister seemed afoot. So, Pete quickly swipes the answer button and brings the phone to his ear.
‘Pete? Oh my god, thank God you picked up. I-I don’t know how I got out here, but I’m trapped i-in the witchwood um, one of your nerdy friends is here, but he’s different, I think it might be Ricky or someone like that? Ugh, never mind that, he’s like insane, told me to call you otherwise he’ll hack one of my limbs off or something like that? God, I don’t even know, but could you please come over here? I really need you, bud, you’re smart, I know you can help get me out of here.’ Ted finishes his tangent and ends call before Pete can even speak a word.
Well, fuck, fucking shit! Pete didn’t think Richie would go after Ted of all people. He knew how much Ted meant to him, but he supposes that’s exactly why Richie targeted him. He must’ve known that Pete would’ve gone to help Ted no matter what.
Pete had to go to Ted, he was the only family Pete had left after his parents passed last year, shit. He knew he’d be falling right into whatever trap Richie had laid, but he didn’t care, he didn’t even care if he died, if Ted was able to get out of there.
So, Pete did the only thing he could. He put on his shoes, grabbed a coat, left their flat and began his trek to the witchwood. He would save Ted no matter what happened.
--
Richie was giddy. He couldn’t believe he was finally doing it! He was finally going to kill someone! And not only that, but also permanently scar and hurt Petey! It was going to be so good, kill two birds with one stone, as they say.
It had been all too easy, Ted was already drunk when Richie found him, so all he had to do was make him believe Richie was some hot chick who wanted to fuck him in the woods, nothing a little shapeshifting couldn’t do. Yes, Richie could have been significantly less… artistic with his plan, but he wanted to make a scene, he wanted to be flamboyant, and he wanted people to fear him, as they should. So, Richie found himself grinning as he slowly led an incredibly inebriated Ted Spankoffski down the road into the Witchwoods.
When Richie was formulating his plan with Wiggly, Wiggly seemed excited at the idea of him killing Ted in the Witchwood, something about lost souls of those who died in the woods being doomed to roam their deathplace forever. This confused Richie slightly, but when Wiggly explained the curse that had been placed on the forest and the fact that all those souls worked as sacrifices to the Lords in Black, Richie was more than happy to oblige. It would work as a present of sorts from Richie to Wiggly, a way of thanking Wiggly for all he has taught Richie. It’s the least Richie could do honestly.
So, with that in mind, Richie begins coercing Ted a little more forcefully, he needs this to happen faster! He eventually resorts to grabbing Ted’s arm and acting as a human crutch so Ted will hobble at a fucking NORMAL speed down the forest pathway.
After what feels like HOURS, but was more likely ten minutes of walking, Richie and Ted finally reach the spot he’d marked out. Mentally exhausted from Ted’s antics, Richie drops the act and roughly shoves him into the rough box shaped outline on the ground and quickly shifts back into his regular look, bloody hole in his chest and all.
Richie then stands at the perimeter of the box, his face shifts into a bright, slightly disconcerting smile as he waits for Ted to notice the change. He waits there for maybe twenty seconds, watching Ted simply wander around the borders, a confused look on his face as he mumbles incoherently under his breath.
God, Richie’s on his last leg with this man, thank God he’ll be dead soon, one less idiotic asshole in the world. This experience only confirms Richie’s growing suspicions that humans are not worthy to live on earth the way they do, they’re useless beings. So, apparently having to do EVERYTHING around these parts, Richie slowly steps over the threshold and jabs Ted’s shoulder to get his attention.
‘Wha? What’s going on? Ricky? What are you doing here? Where’d that hot chick go?’ Ted mumbles, before he looks Richie up and down.
In two seconds, Ted goes from standing directly in front of Richie to the other side of the box he was trapped in. He gapes at the undead boy, taking in the incredible wrongness of everything. He looks at Richie who looks significantly worse than he had the other day, his skin has a horrible strong green hue to it now, and it seems as though his skin is almost falling apart, his jaw looks like it’s barely hanging on and his veins are bulging out of his skin, an ugly bright green colour.
Richie watches Ted scramble away from him and schools his face from the scowl he was holding into his practiced grin once more. He steps towards Ted and watches the moment Ted realises he can’t go anywhere, he’s trapped in this invisible box, this causes Richie to smile a genuine evil smile. What a puny human, caught right in his trap. He’s almost tempted to kill him right then and there, but he remembers the plan. He must get Peter, no matter what. So, Richie steels himself and accepts that he’s going to have to cope with this insolent man for a while longer.
Richie keeps approaching Ted until they’re centimetres apart, and interrupts Ted’s fearful internal monologue.
‘Hello Teddy Bear. How are you on this fine evening’ Richie asks, but as Ted opens his mouth to reply or scream, he isn’t quite sure, Richie quickly interrupts.
‘I don’t care at all. You see, I’ve brought you here because you have a very special task, I need you to complete, and if you don’t, I will KILL you. And, before you ask, I am VERY capable of doing so. You see, your nerdy little brother and his friends decided they should kill me. And, they succeeded, yes. But what they weren’t aware of was the fact that I would come back. And, come back I did! Not only am I alive and vengeful, but I’m also incredibly powerful.’
Richie stops talking and does a quick show. The wind around the two of them speeds up to aggressive speeds, causing Richie’s clothes to flap around dramatically. He then moves his right hand, picking Ted up with some form of telekinesis in the process, he starts choking him and then drops him to the ground unceremoniously.
‘So, you see, you have no reason to not listen to me, otherwise you’ll just see your demise earlier than necessary!’ Richie continues and watches as Ted gasps for air, clutching at his neck.
‘W-why are you doing this?’ Ted gasps.
‘I ALREADY TOLD YOU; JESUS YOU HUMANS REALLY ARE IDIOTS.’
Richie yells, but quickly stops, breathes in a non-existent breath of air and continues.
‘I’m doing this because I need to get revenge, those traitorous bastards need to see the same fate that I saw, no matter what they might say, they’re all the same and they all deserve to die. So, Ted, enough stalling. I need you to call your dear little brother and get him out here. I don’t care what you say to get him here, I just need you to do it. Okay? Can your puny little brain comprehend that?’ Richie smiles condescendingly down at Ted, the same way Richie had been looked down at by adults his whole life.
‘Y-yes I ca-can do that, I’ll do that right now.’ Richie watches as Ted scrambles to get his phone out of his pocket and dials the number of his brother. This was going to be so much fun!
--
Pete races down the streets, as fast as his legs can carry him. He knows that Ted must truly be in danger provided his slight waver in his voice as he spoke. God, what had Richie done to him? Pete can’t think too hard as he’s sprinting through streets and alleyways, but quickly finds himself at the entrance to the Witchwood forest. At first, he isn’t sure where to go, they could be anywhere in this vast forest, it always felt like it went on for way longer than naturally possible. So, Pete decides on a direction and sticks to it, at least until he hears a scream coming from further in. That must be Ted, who the hell else would be in these woods at 3 am?
Pete’s pace quickens as he shifts his trajectory towards the direction he heard the scream, he speeds past trees and rocks, jumping over logs. Within minutes, Pete finds himself in clearing where there appear to be lights emanating from a boxed area of sorts. He slowly walks towards the light and lo and behold, two silhouettes, one standing above proudly and one cowering in fear. Pete guesses he has found the correct spot.
‘Hey!’ Pete yells.
The two silhouettes turn to look at him, and one quickly stands up, rushing towards him. The silhouette quickly comes into focus and Pete sees Ted, covered in bruises and dirt, swaying back and forth like he’s drunk.
Pete quickly moves closer to where Ted stands now, almost as though he can’t move any further.
‘Ted, thank God you’re ok! You had me really scared there!’ Pete smiles, and quickly moves to hug him. Ted is quick to receive and reciprocate the affection. Once the hug is over, Ted leans on Pete for support.
‘While I’m sad to interrupt this absolutely WONDERFUL display of affection, I fear I have a job to get to!’ A voice booms, practically forcing Pete and Ted apart.
Pete looks up to find Richie standing in front of the two, but it wasn’t the Richie he knew. It was some dark and twisted version of him. Pete gagged as he gazed at his former best friend-turned enemy. He looked truly awful. But aside from his complexion, Richie’s clothes were dastardly. Some twisted mockery of Richie’s favourite clothing, complete with his signature layered look, but different. Each layer was a different shade of green, his usual Hawaiian shirt replaced with a Guy Fieri-esque button down with green fire framing it.
What’s the most shocking part of Richie’s new get-up is the apparently designed hole in all the clothing to allow for a complete view of the sinewy bloody mess that is Richie’s chest, almost as though he wants to parade it around or something of the sort. Whatever Richie meant as a statement, Pete was fucking scared. He’d done this, he’d killed his best friend. And now he was back seeking revenge. Now, as Pete looked Richie up and down, he saw none of his best friend. He saw something completely different. He saw a monster. And this monster wanted him dead.
Pete’s brain immediately shifts into survival mode, and he quickly rushes away from the undead individual standing in front of him, beginning to sprint through the clearing with Ted in tow when he’s suddenly stopped by some invisible force. He thinks he may have broken his nose purely from how fast he was going and the force he hit the apparent barrier preventing Pete and Ted from making their escape.
Pete quickly puts a hand to cup his nose as he feels hot blood rush out when he hears the voice of his ex-best friend.
‘Tsk tsk tsk, you really thought you’d get away that easily? I’m not an IDIOT Peter. You should know that by now!’ Richie’s voice booms, still holding that same strange, British lilt from the last time he had confronted him.
‘W-what are you going to do to me? To Ted? Richie if you’re going to kill someone, kill me not him, he did nothing wrong!’ Pete stutters out, looking at Richie for any semblance of empathy and understanding. Pete searches and searches but finds nothing.
‘NO CAN DO, PETER. TEDDY BEAR’S GOTTA GO, I FEAR. BUT THAT DOESN’T MEAN I CAN’T HAVE MY FUN WITH YOU TWO FIRST!’ Richie proclaims with a finality that Pete doesn’t dare question.
Pete looks down at the ground, upset that this is what it’s come to. Like, sure, he hates Richie, he’s an asshole, and Pete consistently doesn’t understand why he was friends with Richie in the first place, but a part of him wished they hadn’t killed him, they hadn’t hacked his body up and hid it. And, for that, he was sorry for Richie.
So, Pete steps towards Richie slightly and simply says.
‘Fuck you, I hate you and you deserved to die, not this early on or by our hands but definitely sometime soon. And, I know this will probably make you even more wrathful and hurt me more, but I don’t care, because you fucking deserved it. I need you to know that at least.’
‘Okay? I genuinely don’t give a shit what you think, because GUESS WHAT? I have a fucking GOD on my side, so curse me out all you want, you won’t ever be able to do any REAL damage to me.’ Richie laughs a haunting breathy laugh and begins floating towards the two of the men, eyes filled to the brim with nothing but pure hostility.
‘Now, you two will listen to me and do EXACTLY as I say, okay?’
‘Y-yes, sure.’ Pete stutters, as he slowly shuffles back to where Ted was slouched down.
In one smooth movement, Pete kneels down to Ted’s level and begins checking over his brother, he reaches Ted’s neck when he’s quickly forced away from his brother’s who’s still wheezing in an attempt to catch his breath. Pete looks up and sees Richie leering over him with a look on his face that can only be described as absolute hatred. Pete’s about to bite back when suddenly Richie jerks his right hand and Pete’s sent flying away again. He roughly crashes against the barrier and lands awkwardly on one of his arms, sending a lightning bolt of pain up his spine, shit he must’ve dislocated his shoulder or something.
Pete grunts in pain as he attempts to stand up, before being forced down once more by Richie who Pete now notices is making his way over to Ted, incredibly slowly but nonetheless incredibly menacing. Pete almost shivers at how inhuman Richie looks right now, he looks so evil, surely this wasn’t the boy he knew, maybe he’s been possessed or something along those lines? Pete isn’t certain but, the idea that Richie, the timid angsty teen that he was for some reason friends with-wait, why did he hate Richie so much? He wasn’t ever an asshole to him or any of his friends, in fact, he always went out of the way to make sure Pete and Ruth were cared for no matter what. Why the fuck was he thinking Richie was an asshole who fucking deserved to die? Why the hell had they fucking dismembered his body?
It was as though a haze lifted from his mind as he thought about his friend Richie, and now he could see that Richie wasn’t evil, he was scared. He clearly hated the group for what they did to him, and Pete completely understood the sentiment, hell, he’d want to kill them all if he was dismembered the way Richie was. God, all Pete wanted to do now was run up to him and give him a hug. But, God damn it, he forgot that Richie was making his way over to Ted, shit, Pete had to do something now or Ted would be done for.
So, in a spur of action, Pete stumbles to his feet and rushes towards Richie, grabbing him by the shoulders and forcing him to look in his eyes.
‘Richie, I’m not sure if you’re still in there, but I’m thinking clearly now! And I want to say I’m so incredibly sorry for what me and the group did to you! I don’t know why we did that to your body and I don’t know why we all thought we hated you, I promise we don’t!’ Pete stops to catch his breath before he continues,
‘Please, please listen to me, I promise I will do anything to help you, just don’t kill Ted, kill me if you want, but please don’t hurt my brother he’s done nothing to anyone!’ Pete finishes, looking in Richie’s eyes to see any semblance of understanding and forgiveness, but none is to be found. Instead, Richie places his hand on Pete’s shoulder and begins squeezing with an inhuman amount of strength. Pete scrambles to escape but it’s futile.
‘You say you fucking care about me but then you go and desecrate my body like it’s a fucking school art project. You’ve been treating me as an outcast for the past four fucking weeks, I wrote it off as you just needing some time alone, and I understood and tried to accommodate, but then you go and start treating me like I’m the dirt of the earth? What the fuck did I do wrong? I- Anyway, that doesn’t matter now, because I can fucking kill you and your brother, I can right those wrongs. I can make Wiggly proud!’
Richie exclaims as he continues squeezing Pete’s shoulder. It feels as though it’s going to pop off any second now, it hurts so fucking much, Pete’s vision begins to flash white. He’s going to pass out.
Suddenly, the pain ends. Pete had shut his eyes not wanting to see the blood slowly seep through his dress shirt, but the sudden change caused him to open them unwillingly.
What Pete saw almost made him vomit on the spot. In place of his arm was a bloody mass of meat and muscle, twitching and undulating in a way that should only belong in the deepest pits of hell. Pete almost screams, but it’s caught in his throat when he looks at Richie. He’s still holding Pete’s severed arm, an evil, too large smile on his face. The breathy laugh comes back, and the two of them are stuck in this stand-off for ten seconds more when Richie suddenly snaps out of whatever thought he was going through and drops the arm.
Richie turns and marches towards Ted’s now unconscious body. No amount of pleading on Pete’s behalf will stop him this time.
Richie easily lifts Ted’s body from where it had slouched, grabbing it by the neck and squeezing similarly to what he did to Pete’s arm, which hurts like hell by the way.
Pete suddenly understands what Richie’s about to do, and Pete rushes over to him before being pushed away by Richie’s telekinesis once again. All he can do now is watch as his brother’s neck is crushed to the point where blood begins spurting out after Richie ruptured Ted’s arteries. Suddenly, with an almost comical pop and spurting sound, Ted’s head falls off his body and lands directly in front of Pete.
Pete screams.
The rest of the night is a blur, Pete yells at Richie and tells him to go to hell, Richie simply laughs and says he’s already there. Pete can’t remember much beyond that, other than the fact that at some point he was being jostled awake by… someone, and then he woke up a hospital room.
Unsure of how much time had passed, Pete attempted to lift himself out of the bed to grab his phone, when he’s suddenly turned sideways and in incredible pain. Shit, he forgot his arm was fucking ripped off by the vengeful ghost that was his ex-best friend. No wonder he fucking hated that guy. He deserved what he got. Why the fuck would he rip his arm off anyway? Like, why didn’t he just finish the job? He fucking ruined Pete’s life by killing Ted anyway-.
Wait, oh god, TED WAS FUCKING DEAD.
Pete doubles over and lifts his one remaining hand to his face in an attempt to cover up his face. That fucking bastard killed his brother, and for what? Revenge? Ted didn’t do anything to him. No, of course not. Richie did this to hurt Pete, of course he did.
THAT FUCKER KILLED PETE’S BROTHER TO GET AT PETE. As though Ted didn’t have his own life. All he was to Richie was a pawn. A way to hurt Pete.
Pete begins sobbing into his hand, unable to hold back his tears now. His brother, the one who saved him from entering the foster system after his own parents abandoned him was dead. Pete lived to tell the tale. It should’ve been the other way around. Fuck. Pete swears he’s going to get his revenge. He’s going to KILL that motherfucker. He doesn’t know how, but he’s going to find a way, and he’s going to send that fucker down where he belongs, hell.
--
Pete opens his eyes to the bright luminescent overhead lights of the hospital room he was contained in. He wasn’t quite sure when he fell back asleep, but apparently, he did. And now, he was being jostled awake by a group of people he couldn’t particularly make out until one of them finally spoke.
‘Thank the Lord you’re finally awake, we need to know what the heck happened!’ Grace raises her voice slightly, making Pete flinch and Steph consequently punch Grace’s arm.
‘God, Grace, the man lost his fucking arm, give him some time to recover before you go around interrogating him!’
‘Yeah Grace, jeez, cut Pete some slack, he almost just DIED!’ Ruth yells the last word making Pete flinch even more, God, why did every raised voice remind him of that motherfucker. Shit, this was going to have lasting consequences on his psyche, wasn’t it.
Steph watches Pete, worry clearly present on her face, she looks like she wants to speak to Pete about something but can’t find the words. Instead, she goes and ushers the rest of the group out of the room, so Pete doesn’t feel as crowded.
Steph quickly makes her way over to Pete’s side and grabs his remaining arm, squeezing his hand gently.
‘Hey Pete, sorry about the others, uh, you know how they get.’ Steph starts, clearly wanting to make light conversation.
‘I-it’s alright, I understand. I would probably be the same if something like this happened to one of you guys, I know it’s out of care, you know?’
Pete attempts a small smile, but it falls flat and turns into a grimace as a stab of pain rushes through what remains of his left arm.
‘Shit, this fucking thing hurts like a bitch!’ Pete exclaims.
Steph quickly stands up and proclaims she’s going to grab a nurse.
Pete makes no move to stop her.
Five or so minutes later, Steph walks back into the room, a nurse in tow who then provides Pete with more pain medicine. The relief is almost instant.
‘Thank fucking god, that shit hurt more than I could have imagined. That asshole did a good fucking job at hurting me, that’s for sure.’ Pete rambles slightly.
‘Wait, Pete…who did this to you? We all assumed it was an intelligent wolf or something!’ Steph perks up slightly at the idea of learning who the perpetrator was.
‘You’ll never guess.’ Pete pauses, ‘It was fucking Richie, the undead asshole KILLED MY BROTHER!’ Pete screams, tears springing back onto his face.
Steph immediately jumps into action, reaching to hug Pete with as much force as would be suitable for someone who had an arm recently amputated.
‘Oh-oh my god Pete, I’m so fucking sorry. I didn’t know, none of us knew. Shit.’ Steph mumbles into Pete’s neck as tears of her own appear on her face.
‘I didn’t know him, but I knew how much he meant to you. I promise we’re going to hold a proper, lovely funeral for Ted. A-and if you need, once you get out of here, I can force my dad to let you stay at my house for a while!’
Steph rambles before Pete pushes her off of him and gives her a look, she knows it means he wants to sort something out himself.
Reluctantly, Steph sits back down in the chair beside the bed and waits for Pete to speak once again.
It takes a while, but Pete finally calms himself down enough to speak once again.
‘Thanks Steph, you know I appreciate it, but I know that Ted would’ve wanted me to organize the funeral myself. But I might have to take you up on that house offer, I think I would be homeless otherwise. I’m sure Ted’s landlord will want to get the next tenant in as soon as possible.’ Pete explains.
Steph simply smiles.
‘We’re going to work this out Pete.’
The two of them smile, or, Pete tries to smile once again, and manages a look oddly reminiscent of a smile. Progress.
They sit in an almost serene silence when Steph moves her head up slightly, seeing the entire rest of the group comically stacked over each other looking through the door as though they were cartoon characters.
Steph gently nudges Pete and gestures towards the rest of the group. He chuckles slightly and gestures for the group to enter the room.
Pete takes a deep breath.
‘I have a lot to tell you.’
--
Richie was very pleased with what he achieved. After Pete so rudely passed out, he decided he wanted to leave the police with a little more of a present. So, he did what anybody would do, and he ripped each of Ted’s limbs off, then split them into pieces corresponding to each digit. One slice for each finger and toe. He then dug Ted’s heart out of his body and took a bite. He wasn’t entirely sure why he decided to eat part of Ted’s heart other than to completely fuck with the police and Pete by proxy. He’s sure he’ll get called in for some form of questioning, and-ah! An idea pops in Richie’s head. If he just drags Pete’s body a little closer to Ted’s then maybe…eh, it’ll probably do nothing but fuck it. It’s fun to stage these, sue him.
Just as Richie’s about to put the finishing touches of his little art piece of destruction, a voice sounds from the woods. Shit, had someone heard the screams? Ah, no time to dwell on such frivolities, Richie decides he’ll just take the loss and head back home. He’s done enough damage as is.
Richie sticks by just long enough to hear the beginnings of a scream work through whatever poor passerby found the bodies, and then finds himself transported back to his home, the black and white.
Richie is almost immediately greeted by Wiggly’s voice, congratulating him on a successful first kill. And, Richie can’t help but find himself smiling at the praise. He stands a little straighter and his entire aura almost brightens as he realises the weight of the statement, and having a literal god praise him. Holy shit.
Richie’s so distracted by the fact that he is living with a fucking god and the god seems to love his work and truly cares for him, that he doesn’t realise that out of the void now appear two yellow spotlights, watching him, almost as though they’re eyeballs of some incredibly large being. Richie almost falls back but steadies himself and reminds himself of the fact that he is incredibly powerful now, he could probably take on this fucker if need be.
The being slowly approaches, appearing larger and larger. As it comes closer, Richie can note more details, including the mass of tentacles that are…oddly reminiscent of Richie’s own tentacle arms. What. The. Fuck.
And then it speaks.
‘HELLO RI-CHIE, DON’T RECOGNISE ME IN THIS FORM?’ Wiggly giggles.
‘Holy shit…Wiggly you look so fucking cool!’ Richie starts jumping up and down in excitement, his eldritch god just got way fucking cooler.
‘I’M GLAD YOU LIKE IT. YOU SEE, THIS IS MY TRUE FORM, I JUST DONNED MY MORE HUMAN-LIKE FORM TO APPEAR MORE FRIENDLY TO YOU AS YOU WERE GETTING USED TO MY PRESENCE AND YOUR NEW LIFE HERE. BUT NOW, I SEE THAT I DIDN’T EVEN NEED TO WORRY, IT APPEARS AS THOUGH YOU ARE WILLING TO ACCEPT ME IN EVERY FORM! AND THAT IS TRULY WONDERFUL NEWS!’ Wiggly exclaims.
‘Wait, if this is your true form, and I’m like related to you, does that mean I have a form similar to that?’ Richie asks, eyes brimming in anticipation of Wiggly’s potentially positive answer.
‘WHY YES, YOU DO, BUT AT THIS CURRENT POINT, YOU ARE NOT YET POWERFUL ENOUGH TO DO SO. I’M VERY SORRY RICHIE, BUT IT’LL TAKE AT LEAST ANOTHER MONTH OR SO BEFORE YOU ARE ABLE TO MANIFEST THE TRUE POWERS THAT COME WITH YOUR PRESENCE HERE IN THE BLACK.’ Wiggly’s eyes dim at that, almost as though he’s upset for Richie.
Richie feels giddy with excitement, not only at the fact that it is incredibly clear now that Wiggly truly cares about Richie and his wellbeing, but also at the fact that apparently, he has an awesome fucking form like Wiggly’s here in the black and white What had his life fucking come to. This truly felt like one of Richie’s more insane anime’s plots.
But he tried his best to not let it go to his head. Honestly, Richie didn’t want an incredible amount of power, he really just wanted to get his revenge and enact his wrath on those who wronged him.
But did he even want that? His brain replays the moment where Pete had completely changed. His composure shifted entirely and Pete started treating Richie the way he had weeks before the accident. Like he actually wanted to spend time with Richie again. He wasn’t going to lie to himself and say that it didn’t sew seeds of doubt in his mind. What was with the complete 180 in the way he was treating Richie? One minute he was cursing him out, and the next he was apologising? Richie decided he wanted to ask Wiggly about this, he was a god and was probably omniscient, he’d know what was going on in Pete’s head at that moment, right?
Richie steels himself, this’ll certainly be an interesting conversation to say the least.
‘Wiggly, I have a, um, a question for you.’ Richie falters slightly, unsure how to word or even describe what he’s feeling.
‘OF COURSE, I LOVE ANSWERING YOUR QUESTIONS, RICHIE, YOU’RE A SMART COOKIE!’ In a blink, Wiggly transforms from his Cthulu-esque form to his more humanoid form and steps towards Richie, regarding him with probably the most genuine look Richie has ever been on the receiving end of.
‘Ok, I don’t really know how to explain this properly but, today when I was torturing Peter, he said some things to me? A-and it didn’t particularly make sense regarding how he’s been acting towards me for the past like fucking two months or so. So, like, I just want to know, was that a genuine change of heart or was he just fucking with me?’
Richie finds himself unconsciously moving his hands to rest underneath his armpits as a method of self-soothing. He considers the implications of whether he was completely wrong about his friends and the fact that they hated him. Shit, he’d killed Ted and permanently injured Peter. What the hell had gotten into him?
At that moment, Richie stumbles backwards, entirely unsure of himself and his actions. It was like a switch flipped in his brain and he was back to how he was before he died. A terrified, helpless teenager who didn’t know what the hell he was doing.
He fucking killed someone, and for what, an assumed hatred? God, he was such an idiot.
Wiggly quickly moves towards Richie, presumably to steady him so he doesn’t fall over, but in this state, Richie can’t do anything but see this movement as a threat. Richie begins curling into himself as he continues to back away, at an increasingly dangerous pace. Oh god, Richie needed to get out of here, he needed to find his friends and apologise, why the fuck was he here anyway?
Richie trips, his vision goes black, and Richie is swallowed once again by the black and white.
Notes:
Hey guys! Sorry for the wait, I'm back at uni for semester 2 so updates will be quite a bit slower. How are you liking the story? Do you have any theories? And most importantly, would you like me to keep going? I'm enjoying writing this story a lot, but I wanna make sure you guys also like it.
Any comments are appreciated!See you in the next one (might be quite a while, I'm only 200 words in lol)
tinitheaterkid on Chapter 1 Thu 20 Jun 2024 11:27AM UTC
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24_GUY on Chapter 1 Thu 20 Jun 2024 06:14PM UTC
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Beelze_the_bubkiss on Chapter 2 Mon 24 Jun 2024 12:29PM UTC
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orphan_account on Chapter 2 Tue 25 Jun 2024 05:16AM UTC
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Beelze_the_bubkiss on Chapter 2 Tue 25 Jun 2024 04:57PM UTC
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Beelze_the_bubkiss on Chapter 3 Fri 12 Jul 2024 01:10AM UTC
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