Predator (DWT x OC)

91

It takes me a couple of weeks to leave the mountainside on my own, where it's so steep my knees almost buckle along the gravel path, and I have to brace myself all the way down, through the forests and the abandoned fields overgrowing with wheat, criss crossing over the old neat rows they were first planted in.

Really, it takes me weeks to visit the graveyard.

The graveyard in the willow trees. Long stalks of grass beading with dew-drops of water that soak through your pant legs, the twisted bark of willow trees hunched over a trickling stream, the feathery tips of their branches caressing the rippling surface, the darkness of the shadows that hide it from the sun.

The two stone pillars stood side by side.

My fingertips graze over the rounded edges of the thick gravestones, sandpaper on my skin.

"Hi Jack." I murmur, brushing past. "Quackity."

It's been a long time. Both names stare back at me silently, the wonky strokes of a chisel that left little chips along the borders, that made the i look like an L, and the a's like e's. The single-standing reminders of human beings who laughed, and loved and cried, people I've hated and loved and mourned.

This is it, this is all that was left.

This is all Schlatt and Fundy gave us, let us have.

"I'm sorry it took me so long to see you." My voice can't rise above a whisper. I take a step back, folding my hands in front of me.

"A lot has changed." I laugh, because if I don't, I'll cry. "I think you'd both have a heart attack if you knew."

They stand there, listening. I clear my throat. "Jack- We ended up leaving. All of us, all of us got out. I killed Fundy, I got revenge for you, and for everything he did to all of us. He's gone, he can't hurt anyone anymore."

Deep breathe. In. Out. In. Out. "It's a really long story, but Quackity died. That's why he's with you now, because Schlatt killed him. Now we're trying to form a revolution, and I know you'd hate that Quackity, but Jack, Jack you wouldn't mind. We had to, after he tried to kill Tubbo, and he killed you, he can't do this to people anymore." 

"But- I'm with Dream now. I'm with Dream so that he won't hurt any of them anymore, and so he'll take down Schlatt." Warm tears slip down my cheeks, soaking into the collar of my shirt. "I'm sorry."

I sink down into the grass, tucking my knees up to my chin and trying to keep myself together with arms wrapped around my shins. "I'm really sorry."

I know they wanted so much more for me. I know Jack, who never knew me with Dream, wouldn't be able to understand. I know Quackity could. 

After all, he stayed with Schlatt so he could protect Tubbo, so he would understand. He wouldn't be happy, he wouldn't agree, but I think he'd know why, because he was broken the exact same way I was, the kind of way someone gets splintered so the whole world looks a little different, the pearlescent sheen that used coat it, obliterated into dust. 

I wipe the tears off my face with the back of my hand. "We didn't have another choice." 

I wish they were both here. I wish Jack was here to be with me and Niki, so Niki would have someone to look after her when I'm not there, so there'd be a little room for stupid jokes that don't land and snarky jabs that pissed Tommy off. Just something. Just anything other than this. 

I wish Quackity was there to set me straight, scream at me with the entirety of the self-important superiority he ingrained, that he would tell me what to do to make my life better. It'd probably be naive, and I wouldn't listen, but it'd be something other than all I have now.