A/n
Have I been gone for a couple months? Yes. Do I remember the plot of this story? Absolutely not. I apologize if there are any discrepancies in the plot line, I'll do my best to stick true to what I have going so far. I'm honestly not sure if people will still read this after a long break, but I can only hope! This chapter is super long and boring, I'm not gonna lie to you.
MAJOR SPOILER WARNING
TW: Self harm, suicide, abuse of substances (drugs, alcohol), death. If you are triggered by any of these things, please do not read!
The sense of longing lay thick in Sal's dark room. The emptiness of his sorrow swallowed him whole; the only comfort he had was Gizmo, who was tightly curled atop his chest, slowly rising and falling with each tattered breath he took. Sal's fingers mindlessly twirled strands of his ginger fur as he stared into the bland ceiling. A golden rosary was tied around Sal's neck, resting just past his collar bone. Travis had forgotten to take it with him the night he'd slept at Sal's apartment. Sal noticed the mistake, but didn't bother to give it back. Just having it felt like Travis was with him. The house was silent, Todd and Neil went out for a date and Larry was- God knows where, Sal couldn't find the motivation to care. The only thing he could think about was the love he'd lost, the only thing he could think about was Travis.
Sal's prosthetic sat on the corner of his bedpost. Travis liked looking at Sal's true face rather than the mask he wore, if only Travis could see him then. Sal drew a shaky breath through his brutalized lips, clenching his eyes and wishing for something, anything from Travis. A hug, a kiss, anything. As if God themself had heard him, Sal's phone buzzed from under his pillow. He jumped at the noise, sending Gizmo sprawling onto the bedsheets. His smile faded as he opened the phone, and saw that the message was not from Travis, but Larry. It was not that Sal was upset that Larry had messaged him, it was the text that concerned him.
"Sal. Im sry dude. Pls dont blame urself"
Sal responded, perplexed, "Sry 4 wat? wat r u talkign about?"
His heart raced in his chest, it couldn't be what he thought it was. Larry would never leave him like that, Sal was sure of it.
"its time for me to go"
Sal's throat tightened, perhaps he'd given Larry too much credit.
"you better not be doing anything stupid."
Larry's response was hesitant, "its too late ill be gone soon"
It was some sick joke, it had to be.
"Stop messing around Larry. this isnt funny"
Sal waited for a few seconds after hitting send, but Larry didn't respond.
"Hey?"
He was met with nothing but radio silence. On the verge of tears, Sal dialed in the Larry's phone number. His shaking hands and eyes blurred from tears made it difficult to type. The phone rang, "Pick up." Sal muttered to himself, a barely audible prayer.
Another ring, "Pick up the phone, Larry."
His voice caught in his throat as it rang again, "You better pick up."
Tears sipped from their respective places in his eyes, "Oh, God, Larry."
There was no response.
Sal's mind was foggier than ever as he sprinted down the barren street. the rain splattering against his bare face, the chilling cold, as well as his severe fatigue, was lost due to his adrenaline. With a pounding head and a heart flooded with fear, Sal burst into the basement apartment room. The journey of getting there was a blurred mess, but he couldn't waste any time pondering on it. Frantically, Sal rushed through every room. The space was eerily empty, lacking both furniture and Larry.
"Larry?" He screamed, desperate for response.
An idea sparked in his mind, to look in a place which he should've checked first, knowing Larry. Through choking sobs, Sal sprinted through Larry's former bedroom and out the backdoor. The treehouse stood tall and spiraled, Sal didn't want to imagine the horrors that small house held.
"I'm coming up there, Lar!"
Sal's fingers scratched against the ladder, slick from the rain, as he scrambled up it. The smell hit his nose before the sight did, and almost stopped him in his tracks. Alcohol, and a lot of it. Sal pushed himself through the hatch in the floor of the treehouse and glanced around in panic. The darkness skewed his vision, but he was still able to make out the faint silhouette of Larry slouched over. A bottle was tightly clasped in one of his hands, his other arm tightly hugged against his knees.
Sal jumped forwards, reaching out to touch his friend. "Larry! Holy shit, Lar! Don't scare me me like that, I thought you were-" His sentence abruptly stopped as Larry's lifeless body tipped over, and sprawled out onto the floor; a soft croaking sound coming from his throat. Larry's eyes stared blankly into the ceiling, unseeing, emotionless, dead. The bottle fell from his cold hand, revealing the deep slit in his forearm, still dripping with blood. Sal's feet locked in place, his mouth agape. The delightful memories of growing up tainted with hue of blood and the stench of alcohol.
"No, no!" Fear turned into anguish, tears creeping down his face, "What did you do? Larry, why?" His screams echoed into the darkness of the treehouse as he stumbled backwards, trying to find the ladder.
"Is there something I can assist you with, Sal?" Todd's voice was unconcerned, still unaware of Larry's death.
"It's Larry, he-he" Sal burst into painful sobs before he could finish his sentence, pushing the speaker of his phone closer to his ear.
"What did Larry do?" Todd questioned, "Is everything okay?"
"You need to come here now, please, the treehouse." He struggled over every word, as if it hurt him to speak.
"I'm on my way, just stay where you are, Sally."
Sal stared at the treehouse blankly after Todd hung up the phone. Larry wasn't really gone, he couldn't be. After everything they'd been through together, Larry would never leave Sal like that. It wasn't possible. Sal experienced loss before, but never like this. Even after his mother's passing, it wasn't like this. Diane's death was permanent, final. Her body and her mind were gone, simple leaves flowing down a stream. Her life had run it's course, but Larry hadn't. His voice was still ringing in his ears, the feeling of his presence was still there, but just barely. Why did he do it? What pushed him over the edge? Was it Sal's fault? Sal never wanted to leave Larry alone, he was just distracted. Larry knew that, Larry knew how much Sal cared for him, so why did he do it?
"Sal! What's going on?" Ashley's voice cut through his thoughts like a knife. Sal looked up, meeting her bright green eyes with his bloodshot, blue ones. "Todd told me something happened at the treehouse."
"Larry killed himself." Sal mumbled, mater of factly. There was no point in sugar coating the truth, Ash would have to come to terms with it one way or another.
Ash's eyes widened, "What? What do you mean? He would never do that."
"Check the treehouse."
"What?"
"He's still in there. If you don't believe me, you can go see for yourself." Sal snapped back, he wasn't in the mood to talk, "I don't think he's really gone, though." He added quickly.
Ash narrowed her tear-filled eyes, "What do you mean?"
"Larry's not gone, I can sense that he's with us. I don't have the gearboy, so I'm waiting for Todd to get here. He'll be able to help us."
"Are you fucking insane?" Ashley's voice was shaking, "Have you actually gone crazy? Do you even hear yourself? We need to call the police, this is no time for games, Sal!"
Sal stood up from the soggy ground abruptly, "I'm not joking, Ash. How could you even suggest that I'd be joking at a time like this?"
"You're acting crazy. We need help! If you ever cared for Larry at all, we need to call help."
"Don't you dare say that! I cared about him more than you ever did, more than any of you!" Sal screamed, stepping towards menacingly. "He was my best friend, then we was my brother, and now he's gone, and all you can do is stand there and accuse me of lying!" Tears streamed down his scar ridden face.
Ash stepped back, staring at Sal in pure horror. "I don't know why you're refusing to help him. Just tell me what he did, we can try to call Travis over to calm you down-"
"Calm down? What the fuck is wrong with you? We need to talk to Larry, he needs to tell us what he knows."
"I know that you believe in all this ghost stuff, but please, Sal. Please don't let that get in the way of saving Larry." She exhaled sharply, spilling the tears from her eyes.
Sal stepped closer, grabbing Ashley's arm and leaning closer towards her face, "We can't save him, nobody can. Why can't you get that through your head?" Ash tried to pull her arm away from his grip as he screamed at her less than an inch from her ear.
Ash looked into Sal's eyes in confusion and fear, tears violently flowing down her cheeks. She wrinkled her nose in disgust, "Have you been drinking, Sal?"
"What? I-no!" He let go of Ashley from out of discomfort of her question.
"Don't lie to me, I can smell it on your breath!"
"It was just a bit, Dad's always said that it helped calm his nerves." He shrugged, avoiding eye contact.
"I can't believe this." She shook her head, aggressively wiping her tears with the base of her thumb, "I'm sorry Sal, but I can't be around you like this. Todd will be here soon, maybe he'll be able to help you."
"Fine, I don't care!" Sal yelled after her, "I never needed your help anyways." He mumbled the last part. Sal was trying to convince himself more than anything.
Todd tapped Sal on the shoulder to get his attention, "Sally face, you there?"
Sal flinched, "Huh? Oh, yeah. Sorry."
"So, what's going on with Larry?"
"He killed himself," Sal's voice hitched on the back of his throat. "In the treehouse. I think his spirit is still here though, his body's up there."
Todd stayed silent for a moment, paralyzed in shock. "Oh my god," he covered his mouth with his hand, dropping Sal's guitar clutched in his hand to the ground.
"The guitar's done?" Sal picked up his modified instrument, examining the new additions to it. He didn't want to look back at Todd, he couldn't bear to see him like that.
"Yes, if you're correct about Larry being with us, this will surely be of use." The ginger replied, trying to hide his shaking voice.
"Perfect, let's go." Sal motioned towards the treehouse. Reluctantly, Todd moved towards it.
Todd climbed up first, followed by Sal, who had the guitar strung across his back.
"Uh, Sal?" Todd called to Sal, who was still climbing the ladder.
"Yeah?"
"There's nothing up here."
"What?" Sal stammered, rushing up the ladder. "What do you mean there's nothing there, Larry just-" He cut off his own sentence as he entered the treehouse. Todd was right, every trace of Larry was gone, as if he'd never been there at all. 'No, no, I swear he was here! Todd, you have to believe me, he was here!"
Todd put his hands up in a calming motion, "Alright, let's just-"
Sal interrupted him wildly, "I'm not crazy! He was here, I swear to god, he was here!"
"I believe you, Sal. Is it possible that the cult took his body?"
"No, I was here the whole time!"
"Alright, we can figure that out later. For now we need to reach Larry, try out some chords on the guitar, they correlate to the symbols shown here." Todd pulled a piece of paper from his pocket and handed it to Sal.
Sal fiddled with the strings nervously, forming individual, distinctive notes. Suddenly, the small amount of light in the tree house started flashing, the walls shook and the floor made an odd rumbling sound. Darkness overtook everything else, leaving Sal completely alone in a void of black.
"What happened?" His voice echoed against the nonexistent walls of darkness which surrounded him.
"Todd? Larry? Hello?" He was becoming more panicked by every second of silence.
Without warning, a figure appeared in front of him. It's skin was a sickly green colour, it's long, white hair reached past the bottom of it's tattered, purple dress. It spoke, "Hello my dear, Sally" It's voice was recognizably feminine and extremely familiar.
"Who are-" Sal started, before his mind made the connection. "Rose?"
"The light from your guitar contains magic from another world. It seems that the prophecy may have been true after all." Her words were that of surprise, but her voice was a very even, controlled tone.
"Uuhhhh, what?"
Rosenberg sighed, "There isn't time to explain. You must use this power to stop them. The Devourers of God have persevered despite our best efforts to stop them."
A loud noise shook the void, forcing Sal to stumble in order to balance himself, "What the hell, what was that?"
"A ripple across the fabric of reality." Explained the spirit of Rosenberg, "You must destroy the barrier spells to reach the source and put an end to it"
Sal fidgeted uncomfortably, "And how should I do that?"
"Use the power of the necro lights. You'll need help from the spirit realm to reveal what you cannot see. I'm unable to help you in this task. I must stay here, in the black room. I can temporarily release your friend Larry from the treehouse which binds him. He will help you. Godspeed, Sally." She faded away in the same, mysterious way as before, and Sal appeared back in the treehouse, Todd by his side.
"Sal! You scared me, you disappeared, and there was a loud sound. What happened?" Todd smiled in relief at the sight of Sal being alive.
"It was Rosenberg, she told me to stop the Devourers of God. She said that Larry would be able to guide me from the spirit world and-" The treehouse shook again, and Sal as greeted with a vision.
A circle of hooded figures surrounded a deep pit in the floor. The person in the center wielded a large sword and wore a silver dog mask. It was the same mask Sal had seen when Diane was murdered, the same mask he and Larry found in Kenneth's closet.
"Kenneth" He whispered to himself.
Once he blinked, the vision was gone. Instead of returning to the tree house, Sal was on the roof of the Addison Apartments.
"What the- how the hell did I get here?" Sal turned around, surveying his surroundings.
There he was, right in front of Sal. His long hair still draped over his shoulders, his Sanity's fall shirt the same as before. The only visible differences were his unhealthily pale skin, milky eyes and dark veins stretching across his already sickly looking face like a spider web.
Sal grinned, "Larry!"
Larry ignored Sal's excitement, "Rose is trying to help us stop this thing, good god, I was stuck in there for so long, Sal."
"You've only been gone for about an hour." At that moment, Sal seemed to remember what Larry had done, "I can't believe you! How could you do that to yourself, how could you do that to me?"
"I'm sorry dude, but it had to be done. It was my time to go."
"But it wasn't! We had so much time left together, and you abandoned me!" He started raising his voice again, tears pooling in his eyes.
Larry looked back at him sympathetically, "I'm sorry, but there's nothing we can do about that anymore. This is the end, Sal. We have to stop these guys before it's too late."
Sal paused before speaking again, "Will we see each other again?"
"Of course," Larry smiled, "On the other side of oblivion." The form of his body dissipated, leaving Sal alone on the dreary rooftop.
Word count:2708
A/n 2
Please excuse any mistakes, I don't have much time to edit as it's exam season.