chapter twenty
Rigby gasped for breath, sitting up in his position on the ground... but it was dark, the park grounds midnight black on ink, and a sense of pain and confusion trickled through his head. His chest lurched, violently, and he looked up as a small whimper escaped his lips.
Red and orange flickered in his vision, and Rigby couldn't hear the crickets any more. He turned his furry head as he scrambled to his feet, and saw a fire burning bright in the distance. Words whispered into his brain.
Give them fear. Give them fear.
He inhaled sharply as he saw a shadow descend from the fire, and he recognized Skips' form, big and bold per usual. But his eyes, a light amber, burned in his soul, looking irritated yet fierce, but they softened when he saw him.
"Rigby! You need to run!" He shouted.
"Why?!" Rigby screamed back, fear running along his spine. He curled his hands into fists, and continued, "Where are you? We need answers! This demon is messing with my brain! And, fuck, I HATE IT!" Yelling this seemed sharpen his vision, so much that his ears began to ring and his head pounded in protest.
Stumbling back, Skips reached out and grabbed his wrist so he wouldn't fall. "That's why I came to you. I'm stuck, Rigby. But I found a way to contact you and Mordecai through the psychological dreamworld. I need you to fight the demon."
"Wh? But I don't even know anything about this demon," Rigby whimpered, his voice a small innocent whine in the cackling of fire, "All I know is that... he feeds me anger and emotion and that he wants to kill me." The last part came out as a snap, and Skips pulled his hand away.
"You need to find me," Skips said, and his eyes glowed in the darkness of night. "You had the right idea of going to my house. But your answers-- they lie in the deepest parts of the forest. That's where you'll find me and my soul and--" he stopped, and took a deep breath, "And Rigby? You have to keep Mordecai safe. Delliao is going after him, next.
"Thomas was right when he told you not to go to the hill. Don't go until you're questions are answered," Skips continued, "You need to tell Mordecai everything you are feeling."
"What? But I already did that. We kissed and--"
"You need to tell him more. Those feelings of pure happiness overcome those feelings of anger that Delliao feeds you. They fight those thoughts."
Rigby frowned at this. "Man, but that's bull!" He snapped, "Nothing can fight him! He's too powerful."
"Errghhh, don't say that! Fighting him is not impossible, Rigby. I would know..." his voice trailed away, and the big yeti looked down. His form began to ripple and vanish, the fire turning to smoke. "I'm running out of time. You need to go into the forest again--"
And then, he was gone.
Rigby woke up, his eyes shooting open almost immediately when the dream ended. He sat up in his trampoline, and listened to the springs squeak beneath his weight, before turning to look at Mordecai, still asleep and snoring softly in his own bed.
Fear grew fuzzy in his mind as Skips' words echoed in his brain. They needed to go into the forest, get answers, and then fight the demon. But how--?
You are afraid. There is no way you can win. Show Mordecai and he will agree.
He scrambled from his bed and over to Mordecai's, climbing in next to the blue jay. He snuggled close to his supposed lover, his small hands resting on the other's back. He frowned, still, and his eyes trailed down Mordecai's spine. What did the dream even mean? What were they looking for?
"Dude, your hands are cold," Mordecai mumbled, startling Rigby from his thoughts. He squinted, mischievously, then reached up, placing both hands on the back of his neck.
"Wake up!"
"GAHh-- didn't you hear me? Your hands are cold!" Mordecai yelped, thrashing around until he was sat up. Rigby snickered, but his cockiness seemed to vanish as he looked at his friend.
"Look, Mordecai, we need to go."
"What? What do you mean 'go'?" The taller other rubbed the sleepiness from his eyes, and Rigby could see he was, in fact, tired.
He is tired of you, Rigby. He is tired of your whining, of your begging. He is tired of your fear.
Rigby shook his furry head, another whimper building up in his throat. He was tired too. In fact, they only fell back asleep a few hours ago and the time was only four-thirty in the morning. They needed a break. Absolutely needed one.
But this was just as important, he assured himself. Maybe even more. The thought was selfish, but he couldn't help it.
"Look, just trust me, okay man? But I had this dream last night... a vision. We need to find Skips. He said so himself," when he spoke, it was hast, and it came out more as a ramble than anything else. The coon couldn't stop, either, as he continued, "There was a fire, and he came out of the smoke. We need to go--"
"Hold on," Mordecai yawned, and his brow furrowed. "You're making no sense, dude. Slow down. Can we bring this to the kitchen or something? That way I can brew some coffee to think about this on." His voice sounded tense, making Rigby feel tense as well. The raccoon reluctantly nodded.
----
The kitchen light was bright overhead as Mordecai poured himself a cup of coffee. He offered Rigby some, but the other, strangely enough, refused. He seemed on edge, anyways, making the blue jay frown.
But he felt on edge too, but mostly with annoyance than anything else. Rigby was being weird, and he hated it. All he was doing was bringing more questions to the table, quite literally, and fewer answers. It made Mordecai frustrated with him and himself. Why himself? He wasn't sure.
As he sat down in front of his best friend, who wrung his hands and darted his eyes to and fro, he could see what Rigby was going through. But only for a split second. And then, it was gone.
"So, you had a dream?" Mordecai mumbled, blowing on his coffee. The words came out a bit harsher than he had meant it to, and he winced.
Rigby winced too, but his eyes widened. "Yeah! We need to go into the forest, dude!"
"Can you actually explain why again? So I know what's going on?"
"Okay, so, I had a vision. And Skips came and spoke to me. He told me that what answers we wanted were in the forest, the deepest parts or some shit like that, and then he told me the forest is where he is. So we need to go," Rigby rambled on, and Mordecai couldn't help but roll his eyes. But this only made Rigby angry, it seemed.
"Why don't you believe me?" He snapped.
"Sorry, dude," Mordecai quickly said, eyes wide. But only for a moment, because they then quickly narrowed, "It's just we went to Skips' house and ended up with more questions than answers, and now you're saying we go into the forest with no idea what we're looking for? It just seems kinda fishy."
"But... but I thought you trusted me. I thought you liked me," Rigby's voice was bitter, and quick to jump to conclusions.
This only seemed to fuel Mordecai's frustration. "What? I never said that I didn't! I'm just... I doubt this is what we--"
"So you don't trust me?"
"Look, Thomas said not to get ourselves in danger. I don't--"
"Thomas doesn't know what's going on!" Rigby slammed his hand on the table, causing Mordecai to nearly drop his coffee. The raccoon stood up. "I thought you trust me!"
"I do! I trust you, dude! Just let me finish!"
"Then believe me when I say we should go into the forest!"
"I do!" Now Mordecai was standing, his voice starting to raise. He was loosing it, he realized. Any louder, and he would wake up Pops. Any louder, and Rigby will fail to argue any more. "I just think it's a bad idea!"
"You don't understand what I'm going through!"
"WELL MAYBE YOU'RE RIGHT!" Mordecai yelled, and slammed his mug on the table. Hot coffee sloshed and spilled over the edge. "I DON'T understand, Rigby! And you don't explain it to me, either! All you do is make it about yourself! You make lame excuses for everything we do, just to get YOU out of messes! Well, have you ever thought about me? What I think? What's actually right and wrong? You wake me up to drag me into the forest because you had some wack dream?"
Rigby was quiet, his scowl turned into a scared frown, shrinking back under Mordecai's gaze.
The blue jay was trembling, and he quickly sat down, trying to control himself as he ran both hands over the feathers on his head, trying to breathe.
They were quiet.
And then, Rigby spoke again, his voice wavering. "I thought... I thought you loved me."
Mordecai looked up, trying to calm down, trying to face the raccoon.
"I thought I did too."
Maybe he was trying too hard.