kh_drabble | Challenge Entry : ) (Reply)

Challenge: [82] Crossroads
Title: The Next Life
Word Count: 612
Spoilers: For Axel's fate at the end of KHII.
Notes: I originally wrote this as a piece made completely of dialogue, and added the descriptions in afterwards. To help you follow who's speaking: 'he' or any variation thereof always refers to the one who is speaking in the current line, and each line of dialogue belongs to a new speaker, i.e. if there's a space between the lines, it's not the same dude. Also, this is like...seriously the first piece I've written in full in a really long time (minus, you know, roleplaying). Thanks to

invisibledancer and

crimsoncookie for the betas. Hope you enjoy :)

In darkness, the other speaks. "I knew you’d go out in a 'blaze of glory.' A man after my own heart."

He answers, scriptedly. "Funny you should say that—"

"Right, right. Haven’t got one." It’s not quite mocking, but the boy does seem incredulous, talking sideways from his mouth in a way that’s uncomfortably familiar.

He takes a drag from his cigarette.

"You smoke. I forgot."

"I’m surprised you don’t."

"I killed myself in other ways."

"So you did."

The fag glows dimly in the dark.

"So...is this really it, then? Am I..."

"Well, not yet. Consider this a...crossroads. A hell before the hell."

"Heh, so I am going to hell."

"Hell is only what you make it. I thought that shadow of an 'existence' you took part in was pretty hellish, if you ask me. Especially that last bit. You know, with all the fire."

"That was pretty cool, wasn’t it."

"I was proud."

"At least someone was."

He stretches out a lanky arm. "Do you want one?"

"Yeah, sure. Not like it’ll kill me." A lanky hand accepts. The lighter clicks, and spark leads to a second flame, which smolders in green eyes dimmed by the half-life. Two boys drag from their cigarettes. "It was better than the way you went out, anyway."

"I’d have burnt myself to death too if I’d had badass fire powers."

"You were a pansy. You would've been afraid."

"And you weren’t?"

"I don’t have a—"

"—heart, right, right."

"Asshole."

Smoke fills the air.

"You don’t really believe that, do you?"

"That you’re an asshole?"

"No, asshole, that you don’t have a heart."

"How could I believe anything else when there is a wide gaping hole of nothing in my chest?"

"Because you have me."

"Yeah, and when you gave into the darkness, you didn’t lose—"

"Well...technically."

"Technically."

"Technically my heart left my body—"

"—my body now—"

"—not anymore—"

"—so I am dead—"

"—just shut up for a second. When I fell to darkness, my heart left my body." He’s smiling now in a way that’s comfortably familiar, out of the side of his thin, twisted mouth. "But...it didn’t disappear."

"Didn’t disappear, huh...? So where did it go?"

"You don’t know?"

Silence. Two boys drag from their cigarettes. "I looked for it through the entirety of my nonexistence. But... I think I have an idea now." He chuckles dark like the smoke that swirls around him. "How fucking ironic." A pause. "I like cigarettes."

"You always have. You just forgot."

The flame smolders in his vision.

"It’s all planned out, isn’t it. All of this. Destiny really does exist."

"Destiny is only what you make it."

"I think I’ve heard that somewhere before."

"Yeah. From him."

For a moment he’s stunted, like the dead butt his companion tosses languid to the dark. "...That’s not what I—"

"But he said it, didn’t he?"

It’s true; he can hear them, clear as the crackling of his death-flames: the words cruelly muttered from pursed, frustrated lips, shadowed under stalks of blond. "...So he did."

And then, like ash in his mouth: "Got it memorized?"

"...You’re an asshole."

"Well, do you?"

"...Yeah. Yeah, I really do."

The cigarette dangles loosely from the side of his mouth, which curves upwards in a way that’s fittingly familiar. When the lips absently twitch, it falls from its perch with a whisper, joining its fellow on the ground under a drizzle of smothered embers.

"So..." They match each other gaze for gaze, like mirrors calling back; at their feet, the dead butts spark. "Are you ready for the next life?"