Static Reflections: Book 1 of The M... - Chapter 65: Chapter 65

Walking along the side of the road, Nick and Richard made their way to a location that Nick had told Richard was a favorite spot of Astrid's. The road was empty and it didn't seem like anyone had ever existed in the world at that moment. It was almost eerie. The sky was a burning orange as the sun set somewhere.
The pair were dressed in leisurely clothing to blend into the Mortal Realm better. Nick was wearing blue jeans and a black tee-shirt, while Richard was wearing black slacks and a light green button-up. They would be safe as long as they avoided where Nick's Double might be. The hyena was taking them to a special place, where they would set the objects in their hands free. Nick held him closely as they walked along in silence.
Richard was looking forward, attempting to keep his emotions in check. A lot of things had happened recently, and he was still processing them. On both missions, the two creature hunters behaved like amateurs. On the first, Nick and Richard left too soon, even though Richard was certain Jack would be doomed anyway, considering the mask was in his room. On the second, Richard had split up from his partner and he completely blamed himself.
He tried to tell himself that he couldn't have known that the projector would turn on, but as the older animal and more experienced creature hunter, he should have known that they should have never separated or looked in the direction of the screen, even if it turned on. He also reminded himself that he hadn't been on a mission in years and that he was very rusty.
They couldn't make mistakes every time, though. Richard had a very clear idea that every mission they went on was a tightrope act, where either of them could fall at any moment. His head turned, and he looked at Nick, at the object in his hand. Seeing his boyfriend holding such a meaningful and sad object made his heart heavy. An animal like Nick should never have to go through what he did.
It was made all the more complicated that it was the machinations of a demon that led Boris to do what he had done. Yet, Nick was still determined to save him, despite his actions. Richard just couldn't understand what was going through his mind at any given time. He found himself wondering how truly sad the hyena was. Relationships were truly a one-way mirror.
The raccoon had a reflection of Nick's own object in his hands, representing something different but just as sad. Richard had never set out to get one for himself, but Nick convinced him to partake in the ritual, and now they were drifting along the side of the road like two lost souls with seemingly no destination. Any animal in a car passing by would surely be wondering what the duo was up to that evening.
"It's to the left here," Nick said, and they veered in that direction, now heading toward the trees.
"Where are we going?" Richard asked, staying by his side.
"It's just a place Astrid showed me. Somewhere we used to talk when things got crazy," Nick explained, keeping his eyes forward. "It's really pretty. I think you'll like it. Do you like nature? I never asked."
"I do," Richard told him. "But not bugs. Um, I guess it's a good thing we live in Prostasia, then."
"I wonder where all those fake trees come from," the hyena commented. "Or if they're real and, if so, how do they grow? That place has a long grocery list of mysteries. It's kind of ridiculous."
Richard snorted a chuckle. "Sure, but you could always visit Scribe Sect and research it."
"Yeah, I guess so. I'm sure I could spend a really long time there learning about all different kinds of stuff. It might help me understand why they operate the way they do." He sighed. "But probably not."
Richard nodded. "I'm unsure, myself. I have read a fair amount of books from there in my training, but Truth also overlaps with Scribe, so I'm sort of accustomed to it."
"Makes sense." The pair entered the woods and began traveling through them, with no clear path in sight. "I'm surprised I even managed to navigate us over here. Usually, we take a car or something."
"It would be nice if the Mortal Guard had cars, but there wouldn't be any place to put them. And if we made portals big enough for them to go through, I think it would be far too dangerous to just appear suddenly in the middle of a road. Something tells me there would be a lot of accidents."
Nick scratched his cheek with a few claws. "You're probably right there. I guess inputting coordinates works well enough. Especially for leisure days where we can just appear in any place we want. It's also nice to be back in the Mortal Realm, feeling the cool breeze and, you know, the temperature of the air. There's a lot of things you just don't feel in the Mortal Guard."
Richard agreed with a sound. "And you're sure this area looks familiar to you? It seems like a bunch of trees to me. Not saying that you don't know where you're going, but . . . "
Nick pointed with his right at a nearby tree with one of its branches in a strange looped shape. "That tells me we're going in the right direction. What, you don't trust me? It's not too much further now."
"And it's in these woods?" Richard questioned.
"Nah. Past them. It's probably not as pretty as I think it is. I dunno."
"Nonsense. I'm sure it will be lovely."
"Well, I guess we'll see."
Their journey lasted a little while longer until they came across a cement path that wound through the trees and into the distance. Nick brought them to the path, which he began treading along. "Yeah, she showed me this place when we first became close.
"It was, like, uh, after I found her crying one night after a show. The other members weren't around and, me being me, pressed her to talk to me. She told me that she didn't feel comfortable talking there and so we planned to meet the next day. She drove me over here and then took me where I'm taking you. I dunno, it was just one of those days where you feel outside of yourself because you're doing a really mature thing. Does that make sense?"
"I believe so," Richard nodded. "What was the matter with her?"
"Ah, you know, just stuff with her dad and everything like that. She had a really rocky relationship with him. There were multiple periods of their lives when they stopped talking to each other. He would always come crawling back and she would accept him every time, but then they always got into another argument and a big fight would happen or something . . . . It was just hell."
"I know a thing or two about rocky relationships with fathers. Sounds like it," his partner responded.
Nick nodded. "And . . . and then they risked taking a trip to New York together and they had a really good time! She was so happy when she came back and they even started talking more regularly to him. She didn't even know that he knew all this cool obscure music she had never heard of! Does . . . he even know she's gone?"
Richard blinked. That instilled the thought within him that surely if his dad knew that his son had committed suicide, he would care if he were alive. Surely he would've, right? Or maybe he'd be relieved. "I'm sure he does. He wasn't present where she died, so I'm sure the Mortal Guard told the police to make up a story of what happened."
Nick's grip tightened on what he was holding. "Lies, lies, and more lies."
"It's the only way," Richard told him. "It may be awful at the moment, but in the long run, it saves everyone. If the mortals were allowed to know about the Other Side, the world would be hell."
Nick grumbled. "The universe is already hell. It would just get worse. But I see what you're saying. I hope Veronica's okay."
"She feels deep loss. I was actually updated on the Case while you were in Trauma. They shifted her memories so that she remembers her son and her husband dying in a car wreck. Maybe it's better than knowing her son was kidnapped?"
Nick sniffed. "Okay." That was all he had to say.
The concrete path led them up onto a long bridge with a dark brown metal railing. The bridge overlooked a large black lake. By this time, a dark blue had taken over the sky as stars sprinkled the night. Nick kept the paper object in his hands close as he walked toward the railing. "See the way the cement juts out from the bridge?"
Richard came up behind him. "Mhm."
Nick rotated around, holding out his lantern to Richard. "Hold this real quick?" His boyfriend took the weirdly-shaped objects as the younger animal slipped through the railing, sitting on the cement edge and dangling his legs over the water. "Come join me."
Richard sighed, setting the lanterns down on the ground and slowly crossing over the railing, being careful to where his feet landed so he didn't slip off the edge. There was enough room for them to sit, but one would definitely not want to do acrobatics on that ledge. The breeze had died down enough to where their lanterns didn't blow away.
Richard sighed as he settled, gazing at the still water below, and then the dark silhouettes of trees that surrounded the lake. There were a few animals on the grass below in the distance, sitting on a blanket. One of them, a stallion it seemed, had a guitar which he was strumming and singing a tune to. "You were right, Nicholas. It does have a beautiful quality to it. It's like a mix of walking mammal-made combined with nature."
Nick leaned back against the railing, looking at the moon in the sky, which was a waxing gibbous, perfectly curved and with a haunting glow to it. "This is hard."
Richard stared at the speckled night above. "Hm?"
"I just have a lot of feelings," Nick answered. "About all of it. I don't even know how I should do this, honestly. I can't decide if I want to say something or if I just want to let them go."
His raccoon companion rubbed his shoulder. "You don't have to say anything. I understand."
"Are you gonna say something?"
". . . No."
"Then I will," Nick exhaled, reaching back to grab his lantern. Richard did the same. The hyena dug into his pocket and took out his lighter, which he had purchased when he and Richard had obtained their objects of memoriam. He flicked the spark wheel, slowly bringing it to the opening and setting the candle's wick alight. Afterward, he held the flame over and lit Richard's. "Okay, here I go."
"Alright." Richard stared at the pulsating glow of orange through the paper, which seemed like a beating heart. He swallowed, unable to tear his eyes from the light.
Nick closed his eyes, exhaling long and slow. "Astrid, I don't know if you can even hear me right now, or if I'm only talking to the air, but apparently ghosts exist, so I have hope that somehow you'll hear my message. I didn't know you for as long as I would have liked to, which is a shame because you were a really great animal. And I'm not saying that just because I had feelings for you, but you actually cared about people even though your life was difficult. Sometimes, life can break people down until they are always upset with it and take it out on others but you didn't do that, which I really liked about you. You had the prettiest smile and I wish I could have heard you sing more. It would have been cool to duet sometime. I guess it'll never happen.
"When I think back to before all of this when you were still alive, I remember all the good that you did for us as a band and as our friend. There were some really shitty days for both of us, but you helped me understand that no matter how hard everything becomes, there will always be a way out of the woods, which I'll always be grateful for. I know you taught our friends a lot of stuff, too. I know you felt like you didn't leave your mark on this world yet, but you'll continue to live on through me and through them. I know that if he could, Boris would be here right now releasing another lantern for you. I promise I'll do whatever it takes to free him and avenge you. And I promise I won't let revenge consume me."
Nick felt a tear sting his eye. "I'm still not over it, you know. I still miss you and I always will. When I think about how you'll never do anything ever again and all the first times you'll never get to experience, I feel like my heart is taken out of my chest." His lip quivered. "A-and I may be the only animal who will truly remember you as you lived and died, but I hope that you know someone cared about and loved you. And I hope you know your dad will always be hurting over the loss of you. Even if you guys struggled . . . I know he still loved you because of what he told me. I wish I could talk to him about everything, but I won't ever be able to.
Another sigh as Nick wiped his face. "They told me that once someone dies, they can never come back to life. Even in this insane universe of magic and monsters, I can never get you back and it will always haunt me. I guess that's real life anyway, though. I bet some people will tell me that this was your fate but I just don't believe it. How can your destiny be so cruel? There's just no way this is how it was supposed to end."
He held up the lantern slightly, looking directly at the flame as it reflected in his emerald eyes. "Astrid Delaney, if you're hearing this . . . I won't forget. No matter what happens you'll always be with me. I guess . . . this is goodbye." Nick lowered the object onto his lap again. "Alright, so we'll release them at the same time, then."
His partner's entire speech had gotten to Richard, who had begun tearing up himself, thinking how all of the words applied to him and his Double, from his unfortunate passing to that very moment. It really never went away, that feeling. "And to myself . . . I'll never give up and lose you again. Even if the worst of the worst happens, I'll keep moving forward."
Nick nodded. "That was good, Rich. Ready?"
The raccoon simply nodded, raising his flame. Nick did the same and the two animal's grips diminished as their lanterns levitated from their hands and slowly drifted into the air. The pair was silent as the two glowing things glided away from where they were sitting, creating two white reflections on the surface of the water below. The stallion on the blanket below pointed his finger excitedly at the flying objects, and the entire group turned, oohing and awing. Someone yelled, "Could this night get any better?!"
"Glad they're having fun," Nick half-chuckled as he pulled out a box of cigarettes from his pocket, taking one of the sticks out and lighting it between his teeth. "Sorry, hope you don't mind. That was super emotional and I'm just . . . I need it right now." He inhaled and exhaled a puff of smoke.
Richard shook his head. "I don't mind. I really admire how you wanted to do this."
"Actually, it was Dante's idea," said Nick. "He suggested it during one of our sessions and told me it might help me feel better. You know, like it provides closure in some way. It sure did make me feel a lot better, I think."
Richard put an arm around him. "Then that's what matters. You don't deserve to feel bad in any way. I'm glad you don't blame yourself for what happened."
"We already know who's at fault," Nick hissed. "And we know what we have to do. It's just how we're going to get there that we have to figure out. With us being Diligence and Patience as a factor, we still need to unlock our weapons and I'm guessing meet the other Virtues, too."
"I bet we'll meet the Sins, as well." Richard squeezed the hyena close. "There's a long road ahead and it doesn't look like we'll be able to escape it, no matter how bad we want to."
Nick took another drag. "Then it looks like we'll have to charge in headfirst."
Richard grabbed his free hand. "As long as we have one another, we'll be able to conquer anything."
Nick scoffed. "That is so cheesy, Richard, please. You couldn't have said anything else?"
Richard gawked. "W-what?! I was just saying how I felt! You don't think it's true?!"
"I mean yeah, it's true but like it's still sappy as shit," Nick laughed.
The raccoon nuzzled him. "Hmph. I don't care, then. If it's cheesy, it's cheesy, but I mean it. I feel a lot better when you're around. Like I actually have the power to do things."
"You always have," the hyena told him. "Don't discount yourself, seriously Richard." His eyes stayed on the lanterns as he watched where they drifted. "Oh, fuck, we better go get those when they land, actually. Don't wanna be litterers, right?"
"We should go join that group down there," Richard suggested. "I think it would be nice, even if we never see them again."
Nick finally pulled his gaze from the paper shapes in the sky and smiled widely at him. "Let me finish this cigarette and then we can go introduce ourselves after grabbing the lanterns."
"Deal."