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youshouldhavepaidattentiondad · 3 years

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Slow Descent: Chapter 4: Bring Me a Dream (Or Would You Prefer a Nightmare?)

Day 4 entry for @hatchetober

Prompt: Song

Ao3

Arlen races through the Witchwood, bursting through low limbs and bushes. The low hanging limbs and thorns shred his clothes like paper to claw desperately at his skin. Blood oozes from the stinging cuts. Fearfully, he glances behind him.

Wiley's strolling leisurely behind him, tossing and catching a rotting green apple as he moves. From his cruel, twisted lips, he croons a haunting rendition of Mr. Sandman.

No matter how fast Arlen seems to run, Wiley keeps gaining. The sound of the song just gets closer and closer-

With a gasp, Arlen's eyes fly open. His chest heaves, as if he really were just running. His eyes dart around wildly, taking in the suede furniture, the plush rug, and the fireplace before he realizes he's at home. He takes several deep breaths before sitting up on the couch. He grabs his phone to check the time. 6:47pm. Cursing, he scrubs a hand up his face. He must have dozed off.

The past few days have been rough. He had tried to convince himself that he had bought that apple during his last grocery trip. That had been believable enough. He liked apples. He must have grabbed it that morning and set it on the counter. Easy enough, he's scatterbrained sometimes. He probably meant to take it with him as a snack when he went to meet Duke and, in his anticipation, forgot about it. He wants to believe that, but no matter how many times he repeats it, he can't shake how wrong it is.

He stands, groaning as he stretches out. He needs to get out of this house. He can't count how many hours he's stared at the Polaroid on the fridge and thought about what Duke told him. He needs some fresh air, something to get his mind off of it.

Arlen sits at the scratched up bar of the Birdhouse, sipping a whiskey sour. The smokey air might not be fresh, but it's still a welcome change. His eyes scan the bar idly.

"Lookin' for somebody in particular?" Comes a smokey voice from beside him.

He twists around on the barstool to an older woman with a bad blonde dye job and mousy roots. Her lips are painted almost an offensive shade of red. Her tank top fits tightly in an unflattering way.

"No, I'm not," Arlen answers before taking another sip. She was probably gorgeous when she was younger. She has gorgeous blue eyes, the beauty offset by deep crows feet.

"Well…" she leans towards him, her breasts almost falling out of her top. "If you was smart, you'd be looking for me." She winks before ordering a beer.

This is a mistake. Arlen recognizes that clear as day. He leans in as well. "Oh? And who would you be?"

"My name's Pamela," she answers in a sultry voice. She looks him up and down, her bright red lips curling in a pleased smirk. "I ain't see you around, hot stuff. Who are you?"

"I'm Arlen." He watches in distaste as she reaches into her purse and pulls out a pack of cigarettes. "I moved here not too long ago."

Pamela accepts her beer from the bartender and takes a deep drink. "Oh yeah?" She takes a drag from her cigarette. "What brought you round to these parts?"

"Work," he answers vaguely.

That doesn't seem to bother her. She drains her beer quickly before giving him a predatory grin. "How's abouts me 'n' you get outta here and I can show you some real good hospitality." She winks again as she brings her cigarette to her lips.

That is definitely a bad idea. Arlen gets the bartender's attention and pays for his and Pamela's drinks.

"So, did you drive here?" Pamela asks as they step out of the Birdhouse.

"No," Arlen lies easily, "Did you?"

She leads him over to an old, beat up pick up truck. Almost reluctantly. Arlen climbs into the passenger side.

A short ride later, Pamela pulls into the yard of a small, rundown trailer near the back of a trailer park. Arlen considers bolting as soon as he steps out of the truck. Instead, he finds himself following Pamela up the stairs into the trailer.

Once inside, Arlen looks around cautiously. It seems clean enough. He takes a few steps forward before the sound of a ukulele reaches him, carrying the sounds of Mr. Sandman. He looks in horror, expecting to see Wiley standing in the trailer's narrow hall.

"For God's sale," Pamela mutters before raising her voice to an obnoxious yell. "Nanners, fuckin' knock it off or I swear-"

A door down the hall swings open and out storms a familiar looking teenager. "Don't fucking talk to her like that!" She seethes as she steps into the living room. She catches sight of Arlen and scoffs. "Oh, so now you're bringing men back here? Fan-fucking-tastic move, Mom."

"This is my home, Lex, and I'll do what I damn well please !" Pamela shouts back. "You're lucky I still let you live here, you ungrateful-"

Arlen starts backing up for the door. He glances down the hall to see a younger girl peeking out from around a doorframe. Her dark, serious eyes and braids are also familiar. He can't quite place-

"Hey! Stop fucking looking at her, you creep!" Lex shouts at him, moving to block his view of the hall.

Pamela yells something unintelligible as she grabs Lex's arm. Arlen doesn't bother hanging around. He opens the door and darts out, letting the door slam behind him.

He jogs back to the Birdhouse. He doesn't slow until he sees his car in the parking lot. He stops beside the Corvette, doubled over as he breathes heavily.

It's not until he's back home, scrubbing the smell of smoke off his body, that he remembers: the girl was the one who mentioned the Witchwood and Lex was the one in the Toy Zone vest beside her.

He turns off the shower, thinking hard. He definitely doesn't want to be around Pamela Foster again. He could go to Toy Zone to ask Lex if he could speak to the girl, but judging how she's reacted to him, that's not a good idea either.

He needs to find out more about that family.

Note: I am falling behind. I am so sorry. Arlen Mercier is my original character, please do not use without my permission.

#slow descent #arlen mercier #hatchetober 2021 #hatchetfield universe #black friday #tgwdlm #starkid #nightmare time #pamela foster #lex foster #hannah foster #fic

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sophialikesthings · 3 years

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Death Of Me Chapter 7

DO NOT STEAL MY WORK

Song: Helium- Glass Animals (IYKYK 💙💚) "This is the stupidest drawing in the world. Who drew this?" I laughed looking at Kiara.

"Who do you think?" She looked over at Pope.

"Kie, your plan better work because there is no way we can pawn these off with a symbol on it." JJ walked over tossing the gold in front of us.

"It's gonna work." She held up a blow torch.

I helped JJ set up the pot where we would melt off the wheat symbol.

Once the gold was melted down we all hopped in the van and headed towards the local pawn shop.

"Hell of a job melting it down, Dr.Frankenstein." JJ hopped out of the van looking at the poorly melted glob of gold.

"Like you could have done any better?"

"I could have done much better, I took a welding class"

"When?"

"Guys chill, all that matters is that the wheat symbol is gone." I tried to mediate the situation

"Easy for you to say. You're not the one that has to pawn this piece of shit off." JJ held up the gold.

"How did I get this job anyway?"

"Because you're the best liar." Pope said as we headed inside.

===

"Afternoon ma'am" JJ took his cap off.

"Afternoon."

"I see you buy gold." He took off his backpack, the rest of us pretended to look around the store.

"That's what the sign says don't it?"

"Well, I sure hope you buy a lot of it, because I'm about to blow your mind." He pulled it out.

"I ain't got much mind left to blow, so have at it kid."

"How 'bout them gold apples." he set it down in front of the store clerk.

"That ain't real." She chuckled

"That ain't real?" JJ repeated her.

"Feel how heavy it is."

She struggled to pick it up and grabbed her magnifier glass and looked closely as if she was examining every inch of it.

"Spray painted tungsten." She looked at him

She grabbed a hammer and hit a corner of it.

"If that wasn't real gold would you dent it that easily ma'am?" JJ questioned her judgement.

"Hold your horses." She put on her glasses

After bickering back and forth she put it on a scale.

"Seven pounds thats a lot of earrings." She didn't believe his lie.

JJ went on about how his mom had 'alzhimers', trying to gain sympathy from her.

She walked away to go get someone from the back.

"Alzhimers? Are you kidding me JJ?" I questioned his lying capabilities. "What? Got me out of many detentions so why not try it now?"

The owner came back out and started talking prices with JJ I kind of zoned out looking at 'Vintage Jewelry' with Sarah.

Before I knew it we were headed to the pawn stores warehouse to get the money.

"JJ, How in the world did you get away with an Alzheimer's lie?" I laughed.

"Listen man, we got the money didn't we?"

Suddenly we heard the sounds of police sirens telling us to pull over.

As we were trying to stash the gold someone pointed a gun at John B, Unfortunately I knew exactly who this was.

We all carefully did as instructed lying down on the ground while he went through the van.

John B got up and quickly ran to Barry's car grabbing the car keys and waiting till Barry got back in the car, strangling him getting back the gold he took. JJ ran over to help him get the gold back. While they were throwing punches I scooped up the gold from the passenger's seat and ran back to the van.

"I got it! Come on."

"Wait." JJ pulled down his mask.

"I know this piece of shit!" JJ couldn't believe it

"He's a base head."

"Probably knows my brother." Sarah panted.

"He does."

"He sells coke to my dad." JJ squared up.

"Mrs. Country Club!" Before Barry could finish speaking, JJ punched him.

"Let's go see where this son of a bitch lives?" JJ started walking.

"I'm gonna remember this shit!" Barry threatened.

=== "I should get back to my place, I'll see you later JJ." I hugged him tightly.

After I let go I walked back into my house to see the boys hanging out outside.

"Hey!" I greeted them

"There you are! I was wondering where you went?" Rafe hugged me kissing the top of my head.

"Rafe Cameron!" I heard Barry pull up out front.

"Fuck!" I ran inside to my room, opening the window so I could hear their conversation.

"What are you doing here man? Are you good?" Rafe asked, pulling him over to the side.

"No, I aint good man."

"Alright what happened."

"Why's your family think I'm just some bitch they can shit on?" Barry asked. "First your dad kneecaps me in my house, then I have to deal with your sister and your girlfriend breaking into my house and stealing my shit." He got upset.

I saw Topper's face change, he looked up at me and I felt my heart drop.

"My little sister, Robbed you?" Rafe asked.

"Yeah, Sarah, Demi, and their surfer rat friends stole 25k from me! That is why I'm here."

"Demi wouldn't even pick up a dollar off of the streets." Rafe defended me.

"Sort this shit out or I will! And I wont be nice about it." He barked.

"What are you gonna do?" Topper asked.

"I don't know? That's not my problem." Rafe chuckled.

"Hey, That's Demi we are talking about." He reminded Rafe.

=== I ran over to the Camerons where Sarah and John B were

"We gotta go, Like now! Barry came over to my house and told Rafe about everything, Rafes coming to get you." I explained out of breath.

We quickly left the lot as soon as we could. We made it about five minutes out when Rafe pulled us over.

"Let me handle it, Sarah, come out when you think it's necessary." I hopped out.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" I stomped over.

"There she is!" He took his helmet off.

"Hello? Are you high?" I asked

"Damn it Rafe, we could have run you over."

"I just heard about your little home invasion!" He scoffed.

"What are you talking about?" I acted clueless.

"What would your father, the sheriff, say if he knew you were robbing dealers?"

I heard Sarah step out of the van.

"And you! What would our dad say?" he pointed at her.

"I don't know. You could tell him if he didn't kick you out." she snapped back.

"Listen Demi, I try to take care of you."

"That's a lie" I laughed.

"Who's ungrateful, as always, listen, the guy that you robbed is a bad man, Demi."

"Yeah, I'm aware, Rafe!"

"Listen! He gave me this,okay?" He showed me his arm.

Suddenly Topper decided to show up.

"You take care of your shit, I'll take care of mine!"

"I"m taking care of my shit! Listen Demi, One day I'm gonna be running the show, for us because I love you!"

"A-and I don't like it when we fight." He pulled me in for a hug.

"We will talk about this later."

=== Later That Day === I decided to go and see what JJ was doing because I was bored, oddly I showed up at the house at the same time as Kiara and Pope.

"Hey, what are you doing here?" Kiara asked, giving me a hug.

"Checking in on JJ, he had a rough day."

All of a sudden fairy lights come on.

"Where did that come from?" We went to the back of the house to find out.

As we got closer we saw a drunk JJ sitting in a brand new hot tub popping a cork off of a champagne bottle.

"What did you do? JJ." Pope asked.

"I got a jet going straight in my butt right now." He laughed.

"Y'all should get in here immediately. Especially you Demi, you look hot in a bathing suit."

"Salud!" He held up a plastic champagne glass that was in a flamingo drink floatie.

We just looked at eachother confused about the sudden change in JJ.

"JJ? How much did this cost?" I asked.

"Uh...With the generator, the petrol,and oh, hey, express delivery I'd say...pretty much all of it. Yeah." He chuckled as if this was a joke.

"All of it? You spent all of it. In one day?" I replied.

"Yeah, I burned a hole right through my pocket."

I stepped closer to JJ

"But, I mean ,like,come on, guys, like, look at this!" He showed it off.

"Finest in jet-based massage therapy, that's what they told me."

I just stared at him.

"Demi, what? Can't a man have a little luxury in his life? Come on, all this scrimpin' and scrapin'... I mean, like...guys, we-- you only live once, right? Enough of this emotional shit. Get in the Cat's Ass. Come on." He gestured us over.

"In the what?" Kie finally spoke.

"The Cat's Ass. That's what I named her."

"Oh, hey, yo I almost forgot." He flipped a switch causing a disco ball to light up and spin

"Yeah, that's right, I know. Disco mode."

"Are you kidding me! You could have given it for restitution!" Pope yelled

"Or any charity!" Kiara chimed in.

"Or better yet, you could have helped us buy supplies." Pope threw out another suggestion.

I could see him break.

"Ok, you know what, I didn't do that! I got a hot tub!" He stood up. I saw the bruises on his body making me feel sick.

"For my friends." He cried.

"I got a hot tub for my friends, you know what screw friends. I got a hot tub for my family."

I slipped off my shoes and got in with him, wrapping him in my arms as he cried out.

"I can't do it! I can't take him anymore!"

"It's gonna be okay." I kissed his shoulder while his face was nuzzled in the crook of my neck.

Soon Kiara and Pope joined in on the hug.

"I love you JJ." I whispered in his ear.

"I love you too Demi."

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