(no subject)
At first, there was darkness.
And then there was light, filtered in through thick swaths of fog. A dense carpet of leaves crunched softly underfoot.
GODDAMMIT, not this place again.
"'Fraid so, sugar."
Slowly, he turned to find the speaker - a pretty young girl in a white dress, the top half of which was covered by an oversized Michigan State sweatshirt, standing next to a hastily made grave marker.
She always did like that shirt.
"Jesus Christ, I thought you were..."
"Rotting in agony in some hell dimension?"
"Well..yeah."
"Not anymore."
There was a long silence.
"Okay, forget that for a minute and listen to me. I'm here to tell you to stop beating yourself up over this."
"I'm not-"
"You know I know you better than that. All this time and you still blame yourself." She crossed her arms and gave him a stern look. "We all wanted to listen to that tape, and Scotty was the one who wouldn't turn the damn thing off. Nothing that happened here was your fault."
Ash didn't respond, as he tried to shake the memory of seeing his old friend with half his face torn off, impaled by tree limbs. Linda appeared to be listening to something he couldn't hear.
"You should go now. Your son needs you."
"Hey, wait-"
"It's okay. Just go."
And then there was light, filtered in through thick swaths of fog. A dense carpet of leaves crunched softly underfoot.
GODDAMMIT, not this place again.
"'Fraid so, sugar."
Slowly, he turned to find the speaker - a pretty young girl in a white dress, the top half of which was covered by an oversized Michigan State sweatshirt, standing next to a hastily made grave marker.
She always did like that shirt.
"Jesus Christ, I thought you were..."
"Rotting in agony in some hell dimension?"
"Well..yeah."
"Not anymore."
There was a long silence.
"Okay, forget that for a minute and listen to me. I'm here to tell you to stop beating yourself up over this."
"I'm not-"
"You know I know you better than that. All this time and you still blame yourself." She crossed her arms and gave him a stern look. "We all wanted to listen to that tape, and Scotty was the one who wouldn't turn the damn thing off. Nothing that happened here was your fault."
Ash didn't respond, as he tried to shake the memory of seeing his old friend with half his face torn off, impaled by tree limbs. Linda appeared to be listening to something he couldn't hear.
"You should go now. Your son needs you."
"Hey, wait-"
"It's okay. Just go."