Into the Night: a songfic
Title: Into the Night
Author: Kris
Pairing: Billie/Mike
Rating: R
Prompt: Hair
Notes: This is the prequel the Howl. Since I'm already writing this so out of order, there might be a sequel in the future. The title and lyrics to Into the Night belong to Alkaline Trio.
“We’ll never know which way this road is gonna turn
And can’t be sure how quick your wick is gonna burn
So sing to me your darkest secrets
Time to leave behind your regrets
Before we get lost in a blink of an eye”
What if, what if, what if...? There’s only so much wondering a person can take before it drives them crazy. What if I had paid attention to my gut? What if I had listened to that little voice in my head? What if I hadn’t let you walk home alone?
None of that matters now. I can still hear your screams every time I let my defenses down. Still sense the terror I felt that night.
“This carrion has been forgotten
Left for dead in the sun rotting
The answers lie here in this tragedy
It ends with you and me
We’re dragged from the light
Into the night....”
I run out of the bar and into the humid night air. I run around the building and into the woods, following your voice. All I can hear is your screaming, but can’t find you. Hair clouds my vision; dirty, brown and matted with things I dare not think about in my state. And blood. So much blood. More than any one human body should be able to hold. It’s everywhere. But still you scream.
I blink, hoping this is all a hallucination. Some kind of side effect from too much watered down beer. I take deep breaths through my mouth to stave off the nausea.
“We have been warned which way this storm is gonna blow
But where the rip tide takes us to we’ll never know
Now you’re screaming out for Jesus
Send for anyone, please save us
Before we get lost in the blink of an eye”
When I open my eyes again that hulking mass of fur has noticed my existence and turned around. Suddenly your screams fall on deaf ears. All I can hear now is my own heart beating its way out of my ribcage. I don’t realize that I’ve pissed myself until the smell hits my nostrils and snaps me out of the trance the beast holds me in. The thing stands up, its inverted knees stretching it up to full height. There’s nothing I can do but crane my neck and stare wide-eyed at the strings of flesh dangling from stained fangs, muscle clinging to blood-stained claws.
This carrion has been forgotten
left for dead in the sun rotting,
the answers lie here in this tragedy,
it ends with you and me,
we're dragged from the light,
into the night...
A series of chills violently wrack my body as I’m forced to look directly into the dead, black eyes of the beast. Its exhales are like a hot blast of everything terrible in the world: like garbage put out too early in the summer heat, like an animal so long dead not even the crows want it anymore. It’s right in front of me and I can’t help but inhale it. The nausea hits me again like a freight train and I give in; letting all that I had consumed that night pour out of me.
I feel consciousness beginning to slip away. The last thing I see before everything goes black is my Billie, ripped from cheek to chest, your eyes rolling wildly in your skull, unfocused. The screams have turned to mere gurgles.
So sing to me your darkest secrets
Time to leave behind your regrets
Before we get lost in the blink of an eye
A brush of wiry hair rips me from my slumber. I jerk away from it, but nothing is there. My head hurts where it made contact with the ground. For a blissful second I believe that I just passed out in the woods, but as my eyes scan the scene and land on the now congealed pool of blood on the forest floor, I remember it all. Your body is no longer there, but I spot a series of drag marks leading into a clump of bushes and I know you’re gone.
This carrion has been forgotten
left for dead in the sun rotting,
the answer lies here in the mystery,
it starts with you and me
when we're dragged from the light
into the night...