Episode: 7.3

--- Ozzy ---

His sisters were on either side of him, his younger sister dragging him through the crowd of party goers as a brown-haired woman a few years older than them followed with a fond smile.

“You know, I don’t get why you’re making such a big deal about this.” He told the blonde-haired girl pulling his arm.

“It’s my birthday of course I’m going to make a big deal about it!” Eve told him her green eyes dancing with joy.

“Right.” He nodded with an amused grin. “It’s your birthday, one more year survived and one more year to the great dirt nap, the end of all things, the-”

His other sister slapped the back of his head. “Don’t be a dick.”

He quirked his head to the side. “But isn’t that the defining difference between men and women though?”

Lily rolled her eyes with a smirk. “You know what I mean smartass.”

“I do.” He admitted giving the party a once over as Eve caught sight of one of her friends and ran off, deciding to free him and pester her friends for gifts. “Any idea where mom and maman are?”

His elder sister shrugged. “They said something about not wanting to get in the way of the kids’ fun.”

“Meaning we should knock on every door when we head back home.”

Lily snorted understanding exactly where he was coming from. “Not a bad idea all things considered.”

Shaking his head, he looked around at the number of high schoolers who invited themselves to the party, half of whom probably didn’t even know his sister’s name. “You know most parents would want to keep their kids away from a high school party, or at least keep an eye on him.”

“Yes, but I’m here, Eve’s responsible, and it’s not like the ‘nice guy’ is going to let the party get out of hand.”

He frowned. “I’m not that bad.”

Lily gave him a look. “I’ve literally seen you help an old woman across the street.”

“That was Mrs. Baker, a screw on her walker came loose, and she was just across the street from her house.” Anyone would help with something that little.

Lily crossed her arms. “What about that thing Mom told me about? The thing with the cat stuck in the tree last week.”

“That was for our neighbor Millie, the six-year old?” He reminded her, not really seeing where she was going with this. “You can’t expect me to leave a crying six-year old by herself.”

Lily stared at him for a moment before shaking her head. “No, I guess I can’t.”

Before he could continue arguing against his good reputation, he felt Eve once more latch onto his arm before dragging him along. “Ozzy, what are you doing way over here?”

“Not being dragged around by an excited five-year old like a puppy on a leash.” He answered with the obligatory amount of snark for everyone in the Creed family. (Save Eve.)

Eve rolled her eyes, the same way Lily had moments before, before dragging him along as if he hadn’t made a perfectly valid complaint. “I’m not that bad.”

Part of him felt like saying (Yes, you are.)

Another part could feel Lilith two steps behind him, fully aware that he’d had a very similar conversation with her not even five minutes ago.

So, unwilling to give his elder sister the satisfaction, he did as any good older brother would and let his sister drag him all over the place and force him to mingle with all of the friends that they did not have in common.

And of course, as a good little brother he made sure his elder sister suffered with him, being sure to use an iron grip to latch onto her arm the moment the (traitor) tried to abandon him to the masses.

Between the two acts he felt a warmth in his chest, that kept him strong enough to put up with all of the social niceties he usually tried so hard to avoid. A warm feeling that was quickly smothered by the cold chill that raced down his spine, sending his eyes darting around as the chill seemed to slow the world around him to a freeze.

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(What… what is this?)

(“Remember…”)

His breath stilled as a phantom hand seemed to wrap around his heart, forcing it to a painful stop.

The people around him seemed to stutter, as if an old film were skipping several frames, leaving everyone’s faces blurred and obscured.

“The hell?” He gasped as the phantom released him, forcing him to take a step back as the world suddenly snapped back into place.

“Ozzy, what’s wrong?” He turned to his younger sister; her green eyes filled with concern as his heart began to bound inside his head. “You’re looking kind of pale.”

“I don’t…” His eyes darted around the room at the question, his mind unable to tell what was wrong, just that something deeply was.

(Maybe…) He swallowed. (Maybe it’s all in my head…)

“No, that doesn’t make sense.” Lily’s voice cut through, standing where he could’ve sworn, she wasn’t a moment ago. “He’s looking like a corpse.”

“Huh?” His attention snapped to his elder sister, who was looking at him with a strange smile on her face. “Lil, are you okay?”

“After all…” Lily whispered, completely ignoring his concerns as she leaned in closer. “you’ve already lost your head.”

The world skipped frames again, only this time the scene was more horrific than a few obscured faces. Everyone around him was bleeding from their milky white eyes, tears and sores littering their faces, as blood slowly leaked from their mouths. A sight all the more traumatizing as he looked into the empty eyes of his elder sister.

He couldn’t help but take a step back as he tried to get away from the macabre sight in front of him. “Lily…”

“What’s wrong, Ozzy?” Eve asked tilting her head innocently(/horrifically) causing the blood leaking from her face to smear to the side as fell down new patterns. “yOu lOoK lIKe yoU’vE SEen A gHoST.”

“Eve…” He took another step back and slipped, crashing to the ground with an impact that shook him through his bones, even as the ground itself squelched beneath him.

He looked up to find the world around him had once more shifted frames skipping into a reality even more horrifying than the last. All around him darkness consumed everything save the thing he wished he could unsee.

Bodies laid all around him, mutilated and torn apart as if by some beast before being tossed haphazardly wherever they fell.

Blood coated the floor deep enough to submerge his fingers, an ocean of red only broken by the dead islands floating on its surface.

Something in his stomach churned and he hunched over before vomiting the entirety of his stomach’s contents, leaving him shaking as he continued to dry heave painfully.

“This is your fault.” A voice whispered from all around him as he gasped for air.

He shook his head, exhaling a shaky breath as he did so.

“N-no, no, no, no…” He murmured to himself, unable to look away from the blood and bile at his feet, unwilling to look at the death and devastation that surrounded him.

The blood began to boil, before dozens of tiny tendrils shot up from the crimson the little ligaments spinning together, coagulating the blood into a hand that latched onto his own with a deathly grip.

“Yes, it is.” A familiar blood drenched figure informed him as his gazed into the void of his Eve’s missing eyes.

Something grabbed onto his other arm and violently tugged him to the side, nearly ripping his arm out of socket as he was forced to look into his other sister’s hateful glare.

“It’s all your fault, baby brother.” Lily spat at him.

He shut his eyes as his tears began to flow from them. Shaking his head in denial, he tried to push past the blame he knew was his, all the while pleading with his sisters to understand. “Lily I-I tried t-to stop him but, but-”

Lily’s hands shot up clawing at his face as they dug in and forced his eyes open.

“If you tried so hard, baby brother, then why aReN’T YoU WitH US?!”

“I-I don’t know…” He sobbed as Eve grabbed his head and jerked it hard enough to rend an audible ‘crack’ from his neck.

“It doesn’t matter that he’s not with us…” Eve argued, though her gaze was no less hateful than his other sister. “But rather…”

“WhY dIdN’t yOu sAVe US?!” His sisters asked, their voices a shrieking symphony that surrounded him on all sides as they seared their question into his damned soul.

“I-I-I’m sorry…” He whimpered, tears building in the corners of his eyes as their fingers dug bloody trenches into his flesh.

Abruptly, both of his sisters froze with an inhuman stillness that did nothing to help calm him, before in a dark whisper they told him, “You will be.”

Both of the nightmares shoved him back with enough force to make his skull crack off of the wall behind him, dazing him as his heart began to pound inside his ears.

Shaking off what he could he forced his eyes back to his sisters, fully prepared for whatever pain they wished to inflict upon him, only to find both Eve and lily had once more disappeared into the darkness.

The wall behind him began to shift, and he moved to step away, only to freeze as he caught sight of just (what the fuck) was behind him.

A giant nearly twice his size stood behind him, wrapped in fraying and worn rags covered in dark stains a mix of red, green, and black. His gaze slowly traveled up the unnaturally large figure, before locking sight with a pair of ghastly green glowing eyes beneath a dark hood that shrouded the (monster)’s face in darkness.

The (thing) in front of him tilted its head to one side and then the other, it’s movements so slow, so controlled, that no human could replicate the feat that sent yet another creeping chill down his back.

And as he gazed into the eyes of death itself a voice of gravel and hate seemed to echo inside his mind.

Slowly, without a care in the world, as if nothing in this world could stand to stop it, the monster raised its clawed hand, before wrapping its long bony fingers around his throat.

Some bizarre part of his mind, made note of the pale woman in black and silver standing behind the monster picking him off the ground by his throat, thereby removing his ability to breathe.

(“Remember…”)

The Monster pulled back it’s free hand a flash of silver appearing behind it…

(“Death is only the beginning.”)

Before his blood mixed with ocean beneath him, and his head fell beneath crimson waves moments before his body followed.