Eclipse

*The lunatic is on the grass.*

*The lunatic is on the grass.*

*Remembering games and daisy chains and laughs*

*Got to keep the loonies on the path.*

And with what vivace, with what grace, came that ever reminiscent of one another duo.

Lest there come the humanised eyes dealt by the man's hand, there were the two, laying back against the grass, gazing up at the stars which never seemed to end. In an almost childish manner, they'd count them; but in the actual context of everything which had to do with these two, such behaviour would be excusable. They saw nothing wrong with it, but this was mainly because they had quite literally nothing better to do with their time than to sit and watch the night skies. It was a bit of an escape.

Under this all encompassing field of white dots among the blackness overhead, it seemed like they were the only two living beings out here. They were both unable to find anything living, although occasionally they would come across the rotting corpses of large animals, like bears or deer, though they had been rotting for a very long while judging by the stage of their decay (long past rigor mortis, nigh into skeletonisation). Even this was cause to get excited, though. It meant they weren't the only things left. The small towns nearby were void of all life, meaning they were probably the only two human beings out here for miles.

Noted, it should be that in the past, it wasn't that way. There used to be other people around here, around this house, but they were all long gone. God knew what happened to them, or what was going to happen to their perfect systems, himself and her. Thrown into the metaphorical abyss like all the rest, perhaps? Of course, this was almost definitely a possibility, but it was clear that their friends were taken in a specific order for a reason. Eventually one of them was going to be next and that was that.

Answered was an unheard question. "Hm?" she replied quickly.

Told was his inquiry once again. "You think it'll be tonight?" the Brit asked her, not breaking eye contact with the heavens. "After all, it is when we least expect it, right?"

Immediately her expression stifled. She didn't want to respond. She refused to let go of him for even a second. "...I-if we have to, then... th-then we'll stay up," she said. "But it's not like th-that's uncommon." At this, both of them shared a little chuckle.

"C'est parfait," she continued on an abrupt whim, standing then. "If this is o-our last day, then... then w-we... we sh-should... m-make it special. Make it perfect."

*The lunatic is in my hall.*

*The lunatics are in my hall.*

*The paper holds their folded faces to the floor*

*And every day the paper boy brings more.*

Home, home again... this dusty place, so neglected yet so simultaneously beautiful. Standing in the doorway were they, the door creaking as it hit against the wall, rebounding slightly. Both of them walked down the darkened hall, unchanged by the utter terror it might evoke in some newcomer, until they reached the first room that a visitor would see; at which point there was a sudden lurking fear within the duo. Finding it unreasonable, they inexplicably were unable to move any further, just staring ahead at nothing. They then looked to each other, before the taller one, the male, spoke a short phrase: "Is something off, Rei?"

The shorter one was speechless for a bit, staring at him through her eye. She almost expected the man to be standing behind him, but surprisingly, he was not, even though the day had been rather odd in comparison to most others through which the two had lived. "...No, Laz. N-N-Nothing's wrong," she said with nigh certainty.

However, the two quickly shed this irrational fear, getting back to their usual shenanigans which mainly consisted of the two sitting around a computer, reading horror stories or watching a series revolving around their favourite subjects. Occasionally, Rei would commandeer the device to make a short distress signal in the form of a blog post, trying to reach out to anyone and everyone who would randomly come across it somehow. Deep down, though, she knew that this was likely futile. There were larger forces at play here; ones the two couldn't even begin to comprehend, and both despised this to their very cores. There was no way they could win this game, however many times all of them made moves that seemed benevolent rather than malevolent but left each of their own distinctive marks to allow them to infer who did it.

"Hey, Laz," the short girl said, pausing in her typing. "Have y-you ever thought that... th-th-that maybe... m-m-m-maybe we're both puppets?" she continued in her rather vexing question.

"...A lot, actually," replied he. "I know I can't trust you, but I don't have anyone else to turn to either, do I? Not like there's anyone else out here, and Hell, we've *never* had a response from all of these attempts to reach out. Not necessarily saying we should give up and just lay down and wait to die, before you ask. I... I do know I can't trust you, but Rei, you're the last person I have. By this point, it's not a matter of your morality or who you really are." At this point he paused for a moment. "I don't want to think about that, though. This isn't the first time we've talked about this."

"...Th-that's not wh-what I s-s-said," she explained. "I said, 'b-both of us'. Both o-of us. Wh-what if it's just you? H-how would I-I know? How w-would we know?"

"Can we please just stop talking abou--"

"No!" she exclaimed, suddenly standing from the seat. "L-L-Lazarus Para, we *m-must* talk about this. C-Come on." She said, leading him by the hand to the couch, downstairs, with surprising force.

"Whatever you say, *Rei Grenier-Couture*," he replied flippantly as he followed with a nonchalant expression.

For a moment, Rei thought she spotted shadowy figures out of the corner of her eye.

*And if the dam breaks open many years too soon*

*And if there is no moon upon the hill*

*And if your head explodes with dark forebodings too*

*I'll see you on the dark side of the moon.*

"What d-do you think happened to them, h-huh? What do you th-th-think h-happened to Brian? How about T-Toby? Alex? How's E-Emma, Laz? Hmm? Mary?" she queried with pain evident in her voice.

"I don't know why you expect me to know to begin with," replied Lazarus, smooth as ever. "Because I don't."

"A-a-and, and what w-w-w-were th-those thin-things that came-- c-c-came to us when the o-others disappeared, huh? Y-You, dressed in all black w-with a mask and the fucking d-doppelgänger... I knew y-you did this."

"You're being incredibly unreasonable, Rei," noted the Para. "I mean, really. What reason would I have to do something like that? Why would I hurt you? Look at me. I'm your friend. I... I care about y--"

"Shut up!" she screamed at him, putting her hands against her head, her eye shaking in its socket as she growled and groaned, her person laid against the wall facing away from her roommate.

"Rei, l-listen, I swear I'm me--"

"No!"

"Y-y... yes!"

The room was silent for a moment, then, her mouth slightly agape, as she just stared at a corner of the room. "I f-fucking knew I couldn't trust you. I fucking kn-knew it since the first t-time I saw you wh-when you didn't even s-say shit to a-any- anybody e-else and th-then you, y-you just, vanished! Like you never existed t-to begin with... for all th-those months. You w-were never there for me wh-when everything h-happened. You d-d-didn't c-care," she said, her voice growing progressively shakier, her speech interrupted by a sniffle at this point, her eyes watery.

"T'es v-vraiment un h-h-homme drôle, Lazarus. T-tu crois vraiment p-p-p-pouvoir me tromper? Tu c-crois v-vraiment être m-meilleur que nous tous? Tu p-p-penses vraiment que t'aurais u-une chance si on t'attaquaient t-tous en même temps?! A-a-arrête de f-faire l'enfant! R-Regarde moi d-dans les yeux, et dis moi q-que tu ne t'es p-p-pas débarrassé d'eux. D-Dis-moi que tu ne t'es p-pas débarrassé de m-mes amis.  Fais-moi r-rire. D-Dis moi que tu es toujours t-t-toi-même. F-fais le une fois d-d-de plus!" She finished, with an exclamation, unaware she'd segued into French.

She hadn't realised until the end of her monologue that the other was embracing her below the arms, quietly having stood up from his seat however long ago to do just this and this alone. He was wordless, just staring ahead as she was doing. The only noise was a small shuffle of footsteps as she turned to face him; at which point, she then promptly proceeded to break into sobs, sinking her face into the other's shirt.

*The lunatic is in my head.*

*The lunatic is in my head.*

*You raise the blade.*

*You make the change.*

*You rearrange me 'til I'm sane.*

She didn't know how long it had been, but eventually there was choking. This was obviously a bad sign and there wasn't any reason to rethink it. She was pained as well, making much the same noises. She looked up at Lazarus, his eyes widened, bulging; and his breathing nonexistent, his mouth unmoving from its current state, which was as well agape. Her face was much the same. She would stutter out vague fragments of words occasionally, as would he. Sometimes this would occur in synchronisation. It made the two laugh slightly, but it would only make the pain worse. Rei shuffled on her feet, trying to maintain her grasp on her friend.

Such an attempt would soon prove to be in vain, though. Lazarus fell over, on his side, the small dagger through his abdomen which had also stabbed into her leaving a large slice along her own − now allowing her to see what had happened, as the blood spilled from the trio of wounds, one her own and the other two his, her blood dripping to the floor while his pooled. There stood a figure which her eye could not easily make out, blurry in contrast to how clearly she saw everything else now. She knew deep down now. This was going to be the one who got rid of them. Tonight was the night.

Rei was silent other than short quakes from both the pain and the fear as the silhouette approached, her hands now pressed against her wound before she as well fell to the side, her legs giving out under her. She put a weak hand to one of the young man's bleeding gashes which almost looked to have a *sui generis* appearance as the figure removed his weapon from the other, leading to Lazarus' wheezes and gags of agony, his eyes rolling back in his head as he rocked his body slowly forwards and backwards towards her (as if he were making an attempt to roll over), and one hand t'wards her own, although she recognised well her impotence. She just wanted to slow the bleeding as much as she could.

"Just cut it out, girl. It isn't going to do much," the contour spoke, as blood began to spill from Lazarus' mouth, noting that he was probably already dead. Rei couldn't do much but just lay there, gritting her teeth as she stared at him and her eyes began to focus. There stood the aforementioned masked Lazarus appearing well dressed in a black hat as well as rather generic clothing for the sophisticated man, who had seemingly manifested separately from the Lazarus she knew just like when he first appeared to them. He was surprisingly clean of blood, other than his gloves made of leather, which were now surprisingly tainted with the crimson substance in great contrast to the rest of his image. His colour pallette was now black, white and red. Ah, yes, the colours of the generic, unmemorable... now wasn't the greatest time to insult him, she realised.

Rei whimpered, staring up at him as the reality of Lazarus' death began to set in for her. She couldn't accept it. Deep down, she hoped his name held meaning like everything else seemed to. Then again, considering how relatively odd things had been going since the first disappearance of someone close to her, it was definitely a possibility. If she made it through this, she would see where it all took her. The masked Lazarus stared down at her, not breaking eye contact through the black voids of eyes that he had as he began to speak. "If you join us once more, I will let you live. How does that sound?"

She was dumbfounded by this as she looked him once more up and down, but quickly had the answer. Everyone had presumably died for her and Laz, and all for what? Nothing? Just a game on the part of the man and this, this clone? He didn't have to say anything to receive her answer. "...Pu... putain d... de merde..." she said, beginning to feel cold. This was it. She knew she was going to die soon. At least it would be by the side of the one who did, in fact, care, she thought as her consciousness began to slowly fade out. As the blackness came over her, she heard low chuckling.

*You lock the door*

*And throw away the key.*

*There's someone in my head, but it's not me.*

"Rei. Rei!"

The young woman slowly came to, coughing. "Augh... ch-cher Seigneur, L-Laz," she muttered, feeling like she had the hangover from Hell.

"You, you, um... alright, yeah, you had another hallucination, I think. Started making choking noises, fell over, then you went unconscious. It's been about an hour. Are you... alrigh--"

"Y-y-yes. I'm f-fine, Laz." She said, raising her torso on the couch as she kept herself elevated by putting her hands down. "I, I j-just, um... uhh... I want you t-to know s-something."

"...I'm listening," said the young man with patience.

"I l-love you. P-p-platonically, of course! I just, j-just, I'm really sorry about lashing o-out at you, dude--"

"It's *fine*. I understand. You have reason to go a little bit crazy. We're the only ones out here, after all. I can't blame you for any of that."

Rei took a good moment to respond, but eventually she came to it, giving a vague smile to him. This time, she was the one giving the sudden hug, just glad to have him here, if anything. "I d-don't know wh-where I'd be if y-you weren't here. Pr-probably dead."

The two shared a small laughing before the shadows returned, cutting Rei's cackling short.

*And if the cloud bursts thunder in your ear*

*You shout and no one seems to hear.*

*And if the band you're in starts playing different tunes*

*I'll see you on the dark side of the moon.*