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Manny sat alone on the steps outside the cat track. Gazing up at the night sky, he gently blew out a puff of smoke. Is this what it’s come to now? he thought sadly, Is this our reward for all we’ve done? He dropped his cigarette on the dingy cement and rested his skull in his bony hands. A fresh wave of sadness swept over him, and although his shoulders shuddered slightly, no tears came. Tears were impossible, as a skeleton.
Finally, his grief at the thought of losing Meche, of her leaving for the Ninth Underworld without him by her side, began to dissolve into numbness again, and he turned his eye sockets back towards the stars. Rubacava brought back only painful memories. He found himself looking reminiscently at the lighthouse across the water from where he sat. His thoughts were soon interrupted by a small, accented voice.
“Manny… I…”
He turned his head, anger building in his chest.
“Go away, Emelie,” he said dully.
“But, Monsieur Calavera,”
“Emelie. For the last time, I’m asking you to leave.” Manny wanted to be alone. He wanted nothing more than to sit on these steps and never to move. To live forever in the city of the night.
“But Monsieu-“
“EMELIE!” Manny now rose to his feet. “I’m tired of this! I don’t want to know what you have to say! I don’t want to hear it! I’m sick of playing hero, of being the one to sort everything out. I spent four long years trying to find Meche and bring this all to an end, and to leave the Eighth Underworld with her by my side. It took you four seconds to destroy it all! Go. Away.”
Emelie froze, her eye sockets wide. She was taken aback by Manny’s unexpected reaction. Finally, slowly, she drew her gun from her purse.
“Go ahead, Emelie,” said Manny quietly, “There’s nothing for me in this afterlife.”
Still shaking, Emelie began to speak.
“I… have him h-here. For you, monsieur.”
“Why, thank you Ms. Triste, although I’m sure I could have handled him myself. It’s not as though he’s really putting up much of a fight…”
Manny couldn’t believe what he had just heard.
“Domino? But you’re…”
“Dead? Well, I hate to tell you this Cal, but if you haven’t noticed, so are you.”
Finally, Manny dared to look away from the guy pointed at him by his former traveling companion, and glanced behind.
“Domino!” he couldn’t help but cry out, as he saw the wreck of a man who used to be his competitor. Domino moved toward him in a slightly jerky way. He limped a bit, due to the fact that his bones were fractured in hundreds of places. A large chunk of bone seemed to be missing from the top of his head, though he retained every tooth in his gleaming smirk. His body was completely covered by a black suit and gloves, so that Manny could only guess as to how he was holding himself together.
“In the flesh!” grinned Domino, “Well, metaphorically speaking that is.”
“But you… how did you…”
“Come on Calavera, you’d think that you would’ve figured it out by now! I’m sure you’ve seen that the only way to truly dispose of someone here in the Land of the Dead is sprouting. Leaving those two incompetent hitmen to drown in the Sea of Lament was a bad move on your part. You never were too thorough. Eventually, they managed to come across some of my remains on the ocean floor, including my skull, and, well, it was only a matter of time before I’d convinced them to gather up everything they could, and re-assemble me. I have to say though, it did take quite a while to get out of that place. I did manage to stop you from leaving on the train though, so… I’d say I did pretty well for myself.”
“Domino… it’s your fault… and has Emelie been working for you all this time?”
Domino grinned and walked over to Emelie, throwing an arm around her shoulder and pulling her to his side. She struggled slightly, but soon stopped, only looking up at Manny with an apologetic look.
“Yep, all this time. You really should learn to choose your companions more carefully! And I think Miss Triste has actually become rather enamored with you…”
Manny glanced at Emelie with disgust before turning back to Domino.
“What are you doing this for? Your ticket scam is over, you’ve been uncovered. You’ll never pull that off again.”
Domino gave a little laugh.
“Oh come on Calavera! Counterfeit tickets? I have much better reason to be here in Rubacava. Why else would I travel to a place crawling with LSA agents?” Domino paused for a moment, only to be met with a blank stare from Manny. Grinning even wider, he chuckled again. “So you don’t know about it then? I have much bigger things on my mind this time. True immortality, in a sense.”
“Domino… you’re already dead…”
“Yes, but I have an entire afterlife ahead of me. Unless that is, I’m faced with a death within a death…” at this he reached down and wrenched Emelie’s gun from her grasp. “Sproutella,” he said quietly, inspecting the gun silently for a moment before regaining his normal, cocky manner. “However… with the LSA’s new research…” he broke off, pointing the gun at Manny. “So, I heard your little lady left town without you. Is that why you’ve been sitting here moping on the stairs?” Manny gritted his teeth and said nothing. “You really did love her, didn’t you?”
A flood of memories came rushing back to Manny. An underground tunnel. An old friend.
“Love?” he recited, a slight, sad smile on his face, “Love is for the living.”
Domino pulled the trigger. Once before in his life Manny had felt this kind of pain, spreading deep within his bones.
“Manny!” Emelie cried out.
He glanced, only to see a dart protruding from his chest, and vines growing to cover his body. I wonder if Meche will ever know…he found himself thinking, before he fell to his knees and the scene before him went black.
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