"Facing your fears is nothing to be nervous about." Splendid whipped the car into a nearby parking space, adjacent to Flippy's Jeep. The wind kicked up, blowing the ribbons of his mask onto the roof of the car, Splendid lifted his arm up to wave at him. "Hey!"
Flippy snapped his head back; a look of confusion projected over his tan face. His perplexed eyes locked onto his friend, without drifting over to Cuddles. His gaze stayed constant, not able to mutter anything out of his lips.
Splendid took the silence as an opportunity to control the situation, stepping forward with his arms outstretched in a 30 degree angle; palms turned upward. "Nice running into you here, it's been quite some time since we've spoke to one another huh? Can I talk to you one on one?" He walked over to Flippy, placing his hand on the soldier's shoulder. Splendid was a few inches taller than Flippy, they were both average heights following their ethnicity. "I would like to speak with you without an audience. I'm sure you understand, no? Let's go." Adamantly, Splendid took his friend to the side and started walking down the parking lot while still having a grasp on his shoulder.
Cuddles watched as the two departed, feeling his heart race as he intertwined his fingers together; staring up at the Jeep ahead of him. Without much confidence or preparation, he remembered Splendid's advice and attempted to work out his lines through his mind. "Okay." He took in a swift breath, breaking into an energized walk as he made his way across the parking lot. Cuddles turned his head to look in the Jeep in attempt to see whom Flippy was driving with—finding a familiar woman in the front seat.
Nosey remained in the car, her seat belt fastened as her hands rested on her lap. Her palms laid downward, her posture at a perfect 90 degree angle with her head up; eyes staring through the people walking the sidewalks. Her gaze was broken once the sound of knocking rung in her ears, she looked over to find Cuddles's face up against the glass window. Perplexed, she blinked and furrowed her brows together—shaking her head. "C..Cuddles?" Her hands quickly found the release button on her seatbelt, quickly thrashing to the door as she flung it open. She watched as Cuddles stepped back to avoid being struck by the car door. "What..I don't understand, why are you here?"
He took a deep breath in, looking up and down her then focusing on her eyes. He tried finding some twinkle, anything that marked a shift in emotion as he found himself smiling back at her. "Been awhile, hasn't it?" He stretched his arm back, resting his hand on the crown of his head. While his posture shifted left and right, his hand slid down to the nape of his neck. "I uh, do you, would you want to talk about this?" Once Nosey stepped out of the vehicle, Cuddles found his breath staggering once more. "I never gave you the chance to talk about anything."
"You left, you just left." Nosey shook her head, her expression fixed on confusion with traces of sadness and anger. "I scared you away, never did you try to talk to me after..after it happened.'"
"You have to try to understand, understand what I was thinking. What I went through, what happened to you?" Cuddles's arm fell down to his side, his hand stretched out as he spoke. "Of course I didn't want to talk to you but, I was still in shock." Cuddles trembled, attempting to fix his emotions together enable to coherently form a sentence without any trace of anger or oppression. He didn't want to upset her too much, to make her run off or drift from the conversation. "Nosey, what I went through, no..what we went through was not something I would have expected. I think I was just more scared at the fact that you aren't yourself anymore. I don't understand you, I can't read you, I don't know what you've become but I don't recognize you." He noticed Nosey inch backwards, in an attempt to pull her back he quickly cried back to her. "I want you back, I want the one I fell in love with back, I want my girlfriend back. I need Nosey, not this person that took over her."
Nosey looked down, collecting her thoughts but couldn't find the right thing to say. "I don't know, Cuddles." She sighed, letting herself speak from her heart without thinking of what she needed to say. "I don't know what's wrong with me, I don't recognize myself and I don't think I can change this. I can't say for certain what version of me I want the most because I don't want anything. Any part of me just hurts and I can't coherently think about who I am anymore. I don't have any sense of self and it is for the better that we stay distant. It'll be safer for you to forget about me and move on." Nosey turned around, putting her hand over the handle of the car and popping it open.
Cuddles grabbed her my the forearm, closing the door with his other hand. "I don't want to move on, I thought I did. I thought I put everything I felt with you to the side and forgot about all of it. I kept telling myself that it was over but we never talked about any of it. I don't think I realized how much I care until I laid my eyes on you again. Now everything I knew for certain...my thoughts are all scrambled Nosey. There's just something about you that always does that to me and I don't know what to make of it." He gently let go of her arm, waiting for her to turn around. "I don't care that you're hanging out with Flippy, I don't care if you had an affair with him while we were together. I don't care what you say, I just want to know what happened, what's happening. I need closure Nosey, if this is really over then I need you to tell me that it is. I can't keep thinking it over, I can't keep remembering that I just abandoned you when you were in a dark place. I want to understand what drove you to do the things you did, to choose the actions you've done."
"I can't tell you Cuddles...I'm sorry but I just can't." Nosey's eyes started to well up, a puffy sting lingering around her eyelids.
"Please, you can tell me. I promise you that I won't run away again, I won't back away from you, I won't abandon you again. I just need the truth." His hands met with hers, a pit forming in his stomach as his chest felt hollow.
"I never cheated on you. That's the one thing I know you shouldn't fear from me...I never had any desire in my heart to defile you like that." Her hands squeezed his then seized all together. "But that shouldn't be the reason why you leave me."
"Then tell me what happened, tell me why I should just forget about everything we've been through together. Tell me why I shouldn't love or miss you anymore."
Nosey broke, she looked up at him with eyes empty. "I can never be the same again. I can never try to go back to the way I was or change what's going inside my head. Cuddles, I don't want you to chase after someone who's broken."
"Maybe that's something we just have to work through...You just need to tell me what happened that night. What made you do all of these horrible things?" Cuddles urged her, pulling her hands closer to him as he begged for an explanation.
"I...I CAN'T SAY IT." She closed her eyes, sternly removing her hands from his.
Cuddles was taken aback, his glance shakily remained on her. "Did he, did Flippy do this to you? Did he hurt you Nosey? Is this just all because of him?" His brows dipped together, anger flooding over the usually cheery man. "Why did you start hanging around him anyway? What kind of control does he have over you that you can't act on your own accord!"
"Cuddles I.."
"I KNOW. You can't say it, you can't explain or even give me a trace of an apology about anything. You don't have to shut down to me, what ever happened to no secrets between us?" Cuddles huffed, his words bursting through his mouth. "If you want this to be over so badly then fine, I'll go back to our house by myself. I'll just learn to manage to live without you like I HAVE been these past few weeks. It doesn't even seem that long, does it? I won't bother you anymore." He flung his arms up, backing away from Nosey as his emotions ran wild. "Consider us officially broken up, you can fuck Flippy or kill people like he does." He turned away, starting to walk back to the car then stopped. Cuddles turned his body to look at Nosey once again. "You know what, it's not even Flippy is it? You'd got some weird shit going on with Fliqpy don't you?"
Nosey shook her head, feeling her body run cold as if the surrounding air dipped in temperature.
Cuddles scoffed, shaking his head while Nosey showed her emotion. "I'm right, aren't I? What's so special about this psychopath that seems to attract you and pull you so far into this insanity? Is he just trying to make you some weird twisted version of himself? What kind of audacity do you drown yourself in to make ending someone's life your choice?"
"I don't.. HAVE a choice." Nosey muttered, taking a few deep breaths to slow her shaking legs.
"Yes you do, and you've made it that night. You chose to live in a life full of misery and self destruction. You chose psychopathy over your own happiness and wellbeing of your relationships." Cuddles pointed to her, balling a fist with his free hand.
Nosey didn't know what to do, it felt like she was was stuck in a nightmare she couldn't wake out of. "So you decided to seek me out just to yell at me like this?" Nosey stood her ground, wiping away a tear from her cheek. "You're vile Cuddles, you pretend to be so caring but you don't know how to handle yourself in stressful situations."
"You're one to talk, at least I don't go murdering people because someone told me to!" Cuddles screamed, not giving any attention to people who might be nearby or walking through the area. "I won't look for you anymore, I won't try to fix whatever mess you've made of yourself."
Nosey watched as Cuddles began to walk away, she stood next to the Jeep as he drove Splendid's car out of the parking lot. She didn't know what to do, her body stayed still as if concrete were poured in her shoes. In this moment, she didn't have any more to lose.* * *
"So, what are you up to lately?" Splendid pulled a lighter from his pocket, cupping his friend's cigarette in his hand. As he lit it, he took one from his pack and lit it. "I pass your house a few times going to work and it seems like you're always home. Are you too busy to send a text or something?" He looked at his cigarette as he took a few puffs.
Flippy took in a breath, watching the smoke fade into the air as he exhaled. "I don't really look at my phone anymore. Most of the time it just sits on my nightstand uncharged. How's work going?"
Splendid looked over at him briefly, putting his lighter in his pocket while keeping his hand warm. "It's been steady. Usual amount of patients and all the chaos that comes with it. Last week I had this girl in the RCU who woke up after eight months. No matter how much technology we have, we can't make organs regenerate quicker. Can't say it won't be nice to have empty beds every now and again."
"You know that's not going to happen, in a town like this?" Flippy shook his head.
"Yeah, I guess you have a point. Hey, mind passing the light over here?" Splendid spurted out, stuffing his hand in his pocket and pulling out a pack of cigarettes.
"How long as it been since you've smoked? Aren't you quitting?" Flippy lit up the cigarette in his friend's mouth.
"I don't need you patronizing me." Splendid eyes Flippy's hand. "Mr. I smoke a pack a day. You know that's not healthy for you."
"You're my friend, not my doctor." Flippy reacted harshly.
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Malheur, Malheur
Mystery / ThrillerA continuation of Everything is Twisted. Original story from my first account: https://my.w.tt/8lpIPzd8c8 Flippy undergoes a long battle between himself, he suffers from a severe case of PTSD and DID. As he tries to understand what's going on his o...