What happened next by planet p

Disclaimer I don’t own the Pretender or any of its characters.

Four months later

A crashing, scraping sound woke him suddenly in the early hours of the morning, the walls stained by intermittent flashes of blue and red as he opened his eyes, and reached a hand up to touch his face, pulling back when he flinched. The photographs covering the walls – all of those dead eyes – popped in and out of view. He stared particularly hard at a picture of Tazu; she was alive in this photo, and wearing a bow in her hair; Chiyo, too, though she wore a scarf over her hair. He tried not to think about the pain, or the blood, and the flashing of lights died over time, and he was left alone in the dark. The blood was still there, on his face, but it wasn’t so bad.

Later, he switched on the bedroom light and frowned at the blood, deciding that he’d need to clean it before it dried. It would be harder to shift then.

He walked to the bathroom and came back with some things for cleaning and his mind wandered away; it had been a motor vehicle accident, the man hadn’t been paying attention, or had been rushed, it might have been anything, and the driver hadn’t been able to stop I time, or avoid the pedestrian.

It was over now.

It was finally over.

Tears ran down his face as he cleaned, stinging on the sores as they went. Could it be? For a moment, he stopped cleaning, just stopped what he was doing.

He would take her to the zoo, he decided.

It didn’t matter if she’d been before; he would take her again. They’d go to the cafeteria, and they’d have ice-cream together. It didn’t matter how much it cost; he’d use his credit card if he had to, he could pay it back later.

It was over.

It was just starting to show light outside when he stirred again, having fallen asleep. Tazu’s hand was on his arm and she was frowning. He supposed it was because of his face, and sat up. He didn’t want to worry her, it wasn’t as bad as it looked.

His head hurt, and he remembered the chemicals. He started to cough, and stood up. He needed to put those away, and open a window.

The air from outside was like ice when he opened the window, and his face stung again. He turned away from the window and walked to the bed, and sat down. He had something to tell Tazu; it was time.

Tazu sat down on the bed beside him silently, holding in her words of urgency that he see to his face, or have it looked at by a doctor; his doctor, perhaps, if he was awake, and at work.

He didn’t look at her; he was frowning at the window, at the unfamiliar sight outside of it, but said, instead, to the floor, to the icy air coming in from outside, “It’s over.”

A long moment later, he felt her rest her head on his shoulder; she understood.

He felt so tired, but that was okay because Tazu was here with him, and they were at the zoo. He’d never been to a zoo before.

The day was bright now, and he’d put a Steristrip on the cut on his face.

She’d been to the zoo before, in Tokyo, she told him. It had been raining, and she’d brought her umbrella. She’d been young then. She’d liked the otters best of all, though she couldn’t remember why. If they saw them, she might remember why.

She didn’t ask about the accident. She didn’t ask, ‘Who was he?’ He couldn’t have told her if she had; he didn’t know. Maybe she’d known, maybe she’d sensed it somehow; it was just that he’d spent so long… he’d shared his feelings for so long, that he supposed they’d formed some kind of connection, whether they’d known it or not.

But none of that mattered now; it was over.

They had ice-cream and coffee in the little café – there wasn’t a cafeteria, the little café was situated right next to the gift shop – and he could tell the woman serving them must have thought Tazu his daughter, at first, and then, when she decided that they were a couple, she turned a little cold to them.

He didn’t let it bother him, and it didn’t.

The coffee had made his heart pound, but he didn’t wonder how his sister drank so much of it, or Cox; he felt sick from the ice-cream, but it wasn’t a bad feeling, because he’d wanted to eat it, and Tazu was smiling for the first time in a long time.

No matter what would happen later, she was smiling now.

He didn’t know either; he just hoped it was something good.

As they were leaving, at the gate to the parking lot, Tazu stopped and asked, “What will happen now?”

He’d stopped, too, and he turned to look at her properly and lifted a hand and placed it on her face. “Something,” he told her quietly in Japanese, hoping that she would understand that he wished her well. If people sometimes came back, after death, and started new lives, he knew she would not remember him; she’d not remember that they’d been friends, but he wished her well. He hoped she was happy, whatever happened.

He didn’t realise he’d closed his eyes until he opened them again, and smiled. He put his hand down and turned and headed for his car.

It was done.

At his apartment, he took down the pictures from the walls; there was no need to visit Lucy’s grave, her spirit hadn’t stayed with her body.

He made another coffee and lied down in his bedroom, on the bed, and felt his heart beating, and looked at the ceiling, and all of the walls, now bare.

He smiled. It was early, but he closed his eyes and fell asleep.

Pretty lame, I know. If you were wondering who the character was, it was Lyle. Thanks for reading! Your input appreciated.