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http://users.livejournal.com/_theo/) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
fellowshippers2006-11-18 03:14 pm
http://users.livejournal.com/_theo/) wrote in fellowshippers2006-11-18 03:14 pm
fic: A funny thing happened on the road to death [Elijah/Orlando]
A Funny Thing Happened on the Road to Death
Elijah/Orlando [AU]
a story about the afterlife and maybe finding love
In which Elijah accidentally kills himself
Elijah didn’t mean to kill himself.
Him and Dominic decided to get a couple of bags of cocaine and shoot up while watching Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood because Viggo told them that while coked out your ass, Mr. Rogers became equivalent to God. Fifteen minutes into the coke dazed stage, Mr. Rogers told them that the world will end in another hour and that all the skies would become pink and purple and only the ones he found worthy would continue to live. Mr. Rogers said that they would be chosen if they took more and more coke. So they did.
Elijah’s right arm hurt. His good luck vein – the one he used to shoot up mostly since he believed he got a better high because of it. He sometimes switched from his arm to his left foot, which really, didn’t look too good.
Dominic kept hitting him, mostly aiming the shots at his right arm. Maybe that was why it was hurting, but he was more concerned with the mouth that grew on the ceiling which was smiling and blowing him kisses.
Elijah wanted to lie down and the faded thin carpet was where his body landed. If he knew that this was his last few minutes on Earth, he would have probably chosen a better resting place. But since he was as clueless as us all on when we die, he chose to have his last sleep on a carpet that has not been washed in 3 years.
This is Elijah. He’s 25 years old and works the night shift at the local 7-11. He has had a gun shoved into his face because the robber wanted the $43 in the register. His only friend is Dominic. Elijah feels better when he’s with Dominic because he doesn’t have to pretend that he’s someone that he definitely is not. Elijah knows how to juggle and to make smiles crack people’s faces. He hates telephones and doesn’t own one.
This is Elijah and he’s going to die today.
In which Elijah goes someplace that might be Heaven
Elijah’s been here for five months. He doesn’t know where here really is. No one does. Billy, his coworker in the convenience store, said that they were all trapped between Heaven and Hell. Something about not dying the correct way. Elijah asked him what the correct way was, but Billy didn’t know.
Elijah works the night shift. In this world, he gets a television that shows anything he wants, so he watches all the episodes of MASH. He sits behind the counter, eating whatever 50 cent package of cashews that are close and watches Radar become anal about his teddy bear. Did he even give the bear a name?
The store is mostly quiet. Every now and again a customer comes in. They don’t talk much. Each one has only one thing they only buy. Milk, chips, soap detergent. They will come up to the counter with arms filled of their chosen product and dump it in front of Elijah, their eyes blank and even though they direct their eyes to meet Elijah’s, they didn’t really look at him. Elijah just checks out their items and wishes them a hearty night.
Elijah sits and does his job and watches endless episodes of MASH. Sometimes, Billy stays the night and they eat donuts and drink Kool-Aid and make bets on what product the customer will stuff their arms with.
Billy says that some of the more normal people who stop by the store are searching for a way out of this place. It’s the last store before the highway and they stuff their backpacks with what they call ‘survival items’ and talk excitedly about what they are going to do when they leave this ‘shit hole’. “I mean, this place isn’t Amsterdam, but it isn’t bad. Any television channel - can’t beat that.” Billy pops a cookie into his mouth and Elijah wonders where the store gets its’ supplies.
Elijah does from time to time think about why he’s here. He thought that Heaven was supposed to be filled with angels playing harps, beautiful women and songs or something. This place was filled with people who were eerily reminiscent of zombies and a gray sky that stayed gray all day round.
Sometimes he missed home.
In which Billy kind of tells Elijah why he’s where he’s at
Elijah doesn’t think of himself as a nosey type of person, so he doesn’t ask Billy why he’s here.
Elijah tells him about the times Dominic and him got drunk off their asses and Dominic dared him to run naked down the street and he did since he never backed down form double dog dares. Unfortunately, his sister was coming back from a date and caught every eye fill. She didn’t talk to him for weeks.
Of course he told him about the crack and Mr. Rogers and the talking wall. He didn’t remember himself dying – that was probably a safe guard against leaving the deadened soul with horrible flashbacks.
Billy kept quiet about his death, electing to instead talk about the way he lived his life. He told him stories about seeing Star Wars for the first time and what he was doing when the Berlin Wall came down. But Elijah saw the marks of his death around his wrists and the bagged eyes that never really looked happy.
Sometimes on a Saturday, when they didn’t have the store to go to, they went to the bar ran by a woman who was over 7ft tall and wore leather skirts and fishnet stockings. They took their regular table over in the corner and smoked and watched the cliental shoot pool and drink bottomless glasses of alcohol. One of the perks of being here was that you could never get drunk. That and kill yourself again.
“I didn’t mean to do it, do it, you know? Was so messed up in the head, man. Took some bad things and the mind told me to just do it. I just did it and here I am.” He takes a swig out of his fifth bottle of beer.
And that was that.
In which a boy comes into the store, eats some candy bars and leaves with Elijah’s heart
Elijah was in the middle of watching Fred Flintstone work his shift at the yard when he walked into the store. His eyes sparkled and his hair was a Mohawk and he was dressed like a bum. Was that style around these parts?
“Hi there! I would love you forever if you tell me you stock Milkyway bars.” Elijah’s fingers flick past the Snickers, Take Fives, Skittles until it settles around a Milkyway. His eyes follows his fingers all the way to their final destiny and a smile cracks his face almost in two.
“You do not know how long I’ve been searching for this. Actually, I’ll tell you: eight fucking days. No store has it and who ever heard of not selling Milkyways? I love you, did I mention that?”
“Um, ok.”
He unwraps the bar and takes a healthy bite. “Hey, I haven’t seen you around, what’s your name?”
“Elijah. Got here about five months ago. And you?”
“Orlando. Been here for a year or three. Decapitated.” He finishes the candy bar and reaches for another.
“Really?”
“Naw.” He finishes his second and goes for a third. “How’s Billy?”
“He’s Billy.” He has the nicest wettest lips he has ever seen and his tongue keeps darting out, catching spray flecks of chocolate and he’s real glad that the counter is shielding his lower half.
“Hey, do you have some soda? Damn, I’m such a kid with the candy and the soda. But, yeah, do you have any?”
And for the first time since arriving here, Elijah met a true blue kind of normal person in this store. “Toward the back, second aisle.” He watches him until he reappears with a bottle of orange pop in his hand and magically, another Milkyway.
“I’m doing a bit of traveling about. Seeing the sights, whatever. Got to know the land you have to stay in, probably forever. The next time I do this, maybe you can come along. Billy promised once upon a time so long ago and it never happened, fucking bastard. You seem OK. I like you.”
Elijah decides that this man standing in front of him is the man he wants to talk to for hours and watch his mouth form every syllable.
“Tell Billy I hate him and I’ll see you some other time.” His hands grab six or seven more Milkyways and with a twirl, he disappears out the door and unknowingly takes a piece of Elijah with him.
In which Billy once more tries to tell Elijah how he died
“It’s because of her I did it.”
It’s another Saturday and the both of them sit at their table, eating tuna and their usual side order of beer.
“I mean, it wasn’t her fault – not really. She was miserable so she done herself in and then she was gone. Broken. I hated that feeling, it wouldn’t let go. We were together for years, ever since high school and there she goes.” And there went Billy’s tenth beer. “Haven’t seen her up here. She probably made it to Heaven Heaven. She was a good woman.”
Elijah agrees that she was. The greatest woman he’s ever heard about through stories. He gets Billy another beer.
“You know, this death thing is funny. I had this whole entire image of this place, you know? I thought it was going to be like Titanic and all we get is this. This gray piece of shit and nothing at all changes.”
Billy’s eyes change and Elijah realizes that this is probably one of the few times that Billy let himself feel besides calmness.
And that’s when Elijah lets his mouth open and says, “Let’s go on a road trip.”
In which Elijah and Billy go on a trip
Before they leave, they ransack the store. They stuff their bags full of toothpaste, chips, corn beef, and anything they could actually get their hands on. They leave the store open knowing that whatever that is taken will somehow magically be replaced. Before they leave the store, Elijah grabs a good handful of Milkyways for just in case.
The fun thing about road trips is the availability of a car, some clichéd songs on a mixed tape about road trips and the hurting of the back of sleeping in said car through the night. Unfortunately, Elijah and Billy didn’t have access to any cars (and never learned to break into and hotwire one) so they walked. The asphalt’s hard underneath their feet as they juggle their 20lb knapsacks and keep a steady pace. Elijah was designated as the thumb pointer upper to stop cars.
Twenty minutes of cars flashing by at alarming rates of speed, Billy tells Elijah that he’s bored and wants to go home. And with that, their road trip ended.
In which Orlando comes back and kisses Elijah
Elijah is watching Laverne & Shirley when Orlando walks through the door to the store. It’s been two weeks since he’s seen him and he doesn’t look much different. His Mohawk is now tinted pink at the tips and he still has a smile that makes Elijah feel as though he lost a part of himself.
His fingers slither around the candy bars until he clamps down on the one or two he wants. “Hey Elijah, how’s things around these here parts?”
“The same as always. Nothing changes around here.” He unwraps the Milkyway and bites into the chocolate. “How was your trip?”
“It sucked ass. There wasn’t much to see besides houses and trees and convenience stores. I met this guy who has been like traveling for fucking forever. Trying to find his way out this place. Told him there was nowhere other to go. At least I don’t think there is.” He wipes his mouth on the back of his hand before asking, “Do you miss home?”
Elijah really didn’t think about his home life. Sure he missed his family and Dominic and the ability of getting really, really shitfaced, but he tried to not think about.
“Yeah. Sometimes.”
Another candy bar vanishes into his stomach. How in the hell did he not balloon up to 200lbs? “Gosh, I miss it a whole lot. My mom was fucking fantastic. The best mom in the world. She made me feel like I was somebody and I told her everything. Well, not about that time I blowed Freddy at the kitchen table, but everything else.” If the counter wasn’t underneath Elijah’s hands, he was sure he would have hit dirt. “I miss her. That’s the only thing I hate about this place is that you don’t see people you know. Sometimes, I cry about it, but it’s getting better.”
Elijah doesn’t know what to say besides letting his throat give a little grunt. He wants to hold him and possibly kiss him and make him feel so much better than what he was feeling now. But he wasn’t good with expressing his emotions so he just stands there looking down at the counter and looking back up to his face. His beautiful, beautiful face which makes him open his mouth and let words tickle against his tongue.
“I guess we all feel this way. I know I do even though I try to pretend I don’t. I miss so many things. I miss the sun and way my Mom smelled like summer. I miss my shitty Dad and the way he used to make me feel protected. I miss being able to look at the stars and make wishes and holding on to the hope that it just might come true. Miss my sister and her stupid stubborn ways. The dog that used to pee only on my bed. Dominic and his wacked out thoughts. I miss too many things to even say.”
He’s frozen, or at least that’s what Elijah thinks. He doesn’t move nor blink for a long while until his palm thrusts up in front of Elijah’s mouth with an empty wrapper nestled in the palm. “Blow.”
The first thing Elijah thinks about is Orlando on his knees blowing some dude named Freddy while the kettle is going off in the background and the thought changes when he snaps his fingers in front of his eyes. “I said blow. Wait, wait, wait. You should probably make a wish first.”
So Elijah does and his air pushes the wrapper up off Orlando’s skin and it floats down onto the ground below.
“I can’t give you stars, but maybe you can still have wishes come true here.” He reaches down and takes the wrapper into his hands. He flattens it against the counter and slides it toward Elijah. “For a memory.” And he leans forward and places a kiss on Elijah’s right cheek, making a part of his wish come true.
In which Elijah realizes that this place isn’t too bad
Elijah sits in his normal position behind the counter. A customer is busy filling her arms with bread and Elijah is filling himself with an episode of The Brady Bunch. Billy told him that he’s going to stop by in a little bit so they could play some cards or do something to help pass the time.
This is Elijah. He’s 25, plus 6 months dead and works in a convenience store. His only friends are a guy named Billy who is kind of weird and a guy named Orlando who makes him feel something he hasn’t felt for a long time. He spends most of his time watching television shows and eating cashew nuts and watching over customers who don’t really see him.
This is Elijah and for the most part, he thinks this place could be a shithole, but he’s okay with just the way it is.
Elijah/Orlando [AU]
a story about the afterlife and maybe finding love
Elijah didn’t mean to kill himself.
Him and Dominic decided to get a couple of bags of cocaine and shoot up while watching Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood because Viggo told them that while coked out your ass, Mr. Rogers became equivalent to God. Fifteen minutes into the coke dazed stage, Mr. Rogers told them that the world will end in another hour and that all the skies would become pink and purple and only the ones he found worthy would continue to live. Mr. Rogers said that they would be chosen if they took more and more coke. So they did.
Elijah’s right arm hurt. His good luck vein – the one he used to shoot up mostly since he believed he got a better high because of it. He sometimes switched from his arm to his left foot, which really, didn’t look too good.
Dominic kept hitting him, mostly aiming the shots at his right arm. Maybe that was why it was hurting, but he was more concerned with the mouth that grew on the ceiling which was smiling and blowing him kisses.
Elijah wanted to lie down and the faded thin carpet was where his body landed. If he knew that this was his last few minutes on Earth, he would have probably chosen a better resting place. But since he was as clueless as us all on when we die, he chose to have his last sleep on a carpet that has not been washed in 3 years.
This is Elijah. He’s 25 years old and works the night shift at the local 7-11. He has had a gun shoved into his face because the robber wanted the $43 in the register. His only friend is Dominic. Elijah feels better when he’s with Dominic because he doesn’t have to pretend that he’s someone that he definitely is not. Elijah knows how to juggle and to make smiles crack people’s faces. He hates telephones and doesn’t own one.
This is Elijah and he’s going to die today.
Elijah’s been here for five months. He doesn’t know where here really is. No one does. Billy, his coworker in the convenience store, said that they were all trapped between Heaven and Hell. Something about not dying the correct way. Elijah asked him what the correct way was, but Billy didn’t know.
Elijah works the night shift. In this world, he gets a television that shows anything he wants, so he watches all the episodes of MASH. He sits behind the counter, eating whatever 50 cent package of cashews that are close and watches Radar become anal about his teddy bear. Did he even give the bear a name?
The store is mostly quiet. Every now and again a customer comes in. They don’t talk much. Each one has only one thing they only buy. Milk, chips, soap detergent. They will come up to the counter with arms filled of their chosen product and dump it in front of Elijah, their eyes blank and even though they direct their eyes to meet Elijah’s, they didn’t really look at him. Elijah just checks out their items and wishes them a hearty night.
Elijah sits and does his job and watches endless episodes of MASH. Sometimes, Billy stays the night and they eat donuts and drink Kool-Aid and make bets on what product the customer will stuff their arms with.
Billy says that some of the more normal people who stop by the store are searching for a way out of this place. It’s the last store before the highway and they stuff their backpacks with what they call ‘survival items’ and talk excitedly about what they are going to do when they leave this ‘shit hole’. “I mean, this place isn’t Amsterdam, but it isn’t bad. Any television channel - can’t beat that.” Billy pops a cookie into his mouth and Elijah wonders where the store gets its’ supplies.
Elijah does from time to time think about why he’s here. He thought that Heaven was supposed to be filled with angels playing harps, beautiful women and songs or something. This place was filled with people who were eerily reminiscent of zombies and a gray sky that stayed gray all day round.
Sometimes he missed home.
Elijah doesn’t think of himself as a nosey type of person, so he doesn’t ask Billy why he’s here.
Elijah tells him about the times Dominic and him got drunk off their asses and Dominic dared him to run naked down the street and he did since he never backed down form double dog dares. Unfortunately, his sister was coming back from a date and caught every eye fill. She didn’t talk to him for weeks.
Of course he told him about the crack and Mr. Rogers and the talking wall. He didn’t remember himself dying – that was probably a safe guard against leaving the deadened soul with horrible flashbacks.
Billy kept quiet about his death, electing to instead talk about the way he lived his life. He told him stories about seeing Star Wars for the first time and what he was doing when the Berlin Wall came down. But Elijah saw the marks of his death around his wrists and the bagged eyes that never really looked happy.
Sometimes on a Saturday, when they didn’t have the store to go to, they went to the bar ran by a woman who was over 7ft tall and wore leather skirts and fishnet stockings. They took their regular table over in the corner and smoked and watched the cliental shoot pool and drink bottomless glasses of alcohol. One of the perks of being here was that you could never get drunk. That and kill yourself again.
“I didn’t mean to do it, do it, you know? Was so messed up in the head, man. Took some bad things and the mind told me to just do it. I just did it and here I am.” He takes a swig out of his fifth bottle of beer.
And that was that.
Elijah was in the middle of watching Fred Flintstone work his shift at the yard when he walked into the store. His eyes sparkled and his hair was a Mohawk and he was dressed like a bum. Was that style around these parts?
“Hi there! I would love you forever if you tell me you stock Milkyway bars.” Elijah’s fingers flick past the Snickers, Take Fives, Skittles until it settles around a Milkyway. His eyes follows his fingers all the way to their final destiny and a smile cracks his face almost in two.
“You do not know how long I’ve been searching for this. Actually, I’ll tell you: eight fucking days. No store has it and who ever heard of not selling Milkyways? I love you, did I mention that?”
“Um, ok.”
He unwraps the bar and takes a healthy bite. “Hey, I haven’t seen you around, what’s your name?”
“Elijah. Got here about five months ago. And you?”
“Orlando. Been here for a year or three. Decapitated.” He finishes the candy bar and reaches for another.
“Really?”
“Naw.” He finishes his second and goes for a third. “How’s Billy?”
“He’s Billy.” He has the nicest wettest lips he has ever seen and his tongue keeps darting out, catching spray flecks of chocolate and he’s real glad that the counter is shielding his lower half.
“Hey, do you have some soda? Damn, I’m such a kid with the candy and the soda. But, yeah, do you have any?”
And for the first time since arriving here, Elijah met a true blue kind of normal person in this store. “Toward the back, second aisle.” He watches him until he reappears with a bottle of orange pop in his hand and magically, another Milkyway.
“I’m doing a bit of traveling about. Seeing the sights, whatever. Got to know the land you have to stay in, probably forever. The next time I do this, maybe you can come along. Billy promised once upon a time so long ago and it never happened, fucking bastard. You seem OK. I like you.”
Elijah decides that this man standing in front of him is the man he wants to talk to for hours and watch his mouth form every syllable.
“Tell Billy I hate him and I’ll see you some other time.” His hands grab six or seven more Milkyways and with a twirl, he disappears out the door and unknowingly takes a piece of Elijah with him.
“It’s because of her I did it.”
It’s another Saturday and the both of them sit at their table, eating tuna and their usual side order of beer.
“I mean, it wasn’t her fault – not really. She was miserable so she done herself in and then she was gone. Broken. I hated that feeling, it wouldn’t let go. We were together for years, ever since high school and there she goes.” And there went Billy’s tenth beer. “Haven’t seen her up here. She probably made it to Heaven Heaven. She was a good woman.”
Elijah agrees that she was. The greatest woman he’s ever heard about through stories. He gets Billy another beer.
“You know, this death thing is funny. I had this whole entire image of this place, you know? I thought it was going to be like Titanic and all we get is this. This gray piece of shit and nothing at all changes.”
Billy’s eyes change and Elijah realizes that this is probably one of the few times that Billy let himself feel besides calmness.
And that’s when Elijah lets his mouth open and says, “Let’s go on a road trip.”
Before they leave, they ransack the store. They stuff their bags full of toothpaste, chips, corn beef, and anything they could actually get their hands on. They leave the store open knowing that whatever that is taken will somehow magically be replaced. Before they leave the store, Elijah grabs a good handful of Milkyways for just in case.
The fun thing about road trips is the availability of a car, some clichéd songs on a mixed tape about road trips and the hurting of the back of sleeping in said car through the night. Unfortunately, Elijah and Billy didn’t have access to any cars (and never learned to break into and hotwire one) so they walked. The asphalt’s hard underneath their feet as they juggle their 20lb knapsacks and keep a steady pace. Elijah was designated as the thumb pointer upper to stop cars.
Twenty minutes of cars flashing by at alarming rates of speed, Billy tells Elijah that he’s bored and wants to go home. And with that, their road trip ended.
Elijah is watching Laverne & Shirley when Orlando walks through the door to the store. It’s been two weeks since he’s seen him and he doesn’t look much different. His Mohawk is now tinted pink at the tips and he still has a smile that makes Elijah feel as though he lost a part of himself.
His fingers slither around the candy bars until he clamps down on the one or two he wants. “Hey Elijah, how’s things around these here parts?”
“The same as always. Nothing changes around here.” He unwraps the Milkyway and bites into the chocolate. “How was your trip?”
“It sucked ass. There wasn’t much to see besides houses and trees and convenience stores. I met this guy who has been like traveling for fucking forever. Trying to find his way out this place. Told him there was nowhere other to go. At least I don’t think there is.” He wipes his mouth on the back of his hand before asking, “Do you miss home?”
Elijah really didn’t think about his home life. Sure he missed his family and Dominic and the ability of getting really, really shitfaced, but he tried to not think about.
“Yeah. Sometimes.”
Another candy bar vanishes into his stomach. How in the hell did he not balloon up to 200lbs? “Gosh, I miss it a whole lot. My mom was fucking fantastic. The best mom in the world. She made me feel like I was somebody and I told her everything. Well, not about that time I blowed Freddy at the kitchen table, but everything else.” If the counter wasn’t underneath Elijah’s hands, he was sure he would have hit dirt. “I miss her. That’s the only thing I hate about this place is that you don’t see people you know. Sometimes, I cry about it, but it’s getting better.”
Elijah doesn’t know what to say besides letting his throat give a little grunt. He wants to hold him and possibly kiss him and make him feel so much better than what he was feeling now. But he wasn’t good with expressing his emotions so he just stands there looking down at the counter and looking back up to his face. His beautiful, beautiful face which makes him open his mouth and let words tickle against his tongue.
“I guess we all feel this way. I know I do even though I try to pretend I don’t. I miss so many things. I miss the sun and way my Mom smelled like summer. I miss my shitty Dad and the way he used to make me feel protected. I miss being able to look at the stars and make wishes and holding on to the hope that it just might come true. Miss my sister and her stupid stubborn ways. The dog that used to pee only on my bed. Dominic and his wacked out thoughts. I miss too many things to even say.”
He’s frozen, or at least that’s what Elijah thinks. He doesn’t move nor blink for a long while until his palm thrusts up in front of Elijah’s mouth with an empty wrapper nestled in the palm. “Blow.”
The first thing Elijah thinks about is Orlando on his knees blowing some dude named Freddy while the kettle is going off in the background and the thought changes when he snaps his fingers in front of his eyes. “I said blow. Wait, wait, wait. You should probably make a wish first.”
So Elijah does and his air pushes the wrapper up off Orlando’s skin and it floats down onto the ground below.
“I can’t give you stars, but maybe you can still have wishes come true here.” He reaches down and takes the wrapper into his hands. He flattens it against the counter and slides it toward Elijah. “For a memory.” And he leans forward and places a kiss on Elijah’s right cheek, making a part of his wish come true.
Elijah sits in his normal position behind the counter. A customer is busy filling her arms with bread and Elijah is filling himself with an episode of The Brady Bunch. Billy told him that he’s going to stop by in a little bit so they could play some cards or do something to help pass the time.
This is Elijah. He’s 25, plus 6 months dead and works in a convenience store. His only friends are a guy named Billy who is kind of weird and a guy named Orlando who makes him feel something he hasn’t felt for a long time. He spends most of his time watching television shows and eating cashew nuts and watching over customers who don’t really see him.
This is Elijah and for the most part, he thinks this place could be a shithole, but he’s okay with just the way it is.
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And thank you so, so very much! :)
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I don't know that I've ever read anything quite like it.
Amazing, really.
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Very cool. :)
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Have I mentioned that I love the way you write? I think I have. Well, in case I haven't.. I love the way you write. Hahah. =P
No, but really... I'm so blown away that I have no adequate words. It's like... you can take something so abstract, something I've never really thought about, and make it just so matter-of-fact that it's like, wow, this must be real.
Now, quote time!:
In which a boy comes into the store, eats some candy bars and leaves with Elijah’s heart
Cuz, well... n'aww. =)
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