Hey guys, new chapter. Most of it is a re-cap of prevous events. I hope that you will be able to understand them, or some of them, without reading the first story if you havn't read it yet...for those who have, it'sthe final scene, but from a new perspective...
Anyway, on with the show:
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Chapter 2
"How did you get that tree in here anyway?" he asked.
"Willpower," she replied.
Willpower. That explained it then.
Willpower had brought the brimming tree from the ground floor to Miss Piggy's apartment, and dismay had left it there. In fact, after the frog, dismay had left far more in the apartment than just the tree. But it was the same willpower that had brought Miss Piggy back up from the floor to kneeling in the damp street, shakily gathering the split bag and high-heels towards her and catching her trembling fingers in the red straps. Willpower had forced her to hold a hand up at the blue-creature when he ran towards her to offer help, halting him and refusing assistance.
The blue creature sat opposite her now. "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine."
"Are you sure-"
"I'm fine," Miss Piggy snapped.
"-because that was a nasty tumble and-"
A growl came from deep in Piggy's throat. "You wanna head back on the street, mister?"
On the street, she had managed to get to her feet before losing her power of will and collapsed once more. That time the creature had caught her, almost. He took the majority of the weight and kept her stable, while one of her arms had swung wildly and accidentally attacked him with the shoes.
Miss Piggy looked up from the couch and wished she hadn't been so harsh. The creature stared into a mug of hot cocoa. "No. Here is nice. Sorry, " he said.
A grey kitten pawed at the creature's blue leg. Another had curled up one of his hands and held it captive like a plaything. The creature didn't try to get it back.
The creature had been the one thing that got Miss Piggy back to her apartment without further accident. She wasn't sure if it was the cold outside or inside that made her want to curl up and sleep on a bench right then. But gently, as if he were coaxing a child, the creature had helped her to remember where she lived and how to get there, and had gotten her there.
For some reason, he had stayed.
"I'm sorry," the creature said again.
Piggy nodded. "Me too," she said. "I…Moi, just got a little…" She laughed, embarrassed. "…carried away."
She flipped the white towel wrapped around her hair forward over her face and hid behind its scratchy, soft comfort. The creature sipped hot chocolate. "Thanks for this," he said.
Miss Piggy lifted the towel and looked at him.
He looked back and their eyes met carefully, as if unsure and questioning, then the creature lifted his head slightly and Miss Piggy felt him inside her mind. She saw something inside his eyes. He believed in her. And seeing him, she believed in herself.
The creature leant across the room with his hand outstretched. "By the way," he said, "My name is Gonzo."
"Miss Piggy." She reached out and took his hand, and because he was her hope she knew that if she held onto that hand he wouldn't let her go.
Gonzo's fingers tightened around her dark red gloves and felt the texture of the silk. He hoped she wouldn't let go. The last person he had believed in had not held on, and he had not taken Gonzo's hand. Now he was gone.
*****
Thoughts returned to soon after Christmas when everything had happened exactly as it had to. There was no other way things could happen. A chain of events, leads to a climax. A hundred small decisions, a hundred different endings, and this path was taken, this choice. The only thing was stay at join it, or run like heck.
"No, no, no!" Fozzie screamed.
They were in a construction site where everything had gone wrong. There were men who wanted to take this land, belonging to a gathering of monsters, and turn it into a criminal training facility where criminals would be trained in crime. Fozzie was an orange bear with a black scarf. Gonzo was his only friend. They had been trying to stop this course of events from the beginning, but their intervention only led to disaster.
"You have got to get the police," Gonzo said. "Or they are all going to get killed."
"Who will? What?"
"It doesn't matter who! Everyone matters! You have got to do this."
Fozzie stared across the site to where men stood together surrounded by destruction. Those men, led by a corrupt policeman named Nicky Holiday, had arrived with a gang in tow and attacked the monsters. In return, the monsters were going to destroy them.
Around them humans and monsters engaged in atrocious fighting, but Fozzie's attention was centred on Nicky. Fozzie flinched as a blue scaled lizard-like creature of darkness grabbed Nicky Holiday's hand, throwing a gun from there to the fire-wracked ground. "Our land is ours," the creature, Uncle Deadly, hissed. Gonzo glanced once at Fozzie then ran towards the fight. Nicky pressed his hands against the soft flesh under Deadly's armpits and threw him backwards.
Deadly's shoulders collided with mud, and rolled. Thick clouds scurried above, rolling. Tiles scattered under Gonzo's feet as he ran towards the battle between Muppet monster and human man. Uncle Deadly rose to his feet. Fozzie cowered under rain. He should do something, but didn't. The police wouldn't arrive in time anyway.
Nicky stared around him at devastation, his plans falling through, his dreams. A clawed foot thudded against his chest, throwing him back, eyes staring up at the rain as it fell straight.
Noise fell, roaring stopped, cries and shouts. People fell, injured, or tired, in mud. Creatures stopped, pulling back, not taking it as far as they should, not stopping this once and forever. Gonzo stopped, Deadly stopped, Nicky stopped. Fozzie's chest tightened and his ribcage beat against his lungs.
"What now?" Nicky asked, head pushed back against wet mud, water streaming down his neck. Deadly knelt on his chest, a hand pressed against Nicky's chin.
"Now you must pay," Deadly replied. Uncle Deadly raised his hand, and thunder rolled around and around him like an echoing scream rending through time. The clawed hand moved back above an injured shoulder, into black, and sliced down, fast, precise.
Something slammed him. The claws scratched through blue fur, Gonzo's fur. Fozzie shut his eyes. Uncle Deadly stared into Gonzo's face
A single fleck of fur floated, caught on the wind and blew out across the empty space, drifting past the empty mixer, and landing softly in the rain soaked mud by Fozzie's feet. He opened his eyes and reached for it. He took the fur in his fingers and heard Uncle Deadly's voice carried on that wind towards him.
"Gonzo, stupid, you fool, what did you do!" Deadly's voice was deadly and thick with emotion.
"Everyone," Gonzo said, choking on the words. "Does matter."
Nicky Holiday began to laugh. Perhaps it was a release of nervous energy, or perhaps he meant the words. "You're wrong," he said. "Because you certainly do not matter." Fozzie suddenly realised what was happening. When Nicky fell his arm had landed back across the mud close to the gun. Now, the fake policeman leapt to his feet holding the gun and shot and Uncle Deadly was thrown back as the bullet impacted his leather coat.
Gonzo started to run without looking back. Nicky ran after him. And Fozzie stood up under balls of rain and ran after the two of them. He passed the place where Uncle Deadly had fallen, but the creature had moved and was gone. A crane loomed over the construction site and Gonzo leapt towards it. His bare feet touched cold, blank metal.
Fozzie climbed. He heard labored breathing ahead of him where Gonzo and Nicky climbed. He heard the clunk of the gun in Nicky's hand against a bar. Gonzo stood straight, practically flying, and walked out along the arm of the crane.
"You poor, miserable creature!" Nicky shouted, grabbing the top bar, and heaving himself up. "Poor, stupid, alone, insignificant, miserable, horrible, obnoxious, intolerable creature!"
Gonzo turned his body slowly, feet balancing. "I am sorry," he said. "I wish you could see you were wrong, but you cannot hurt me, Holiday," Gonzo replied. "I have a vision."
Fozzie shared that vision.
"It's a pity," Nicky replied. "That visions are not bullet-proof." The gun lifted.
No! Fozzie threw himself at the man from behind. "Gonzo!" His orange body collided with the policeman's plastic jacket and Nicky lost his footing and fell. "No!" Fozzie screamed again and leapt across the open frame, his body braced against the metal and he reached out and caught him. Lightning flashed. "I'm sorry!"
Gonzo was frozen still where he was, an observer. His stomach twisting.
Nicky looked up into Fozzie's face. "I am not sorry," he said. "I will finish this."
"Please, stop it," Fozzie pleaded.
Although Fozzie did not see him, Uncle Deadly watched, standing silent and invisible on the very pinnacle of the crane. He had to be here for this moment.
The human hand was slipping through Fozzie's damp fur. "No," Fozzie whispered.
"Yess," Uncle Deadly breathed.
Fozzie looked away and met Gonzo's eyes and for the first time he saw something far beyond anything he had seen before. There was no hope in those eyes. Fozzie shut his own eyes tight. And the glove and hand were gone from his grip.
Fozzie refused to open his eyes, and he held onto nothing for as long as he could.
Water droplets sliced through darkness, turning, and disappearing below into the nothingness down towards where the body must be. Gonzo's hands touched Fozzie's shoulders. And Fozzie shook uncontrollably as he cried and buried his head in Gonzo's chest, forgetting the injuries there.
"You were right," Gonzo said. His voice was chapped and broken and Fozzie could feel it rising from inside his chest. "Visions," Gonzo said. "Visions are only illusions."
It was a long time before either of them spoke. Rain fell, clouds moved, and Gonzo and Fozzie clung to each other above a broken construction site, above a finished battle, holding onto one another, together and alone.
And they were so small against such a harsh, huge world.
Eventually it was Gonzo who said, "I will get us out of this."
Fozzie lifted his face and looked into Gonzo's. "I'm sorry," he said again. The hope was gone, and it was his fault. He hadn't held on, and now it was gone. Gonzo's eyes were blank as they stared back at him. "Gonzo," Fozzie said.
"Yes Fozzie?"
"I won't forget you." He stood up on the rain soaked bars and began to walk.
Gonzo watched him go as the words sank in. "Fozzie?" He crawled after his friend. "Fozzie, where are you going!"
"I'm going," the bear replied. He crouched, grabbed a bar and swung himself down to the cage-like framework of the crane. He began to climb down.
"Wait!"
Fozzie stopped and saw Gonzo just a few feet above him.
"Fozzie, stop, you aren’t thinking. Take my hand, I can get us out of this." Gonzo reached towards him, and Fozzie shook his head very, very slowly.
He did not take Gonzo's hand. He climbed, alone, down the crane and walked, alone, away from the scene of the battle. He was alone now.
Now, Fozzie stood up from the metallic stairway that led up the outside of Club Dot. He needed to get inside.
To be continued...
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