//------------------------------// // Chapter 8 // Story: Love is Strange // by PaisleyPerson //------------------------------// Chapter 8 Alley scrounged through his closet to dig up his schoolwork. He had gotten so far ahead in the curriculum that he hadn’t even bothered to touch the books for a week, so they had inevitably become buried during that time. He finally rescued the math workbook from beneath a mound of blankets, old toys, a camera he didn’t know they had, and other junk he was certain he hadn’t put there. “Mom, use your own closet for storage,” he grunted to himself, rescuing his book and heading to the table. Unfortunately, it still had to be cleared, so he was interrupted by the chore of clearing the cups and dishes. Just when he thought he was finally ready to begin... he realized all the pencils in the house had grown legs and walked off. Luckily the windows were locked, so they couldn’t have gotten far. Rather than throwing a mini temper tantrum as he was so tempted to do, Alley decided his efforts would be best utilized if he calmly began the mind-numbing task of hunting them down instead. Finally, the table was clear, his book was opened to the correct page, and his pencil had been cleansed of the dust and cobwebs that followed it from under the couch. “Okay, first question. ‘Refer to figure seven dash one.’ Oh goody, this should be fun,” he sarcastically groaned upon finding the heavily labeled 3D shape. “Fine, what was the question? ‘Figure seven dash one is a three dimensional pyramid. Find the total surface area.’ I just love these multi-step problems. Why did I promise Mom I’d finish the geometry section? Why couldn’t I have promised to get my literature done?” His pencil came down heavily on the cheap paper, angrily scratching out his work. He mumbled to himself all the while, either talking himself through the problem or complaining about how dumb it was. “Side A is 4.5cm², multiplied by five... side B is 9.7cm²... So the total should be 41.9cm², right?” He checked the back of the book for its answer. “How the hay did they get 89.0cm²?! Who comes up with this stuff, anyhow?” He furiously scrubbed his incorrect work over with the other end of the pencil, successfully smearing it all over the page and making a complete and total mess. “Ugh!” Alley’s forehead came in contact with the table, smashing his still-sensitive stump. Alley cringed, and rubbed the sore spot. “Alleyway?” a muffled voice called from outside the door. Alley’s hoof fell from his head and looked up at the clock. It was barely noon, and Mindy often didn’t get home until well after two. Maybe she had finally ended her shift on time for once. “Mom? You home already?” Alley called. The voice hesitated. “Ya wanna open up, Alley? I don’t have the key.” “Oh, uh, okay.” That’s funny. Mindy never took her keys out of her purse, and he knew he’d seen her take that with her this morning. The voice was muffled through the door, but it sounded vaguely like his mother’s. The tone, however, did not match Mindy’s. Not once did he ever recall his mother using slang like ‘wanna.’ Yet even as these thoughts were running through his mind, he didn’t once question the identity of the being behind the door. After all, who else knew he was here? The door creaked open, revealing a very purple pony on the other side. A pony called Black Lace. Both unicorn and changeling were equally shocked, standing in dumb silence with eyes wide and mouths agape. Alley’s heart pounded as he looked the mare over, though the longer he stared, the more he was sure her heart wasn’t beating at all. She didn’t flinch, she didn’t blink, she didn’t twitch. Maybe if he just closed the door quietly... “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!” The door slammed shut, and Alley tripped over himself as he scuttled back into the apartment. His mind whirled so fast he couldn’t even turn out complete thoughts. ‘Black Lace. Unicorn. Not Mom. Tricked me. Help. She’ll call help. Do I call help? Where’s Mom? What do I do? Maybe she won’t-' “POLICE! Somepony call the police!” “She did.” Alley skid on the rug in an attempt to stand back up from where he’d fallen. What was he supposed to do? Mindy never told him what he was supposed to do! No one was ever supposed to find out. Should he try reasoning with her? ‘No, idiot! RUN!’ Alley was in such a state of confusion that he had no problem listening to his primal instincts. ‘Run! Run!’ ‘Run where? She’s on the other side of that door.’ ‘You have wings, fool! Go through the window.’ So he did. Mindy always kept the curtains drawn and the windows locked, giving Alley difficulty as he dug through thick fabric for the bolt. More hoofsteps were gathering outside. Panicked voices escalated to terrified shouts. He even heard somepony begin to pound at the door, and Alley still hadn’t unfastened the deadbolt. He panicked, and plunged through the window, glass, curtain and all. Give for a few scrapes from the shards and a bruise from the impact, Alley was alright. ‘You won’t be if you don’t open up those wings of yours.’ Except Alley couldn’t. He was still entangled in the curtain, plummeting three stories down to the hard, traffic-littered pavement below. “Come on, get off, GET OFF!” Alley thrashed against the binds of the curtain, eyes filling with terror as the ground drew closer. The collective screams weren’t helping either. ‘Just... a little...’ Pain seared through his body and traveled up his spine, and suddenly Alleyway felt a lot like the window he had just smashed. Was he still in one piece? His hoof was twisted at an unnatural angle, but he couldn’t see much more than that, for he couldn’t find the strength to lift his head. He did feel something warm and sticky begin to seep around his neck, though. What was... Blood. It was his own blood. Alley couldn’t move. He had neither the strength nor the feeling in his legs to even crawl. The voice in his head was urging him to get out of there. Ponies were screaming, hooves were pounding. “Police! Police! Call the police!” “Forget the police, call the Princesses! We’re under attack!” “We’re at war!” “Changelings! The changelings are back!” “Run for your lives!” “Don’t run, fight back!” A few voices called for an ambulance, but the majority drowned them out in their plea for their own safety. Alley couldn’t even find his voice to be able to tell them that he wasn’t a threat. “Kill it! Kill it before any more of them come!” “Kill it! Kill it!” the crowds chanted. So they did. Mindy headed home, feeling better than she had in a long time. Even though she was still hesitant to let Alleyway accompany her to work in the morning, just imagining the look on his face when she delivered the news made it all worth it. He’d be so excited! He’d be- She was yanked rudely back into reality when she noticed the blaring sirens and police tape sectioning off her whole block. ‘That’s strange,’ she vaguely thought. ‘I wonder what’s-’ “Alley.” Realization hit her like a brick wall. “ALLEY!” At that moment, nothing could have kept mother from son. Her hooves barely touched the pavement as she shot through the crowds and jumped the police tape. The angry shouts of the officers didn’t even reach her ears. In fact, she even bowled one policemare over. That was before she spotted the body bag. “Alley?” “Ma’am, I’m going to have to ask you to leave.” “Alley?” Mindy felt her heart shatter. She felt nauseous, but couldn’t throw anything up. She was lightheaded, and stumbled forward. The policemare caught her, and tried to haul the mule back. “Excuse me, pardon me. Move aside. Mindy!” It was Three Cheese’s voice. “Stay back, sir.” “You can’t do this! That’s her son!” The crowd went quiet, and the mare supporting Mindy actually jumped back. “Tell them, Mindy!” Cheese shouted, almost pleading with her as he struggled against another officer. But Mindy remained silent, and instead took a few more shaky, unsteady steps forward. She fell once, but got back up and continued forward. It was just like the day she’d found him. She wanted to run away. She wanted to believe it wasn’t true. But some invisible force dragged her on until she found out for herself. She had arrived. She was stepping in blood... she could only guess whose. ‘It can’t be him. It can’t be. Please don’t let it be-’ She flipped the tarp aside, and the blank, unblinking blue eyes of her son looked up at her. She broke. Mindy collapsed on top of the corpse, rocking the two of them back and forth as she used to. Her tears washed away the sticky red covering most of her son’s body, but instead of revealing his once-glorious black chitin, the brown and purple pattern of extensive bruising appeared. One of his eyes was swollen, and his face was covered in cuts, some of them from direct blows and others caused by the smashed glass. “Mindy.” Strong, shaggy hooves gripped her shoulders and began to pull her back. “NO! NO!” She screamed, voice hoarse as she thrashed in protest. Three Cheese didn’t put up much of a fight, and let her return to Alley’s side. “No!” the dainty voice of Paw Print was accompanied by her pink form as she lighted down on the scene behind her husband and galloped the rest of the distance between her best friend and honorary nephew. Mindy barely looked up, but allowed Paw to curl a protective wing around them and join her in tearful mourning. Cheese watched the bitter scene from afar. Hatred, anger and grief burned in the stallion’s chest and threatened to explode. “ARE YOU HAPPY NOW?” he roared, red eyes ablaze and burning guilt into the hearts of the onlookers, even the ones who had recently arrived and had played no part in Alleyway’s murder. For that was what it was. Murder. “Cheese,” Paw wept. The pony turned, tears stinging his eyes and blurring his vision. Through the saltwater, he could still see his wife outstretching her other wing, inviting him to join their huddle. Three Cheese usually prided himself on being a big, strong stallion who could withstand anything. But that stallion had died with Alleyway. Now that big strong stallion gladly curled up against his wife’s small frame, blubbering even more loudly than the girls. Those two ponies and a mule were the only ones who ever did- and ever would- mourn the death of Alleyway the changeling.