Sometime in the late hours of the night, where the stars danced above the vastness of the New Mexico desert, Dell had left.
(cw: sleeping pills, depressing thoughts of death)
Most of his belongings still resided at the base, a sign that he would return eventually, but he couldn’t bring himself to stay at the base, his state of mentality eating him alive.
He needed to clear his thoughts.
So he headed to the nearest town around, a town that was once well acquainted with the mercenaries back in the Gravel Wars.
Dell slowly drove by the town’s bar, light shining from within the building as the saloon dwindled with its late night patrons. The old mercenary couldn’t help a small smile that formed on his lips as he remembered the countless times the boys had gotten kicked out for causing a ruckus each time they went.
His smile soon faded as he drove on, heart aching as he gripped the steering wheel. Those days were gone.
Dell pulled up to the town’s cheap motel, parking his truck near the front, it being one of the few cars in the parking lot. With rarely any tourism to bring people to this town, Dell considered it a miracle the motel was still open for business.
Soon enough, Dell let out a weary sigh as he opened the door to his assigned motel room on the second floor, grimacing as the stale smell of the room hit him, but he went in regardless, locking the door behind him. He tossed the dufflebag he had brought with him onto the bed and collapsed next to it, the old springs of the mattress creaking at the weight.
He shucked off his boots and tossed then haphazardly on the floor, not caring where they went as he buried his face into the blankets. The bed was dingy and the covers were scratchy, but it was still better than the recliner.
Like clockwork, Dell felt his heart rate quicken as his thoughts began gnawing at him, right on queue. The man squeezed his eyes shut, trying to shut them out, but it was as useless as covering a water leak in a rowboat with his bare hands.
The most recent events hit him first; Sylvester and that damn robotic bird. He meant no true intent to harm in what he said to the bird, just to get it to shut up, but Dell couldn’t shake the look Sylv had given him, how he had reacted.
He scared Sylvester. Sylvester was scared of him.
Tears sprung to Dell’s eyes, the guilt nearly suffocating him, feeling panic claw at his lungs as his breathing contracted.
He couldn’t have another attack now, he couldn’t-
The man sprung up and snatched his dufflebag, ripping it open and rummaging through it in a desperate manner.
It was in here somewhere, he knew he packed it-
His hand felt the familiar plastic of a bottle and pulled it out, the pills inside jostling noisily as Dell popped open the lid, shoving a tablet into his mouth. He slammed the pill bottle onto the nightstand and snagged a pillow, burrowing his head into it, desperately trying to escape his thoughts as he waited for the Triazolam to take effect.
DDON'T SSAY THHINGS LLIKE THHAT
Ah didn’t mean it-
IIF II MMAKE AANOTHER MMISTAKE, YYOU WWON'T TTAKE MME AAPART, WWILL YYOU?
No, ah would never Sylv, ah wouldn’t-
You’ve done nothing but hurt everyone since you came back. You shouldn’t have come back.
Ah jus’ wanted to set things right, ah jus’ wanted to see them again-
That Respawn would have failed if Ludwig hadn’t stepped in. Don’t you see? You aren’t meant to come back. You aren’t meant to be here.
The black tendrils of sleep started to pull Dell under as the medication took effect, but his mind made sure to punish him until the end.
It should have been you that the Respawn machine failed with instead of Jane all those years ago, Dell.
…Ah know.
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