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It sounded crazy how a singular wire was holding everything together. Anyone with half a brain would laugh at such a concept. But here MePhone was. The plug had been pulled. Everything he’d built, gone in an instant. All that was left were his contestants. The humans whose minds he’d altered to fit his silly tropes. None of them were less than twenty feet from him, but they felt like they were crowding him, trapping him, and he couldn’t escape.
They weren’t what MePhone had made them anymore. They stared at him. They were themselves. Unfiltered. Confused. Angry. The ones that had been deleted had returned. Thank god they were alive, but MePhone felt an agonizing amount of shame looking at their frazzled, frightened expressions.
MePhone sat in the middle of a vague indentation in the grass, where Hotel OJ once towered. He watched the last mountain in the distance glitch out of existence, leaving Inanimate Island a barren wasteland, just as he’d found it. Footsteps in the grass approached behind him.
“Let’s go.”
That voice. Cobs’ voice. He hoped he’d never hear it in person again. Having to listen to it was almost ear-grating.
“No…”
Was all MePhone could manage. Cobs circled in front of him. Bruised, scraped, and battered, but somehow still standing. Strands of blonde hair stuck to his forehead. His glasses were cracked, one lens completely removed. Behind those frames were two green eyes: blank and emotionless like a snake’s.
MePhone looked at Pickle, whose hair was brown again. He’d changed it to green to make him more unique. He looked at Paper, who was helping a confused OJ to his feet. He looked at everyone, anyone, at anything but his creator. These people wouldn’t help him. They would never help him, not even out of the kindness of their own hearts, because MePhone had ripped all their hearts out, then stuffed them back in all wrong.
“Come on,” As MePhone fought the urge to scream, his eyes landed on Starfruit.
Usually, MePhone didn’t like making eye contact, but he needed to look Starfruit dead in the eyes. He probably looked so pitiful. Like he was begging for the singer to do something. Like he was trying to say
“I remember you. I know you remember me. I trust you. Don’t let him take me back.”
“Show’s over,” Cobs said, eerily similar to how he used to say
“TV time’s up. It’s time for bed.”
He looked down at MePhone like he was some kind of sad stray animal. “We’re going home.”
Meeple was not home. But Inanimate Island was not home, either. Adam’s apartment was absolutely not home. MePhone4 had nowhere to go. Nowhere to go but back to Cobs. His creator held a hand out to him. Every single time MePhone had been berated and hit replayed in his head. He had to go back to the tasks. Back to the sterile hallways. Back to the suffering.
He spared another pleading glance at Starfruit, who was frozen. His posture was rigid and his face was terrifyingly blank. He looked too much like Adam. He locked eyes with MePhone, and for a moment, he could see fear in his eyes. The same kind of fear that was tearing MePhone to shreds. All he wanted to do was scream
“please help me.”
But instead, he took Cobs’ hand. It felt like touching acid. Like telling all of his contestants that he was a pathetic child who couldn’t do anything but give into his creator’s demands.
But that’s what he was. A child. A sad, worthless, controllable child. The wind felt like it would knock him over as Cobs pulled him to his feet. MePhone squeezed Cobs’ hand. It wasn’t comforting.
MePhone’s gaze remained locked on the grass as Cobs dragged him along. He saw Soap’s phone on the ground. He hoped she wasn’t too angry at him, but it didn’t really matter. He was going home. Forever.
Cobs stopped. MePhone looked at him, confused, then saw they were standing directly in front of Starfruit.
“Wha–” Starfruit was cut off.
“We’re going home,” Cobs deadpanned. Starfruit’s blank expression changed to anger.
“Are… are you
crazy?”
MePhone could almost see the flashbacks taking place behind Starfruit’s brown eyes.
“We are going
home,
honey.”
“Don’t call me that,” Starfruit stepped back, agitation rising in his voice. MePhone had only seen his face plastered with that kind of anger once before, and Cobs wasn’t in the room that time. “I told you I never wanted to see your face again.”
“You don’t have a choice,” Cobs insisted. “You are going to come home with us.”
Cobs briefly let go of MePhone’s hand and reached for Starfruit, whose face quickly changed from anger, to fear, then to anger again, in the span of mere moments.
And then Cobs was punched square in the face.
“Don’t fucking touch me!”
Starfruit snapped. Cobs looked at him with confusion before his face contorted into that all-too-familiar rage. All of a sudden, every pair of eyes in the vicinity was locked on Starfruit instead of MePhone.
MePhone couldn’t help but back away. It was almost an instinct: removing himself from an argument between his fathers before it got too escalated. It always got far, far too escalated.
“I love you,” Cobs said, his voice dripping with anger. His fists were shaking. MePhone covered his eyes.
“No you don’t,” MePhone knew exactly what Starfruit’s voice sounded like when he knew he was in danger. This was that.
“I love you.”
Starfruit was breathing really fast.
“No, you don’t.”
Cobs yelped as Starfruit punched him again. MePhone couldn’t help but cry into his hands. He didn’t want to look. Another punch was thrown.
“What the fuck is wrong with you!?”
Cobs screamed before he was struck again. MePhone’s hands fell from his eyes for a moment.
“There’s a reason I went after you first, motherfucker!”
Cobs’ hands immediately flew to wrap around Starfruit’s neck: instinctively, like they belonged there. It made MePhone feel sick. Starfruit coughed aggressively and tried to pull Cobs’ hands off of him. It was all too familiar. MePhone’s breathing quickened, and he stumbled back.
“Stop…”
He whimpered, so quietly that nobody could hear him.
“Get offa me!” Starfruit choked out as tears formed in his eyes. It wasn’t a plea. It wasn’t a request. It was a demand. MePhone had never heard Starfruit demand before.
“Never.” Cobs’ tone was flat. He visibly squeezed Starfruit’s throat. MePhone wanted to vomit.
“GET OFF!”
A kick to the groin and a slap to the face and there was a good three feet between MePhone’s parents. MePhone could only stand there, completely frozen. Watching Starfruit fight back was new and confusing and scary, but nobody could blame him for doing so. It was obvious from the look on everyone’s faces that they had no right to stop him.
“You ungrateful bastard,” Cobs hissed. “I can’t believe you
still
don’t appreciate a
damn thing
I’ve done for you. You’re so lucky I even let you into my home.”
“You’re lucky I stayed for so long,” Starfruit’s stance was defensive, his expression calm, focused rage. The rage that had endlessly built up over years of mistreatment.
“I’LL KILL YOU!”
Cobs screamed, rushing at Starfruit to attack again. Hopeless tears poured down MePhone’s face. He wanted to get out of here. But he had nowhere to go.
Starfruit shouted in surprise, and punched Cobs’ broken glasses clean off his face.
“Stop!”
MePhone cried. He used to hate when his dads fought. Nothing had changed since then. He didn’t realize how far he had backed away until he could hear one of his contestants breathing.
Cobs grunted, then reached for Starfruit’s neck again, but was again socked in the face. It continued: Cobs kept trying to get close to Starfruit, to hurt him, to
kill
him, but every time Starfruit would throw a fist at his face and take a long step back. After the fourth punch, Cobs started yelling out threats. MePhone couldn’t tell what words were coming out of his mouth. His head hurt.
Eventually Cobs got ahold of Starfruit’s shirt collar and pulled him close. His nose was bleeding at this point. His eyes looked completely dead, feeling nothing except controlling rage, as if he were about to say something cliche like
“If I can’t have you, nobody can.”
“You are going to come with me,” He said through gritted teeth. “Or you are going to die. It’s a very simple decision.”
Starfruit smacked Cobs’ hands off him, stepped back, then sighed.
“I was so stupid to think you ever loved me,” He said coldly, then proceeded to kick Cobs directly in the stomach. When he doubled over in pain, Starfruit slammed the toe of his chunky high-heeled boot into Cobs’ chest as hard as he could.
Cobs struggled to catch his breath. He was about to stand, but Starfruit kicked him in the shoulder. MePhone didn’t like seeing Cobs so… injured. The image of somebody so terrifying on the ground, wheezing with his face covered in blood was so uncanny, but MePhone was looking at it. He wanted to scream.
Without saying a word, Starfruit kicked Cobs in his already-broken nose. Then in the chest again. Then in the stomach. Once he got Cobs laying down, almost helpless, he stepped on his chest.
“Words cannot describe how much I hate you,” Starfruit’s voice was strained, like he was about to start sobbing, but he also sounded so angry. “All you ever did was hurt me and separate me from everything I ever loved so that you can– so you could keep me just… totally dependent on you. You don’t love me. You
never
loved me.”
“I need you,”
Cobs spat. Starfruit scoffed, then moved his foot so that the heel of his boot was pressed directly against Cobs’ throat.
“Liar.”
Starfruit looked at MePhone. It felt so strange to be acknowledged by him for once after all these years. There was clear recognition in his eyes. He pressed his heel on Cobs’ neck harder, as if to say
“This is for you.”
Cobs’ arms clawed at Starfruit’s leg. He was almost foaming at the mouth, gasping desperately for air. It was disturbing, but MePhone had seen worse. With a lot of hesitation, he approached his parents. He knelt down behind Cobs and looked him dead in the eyes for a few moments. Then, he grabbed hold of his left arm, which he pulled away from Starfruit’s leg, then pinned it to the grass, in an intentionally uncomfortable position. Cobs didn’t deserve any chance to defend himself. All he deserved was pain.
“Honestly, Steven,” Starfruit said. Nobody ever called Cobs by his full first name. “I could forgive and forget everything you did to me, really, I could. But the way you treated the kids, man. Unbelievable. I should’ve never let you get away with any of that.”
MePhone knew exactly how Cobs would respond to that.
“They aren’t children, they’re robots.”
He always hated when he said that. He hated Cobs so much.
This wasn’t a fight anymore. This was payback. Payback that had been a long time coming. Payback that MePhone was actively helping to carry out. Cobs’ face was turning blue.
Cobs turned his head slightly to look at MePhone. He was dying. Begging MePhone not to let this happen. But they both knew he deserved it. MePhone wondered when he’d pass out. When the permanent brain damage would set in. When Cobs would finally do everyone a favor and die already.
MePhone didn’t care how many witnesses there were. This needed to happen. If assisting in the murder of his creator meant he wouldn’t go back to MeCloud, he would happily take the death penalty. He took his free hand and pressed it harshly against Cobs’ mouth and nose. He heard a choked whimper of pain.
“Shut up,” MePhone murmured. Cobs had never looked so weak before. In maybe twenty seconds, he stopped struggling, but MePhone knew he wasn’t dead. Starfruit’s heel pressed down harder.
MePhone was just now realizing how surrounded he was by people. People who looked upon him in horror. They should’ve been desensitized to death, but they knew that the world as they knew it had permanently changed, back to how it was before the show. They were watching a murder. A death that couldn’t be undone. But none of them had the guts to stop it.
MePhone removed his hand from Cobs’ arm and went to feel his wrist. Unfortunately, there was still a pulse. He pressed his other hand harder on Cobs’ face. He could feel the fracture in his nose. The warm blood oozing out. He couldn’t breathe.
It stayed that way, still and quiet, as Cobs’ heartbeat slowly faded.
“He’s dead,” MePhone stated, standing up. It was surreal. Everything was gone, including his creator. It hurt so much, but he felt relief. Starfruit stepped off of Cobs’ throat, then proceeded to spit on his corpse.
“Stay down, creep.”
Trembling, MePhone turned, then walked slowly away, pushing past the crowd of contestants until he found his finalists. Suitcase was just barely staggering to her feet. Knife lay in the grass, eyes squeezed shut and breathing shallow. MePhone couldn’t tell if he was unconscious or just suffering the worst migraine of his life. Toilet stood next to the remains of some device, mouth agape, but his expression completely unreadable. He noticed MePhone.
“I didn’t…” Toilet’s voice was so small. “I didn’t think that would happen…”
“I thought I was about to die,” Suitcase said breathlessly. She looked around. “Wow… it really is… all gone…”
“Show’s over,” MePhone deadpanned. “Nobody wins. I ruined all of your lives, so I’m not gonna subject you guys to looking at me for any longer than you have to.”
“Mistah Phone!” Toilet reached for him, but he stepped away. “No, no! W-we can still fix this! I know we can!”
“I don’t want to fix this. Cobs is no longer a threat, and that’s all I wanted. Goodnight.”
And with that MePhone walked away. He hoped that somehow, someday, someway, he would find the cave he’d hidden in. That he’d find the dirt road that took him to Nondescript City for the first time. That he’d be able to skip town and move to a cabin in the woods and never be seen again.
He screamed as he was tackled in a hug. It was Starfruit. Tears welled up in his eyes.
“Dad…”
Was all he could manage. He broke from the hug for a moment, turned to face Starfruit properly, then immediately went to hug him again. MePhone couldn’t hold back his sobs as Starfruit, his
father,
the only person who ever cared about him for the first several months of his life, held him close, running a hand through his jet-black hair. It was such a familiar feeling. Such a comfortable feeling. MePhone didn’t realize how much he missed it.
“Mahal kita,”
Starfruit mumbled. MePhone hadn’t heard him say that in so long.
“Dad…” He repeated. He couldn’t think of another word to say. His entire body was shaking. All he could do was sob as Starfruit continued to hold him. Everything was gone, except MePhone’s father.
MePhone sniffed. “I want to leave…”
“You and me both, kid. Let’s go home.”
“Where even
is
home?”
Starfruit sighed. “We’ll find out, okay?”
MePhone nodded. It was time to leave the island… the show behind. Forever.