How Sweet the Sound (a one-shot)
A/N: I'm almost a week late with the prompt "Are you always this shy?" but better late than never, I guess? Maybe not, cuz I absolutely punched myself in the face with this one. Don't ask me why. I think it's because I wanted to go in a totally different direction with it and then overcorrected. Sorry in advance. Truly.
Thanks always to my sister wives in chaos and crime: @be-my-ally @whositmcwhatsit @vintageshanny @ellie-24 @thatbanditqueen @powerofelvis and @from-memphis-with-love
TW: I don't want to give too much away (skip to the end before the Taglist for more specific TWs if you need to), but it's very sad/dark. And maybe not great writing since I did it in a flash and barely edited or revised? It's also my first foray into mid-late 70's E. And it's very short by my standards. It's an experiment on many levels! Beware lol.
Calloused fingertips dance over my bare belly. It feels wet, sticky. I can hardly breathe. It’s hard to piece together why, exactly. There’s too much…it’s too much…he’s too much.
“What’s your name, sweetheart?” The gentleness of his Southern drawl scares me. People only talk in that tone when things have gone from bad to worse. Worser to badder. Something like that.
What was the question?
“Are you always this shy?” he jokes when the words won’t come, trying to lighten the mood and I think I manage a chuckle. A sputter at least.
“That’s a girl,” he praises me, as though I’ve done something miraculous and terror shoots through me, sharp as a knife. “Now what’s your name, baby?”
What’s my name? Oh. My name…my name is…
“K-K-Kit,” I chatter out.
“Well, hello there, Kitty Cat,” he coos, brushing the hair out of my eyes. “I’m Elvis.”
In any other circumstance, I would loathe the nickname, but coming from him, it doesn’t seem to matter. His eyes are soft behind his tinted glasses and I feel like I could drown in them if I’m not careful.
Careful….
My vision blurs and I realize that I’m crying.
Why am I crying?
“Are y-you a-a-an angel?” I whisper.
“Oh, honey.” His voice cracks when he says it. He caresses my cheek. It feels like hello and goodbye and I love you all in one gentle touch.
He takes off his sunglasses.
Why is he wearing sunglasses in the middle of the night?
Goodness, his eyes are so blue. I blink away tears for the sole purpose of being able to look deeper. Eyes are the window to the soul, they say.
He’s a stranger, but I feel like I’ve known him my whole life.
Who…? Elvis. He said his name was Elvis.
Those blues shine in the light of the street lamp.
He starts to sing, quiet, just for me. “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound…”
It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever heard.
Beautiful…he’s so beautiful.
I start to shiver.
A single tear rolls slowly down his cheek, glistening in the lamp light, catching on his upper lip as he sings.
It’s not as scary now, not with the ethereal man and angelic voice watching over me. Not with his palm cupping my face so…so…intimately.
I want to keep looking at him forever and ever, but darkness begins to dim my sight. Heavy…my eyes are heavy.
Maybe in a different life, one not as cruel as this, I’d have more time. I could look at him every day and touch his lovely face and listen to him sing to me.
“D-Don’t b-be sad,” I whisper. It’s so hard to get out, like cotton has filled my mouth. I want more than anything to wipe his tears away.
I want…to stay.
“It’s okay, Kitty, it’s o-okay,” he stutters.
It’s not.
But I’m not afraid anymore.
I keep my eyes on his. He doesn’t leave me alone or look away.
Everything…slows.
Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me…
The darkness comes.
*
Elvis trembles. Glass crunches under his heavy black boots when Billy and Red pull him up and back and out of the way of the emergency personnel rushing in around them.
He’s uncharacteristically quiet as they put him in the car and drive him home. The only thing he manages to get out is how he wants to take care of all the expenses.
Her poor family…
What a goddamned waste. It’s fucking unfair, he thinks. So young. Why would God take her like that?
Kitty’s face, that innocent, pleading way she looked at him right before…it is stuck in his head. Even after scrubbing her blood off his hands until he is raw, he still feels her presence. Still hears her voice. It echoes in his head.
“Are you an angel?”
It hurts him deeply. It shouldn’t. He didn’t know her at all. He wasn't the one who hurt her. But being with her in those last moments, watching the life drain from her pretty eyes, cuts him to his core. It hits every soft spot he has.
A dark cloud descends upon him, one contemplating the meaning of all things, of mortality. He sobs for hours, rants and raves to no one, to God, sequestering himself upstairs, in the dark, for days.
Is it days? He’s lost track.
There are no pills that first day because he thinks he has to be clear to understand, but maybe it’s more about punishing himself than anything else. It’s agony on every level.
He takes more pills than he needs to after that.
Eventually, he sits, utterly numb, staring at the television but not really watching.
“Don’t be sad, Elvis.”
Kitty’s voice rings close by in his ears, firm and clear as a bell, startling him from his daze.
“Get up. Don’t be sad. It’s okay,” she urges.
And suddenly the dark cloud lifts.
“You’ll see me again, soon,” she adds, quieter this time.
He knows.
He knows.
*
TW: dying, death, blood, grief, allusions to depression and drug abuse
*
Taglist:
@atombombbibunny @yesimwriting @uselessbutinteresting @mirandastuckinthe80s @dark-as-love
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re: ur thoughts on the current trending hockeyblr/ao3 ship and how objectively wild it is that it Is What It Is. what current ships would you nominate in its place? noah fence to sidgeno … but which Classic Teammates In Love HRPF Ships do you think should take over for them? or like, which ships are you surprised AREN'T as popular as oiler/flame-who-isn't-even-still-a-flame?
hskdfjdks okay hm... my super totally unbiased opinions are about to be put into this world... blast me if you will etc
teammates in love ships that should be more popular
sid/letang. i know we're all into the arranged marriage aesthetic of sidgeno and we don't care about "defencemen" in this house but . kris letang is right there... he's a hot girl... he's a bad bitch... he's a supernaturally intense freak which means he and sid could get it on in such wild ways... and most importantly he's quebecois we need more francophone representation in our hockey rpf
steven stamkos/victor hedman. fundamentally we are not taking advantage of wily fox steve stamkos and Giant Conn Smythe Winning Sequoia Tree Victor Hedman who are right there.. they endured so much pain 2gether before winning their cups... they're besties... etc. look at that gifset of heddy lifting the cup over his head and tenderly kissing golden-haired stevie who's hugging him like he built the world. know what i know.
quinn hughes/elias pettersson. they were ROOMMATES ON THE ROAD they are DESIGNATED SAVIOURS OF VANCOUVER together quinn is bedraggled and practical and petey is bald and cunty. i know they're young but if petey sticks around... yknow. it'll get there. with your help etc etc
matthew tkachuk/sasha barkov. i agree i get it machuk is interesting he's an interesting fic character. sasha is right there... he loves him....
other ships that should be more popular
sid/ovi. they're both inchresting characters they're both extremely old men with lots of history they had to go through each other to win the cup EVERY TIME THEY DID IT...
geno/ovi along the same lines. actually my opinion of ovi is that he's a fascinating character ficwise all around... enigmatic, charismatic,,, i don't understand nicke backstrom which is the biggest reason nickeovi isn't on the first list. but sid/geno/ovi is nightmare threesome material and we should talk about it
not a Specific ship per se but we need usntdp fics of the generation BEFORE jhughes/zegras/caufield. i want something that compels you to draw a jeichel/auston/machuk/clay keller web so complicated you need to full-on Pepe Silvia in order to understand it.
jack hughes/nico hischier but specifically me and sol spiceberrie's vision of it
also not a specific ship but Guy That Sucks fic. the good old homosexual self-loathing spiral... yes... Yes... dont do it with machuk though he's too emotionally intelligent. needs to be a total bad-vibes mirror-staring cut-shaving don't-know-how-to-cry situation.
here's MY one-interaction-that-i'll-never-get-away-from enemies to lovers fic that makes no sense: auston matthews/rasmus dahlin. there's one (1) fic in the ship tag and i wrote it. my claim to rarepair fame...
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