miracles

He couldn't get them out of his thinkpan. Thoughts whirled through the words of the slam over and over, repeating and repeating and repeating. Each lyric was another punch in the face, in the gut, made him want to scream and rip the false messiahs spewing their putrid blasphemies limb from limb.

Aggression. Anger. Rage. It was an unfamiliar sensation, a new feeling that welled up inside him, but he couldn't stop the flow. It kept coming and coming until he felt nearly mad with it, blind and deaf and numb.

When he finally resurfaced, Gamzee had no idea how much time had passed. Hours, minutes, it was impossible to tell. All he could remember was that horrible blasphemy the human had sent him and, vaguely, stumbling from the lab in an attempt to escape it. A vain attempt. It had followed him, until he had finally collapsed in a hallway. He had no idea where he was, but just then, being lost didn't seem entirely important. That noxious thing was still swirling through his mind, though the anger had turned cold, punctuated by the pain in his think pan that told him he needed another pie.

Maybe another pie would have helped him forget, would have drowned out the words and made him feel okay again. But there were no more pies. There would never be any more pies.

That thought made him want to die.

Without realizing it, he had managed to stand and started walking. He had no real destination in mind, and he had no idea where he was going anyway, but he had to escape. He was driven to escape that calculating rage that the blasphemy fueled. It terrified him like nothing else ever had. Just when he thought he couldn't go on, however, a lone horn fell from his captchalogue modus. It hit the ground with a soft honk, a sound that, momentarily, distracted him enough to forget.

He picked it up and squeezed it, over and over again, letting the sound mingle with his footsteps as he went on. It was enough to keep him going.

At least, until he came upon Tavros's body.

The horn fell from his hand, its tone useless in distracting him any longer. Emotions stronger than any he'd felt before, stronger even than the rage, washed over him, drowned him, overflowed as indigo tears that spilled down his face.

Tavros was dead. Sweet, innocent Tavros was gone.

He tried to hide from the scene, to cover his face and will it away, but all he succeeded in was smearing his face paint. For once, he didn't care. Everything was collapsing around him, and he had nothing left. The pies, his faith, now even Tavros had left him.

_kill.

Gamzee whirled around, looking into the darkness for the owner of the tiny voice he'd heard, but nothing was there. All was silent, all was dark, and nothing around him could have done anything. Except…

"Tav bro?" Gamzee whispered quietly, leaning a little closer to the body. "Are you there?"

_no.

The voice was just as quiet, but it seemed to cut through him like a knife. Now he knew for sure. It wasn't Tavros's voice. It was someone—something—else.

_kill.

A hesitant glance to the side, and there it was. A grinning doll in a green suit, splayed out on the steel gray tiles almost haphazardly, as though dropped from a great height. Gamzee was positive it hadn't been there a moment ago, but he couldn't take his eyes off of it. He listened intently, trying to catch the hiss of its voice.

_{yes. kill.}

"Who?" He asked aloud.

_them.

Visions of his other friends, Equius and Karkat and Kanaya, all flashed through his mind.

_{they are the cause. kill them. kill them all.}

The very thought of it repulsed him. How could he kill his friends? He hadn't even been able to bring himself to kill the imps.

His thinkpan, however, had other ideas. Blood splattered on the walls, a rainbow of colors—

No. He couldn't. It was wrong, these were his friends. He just wanted to chill with them. Get Equius to relax a bit, forget all that highblood bullshit—

_{blue, running and flowing along the grooves in the tiles—}

Kanaya was so uptight and proper all the time, she just needed to slam a faygo a chill a bit—

_{green, liquid jade smeared on the walls, painted into a smile—}

And Karkat, he was just kind of angry, but a nice guy, deep down, if he could stop hating on himself—

_{red running through his fingers, splashing on the ground—}

No, he couldn't. He couldn't kill them all—

_{kill them all—}

No—

_kill.

NO—

KILL.

"KILL!"

The word ripped itself from his throat, and as it did, he felt as though something else fell loose, and with it, all his inhibitions. A slow, lazy smile spread across his face. The rage was no longer terrifying. It was exhilarating.

_{kill them all.}

"Kill all those motherfuckers."

_{but first.}

Gamzee gave his new friend a questioning look.

"First?"

_revenge.

Yes. The human, all the humans. He couldn't kill them yet, but he could still introduce them to the Dark Carnival. Make them realize their darkest dreams, make them a reality.

And then the real miracles would begin.