Old Dreyfuss Withdrawals

Dreyfuss passed by numerous houses throughout the development as he struggled to stay upright despite the mortal agony inflicted by Ignatius. With an uncannily separate part of his awareness which was removed from the suffering, he was eventually able to form a coherent thought.

Why should their lives be any different from mine? I grew up in a house, too. Maybe not a fancy house like that one, but still, a house filled with love and family, and anchored to something good, even if there was some bad also mixed into it.

As he walked and pondered he discovered an almost oblivious awareness of his own withdrawals within himself, and he stumbled, and fell across a brand new thought. It didn't matter if there was more bad than good, or more good than bad, he suddenly realized. The good underneath was still there, undeniable and real, and the simple fact of even a miniscule presence of the good, if he looked at it and concentrated on it hard enough, made for such a laughingly, obviously unfair game for the bad!

The epiphany of the realization was so funny that Dreyfuss laughed out loud, and then immediately dropped to his knees, felled by the worst pain he'd ever felt in his life, right at the bottom of the gut. It was far worse than a mortal agony... it was an immortal agony. A never ending agony. A pain meant to inspire infinite despair, he knew... but he couldn't stop laughing, and with each guffaw, the incredible, indescribably mind blowing torment increased by an order of magnitude, over and over. And over, again and again... and then, right in the middle of an endless ocean of pain, a fact of the universe which had only always ever been, and always would ever be forever, Dreyfuss had another epiphany. The pain he was feeling, the endless agony... it didn't wasn't in his gut, it was in his balls... and it didn't even belong to him at all! It belonged to that..n that demonic drug dealer, that... that motherfucker, Ignatius!

Suddenly Dreyfuss went from infinite agony to pure relief. Oh his knees he wept tears of joy, and suddenly understood with a clarity of understanding that only comes from viewing the structure of the universe through the eyes of the universe, that even if that little shit Cannibalus pulled off his magick trick and crammed the Earth into a gaping, transdimensional maw of ever unsatisfied starvling, that it wouldn't matter because the opposite of an eternal starvation had always been an eternal satisfaction, and he knew that to be a Truth. He knew it... he knew it!

Then Dreyfuss felt the pathetic remains of the physical withdrawals from demon heroin begin to break apart, like a thin coating of congealed bacon grease after a couple of seconds n the microwave, and underneath it he could see in his minds eye a vast volume of clear, transparent water. Clear, but somehow still a vibrant blue... then he caught a glimpse of the eternity underneath. Dreyfuss was confused for a bare naked second, until he realized that he wasn't looking down into the water... he was looking up, through it and into a pristine sky.

Joy suffused his being and he felt the essence of his self rising like an impossible express elevator, up and up and up, impossibly fast... and on the way up, Dreyfuss caught a clear glimpse of Ignatius, as quick as a still-frame but as clear as a photograph. Ignatius was clutching his crotch, his face contorted in agony. Dreyfuss could even hear a faint, diminutive scream that dopplered away into a quick oblivion as the demon fell, way way down and into hell, which sounded exactly like...

"OW, MY BAAAaaaaalls....... . .  .   .     ."

As he rose, faster and faster, Dreyfuss felt his awareness begin to shatter quietly, as it fell upward and into a vast, gray bliss. He was surprised to experience no fear at all, only peace... and as he was finally near the end of his coming apart, the last thing Dreyfuss perceived was the voice of Purl Ashblaque​, the gun-slinging grunge wizard, whispering an old Pearl Jam tune that used to be, way back when from before, and maybe after, too...

"Ooooh... yeah, I'm still ALIVE."

Then Dreyfuss felt the soft walls of infinity enclose him, and a final memory of the pain that killed his body was what finally returned him to his his spirit, like an old friend coming home from the war.