Title: Grieving For You

Author: Bob J. Montonelli

Series/Fandom: The Mangler (movie)

Pairing: John Hunton (Ted Levine)/Mark Johnston (Daniel Matmore)

Rating: PG

Archive: Yeah, if you really want it...

Warnings & Spoilers: It's short. And yes, The Mangler is a truly awful movie. But it is slashy. And yes this is a spoiler for the end of the film. Not that it really matters *too* much...



GRIEVING FOR YOU
By Bob J. Montonelli

How long has it been?

I don't know, I've stopped counting the days. It all just hurt too much, to see there, and know, and remember.

You might laugh. You might go off and babble about spirits and restless psycho-whatever energies. You'd make me smile. But you're not here--and that's the real reason why I'm sitting here, sloughing around the house.

It didn't hurt this much when Jan died. It hurts more this time. I was there.

Oh, Mark. I should have listened to you. You were right. You were right. All those times, when I laughed at you, all engrossed in your books, your charms and spells. And yet all along, you knew. But I wouldn't--couldn't?--listen. You always were there for me. Since Jan was killed, and then you came along, and I fell in love with you, your smile, your touch.

But now you're gone. I remember. I saw you. It caught you...oh, love...why you? It wanted the girl...not you...I saw you lying there. Heard you scream my name...then heard you scream again when it cut--and when it's claw--

I can't think about it anymore.

But I have to. I think about it every time I think of you, every time I try to remember something about you. Your hair, that Jan always told you to cut but I loved, the way you lay beside me, easing the deep dark of the night.

It cut you in half. It ripped you apart. No night will ever lie as still as the night did after that. I don't think anything much mattered to me then besides running--besides getting away.

I'm sorry, Mark...I had to save her. It was my job. But you...you were my lover. My friend.

You should see her now. Just like her uncle, cane and all. The mangler is settled back into place again, like it's some kind of sleeping dog.

I came there once and saw her, barking orders to her workers. She didn't look like a sweet little virgin girl anymore. Looks, like I said, just like her uncle. I had a flower for her.

I think, maybe, it should have been for you. I wonder, with all your charms and magic, are you watching me right now, thinking these thoughts?

I wish you were. I wish you could hear me. I wish I could see you, hold you, kiss you. I never go down there anymore. I wish I could leave this place--but somehow I can't. When I found your things in the house, I couldn't help but cry. The book still open to its page on bella donna, bottles of holy water and whatnot spread around the table top.

Oh, God I miss you. I know you're gone--I saw that--that monster, that mangler, kill you, murder you. Saw it flay your body in two. But I can't imagine...not you. You were always there.

Why can't you be here now?



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