Through the Cracks - Only Going In Circles
#10 of Through the Cracks
This is a fic presented as if a documentary miniseries you're watching, is something I should say now that this has gotten long enough and the premise is involved enough. You should likely start with Part 1 here: https://www.sofurry.com/view/1795361.
The least shocking twist in fanfic history.
Rated Adult, not because of content, but because the source work is Adults Only. If you're under 18 you're not supposed to have read Echo in the first place.
The titles say: Part 9 - Only Going In Circles
The screen shows only the empty couch, for a long moment. Off camera, someone sighs, deeply.
The sound of steps approach, uneven, and the sound of something more than steps: Duller than feet, rubbery, pressed down on the floor with greater firmness.
An otter makes his way to the couch. He walks with a cane. His beard is rough, and dark circles hang on his eyes. He wears a medal, a mountain lion pierced with arrows, tied around his wrist like a bracelet. He looks so much older, compared to the old footage overlooking the town, than he should.
He looks at the camera, expression blank, through lowered eyebrows, then says, "I guess there's no way around this. I thought maybe I could make this... project, I guess, without having to say anything. Just stay behind the camera. Not get involved. Not be one of the talking people on screen, telling their piece of the story. But that wouldn't be... honest."
"Jacob and Micha found Chase, after all, see?" He smiles grimly, gives the camera a mocking wave. The film no longer changes angles, no longer cuts, it stays on the same shot, more distant from the others. He looks small, and isolated.
"I don't know what to believe. I should say Jacob's talking nonsense, but... I can't. It fits. I wish I hadn't had the kind of life where I can hear that account and then say, it fits. But I have."
"Plus, it'd be just like Leo to conclude there was nothing left for him in the entire world, and if he did, I'd rather he went through the cracks into whatever other dimension instead of... You know."
"If Jacob's right, and he's some place where I never... where we never... where he still has... some version of..." He shuts his eyes, raises his hands, collects himself with a deep breath. "Then maybe that's just what he had to do, in the end. And I'd rather he did that than... What he could have done. What I've been afraid that he did."
"So, what do I think is going on in this video?" He gestures, almost angry, towards the camera he left running, "The one I'm making right now? It's gotta be one of two things. Maybe I'm making a last attempt to reach out. And like, if so, what I'd say to him is: Leo, if you're out there somewhere watching this now? Call someone. You can even call me. Just, take the fact that this project was made as proof that there's still people who care about you, ok? Who are worried about you. Who give a shit what happens to you. Who want to know you're alright."
"If it's not that... then this is a eulogy. If he's not out there, then he's gone. Whatever gone means, for someone who went where he went, which I guess it turns out I do in fact believe that he did. So, I guess," he runs webbed fingers through his hair. "What do I even say, in that case? He was loyal, he was brave, he didn't deserve all the things that turned his life into what it became."
"And no matter what anyone thinks, I loved him. Might not believe me, but I really did. I wish I'd been better for him. I wish I'd found a way for it to work out."
He stares off camera. His jaw clenches and his expression darkens. "[Bleep] it, that's all there is to say."