Page 18 of Hollow
Dimitri’s glowing green eyes widened, then his shocked expression seemed to ease. Perhaps he found some peace in Irvin’s death, at least, Jack hoped as much. Even as Astaroth continued rambling on about all the ways he desecrated his corpse for the remaining days he was out in the woods.
“Surprisingly, his eyes made for a fitting crowned jewel atop the pyre of his reassembled limbs. Sadly, he did not burn well. This dimension is quite flaccid in terms of anguish. Quite boring.”
Once Astaroth had his food, they returned to their meal, and Dimitri helped clean up. He didn’t take no for an answer, and Jack gladly accepted.
“Why don’t you pick a movie?” Jack said, handing Dimitri the controller.
It was entertaining watching him scroll through the endless selection available for streaming.
“So many choices, yet never anything to watch, you know?”
“I fear I will pick the wrong one.”
“Doubtful,” Jack said, grabbing his phone. “I’ll be back.”
Jack scrolled through notifications, replying to comments, deleting others, and blocking a few haters because life was too short to dwell on nonsense. Even if Jack was immortal, he wouldn’t waste his eternity on some desperate online douchebag.
After going through as many updates as his mind could handle, Jack went through some of his drafted videos. He picked one where he flexed in the dark with only orange neon lighting to illuminate his muscles.
He added the text “Tis the season” in scary Halloween font, then went to find a song to fit the short clip.
“You are always on that thing,” Dimitri said, practically whispering in Jack’s ear.
“Holy shit.” Jack nearly jumped out of his skin and quite literally almost knocked his pumpkin head off before properly securing it. “You were just on the couch. How do you move so quietly?”
“Leshy legs.” Dimitri shrugged. “We learned from the trees.”
Jack laughed at that, finding it absurd and honestly the best answer he could’ve hoped for.
“You make these videos to share with the world?”
“Yeah.”
“Is that safe?”
“About as safe as anything is in this world,” Jack said. “But I have fun posting content. It helps fill up the long days. I’m not exactly built to work a nine-to-five, and even if I was, I would never subject myself to such hellish torture.”
“Capitalism is my favorite form of anguish,” Astaroth shouted from the kitchen. “Convince mortals they have all the choices in the world, then slowly strip them of every choice until all that remains is submission and obedience and a desperate yearning for a grand life they will never obtain. Glorious.”
Dimitri’s pointed ears twitched a bit, something Jack had noticed he did when confused. Sometimes Jack imagined it was Dimitri’s way of trying to listen more intently, as if that would help him understand the context of a subject.
“Why are you naked in the video?”
“I’m not naked.” Jack pointed to the low-hanging, small towel around his waist that ended halfway down his thighs, leaving his gray body very exposed.
“Does everyone only post naked, not naked footage?”
“I mean, it is the internet, so mostly?” Jack shrugged. “There’s so much I gotta catch you up on. But I don’t always post thirst traps. It’s really just to find new followers. People like to look at a sexy bitch, so they stumble onto these clips, then follow for my longer content of running my mouth about nonsense.”
“Thirst trap?” Dimitri scrunched his face. “Is there a nearby watering hole you wish to detain the online people at?”
Jack burst out into laughter. “Wow, your mind makes the funniest connections. No, a thirst trap is just a photo or video of someone being sexy for the sheer thrill of it.”
Dimitri didn’t seem to grasp what Jack was saying, so he tried to explain it more thoroughly.
“I post a lot of monster content on my page,” Jack explained. “I mean, look at me, I can’t exactly hide the fact I’m a monster. Eventually, I realized people really like what they see. I can admit I’m a sexy guy. Well, so long as the pumpkin head stays on. That unmasking would probably kill my follower count.”
“You are mean to yourself.”
