A Grim Bond 1 (Patreon)

A Grim Bond - or ‘The Grim Adventures turns into Broken Tales’ (Grim Tales from Below, OC!Brother to Mandy)

“Water?”

The girl I was talking to, roughly a year my junior, offered me a flat look… and then a nod as she reached for the water bottle I had offered her.

Mandy had blonde hair which she kept short and bound through a black headband, her dark cynical eyes providing some intense staring at times, and her normal pink dress with a white flower on it tending to cause severe misunderstandings in the form of how ‘weak’ she was.

The mere one-word question tended to be the one way I used to communicate with my sister. It wasn’t like there was much else to say to truly draw an interaction between us.

As babies and toddlers? Sure, it was simpler and there was a need to ‘rely’ on each other. Artie and Mandy, we were a staple feature for one another in our first years of existence. But independence came fast for both of us as we were born in a rather odd household and even more grim childhoods.

Our parents were spineless idiots that barely computed as living beings- then again, Mandy was a nightmare in her own stoic and seemingly soulless pursuit of something ‘exciting’ by her standards but… it was a life, and one that really didn’t damage the bond we had as siblings. And then Grim came along.

I would like to mention Billy in the equation, but he was more of a ‘friend’ to Mandy. The blonde definitely cared for the dumbass, but she was not truly able to make friends in general.

It wasn’t even like she didn’t want to at first. Mandy was a normal girl early on- but that hope to make a meaningful connection burned out as swiftly as it came to her mind. Billy was her friend, Saliva the dog was our pet, and then the Grim Reaper lost a game with her and became our slave.

At first, that was it. Grim was our slave, the guy with the funny accent that was meant to be the one that claimed souls left and right turned out to be someone Mandy actually grew… bored of.

Not too fast, not too early on. There was hope in her that maybe, just maybe, he could have made her eager to learn from him. But that’s where Mandy made a mistake- setting her expectations so high for Grim.

I know, I know. When one thinks of the Grim Reaper, they think of something that personifies Death in a cynical and ruthless manner. And, in truth, Grim was that. He ‘used to’, at least and he told me when I asked him in private.

Curiosity is a scary monster in the hands of a nine years-old boy inquiring Death himself of his past. The various events behind various genocides and large-scale deaths? That was Grim. Mandy clearly didn’t know this because I knew she would have done her hardest to press the right buttons to get the ‘old Grim’ out. She didn’t, she never suspected.

The adventures we made also mellowed that desire. It didn’t soften Mandy, but it expanded her awareness of how insane the world was. And that was before we had to move out of Endsville.

This very decision came to be roughly around the time a tragic event that ‘shook’ Mandy and… broke her a bit. Saliva had been our dog for a while. He was as dumb as Billy, but Mandy loved the dog due to how loyal it was to her. She tried to replace him with ‘better pets’, but despite the weak-mind the pet had, it was the most loyal of them all and had ‘his uses’ in his idiocy.

A car accident was not a good way to lose him, but it wasn’t much the fact that Saliva died, but the fact that Mandy refused to have Grim resurrect it. This response made no sense- Mandy had used this opportunity for lesser reasons and… why?

I was stunned. I really was. Grim called it a cruel move, but I saw it for what it was. A test. But the one that was being tested was… no one I could spot as a potential candidate. Our parents? They didn’t give a shit about the dog. Billy? The guy forgot about the event a day after the accident. Grim? No, the Grim Reaper was shocked but the guy had enough experience on ‘loss’ that he shrugged it off with ease.

Me?

…

No. Saliva’s loss was indeed a sad tragedy, but I had been thinking the dog should have died far earlier than he did. It was shocking, but not enough to put me in a miserable state of mind.

It was as we were stuck at home to ‘mourn’ by the school’s request which our parents complied that I discovered who was the subject. Mother and father had left for work, leaving just Mandy and I at home.

I was walking through the hallway upstairs from my room, ready to get something to snack on while doing today’s homework when I heard a tiny noise come from our parents’ bedroom.

Considering the many times crazy shit happened, I supposed a thief had snuck inside to cause issues. Grim was with Billy by Mandy’s order as she didn’t want him to ‘egg on her for not saving Saliva’.

As I opened the door as slowly as possible to not alert the potential robber, I was stunned to find the source of the muffled noise was someone I had discounted in that notion.

Mandy herself.

She was curled up in that bed, hugging her knees close to her face as what felt like the noise of someone crying came from her. Mandy was crying. Mandy was crying.

The notion was absurd to the point it repeated within my head numerous times. It was absurd to think she could be put through that sort of stress. She was not the kind of individual that should have coped like that. Tears were not a thing for Mandy.

Part of me, the rational bit, wanted to further study this as it was nigh-impossible as an occurrence to happen. But my body went on ‘autopilot’. I started to move on my own as an instinct I never truly thought still existing in my body acted up at the sight.

Mandy noticed me crawling on the bed right as I did so, her eyes turning nervously behind her shoulder, then staring silently at me as she saw a ‘grim’ look on my face. She said nothing, she didn’t even deny the tears still pouring out of her red face. She just allowed this as she realized what was happening.

Soon, she had turned around and wrapped tightly around me as I did with her. The dams were broken again as she found my shirt a better thing to use to muffle her sobbing. I just stood there, hugging her.

It would be the first and last time I saw Mandy cry.

After that, I thought she would have made an effort to be more emotive but… the opposite unfolded. Our relocation to Megaville was a turbulent event alright, same for Billy and his family having decided to ‘tag along’ due to how ‘cheap’ homes were in the city. It was odd, really, to have a bigger house in such a sprawling metropolis at a cheaper price than the old one.

The truth behind this was tied to the ‘quirkiness’ of the city. The place was a constant battlefield between the forces of good and evil. The Powerpuff Girls against the Dark Star Council.

Mandy and I went to school with them and I literally remember helping Bubbles with some of her homework for a time. It was intense- far more than we were in need of. If Mandy had needed a more stable lifestyle, this wasn’t it. And it proved to be fatal on a rather dark moment in our life.

I thought that her stoicism and general detachment was a return to the status quo- but she never forgot that moment of weakness. And Mandy hates weakness. It was 2001 when Mandy and Billy got Grim to swap their roles with him for a day each.

Billy, as expected, flunked left and right, but Mandy… I wasn’t sure what she did. I just knew that stuff started to happen in the next few years, and that Grim would give odd looks at the blonde whenever those happened.

The very event that started the War on Terror, the US entry in the Middle East to ‘stabilize’ and bring ‘democracy’ in the region, and that earthquake in 2004 in India. I didn’t connect dots, and it was through a rather unexpected circumstance that I learned of this.

It was 2008, I had taken steps to secure myself a chance to leave my parents’ home at 16 in the effort to just not get targeted by deadly events in Megaville. Mandy had rejected my offer to tag along, saying she had other plans- plans of ‘world domination’. I didn’t press on it, knowing it was the same as usual.

But it was right as I was talking with Grim about this that the hard truth finally struck me. The Reaper had taken me as the ‘sanest’ of the trio to talk with, so he tended to be quite blunt towards me. The older I got, the more ruthless some answers would become. I would still handle them properly… until he made a confession that really sickened me.

First, he started by bringing up something as I wanted to end my deal with him, and that was ‘how much I had left to live’. He gave me a date- a specific date at that which would have gotten me before I was in my 20s. It was unflattering, and it urged me to relocate fast.

If before I had plans to speak with Mandy one last time, I found myself unable to for what he told me next.

She was behind those events. The one in 2001, the Middle Eastern mess, the Indian Earthquake that claimed millions and so much more. All in a single day as the Grim Reaper- she had planned it all and it all happened.

Grim’s words broke something in me.

Up to this point, I never saw a reason to shame Mandy and her quirks. She was doing her own thing, never going for something purely evil. There was always something good in what she did despite not mentioning it. There was a punchline that was ironic and dark-humored.

Not in these cases- no, none of those held a candle to the previous cases I was made aware of. The worst part? She willingly kept that to herself. She knew what my reaction would have been and she kept it quiet.

Most of me wanted to rip her apart with words and physically- what she did was outrageous beyond belief and… and I couldn’t. As angry as I was, I was also surprisingly done.

The childish nature of her in being bad was now no longer childish. It was purely honest- and it was horrifying to me. That bond I had with my sister was no longer there, tarnished by her own decision.

So… I decided to not condemn her. But she would not be given the chance to restore what she broke through this. The ramifications were too horrendous to ignore. I took my stuff and left.

No words were said to mention my departure, but I told Grim one thing- one thing I knew he complied to as my last order as his Master.

“Tell her. Tell her that I know- but only when I am out of Megaville.”

“...She will chase.”

“No,” I replied with brutal honesty and a hurting heart. “She will not. For there is nothing to claim from me. Not anymore.”

I broke my phone right as I drove my car out of town. I shedded out of my skin, like a snake, ready to forsook my past to succeed in a better life.

I had my highs and lows in the ensuing years and… Grim’s prediction turned out to be quite wrong. Not truly, not fully, but I defied it in ways I couldn’t explain in easy terms.

What I can say is that… it was 2027, and I had my life sorted out. I was single, I was happy and I was away from trouble. My parents died in the last battle for Megaville in 2025. As heroes died by old age, retirement, or were killed in battles against villains, it was an attack from HIM that proved to be the last nail to the coffin. The PPG were killed by the Devilish bastard, the ‘boy-turned-man Genius’ Dexter was dead, Raven disappeared.

Mandy? I don’t know, and I didn’t care.

I was even more clueless about Billy. Same for Grim.

What I knew was that my life in Boston was fine and dandy. I had a job from home, lots of cash from my previous work under Dexter for a time, and a stable home situation that allowed me to live a comfortable life until my death. Or the end of the world.

Considering my odds, the latter was far more expected.

So, I wasn’t expecting trouble to come after dealing with my share of nightmares on my path to 35. I was denied the means to truly settle with a family to call my own but… maybe it was for the best. Events had happened that turned my chance for romance unreachable.

I was alone, but happy despite that. I was happy, I was happy and I was-

Ding Dong!

My coffee was now spilling on my slippers. It was early in the morning, I was not planning to walk out of the house and I definitely didn’t warrant any visit from any mailman or anyone in particular that had a reason to disturb my morning.

I slowly ‘pushed’ my body towards the entrance, eyes narrowed with standard morning irritation and just opened the door. I couldn’t feel anything threatening on the other side but…

…

…

What the fuck am I looking at?

I looked down, a child was in front of the door. A little girl that gave me a stroke with me just giving her a glance and seeing so much of her in the kid.

Her blonde hair, her damn hairband, but her eyes were ‘softer’. She was wearing a green dress over a white shirt, a frilly burgundy necktie around her neck which was matched by a pair of burgundy long socks and black shoes.

She smiled as she looked at me and then at some paper she was holding with her tiny hands. How old was she? 9, 10? Then, the tense silence was broken by the girl.

“Are you Arthur Endswell?” The voice was so much like Mandy at her age.

“That’s my name.”

Her eyes widened astronomically, her smile widening massively and then-

“UNCLE!”

She suddenly jumped at me, black and green tendril pushing out of her dress as she gave me one of the biggest tackle-hugs I have ever received as she easily brought me to the ground. Which was absurd considering how tiny she was.

“It’s an honor to meet you, Uncle Artie! My name is Minimandy, but you can call me Minnie! Can I stay at your house for a few days, prettyprettyplease~?”

What the fuck? Minimandy- Minnie- I am- MY SISTER DID WHAT?!

Much to my immense chagrin, this was the beginning of more quirkiness for my existence despite how long it's been since the last trouble I went through…

Starting with taking care of my ‘wayward niece’ trying to sort out her mind due to how tedious life at her home was.

—--------d-d-d-d-d—---------

AN

This Cartoon sure goes ballistic on the Xover factor… Still, Adult Mandy is some bitch of the Esdeath kind. So, be wary of the ‘war crime mommy’ vibes she may induce with her mere presence.