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The Backlot is Burning:

Return To the Fray

“A Benny and William Story”

Year: 1929

By: Ginger Snap

“-We left Zippy!” Were the first words Benny could hear over the piercing sound in his own ears ringing as he blearily looked around.

He was in a forest somewhere, William was standing over him looking a sickening mix of heartbroken and terrified as he continued to incoherently ramble out his own jumbled thoughts. Benoit blinked, trying hard to focus.

They had been on the front porch having a cigarette after their trip to that stupid wrestling ring. Apparently it was down to some lady who had killed Freud in a scattershot and some vampire Hunter they had never heard of. Benny had sideyed the notion that William had even let a vampire hunter be one of the contestants but he shrugged it off as just another persona. I mean, some kid was pretending to be Dracula in the same fight, it’s not like these costumes and characters meant anything. Besides, nothing could be worse than Jack the Ripper being allowed to live and thrive as America’s favorite wrestler.

Then-

Benny shot up. He remembered the falling star in the sky, that sickening feeling of dread that he hadn’t felt in over a decade-the kind that made his legs shake uncontrollably. Then, the blast of light exploded towards them. There was no time to consider what it could be or what this meant-there was only one thought on Benny’s mind.

“William. Danger. Run.”

He had William in his arms and was bolting from the set before William could breathe in. He felt the sands of the California desert turn to glass under his feet as he sped up faster and faster. Something he had only done once, many years ago. The world around him was a blur of dark shapes. He couldn’t see or hear anything. He didn’t look back. His mind normally raced a mile a minute but right the only thing keeping him going was the fear of stopping. Of whatever that was getting to them-getting to William. He had to move faster.

There was no telling how far they had run by the time Benny’s legs finally slowed down just enough for him to feel the impact of a tree fully stop his body and knock him unconscious.

“William?” Benny stared at him, eyes wide and body shaking. “I-I didn’t…” The realization sunk in.

Zippy, their friend, the person they started their careers with. The friend that had been part of their adventures long before the incident with Jack the Ripper in New York. If whatever that was had taken out all vampires in its radius, and something deep inside him told him it did, Zippy would’ve been caught in the blast. He hadn’t even thought about him, what was wrong with him? Tears welled in his eyes. It was happening again. A friend was dead because of him. Because he hadn’t been able to save him.

“I didn’t mean to…” A strangled sob escaped his throat. “Oh god not again please god no let me wake up fuck this can’t be happenin’ again…”

William collapsed to his knees next to him. They stared at each other. William brought his hand up to Benoit’s cheek. Benoit pressed into the touch and his eyes got steeley and dull. He took William into his arms and held him while William sobbed into his chest. His arms wrapped around him tightly, like letting go might kill one of them. William pressed deeper into him, and together they sat for a while. Letting it all hit them.

There was no telling what time it was when they pulled away from each other, no more tears left to shed in William’s exhausted body.

“What do we do now?” William’s voice was hoarse and tired.

Benny sat in silence for a moment, staring at the ground before pushing himself up off the ground.

“We need to keep moving. I don’t know how far we managed to get away from…whatever that was, but for all we know it’s still growing. We can’t risk waiting around here.” He took a step forward and immediately collapsed under his own weight. “Shit! I musta burned myself out more than I thought.” He looked up to see William getting up to help him and put a hand out. “I’m fine I just-fuck, ow-I just need a minute. We have to get somewhere safe we can’t just-”

“Benny.” William’s eyes bore into him. He looked scared. “Benny I don’t think there’s anywhere safe for us right now…”

“Don’t say that!” Benny snapped, causing William to reel back in surprise. Benny rarely raised his voice at him. Benny struggled to his feet, using a tree to support himself. Benny sighed. “I’m sorry, I need to calm down. There has to be somewhere, we ain’t dead yet and I intend to keep it that way. Come on, we’ll get a little further north and then we’ll figure something out. A plan, a place to go. Something.”

William attempted to protest again, but Benny was already taking shaky steps deeper into the woods. “William…” He looked back at him with a pitiful expression. “Please…I can’t lose you.”

William swallowed dryly. He ignored the lump in his throat and stood up, walking towards Benny and placing a hand on his shoulder.

“You won’t. I’ve got your back.”

The two continued north for a few hours before the total exhaustion of what they’d been through finally managed to catch up to them and they had to stop again.

“I’ll make us a fire, wait here.” Benny said.

“You sure you don’t want-”

“No. I’m fine. Please don’t go far.” He wasn’t facing William, but William could tell there was something deeply wrong between his voice and rigid body. He supposed he wasn’t surprised, but even when they had lost Loco in New York he hadn’t been this bad. He would’ve rather gone with him, but Benny clearly needed a minute alone. If he thought about it, so did he.

As he walked off into a nearby clearing, William sat down on a felled tree and exhaled a breath he didn’t know he’d been holding in. His body hurt and his mind felt foggy. Now that the adrenaline was starting to pass, he could really take stock of all that had happened. They had lost their friend, their home, and the life they had spent over a decade meticulously crafting all in the blink of an eye. He closed his eyes tight, some faint part of him hoping when they opened he’d be back in their home and he could just crawl into Benny’s warm, comforting arms and forget this whole nightmare. But nothing happened. His life was truly over. He hugged his knees to his chest and stared up at the sky. The stars looked fainter than usual. William turned his head towards the clearing he had stalked off to find wood, imagining how Benny was probably trying to come up with a way to spin this positively and cut the bitter, anguished feelings they were both reeling from.

Benny had always been good at pushing all that misery and fear off of him until it disappeared. He sort of admired it-William himself was always one bad incident from flying off the handle, and was never good at seeing the glass half full. Not like Benny was. It was that kind of confidence in the face of doubt that kept them going during their years in the woods.

“Years that we were destined to return to, I guess…” He muttered to himself. He took a breath. The air was nice and cool against his skin. They had lived near the city so long he had almost forgotten how quiet and comforting the woods could be.

He let his eyes readjust to the scenery. Even in the darkness he could just make out the towering pines and tall patches of brush and grass. Fireflies buzzed around him, and the shifting and rustling of small woodland creatures made his shoulders untense. He thought back to all those years ago, when it was just him and Benny against the world. Two young idiots tearing through mages like they were made of sugar glass. The days saving other vampires, asking for no reward. The nights when everyone would go their separate ways and it was just him, Benny, and the stars. Sometimes Benny would be lucky enough to find some kind of instrument (or steal one, if he was totally honest) and he’d fill the night air with his music. He hadn’t heard that music in a long time. His heart clenched at the thought of Loco and Zippy, who had been with them for so long on their journey back then. Both gone now. It was just them again. Two idiots, a little older now, against the world. His heart unclenched just a bit. Just the two of them…that could be worse. At least they still had each other, after all. At least someday soon Benny could find a guitar on some poor fool’s doorstep and he’d hear those soft, melodic notes and that gentle country voice play for him again like no one else in the world mattered.

William heard a ruckus that pulled him from his thoughts. It was coming from the clearing Benny had walked into. Not bothering to think about it, he bolted out of his seat and ran towards the noise.

“Benny?!” He called as the noises got louder. Shrieking and screaming and things being broken. He pulled his needle out of his pocket, poised to strike at whatever was attacking his Benny. This was the wrong day to pull anything on either of them, and he’d make sure whoever was trying knew that. “Benny are you-Benny?” He paused.

In the center of the clearing was Benoit, screaming at the sky. He watched him throw a fist into a tree, busting a hole through it and rendering his knuckles bloody. He pulled it out as though he had noticed and swung with the other fist, pounding into the large pine in front him.

“Why!? Why!? Why does this keep fucking happening! Fuck, is this what you want!? Will you never be satisfied until everything I’ve ever loved is ripped from me!?” He screamed at the heavens, tears streaming down his face.

He hadn’t even noticed William walk into the clearing.

“I finally did it, damn it! I was finally happy! He was safe, I was doing something I was good at, I had him! He loved me damn it! How the fuck can he look me in the eyes now after I lost another one!? Why am I destined to be the universes fucking punching bag! Why am I such a fuck up?! Fuck!”

He collapsed to his knees, pounding the ground and wailing in a rage William had never seen Benny capable of before. The screaming turned to full on sobs. As William approached, he could hear Benny muttering under his breath. “You can’t have him…take my life, take my body, but please don’t take him too…” He was praying. To what, William couldn’t be sure. He didn’t think Benny was either.

“You can’t take him from me…I can’t live without him, please please please I can’t-”

“Benny, it’s me.” William kneeled down, gently taking his face in his hands and bringing Benny’s eyes to meet his own.

Benny’s face was a red mess of tears and scratches. He looked horrified to see William kneeling in front of him. “William? I told you to-”

“I heard something coming from where you ran to. I had to make sure you were okay.”

His eyes were heavy and dull. “I’m not okay, William-neither of us are. It’s all over…” He sounded more defeated than he had ever heard him.

William felt like the air had been pulled out of him. Benny was supposed to be the one with the spirit to get them out of this. That was the deal: William had the plan and Benoit had the can-do spirit to make it happen.

“I was supposed to protect you and Zippy a-and Loco and I was supposed to stick around and save Bart and Paula and Barkeep wouldn’t have gotten killed if I had been faster and-”

“Woah woah woah, Benny. You know you’re not responsible for any of this, don’t you?” He rubbed a thumb over Benny’s face, wiping a fresh tear away. “You did what you could.” He paused. “For all of them.” He added.

“I didn’t.” He choked out. “I could’ve done more I could’ve been faster I could’ve thought about our friend instead of leaving him to die in-”

“You didn’t have time.”

“I-”

“You saved my life. Even though everything in you told you to run and save your skin you still managed to save me. I didn’t thank you for that.”

“I don’t understand.” He replied in a watery voice. “You should hate me-I ran again and lost someone we love because of it…”

“Oh, my dearest, my warm sunbeam, my Benny,” He pulled Benny close, holding him to his chest. “I could never hate you.”

Benny shuddered in his embrace. His arms wrapped themselves around William.

“Thank you…thank you…” He whimpered out. “My William, my northern star, my everything. At least I still have you. I’m so sorry, I know I’m a mess right now. I’m just so scared. We lost everything in that blast, what if I lose you too?”

“Hey.” William forced out a smile and tilted Benny’s head up once again. “I already told you. You won’t lose me.”

Benny stared at him, expression weary. “Don’t make me promises you can’t keep, William.”

“I’m not. Look at me. I swear on my life, I will be by your side come hell, high water, or evil vampire killing death rays…” His smile may not have reached his eyes, but they still glinted with that fierce determination Benny adored in William.

Benny sniffed and let out a weak laugh. “You know I can’t argue with you when you look at me like that.” His expression turned to one of worry. “What do we do now?”

“I don’t know. I’ll be honest, I got used to our comfortable life on the lot. It’s been a long time since we've had to think about surviving.” He sighed. “I guess we could just keep running north. Canada isn’t my first choice of places to live but it might be safer there than here.”

“Is that what you want?” Benny asked.

“It’s what you want, isn’t it? Us being safe somewhere far away from all of this? Why question it?” William replied.

“You’re my northern star, Willie-just say the word and I’ll follow you anywhere, but you’ve never been the type to want to run. That’s always been my thing.”

William stayed silent for a long time, thinking things over. “I want to fix this country-I want people like us to be safe. I thought us working at Universal would do that, you know? Change society’s perception of vampires. Make the world a better place. But it still meant nothing in the end…what if we can’t do anything to change this? What if we die trying to change something too big for us?”

“I think we made a big difference.”

“How could you think that after what just happened?”

“You think we’re the only people who are gonna miss Zippy? That guy was a superstar.” Benny pushed away from William and sat next to him, still holding his hand. “Maybe we didn’t get rid of every crazy bastard who wants to do our kind in, but I think we did something. Someday, a long time from now, some kid is gonna know that William O’Reilly wrote the world’s best romances.”

William cracked the first genuine smile of the night and nudged Benoit with his elbow. “I doubt that.”

“No, I’m serious! You know Zippy will go down in history as one of the world’s best clowns, and the first real vampire actor to make a difference. Why wouldn’t you?”

William smiled at him. This time it wasn’t forced. “You always think the best of me.”

“It ain’t that hard. You’re you, after all.” Benny smiled back at him.

“Who knows?” William picked at the grass next to him. “Maybe we’ll live long enough to go back one day. The world’s best director/writer duo back in Hollywood. You know, once those idiots run themselves into the ground in the next 50 years.”

“Psh, that's ridiculous.” Benoit laid back on the ground. “Like they could survive that long without us.”

They both laughed, and for just a moment the world didn’t feel like it was ending. It was just Benny and William, together in the woods, alone but content. The moment passed and William’s face grew serious again. “Benny…I don’t want to run.”

“Yeah, I figured you didn’t.”

“We didn’t need that film studio to survive and do good before. Now look at us.” He stood up, gesturing to himself. “We’re older, stronger, smarter.”

“That last one is debatable.” Benny cracked, the faintest of smirks lingering on his face.

“Watch it.” William warned, feeling warmth bubble in his chest. “What I’m saying is, maybe it’s time to stop making movies about heroes, and get back to being heroes. What do you say?” He stuck his hand out to Benny. “You wanna return to the fray? Kicking ass and saving vamps? Just you and me, like old times?”

Benny stared at his hand for a long moment. “No matter what I do, I’ll never be able to ensure you’re entirely safe. Not forever. Tonight proved that.” He grabbed William’s hand.

“If we’re going out, I’d rather go out together, swinging. Let’s go kill some red-blooded American rat bastards.”

The two stood facing each other. The thick miasma of misery lingered in the air as they felt their hearts weighed down by all they had lost, but a renewed sense of determination managed to outweigh it. Maybe they had lost most everything, but despite it all they still had something worth fighting for. That was more than enough to keep them going.

Battered, bruised, and bleeding.

But not broken.

“Watch out America,” Benny shouted into the skies. “This is gonna be one hell of a sequel…”

“Seriously? That was the best movie-themed one-liner you could come up with?”

“Oh I’m sorry, I’d like to see you do better.” Benny scoffed.

“Ummmm…” William snapped his fingers. “America, you’re undergoing a massive rewrite!”

“Worse, so much worse than mine.”

“Aw, what! No way, yours was way stupider.”

“Back in action! It was right there!” Benny smacked his forehead.

“Too late-moment’s passed.”

“Aw, dang.”

The two laughed, and together they watched as the sun rose slowly in the east, backs away from the second sun engulfing their former home, looking onward at their future that lay ahead. Uncertain, terrifying, unfair. But as they held each other close under the warm glow of the sun, those thoughts became secondary.

They had each other.

That was enough for now.

#willie and benny #benoit blanchet #william oreilly #benny and willie #benny and william #tales from the backlot #but like not really #canonically last in the timeline as of now

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