[Grim Fandango; prompt #48] Last Spring Title: Last Spring Fandom: Grim Fandango Rating: PG Character(s)/Pairing: Manny, Eva; Sal/Eva if you turn your head to the side and squint Prompt: 048. blush. Word Count: 244 Disclaimer: Not LucasArts; don't own them. Summary: Manny and Eva make one last visit to the meadow. Year 4 coda fic; major spoilers apply.
“Holy Christ.” Eva let the car door swing shut behind her unnoticed as she stood, staring. “Guess you weren’t kidding.”
The meadow stretched on for what—miles?—in every direction she turned. Even without wind to buoy it, a sickly sweet stench still floated in the air and turned the phantom of her stomach. She’d stared down some of the worst the Land of the Dead had to offer without batting an eye, but now some deeper instinct pleaded with her to get back in the car and speed away.
Manny, quieter than she’d ever known him, just nodded. At least he’d gotten rid of that ridiculous reaper outfit. The irony of it here would have been too much, she thought. Even for her.
“So,” she managed, “where is he?” The ticket in her breast pocket stirred, weakly.
“Behind the greenhouse.”
They walked close together, single-file, like corralled animals. Whenever Manny’s heel came down with a soft crunch of flower petals and bones hidden underneath, they both winced.
The question of how no one in Nuevo Marrow had known about this stayed dead in her throat. She could all but hear Sal’s voice, answering in that gentle lecturer’s tone: everyone knew. Everyone knew, because everyone was in bed with Hector’s scheme. And everyone who wasn’t knew anyway—because they were all here, trapped in one last blush of impotent color and life.
Manny drew up short as they came around the back of the greenhouse. “He’s here.”