I sat and dreamed at the foot of your bed

You split my skull and reached inside my head

And pulled out the pictures I'd been wishing I'd forget

radical face - glory

2D Was hallucinating, he was sure of it.

He remembered Murdoc hitting him and the world turning black.

Did head trauma cause hallucinations? It had to, the singer thought. He was lying on the bed, and while he was still seeing stars and he couldn't focus his eyes quite right, he thought he saw Noodle. Thought, because he knew she was dead. 2D didn't want this. Didn't want any of this. He closed his eyes again and moved to turn around, but a voice interrupted his movement.

''Oh no faceache, we've waited long enough for ya to wake up now'' 2D immediately identified the voice as Murdoc's. He opened his eyes again- stars now fading to the edge of his vision- and sure enough, there stood the green skinned man. And next to him...

2D stared, blinked, rubbed his eyes and blinked again. It didn't change what he saw.

Noodle. Noodle was just standing there.

But that was impossible. It couldn't be. Noodle wouldn't stand that motionless, Noodle wouldn't smile that sinister and Noodle wasn't alive. 2D moved his eyes from the Noodle-who-couldn't-be-Noodle to Murdoc. Of course, the green man was just smirking down at him. The situation was surreal and 2D had trouble finding a way to express his thoughts and emotions. Only half finished words managed to come out of his mouth, getting more incomprehensible and panicked by the second.

In the end, when he caught Murdocs smirk growing bigger from amusement he shut his mouth and closed his eyes, thinking very hard on what he wanted to say.

He pushed any feelings out of his mind for a moment before opened them again, black orbs focusing solely on Murdoc.

''Muds, wh- what did you do?'' 2D was proud that he'd only stuttered once, although Murdoc probably picked up his conflicted feelings just from the tone he'd used anyway. It didn't matter at the moment.

''Well 'D, let me tell you. I knew we where goin' to make a new album yeah? and I knew it had to be grand, so I thought to myself, how am I going to achieve that? I could get you easy of course, but I still needed guitar and drums. Russel couldn't be found, so I borrowed some of his old equipment, had a bit of fun, mixed and matched and I ended up with the perfect drum machine!'' Murdoc paused to check 2D's reaction. The singer was still sitting on the bed, still staring up at him, clearly refusing to look at the new Noodle. He didn't react audibly, but his mouth was a thin line and his hands where tight fists again. Murdoc continued.

''Then, there was the guitar. That was a bit more.. complicated. I won't go into details 'cus your empty head wouldn't be able to understand any of it, but I got some of, ahum, our old guitarists DNA, got a wig, and I build a cyborg! Faceache, meet cyborg Noodle!'' with that he made a hand signal, and the now identified cyborg stepped forward, forcing 2D to look at her. 2D immediately moved to the far end of the bed, away from the monstrosity. He didn't get far though, as he received a grim reminder of what had happened before he had gone to 'sleep'. Murdoc had beaten him- hard.

Something was wrong in his chest area. Something that hurt like hell, worse than his headache. He ended up at the foot end of the bed, cradling his chest with his arms.

He couldn't do anything, he couldn't get away from the living reminder of his dead friend, or from the if the situation wasn't bad enough he heard a soft beep, and when the pain had subsided just a little because he had stopped moving he looked up into the barrel of a gun. The fake Noodle was still grinning and 2D wanted to cry. It felt like a very bad horror movie, thought up by a very sick person. Coincidentally, that was the moment he heard Murdoc talk from somewhere near the door.

''Before I forget to warn ya twodents, she's not only a great guitarist, but she's a fighter too! I won't bore ya with the details.. but I wouldn't make any unexpected moves, capiche?'' He made another hand signal and the gun was withdrawn, the cyborg taking a step back again. Murdoc cleared his throat to get 2D's attention again.

''So 'D, ya remember last night? I take it you understand that some things are of topic here yeah? I hope ya learned your lesson now 'cus yer rib is bruised and it's delaying our recording schedule.'' with those words Murdoc threw something on the bed.

''I thought you may've been missing these, can't have my singer in pain now can I?''

With those words he left, the cyborg getting in the lift with him. 2D noticed none of this. He stared at one spot by the door, his mind at war with itself. His headache raging together with the pain in his chest. It took some time, but at some point 2D registered that Murdoc had thrown something on the bed. He pried his eyes away from the spot to examine what it was, he almost didn't dare to hope.. Careful not to move his chest too much he picked the item up.

He immediately identified it from touch, having held it so many times before. A wave of relief made him forget the scene that had just transpired. He had his pill bottle. Finally. Thank the gods, whoever was watching. Thank Murdoc, he didn't care at the moment, he had his pills back.

2D shook until a generous amount of yellow and red and white ones lay on his open hand, and swallowed all of them dry.

Immediately after taking them 2D felt sick. Murdoc, he realized, was using his pills to reward him.

Would he have gotten them if he'd talked back like he'd wanted to do? Probably not. Nothing too do about it though, he'd already taken them, and he'd do it again if he'd had the realization before that.

Slowly the familiar haze came to take away any of his thoughts and bad emotions. With a blissful sigh he lay down on the bed again. He drifted off, away from the pain and Murdoc and the imposter. Maybe it was worth just playing along with Murdoc.. He'd needed this. Oh gods how he'd needed this.

author notes

First of all.. I'm sorry! It's been almost a year since I last updated this story.. I guess my excuse is that last year was the year of my final exams which took a lot of time and energy, I did graduate so the time spent studying was worth it ;)

I also didn't really know what to do with this story. At first I wanted to rewrite all of it, then I decided against that and then I lost interest in Gorillaz for a bit. I started a batman fanfic and spent some time writing that...

The interest in Gorillaz is back though! I'm fully committed to write this story, however long it may take. This chapter is a bit short but I hope you'll agree that it's better than nothing! I'm uploading it now to let you all know I haven't abandoned this. And a huge shout-out to the reviewers! You're the reason I continue writing this. (Of course I also write because it's something I love to do, but without reviews telling me they like a specific story I'd start a new story every other week and never finish one!)

notes on the story

I swear 2D will finally get out of his prison in the next chapter! Murdoc won't want to wait much longer for his album ;)