Kenny stepped off the sidewalk and into the grass. It had been a few weeks, and he couldn't say that he didn't miss it. He just didn't miss the people that were living there. And with that venomous thought, the depressive teenager realized that he couldn't hear anything going on inside. That was strange. Even if he was just on the front lawn, nearly all the windows were broken in the house, allowing the sound to come drifting out. And besides, the family who resided there wasn't exactly known for their quietness. As strange as it was, the only sounds Kenny could recognize were the scratching of claws on hard wood floors and in walls. Which meant those rats he loathed so much, but...Where was his family?

Walking up to the front steps, he strained his ears a little more to see if he could hear anything, any sound at all, but nothing came except for his now slightly panicked breathing and the continuous sounds of the rats moving inside of the walls.

'What…the fuck?' Kenny thought, still silent as he carefully maneuvered his way up the three broken and crumbling concrete steps. The front door, which was not only unlocked, but slightly ajar, creaked a bit on the hinges as Kenny pushed it open so he could slip through. The living room he stepped into now was not the same as the living room he had fled from nearly three weeks ago.

Everything was gone, except for the dust on the floor, the holes in the wall, and the note pinned to the far wall, visible as soon as one stepped foot into the house. Kenny made his way to the pinned up piece of paper, tearing it straight off the wall and trying to control the trembling in his hands as he deciphered his older brother's, Kevin's, rushed handwriting.

"Ken—

There ain't much time, mom and dad are making me go with them today, but I want to explain this to you. You ran out that night, and Karen tried to follow you. And you knew that. You had to have heard her leave behind you. She was cryin' and screamin' all over the place for you, so you couldn't have missed her. But I dragged her back inside a little later, when she still couldn't find ya.

…I was too late. She got pneumonia because of her damn cold. And, believe it or not, Ken, you're the only one who has the ability to come back from Hell. Because I know there's no way a McCormick would ever be let into Heaven. So nice going, fuckbag. I'm blaming you for the death of our sister."

The malicious note hit the ground only a few seconds before Kenny's own knees did. He hadn't known. He hadn't heard Karen come after him. He hadn't checked to see if anyone was following him. He hadn't known, he hadn't checked, and now...

Now...

Now, Karen was dead. Because of him. And Kevin hadn't said in the note where the rest of his family was even moving to, and even if he had, Kenny didn't want to reread it to figure it out. His tears fell, one after another, slowly at first. Then, as his vision blurred altogether and a sob ripped its way out of his throat, he fell onto his side and disturbed the dust with his tears.

—

As Kenny awoke, he slowly blinked his bright blue eyes up at a most familiar ceiling. The cracks in the material had always looked like a tiger fucking a turtle if you squinted hard enough, and there was the 'X' marked in bright orange marker where he had managed to jump too high on the stained and beaten mattress below him, hit his head on the ceiling, and had died from internal bleeding and a swelled brain. He smiled fondly before his memory caught up to him.

Sitting up too quickly, Kenny took note of the fact that his family had left his room completely untouched. He dropped his head in his hands and sighed, feeling his tears well back up and threaten to fall. Before they could, Kenny felt a small hand on his back. He jumped, not expecting anyone to have been in the room with him.

"It's alright, Kenny. It's just me."It was a ghostly whisper and a cold touch, but both were familiar.

Kenny turned on his bed, restraining the urge to gasp and lunge at what he was met with: the ghost of Karen.

"Ka-Karen—I mean, the note said, Kevin...said...Jesus, Kare-Bear, I'm so sorry. I didn't know."The wayward immortal stared at his sister's ghost before her already transparent figure got blurred out completely by his tears. He heard her making a quiet 'shush-ing' sound at him, felt her cold hands pushing him back down on the bed and hovering over his eyes until he closed them.

"Shh…Kenny, it's okay. I'm gonna be alright, and so are you. It's not your fault, Brother..."

Everything was silent for a few minutes, and he couldn't exactly explain the feeling, but Kenny felt tired, and almost at peace with himself for once.

"You gotta go to sleep now, Kenny. But, I love you…"

Before falling back into the trusting, warm arms of unconsciousness, Kenny managed to mumble back, "I love you too, Karen…"

—

When Kenny awoke for the second time, he concluded that the tiger-and-turtle-fucking-cracks now looked like a man beating a woman with a belt, and that the only thing worse than waking up to the ghost of your little sister was waking up cold and alone.