Well… 12 chapters in, and we are just getting to the plot mentioned in the summery. I am a terrible person. Remember the summery when you originally clicked on the fic? Well, we're finally getting to it. Thank you for sticking around! And thank you to everyone who leaves me reviews! I love each and every one of them! Thank you for sticking around through my sickness, and through my concussion, and everything. I am trying my hardest here! Writing till I collapse X.x Thank you all again!


== DAVE: Wake Up


Dave groaned. He was vaguely aware that there was an unnatural amount of light washing over him. He cursed inwardly. Did Bro open the blinds on him again? He was going to have to nail them shut. He sighed and reached down, as if to pull up his blankets - he was freezing! But two things came to mind the moment he tried. One, there was no blanket over him, and two, his entire body burned as he moved. He felt as if he had been through the biggest strife of his life, and could not remember it.

He leaned up, his head pounding relentlessly, and opened his eyes. Realization shot through him like an arrow. Fuck. Yeah… he totally forgot. Last night he had been running through the woods after getting plastered, and fell down into a ravine. Another wave of realization hit him as he remembered WHY he had been running.

Bro was dead…he killed his own brother.

Dave felt his jaw tremble, but fought back the sob. Crying wasn't cool, and there was no way he'd break his cool… well, at least sober that is. He remembered his embarrassing fit last night and felt his stomach lurch. He leaned over and threw up.

He was not going back. Never! He wiped his mouth clean with the back of his sleeve, suddenly remembering he was still laying in water. He dragged himself up part of the ravine and sat on the hill.

The woodland around him was beautiful, and he could hear birds chirping all around him and a butterfly flapped its way through the air above him. By the height of the sun shining through the trees, it had to be midday at the latest. Everything looked peaceful. Dave wished he felt as peaceful as his surroundings.

What was he going to do? He would have to go back sometime. He could not stay in the woods forever…fuck that. He was. Starting right now, he was going to run away. Lots of kids run away right? Even if it was totally uncool to run… running away could be cool… oh who the fuck was he kidding? He knew he was running away because he was afraid, and being afraid was uncool. He was scared that the police would take him away. Afraid that he would be put in foster care, or worse. Afraid that he killed his own brother, and afraid about his embarrassing meltdown on Terezi's couch in front of everybody.

Something glittered in the sun bellow him. He cocked his head to the side, staring at whatever was reflecting light like a cheap Christmas ornament. Finally, curiosity got the better of him, and he stood up and climbed back down. His soggy sock sloshed through the dirt and mud, before Dave paused to take it off. He threw it aside and walked with one barefoot over to whatever was shinning. The glittering object was sitting in the mud across a small stream of water, like it had washed up there from somewhere. He sighed as he stepped through the water. The feeling of the crystal clear water against his ankles startled him awake, and he stopped for a moment to splash some of the water on his face, before continuing across. He stood above it with a frown.

It was just someone's discarded glasses. He bent down and picked them up. The glasses were thick black-rimmed, and one of the thick lenses were broken. They looked like classic-nerd spectacles. Dave lost all interest in them, and was about to throw them aside, when he noticed something on them. Caked in the mud and grime over them was speckles of blood. Dave felt a shiver go down his spine, and he quickly dropped them. The water carried them away. Dave shivered, and remembered the sopor that had covered him last night. He went back to the stream and washed his hands and face the best he could.

Now what?

He looked back, the glasses had washed ashore a little bit down, the lenses reflecting the sun back at Dave. He suddenly wished he still had his shades with him. But those were back at Terezi's, and he already promised himself he was not going back there. Guess there was nothing to do for now. He sighed dramatically and walked back over to the glasses. He picked them up, and shoved them in his pocket, before walking upstream.

Somehow he was going to have to find out what was going to happen to his Bro. Would he get a proper funeral? Who was going to pay for it? Would anyone come looking for him? Or could Dave disappear and no one would care?

The air was getting warmer, and Dave quickly realized that walking through the stream was easier on his damaged and bare foot then walking on the rocks. The water was cool and refreshing.

…Refreshing.

He suddenly realized he had not had anything to eat since the spiked pies - and those three pieces of pie was all he had yesterday. His stomach lurched again at the thought of food, and he nearly threw up again. He was so distracted, that he nearly tripped over something.

He stopped in front of it. It was a green and black backpack, the zipper busted, and several school supplies spilling out into the water. The books and school work inside was drenched. Dave kicked it over. There was a design of a green slime ghost on the front, the words in dark green written across the top spelt out 'GHOSTBUSTERS'

Dave frowned. Some nerd was probably missing his bag. He reached out and pulled it from the water, throwing it to the side unceremoniously before starting up the stream again. He was about to continue, when he saw what was ahead and stopped. The stream was opening up into a gutter. Dave could see a street corner, and houses beyond it. There was a strange sort of 4x4 tire tracks leading from the gutter, and off into the trees. Dave looked at the trajectory of it. The bag was in the perfect spot if someone had thrown it out of a moving vehicle.

Curiosity erupted through him. He went back and picked up the soggy bag, throwing it over his shoulders and following the tracks up the slope, and into the trees. There was several broken branches, as if something had whipped through the trees without much care.

A bad feeling settled in the pit of Dave's stomach as he followed the tire tracks through the woods. Things were quiet, and it did not sound like anyone was out here 4x4ing… but the damage to the trees were new, and the backpack couldn't have been there for very long without being washed too far downstream.

He trudged through the forest, a shiver going down his spine. The tire tracks ended, and he saw that whoever had driven out here, turned around here and drove back. Weird. There was no sign of a bush party. No empty bottles or remnants of a bonfire. But who knows? Maybe the collage or high school kids or whoever was here cleaned up after themselves? He sighed and turned to walk back the way he came, when something caught his attention. He walked over to it.

It was a torn up and dirty blue hoody. The hoody was full of holes, and was smeared with blood and dirt. Dave's heart skipped a beat. Why the hell was a blood-covered hoody doing way out here? He dropped the backpack down and ran to the edge of the tire tracks. There was a sharp hill beyond them, and at the bottom Dave saw something that made his blood run cold.

For the second time within a short, twenty-four hour span, Dave was staring at a corpse.


TEREZI: Clean up this mess!