Chapter 16: Funeral Arrangements
Disclaimer: I Don't Own Ben 10 Or Any Of The Characters. I Don't Own The Rights To Nathan Black Or Any Associated Characters, The Rights Go To annihalator2015
Disclaimer: This Series/Story Has Nothing To Do With The Ben 10: Ultimate Alien Cartoon Series. Any Similarities That May Pop Up Aren't Intentional
Author's Note:
* Hello and welcome to Chapter Sixteen!
* So, this is going to be the last chapter for a while, I'm not sure how long I'll break from this story, but it shouldn't be for that long. Chapter Seventeen will be the biggest chapter of the story once it comes out for the time being, even bigger than the last two chapters and so I need some time to actually write it.
* Anyway, I don't have anything else to say. Let's get right into the chapter!
Earth-6101
Saturday, September 9th, 2017
Grandpa Max and Grandma Verdona's House
Ben
I didn't sleep all night last night. Just as I had expected. I laid there crying for most of the night, the events of last night replaying in my head non-stop. Actually, sleep almost came at one point, but unfortunately it was morning at this point. I could just barely feel sleep coming, when I felt someone shaking me, followed by someone speaking.
"Ben?" I heard a young, feminine voice.
I rolled over onto my side in the direction of the voice and due to my blurry vision, I could just barely make out the young girl with long blonde hair and blue eyes, sitting on her knees in front of my bed. My cousin, Lucy Mann. I sat up so that I faced her and reached to her left to my glasses sitting on the nightstand next to my bed.
"Lucy?" I said her name as I put my glasses on so I could see her better.
She smiled at me.
"Hey, Ben. Grandma and Grandpa told me about what happened last night." She said, before suddenly reaching up and looping her arms around my neck, pulling me into a hug. "I'm so sorry, cousin."
I found myself pulling her up onto the bed with me, before I wrapped my arms around her waist, hugging her smaller form against my chest. I don't know what compelled me to pull her close. Maybe I just wanted to enjoy the feeling of being embraced after everything that happened the night before. Eventually, she pulled away, but remained on the bed with me, sitting on her knees a couple feet away from me.
"Ben, I know that you probably think that it's the end of the world for you, but I promise you that everything is going to be okay. You will come back from this."
I gave Lucy a sad smile. Leave it to my little cousin to make me feel at least a little bit better. As a twelve-year-old, Lucy was pretty mature for her age. She continued to look at me with a sympathetic gaze.
"It's going to be pretty cool living together though, don't you think?" she asked.
I chuckled.
Bless her heart, I thought. While I can't get the death of my parents off my mind, Lucy can't get the prospect of me living with her off her mind. I suppose it can't be helped.
"Yeah. I'm sure it will be pretty cool." I replied.
I then flashbacked to the news of my parents' death last night. I heaved a sigh before looking back at her with fresh tears beginning to well up. I reached out to Lucy and wrapped my arms around her, hugging her to my chest again, to which she happily returned the embrace.
"Thank God for you guys, Lucy. You're the only family I have left."
Technically, that statement wasn't true. My Great Aunt Vera, Grandpa Max's sister, lives in Nevada and I have cousins here and there across the country. At the time, I wasn't really thinking clearly.
After we seperated again, she spoke once more.
"Grandma sent me up here to see if you were awake yet. Since you are awake, she wants you to come downstairs."
To see if I was awake yet? I didn't get any sleep last night.
I nodded.
"Okay, you go on ahead. I'll be right down."
"Okay." She replied as she got off my bed. "I'll see you down there."
I chuckled again.
"Okay, Lucy."
She left the bedroom and left me alone after that. I waited for maybe a minute before deciding to get up from my bed and leave the bedroom. So, here's a bit of an explanation about Lucy. She's technically my cousin-in-law, but I've known her and have been close with her for our whole lives, so she may as well be blood to me. She was currently living with Grandma and Grandpa, while her legal guardians, my cousin, Joel Tennyson and his wife, Camille Mann-Tennyson, went on a trip.
And that had been going on three years ago now. No one has seen Joel or Camille since. After they never returned from their trip, Grandma Verdona and Grandpa Max had to step up a little more and become her new guardians. And she's been living here for almost three years now. Lucy was twelve years old and in seventh grade now. She was a bit shorter than me at four feet, eight inches tall, while I stood at five feet and an inch. Nathan was maybe an inch or two taller than me and Gwen was just about the same height as me.
"Grandma?" I called as I came down the stairs. "Grandpa Max?"
As I got to the bottom stair, Grandma appeared through the open doorway that led into the living room.
"Ben," she greeted me with the same sad, sympathetic look that Lucy had greeted me with. "how are you feeling? Did you sleep alright?"
I nodded.
"Yeah, I'm fine Grandma."
She must have seen right through me and it wouldn't have surprised me, anyway. For all I knew, my eyes were bloodshot and they had bags under them to boot.
"You didn't sleep at all, did you?"
I sighed and hung my head.
"Not at all." I replied.
I expected to be scolded for some reason, but before I could speak, Grandpa Max poked his head out from the kitchen doorway.
"It's alright, Ben. We didn't sleep last night, either."
Well, why would you? I wouldn't expect anyone to sleep after last night.
"If you're hungry, I'm making bacon and scrambled eggs." Grandpa Max's voice brought me out of my thoughts.
Usually the thought of Grandpa Max cooking breakfast would get me really excited. Not to speak ill of her cooking, but breakfast was better when Grandpa made it instead of Grandma! But again, I so out of it that the idea of Grandpa's cooking didn't grab me like it usually would.
"That sounds nice, Grandpa." I said at last.
"Okay, just go sit down and try to relax. I'll let you know when it's ready."
"Okay."
I turned and walked into the living room to wait until breakfast was ready.
Sometime Later
After about half an hour, we were told that breakfast was ready and now all four of us sat at the kitchen table. That's when I said the big statement that had been welling up in me for the past several hours:
"Grandma, Grandpa, I want to know how my parents died."
They had looked at me with shock and for a minute, I thought they would tell me that I didn't need to know, that it would just make me feel worse than I already did. But, they did tell me. I had explained it before, but this today is when I actually found out what happened to my parents.
They had been killed by a man called "Vilgax" with no other known name or alias. Obviously, "Vilgax" wasn't his real name and no one knew what it was. The man was the leader of the Sons of Dagon, a gang of criminals focused on augmenting themselves with whatever technology they could find. I had heard claims that they had alien technology at their disposal, but that probably wasn't true.
They had been killed in the crossfire of a drive by perpetrated by the gang and he was the one who was pulling the trigger. That was that, they had told me what I wanted to know. But there wasn't anything that I could really do with that information. I just wanted the closure. Anyway, after that we moved onto some of the important stuff. Grandpa Max began speaking.
"Okay, so we've already established that you'll live with us from now on. But there's more to it than that."
You don't say?
"It's not as simple as you just moving in with us. You don't have a lot of clothes here, none of your school stuff is here, we're going to need to move your things out of your parents' house. I'll see about renting a moving truck tomorrow."
"If we're going to do that, I can get my friends to help. But I'm not sure that I'll be able to bring myself to tell them what happened."
"I understand."
"If you still want them to help, we can call them on your behalf." Grandma chimed in.
I nodded.
"Okay."
"Is there anything that you can think of that you need?" Grandpa Max asked.
I took a few seconds to think about that before answering.
"Um, I told my parents that I wanted to get contacts. I want to ditch wearing glasses. And I need a good computer to use for my homework. The one I had at home was a hunk of junk."
"We can see about getting you a pair of contacts. As for a computer, there's a computer downstairs in the basement—"
"What?!" Lucy interrupted Grandpa Max, but he continued speaking.
"—that you can use to do your homework on. I don't think anyone would have a problem with that."
"You don't think anyone will have a problem with that?! Grandpa, that's my gaming pc!"
I turned to look at Lucy, who had a look of anger and annoyance on her face.
What is this?! She was happy to see me and sympathetic at first, but now she's angry because she isn't getting her way?! I know that I said she was mature for her age, but I forgot that Lucy can be kind of a brat sometimes!
"Don't raise your voice to me like that, young lady!" Grandpa Max scolded her. "Besides, you already have that Sbox—"
"Xbox!" she corrected him.
"—Whatever. You already have that Xbox of yours in your room. You're lucky we spoil you so much, Lucy. Maybe if you behave like a good girl, we'll buy you a new computer for Christmas."
I looked at Lucy once more. Christmas may have been a few months away, but the look on her face relaxed, so I think she was okay with it.
"Anything else, Ben?" Grandma chimed in once more.
"I'll need a place to put my chemistry set and to conduct my controlled experiments."
"You can use the basement for that, too. It's much bigger than the basement at your house was and we only ever go down there to do laundry."
She got up from the kitchen table.
"Come on. I'll show you the basement."
I got up from the kitchen table as well and followed her. I followed her out of the kitchen and through the living room, to where the door to the basement stairs was located at the back of the room. She opened the door, flipped on the light and started walking down the stairs, with me right behind her. Once I got downstairs, I saw that she wasn't kidding. The basement was bigger than my basement, big enough to hold a pool table, a couple of regular tables, Lucy's computer and a dart board in the corner. She walked over to Lucy's computer.
"This is Lucy's machine." She said. "You can use it to do homework, research or whatever you need to do."
She walked over to the tables across the room from the computer.
"You can use these tables to put your chemistry set and what have you on."
I noticed a box of some kind sitting on one of the tables.
"What's that box, Grandma?"
She drew her attention to the box I was talking about before speaking.
"Oh, that. That's my sewing kit. But my sewing days are behind me, so I don't use it anymore."
I walked over to it and opened it, revealing a suture and needle, along with multiple colors of fabric inside. Grandma Verdona walked over and stopped at my side, looking down into the box with me.
"I used to be pretty good at it."
I turned to look at her.
"What do you want me to do with it?" I asked as she closed it.
"Find somewhere else to put it. Or leave it there, I don't really care which. I won't be using it anymore, anyway."
"Okay."
"Is there anything else you'll need for living here, Ben?"
"I don't think so."
"Okay. Let's get back upstairs so that you can eat the rest of your breakfast."
The Next Day – Sunday, September 10th, 2017
The Tennyson House
Since I hadn't slept at all Friday night, Grandma made me take an Advil PM before bed so that I would eventually be knocked out and sleep through the night. But I honestly needed the sleep. Today, we were working on moving the stuff that I needed out of my house. I was right, I couldn't bring myself to talk to Nathan and Gwen about what had happened to my parents. When they got here, Nathan was very comforting, they both really were.
Gwen hugged me, which numbed the pain a little bit. Then the questions came. Gwen asked if I was going to leave Madison High and I wasn't, obviously. I was still well within the area to be able to go to Madison. They asked when the funeral was going to be and I told them next weekend. When they had asked what had happened to my parents, I only told them the basics of the situation.
I told them that they had died in the crossfire of a gang drive by. I couldn't bring myself to tell them about my role in their deaths. I was too ashamed to admit that it was my actions that got them killed. That was all I could tell them and they didn't press me for more details. When I asked them if they could help out with moving my stuff out of my parents' house, they agreed to help without question.
So, that's what we were doing today. Grandpa Max rented a moving truck for us to use for the day. Once we got to my parents' house, I walked in with my friends and just stopped there. The house just felt... different now. I was standing in a house that would never be the same, where I would never live again, a house where siblings hadn't come and now would never come. As I stood there, Gwen came up to me and gently took my hand, briefly awakening me again from my trance.
"Are you okay?" she asked.
I turned to look at her and gave her a small nod.
"I just need a minute." I replied.
After that, I just kept standing there. Eventually, Nathan came up to me and spoke, rousing me from my trance once more.
"Try not to dwell on it too much, man. Come on, let's start packing up your things."
I let out a sigh and nodded, before we started to collect my things.
Sometime Later
After working in the basement for a while, I came back upstairs to the kitchen. I walked past the kitchen table and that's where I stopped. I looked down at the kitchen table, looking at the newspaper that sat there. Or more specifically, the section that mentioned the fight club. I found myself in another trance as I stared down at the paper.
If I had just stayed home, none of this would have happened, I thought.
I continued standing there, staring down at the paper, unmoving. Eventually, after an unprecedented amount of time, Nathan ended up at my side.
"Are you good?" he said, finally awakening me once more.
I looked at him before I answered.
"I'm fine." Was all I said.
I then turned back to the table, grabbed the newspaper and rolled it up, before stuffing it in my bag.
Sometime Later
Grandpa Max and Grandma Verdona's House
We had arrived back at Grandma and Grandpa's House. Nathan and I were currently carrying a cart full of some of my science instruments up the path to the front door, while Gwen and Lucy talked amongst each other down by the moving truck. And for having just met, they seemed to be getting along pretty well. Anyway, back to me and Nathan, he was helping me move that cart of science instruments. On top of that cart, was the jar of unstable molecules.
After we got my things settled into the house, we'd return to my parents' place one last time, before calling it a day. It was a school night and so Grandma and Grandpa wanted me to get a good night's sleep. We'd continue moving my stuff out of my parents' house after school over the rest of the week. But of course, school came first.
The Next Day – Monday, September 11th, 2017
Madison High School
I walked to school with Nathan this morning. It was a little different now, as instead of about ten minutes away, I now lived half an hour away from him. But he told me that he had no problem with leaving his house a bit earlier to walk the distance from his house to my Grandma and Grandpa's house, to be able to walk to school today. So, anyway, we got to Madison on time, just like we had any other day.
On some days, we or I would see Gwen on my way to my locker, but today I didn't end up seeing her. As I made my way to my locker with Nathan in tow, I saw him. Kevin, standing right by my locker. He wasn't leaning up against it, he was just standing there. But still, I walked past him and started putting in my locker combination. As I did this however, I heard Kevin approach from behind, before he began to speak.
"Hey, Tennyson."
I let out a sigh.
"Not today, Kevin." I replied as I continued with my locker.
"Not today?" he asked with confusion. "Tennyson, just hold on a sec—"
"Get lost, Levin." Nathan interrupted in a warning tone.
"Will both of you just calm down for a second? All I want is to talk to you, Tennyson!"
I ignored him, not wanting to hear whatever he had to say. He didn't get the message.
"Tennyson—" he started speaking again, but didn't have time to finish his sentence.
I quit focusing on my locker, spun around and grabbed Kevin by the collar of his shirt, then spun around again and slammed him up against the row of lockers, emitting a metallic banging noise. I narrowed my eyes as I spoke.
"I know, I know, it's so funny that my parents are dead, right?"
I expected for him to sneer in response, but that's not what happened. He just looked confused, as if he had no idea what I was talking about. Nevertheless, I pressed on.
"Come on, Kevin, aren't you in a joking mood? Can't you come up with anything?" I asked as tears of mixed anger and sadness began to run down my cheeks. "How about, 'Tennyson, are you going to cry because your mommy and daddy died?'?"
He continued looking at me with confusion, but now with a hint of nervousness in his eyes.
"No? Okay, then we could go with, 'Go run home and cry to mommy and daddy, Tennyson! Oh wait, I forgot, you don't have a mommy and daddy anymore!'!"
Silence.
"God damn it!" I screamed in his face, my eyes burning from the tears and intensity. "Just say something already!"
But something was wrong. He still wasn't sneering or cracking jokes about the tragedy that I had went through this weekend. He still looked confused and a bit nervous, but I also saw something that I never thought I'd see in those eyes of his: some modicum of sympathy. And I couldn't believe the words that came out of his mouth when he spoke again.
"Tennyson, I heard about what happened to your parents over the weekend. I just wanted to give you my condolences. I'm sorry for your loss."
I just stared at him in disbelief, waiting for him to start laughing and tell me that he was just joking, and that he's not sorry at all. But he never did. The look on his face never changed. At this point, I would be lying if I said that I wasn't at least a little bit sorry for how I was behaving. I finally let go of the collar of his shirt, allowing him to drop to the floor. I backed up from him and then felt someone's hand on my shoulder.
I spun around quickly and saw Gwen standing behind me. I don't know if she had seen the whole thing that just transpired between Kevin and I, but I had a pretty good idea she had. She must have seen my face, the tears running down them, as she suddenly pulled me into a hug. That's when the tears came with full force. I cried into her shoulder, hiccupping as I did. I didn't fully know why I started crying again. Maybe expecting Kevin to be harsh towards me and the whole interaction in general caused my walls to be broken down again.
"It's just not fair!" I muttered as I continued sobbing into her shoulder.
I felt her begin to rub my back as she whispered into my ear, doing her best to sooth me.
"I know, but everything's going to be okay. I promise."
"It's just not fair..." I repeated as I continued on with my crying.
Later That Day
When lunchtime rolled around, I didn't go to the cafeteria like everyone else did. Instead, I looked around for a place where I could be alone and sulk in private. I finally found a place underneath one of the stairwells, a small nook where I thought I wouldn't be noticed. I was wrong. As I sat there, with tears running down my cheeks every once and a while, I eventually heard someone say something to me.
"Are you okay, Ben?"
I looked up and saw Nathan standing above me. I wiped my tears away, but I didn't stand up nor did I answer his question.
"How did you find me?"
"It wasn't that hard to find you. When you didn't come to our usual table, I imagined that you wanted to be alone. So, I checked the bathrooms, you weren't in any of them. I kept looking in all of the obvious spots and then I thought that you might be hiding under one of the stairwells. So, here I am."
I didn't say anything in response.
"I asked you if you were alright." He repeated himself.
I sighed.
"Um, no. I'm uh, not... No. I'm surrounded by friends and loved ones, but somehow, I still feel like I'm all alone."
I felt like I was going to cry again, but I wasn't allowed the time to do so. He stuck out his hand to me.
"Come on, I'll help you up."
I caved in and grabbed his hand, after which he pulled me to my feet.
"Look Ben, I know that the world seems bleak right now, but it'll get better. And you may feel alone, but I'm here for you!"
"You mean we're here for you." another voice said.
Nathan and I both turned in the direction that the voice was coming from, to see Gwen walking into the small area where the stairwell began. She came to a stop a short distance from me, just to the right of where Nathan was standing.
"And we're not going anywhere." She said as she gently put her hand on my shoulder.
Even though part of me wanted to be alone, the other part of me was grateful that they wouldn't let me do that to myself. Sulking by myself and thinking negative thoughts wasn't going to do me any good. Gwen and Nathan would stick by me in the months following my parents' death. And I would never be able to thank them enough for that.
Later That Night
Grandpa Max and Grandma Verdona's House
Later that night when I was in my room getting ready to turn in for the night, I pulled the rolled up newspaper out of one of the bags that I had stored in here. Until I could find proper places to put all of my things, my room would have to do for now. I walked over to the desk that sat against the back wall of my room and set the newspaper down. I began to cut the section about the fight club out with a pair of scissors that I had gotten from downstairs.
Once I had the section cut out, I set down the rest of the newspaper, as well as the scissors, which I told myself I'd take back downstairs tomorrow. I grabbed the section of the paper I had cut out – now a smaller scrap of paper – as well as a pin. I walked over to my bed and after getting on it, sat on my knees where I pinned the scrap of paper mentioning the fight club to the wall.
There, that'll do it. From now on, this will be the last thing I see every night before going to sleep. It will serve as a constant reminder of my failure.
I let out a sigh before I laid down, almost ready to turn in for the night.
Saturday, September 16th, 2017
Bellwood Cemetery
That weekend, we had my parents' funeral. Their service had to be a closed casket funeral. After the service, we moved to the cemetery so they could be laid to rest. My grandparents and Lucy were there, any other relatives that I had lived outside of state, so most of my other relatives were unable to make it. Nathan and Gwen had attended, obviously. Even Kevin was there, lurking in the background, just to pay his respects.
Speaking of Kevin, he had left me alone all week long. Actually, after this point, he and his cronies wouldn't bully me anymore. Sure, they may still mess with me in the future, shut my book if they pass me in the library, launch grapes, wads of paper and other small objects at me with a slingshot, but the days of them tripping me and pushing me around in the halls were over now.
Nathan stood at my left, with his hand on my shoulder. Gwen stood at my right, gently holding my right hand. But none of it helped. I found no solitude in having my friends and loved ones stick with me. The priest's words at the funeral service offered me no comfort. All I could feel was guilt. The overwhelming guilt that it was my actions that had gotten my parents killed. I looked down at my right hand, specifically at the alien watch in its camo mode on my wrist.
No one cared much about the death of the average American couple, no one except myself and the people immediately surrounding me. I made a promise that day. I would seek justice for my parents. One way or another.
Author's Note:
* And that's it for this chapter! I hope you all enjoyed!
* So, that's pretty much the first part of Ben's origin story done. What have you guys thought of the story so far? I really do hope that you guys have enjoyed the story so far. If any of you guys have had your doubts about the way I've done things in this story, please just give it a chance. The story's only going to get better from here!
* That's going to do it for me. I'm going to go though, so have a fantastic day and bye.
Review Responses
Guest Review (Chapter 15): This is the same dude who was against the whole uncle Ben cliche thing. Don't get me wrong, I'm still gonna read it. I wanna see how Ben moves on from this
Hey man, by all means. If you want to stay and see how this plays out, I absolutely won't stop you from doing so. I was just trying to get across that if at any point, you're not really liking the story anymore and what to quit reading, then please just do that. Please don't write out a negative review. That won't do either of us any good. Thanks for the review, as always.
Next Chapter: After a one month time jump, Ben slowly begins to break out into his super hero career.