#46 - Twisted

I Watched You Disappear

Segment Notes: This one was inspired by a chilling and amazing fanart of Crash Town-era Kalin with a disturbing sneer and blood dripping from his mouth.

Radley could only stare in disbelieving horror at the scene in front of him. Kalin was sneering, his eyes filled with little else but sadism. A bit of blood trickled at the side of his mouth. Lawton, Malcolm, and Barbara were laying motionless at his feet.

"Kalin, what is this?!" Radley exclaimed. "What did you do?!"

"I killed them all," Kalin replied. He laughed. "They'll never bother us again."

Radley fell back, shaking, horrified. "But Kalin . . ." He looked into his friend's merciless eyes. "You murdered them. . . ."

"Just like they murdered you!" Kalin stepped forward. Now his eyes were steel. "You're dead, so I did what I had to do to pay them back."

". . . I'm not dead!" Radley cried. And yet . . . he couldn't feel his heart beating. . . .

"You are." Kalin touched Radley's cheek, but neither of them felt it. "Now that I've done what had to be done, I'm going to finish it." He stepped back and took out a knife.

Suddenly Radley realized what Kalin was going to do. "No, don't!" he screamed. "Kalin . . . !"

Kalin plunged the blade into his heart. Gasping in pain, he fell to his knees and then over on the floor. "I was already dead," he rasped. "Without you, I wasn't really alive. Now we can be together forever."

Radley could only watch helplessly as Kalin's eyes darkened in death. "Oh Kalin," he choked out. "No. . . ."

And if Kalin was hoping for a reunion on the spirit plane, it did not happen. Radley was left alone, mourning his friend's gruesome end.

xxxx

Radley jumped a mile, breathing heavily as he abruptly returned to reality. He was alive . . . Kalin was alive. . . . It was just a dream. . . .

Next to him, Kalin sleepily stirred. "What is it?" he mumbled.

Radley drew a shaking breath and laid his hand on Kalin's. It felt so good to be nestled in the warm embrace. . . .

"Kalin, are you awake?" he asked. "I mean, really awake?"

Kalin grunted. "I am now."

Radley rolled over to face him. "You've gotta promise me, Kalin. If anything happens to me, please . . . please don't lose control of yourself. . . ." His voice caught in his throat. "Remember, I saw you taking out your grief on Barbara in the Duel Monsters' world. I tried so hard to get through to you, and I . . . I couldn't. . . ."

Kalin frowned in confused concern. "Is that what you were dreaming about?"

"That, or something similar," Radley said. "I was dead and you killed everybody you blamed for it. The look in your eyes . . . that sadism . . ." He shook, and Kalin inwardly cringed. "Then . . . you killed yourself. You wanted to be with me, but . . . I never saw you. . . ." He dug a hand into his hair. "It was horrible."

Kalin stared at Radley, at a loss for words.

"Please tell me you wouldn't do it," Radley begged.

". . . I don't know what I'd do," Kalin admitted. "I'd feel like doing everything you described. But . . . I think I'd try to go on. Yusei and the others would try to stop me, just like they did before, and I'd probably listen." He shook his head. "But I can't promise anything more than that. And I'd always be empty inside. I can't promise I could really go on without you. I don't think I could bear losing another loved one. I might just give out."

Radley closed his eyes in knowing dismay. "Oh Kalin. . . ."

"Would you feel any different?" Kalin asked. He sat up. "Maybe I'm just too dark a soul for one as bright as you."

Radley sat up too. "I don't know what I'd do either," he said. "If you were deliberately killed, that might push me over the edge. In any case, I . . . think I might die of a broken heart. Either that or I'd live, but with part of me dead."

"I'm not worth that," Kalin objected.

"I don't think I am either," Radley said. "I would want you to live, Kalin, to try to find some happiness in life even without me." He gave a sad smile. "But that's asking too much when we love each other so much, isn't it?"

"Yes," Kalin said. ". . . Have you heard of the Angel of Grief statue?"

". . . I think so," Radley said. "The angel slumped over a tomb, mourning the dead person?"

Kalin nodded. "There's a lot of them around now. But the very first one . . . it was sculpted by a man who'd lost his wife and felt like he'd died right along with her. His kids suggested he make some kind of monument to her and he did. He died shortly after he finished it."

". . . That's pretty sad," Radley said. "But it must have been a relief to get back with her. I heard about a couple of instances of one half of a couple dying and the other feeling so horrible they really did die of a broken heart within hours or days."

"We're definitely not the only ones to feel so intensely about each other," Kalin said. "I think it's normal. . . . Although if I think something is normal, it probably isn't."

"No, I think you're right," Radley said. "Maybe it's not usual for a non-romantic couple to feel like that about each other, but when have we ever been conventional? Anyway, I think I've heard about some people taking the deaths of family members that hard too."

"I always thought I loved too much and too deeply . . . or I did after I came back to myself and realized how far I'd fallen when I thought Yusei betrayed me," Kalin said. "Most people don't sink so far into despair that they let themselves be swallowed up by an evil force."

"I love too much and too deeply too," Radley said. "Although I'd probably emotionally shatter instead of ending up bent on revenge. We're quite a pair, aren't we?"

"And I wouldn't have it any other way," Kalin said.

"I hope every day that death won't be an issue, at least not for a really long time," Radley said.

". . . When you saw that angel, Kasumi, did she give you any indication of how long we might have?" Kalin asked.

". . . I wanna say she implied we'd have a long time, but I could have been reading into it what I wanted to hear," Radley said. He sighed. "I say a lot that we can't worry about things like that and we have to live for the moment, but then it comes out in my dreams."

"That's to be expected when we love each other," Kalin said. He hugged Radley close. "But I'm going to cling to that thought anyway. We will have a long time."

Radley slowly hugged back. He certainly wanted to believe that too. Really, he did believe it. But sometimes he still worried, as he knew Kalin did.

That was only normal as well.