Don't own 'em, but gonna screw with 'em anyway.
The Lazarus Factor
Chapter 3 - Requiem for Happiness
"Real knowledge is to know the extent of ones ignorance."- Confucius
Ron wasn't coming back from the bathroom. Somehow, in the back of her mind, Kim knew this. She had tried to ignore the feeling by talking with Monique, but the little voice in her head wouldn't shut up. Still, she managed to get through lunch without showing her doubts to Monique, telling herself that she would just have to catch up with him later. Upon leaving the lunchroom, however, she suddenly heard a rustling in her backpack and discovered Rufus. This almost made her panic. Rufus and Ron were NEVER apart and combined with the forgetting of him last night, Kim was suddenly greatly concerned about her friend.
"Sorry Monique," Kim sighed, "but I've just GOT to make sure he's okay."
"Don't worry about it, he did look kind of funny at lunch. Go check up on the guy." Kim thanked Monique and hurried to the office. Somehow she knew that Ron had already left and was determined to catch up to him and find out what was wrong once and for all. Due to her injured shoulder, getting permission to leave was no problem. The secretary instructed her to go home, rest, and put some ice on it. Kim ran almost the whole way to Ron's house. Walking in the front door, her fears were slightly soothed by the sight of the Stoppables' neat, normal house.
"This IS Ron we're talking about here," she reminded herself for the tenth time, "there has to be some simple explanation for all this." She smiled as she neared Ron's bedroom door with Rufus sitting on her shoulder, "He's probably in there right now, passed out on his bed." She casually opened the door and, looking inside, could have sworn that her heart stopped for close to a minute.
Ron was sitting in a chair with his left elbow resting on his knee, his hand held before his face as blood ran down his arm. In his right hand was a jagged piece of ceramic, still with a hint of red on one edge. But the thing that really sent chills down her spine was the look on his face. He didn't look hurt or scared; instead there was a horribly benign curiosity, as if he was watching an aquarium full of interesting fish. Kim wasn't sure how long she stood there until she was finally able to say something, but when she did it was little more than a croak.
"Ron," her voice was muted and garbled in shock, but suddenly it seemed to pass, and the situation suddenly loomed large and clear in front of her. "RON!!" she practically screamed, though still not moving from the door. To her dismay he didn't respond, he just kept staring fixedly at the blood flowing down his arm. Finally she couldn't take it anymore. "RON!" she ran over to him, falling to her knees in front of the chair. "RON!" she shook his right knee hoping to make him notice her. "RON!!!", she finally grabbed both his shoulders and shook him.
Ron's eyes suddenly came into focus and he glanced down at her, the same casually curious look on his face.
"Oh, hey KP," he said, absently, "when did you get here?"
"Ron, you're bleeding. Did you cut yourself?"
"Oh....yeah." Ron's voice was eerily calm, though slightly confused sounding.
"Did you.... did you do it on purpose?" Kim held her breath, dreading the answer she knew was coming.
"Um...yeah, yeah I did," Ron paused, as if thinking, "I...um, I wanted to see how it.... I mean, if..."
"Ron," Kim cut him off, "what were you thinking?"
"I...was always scared of it," he continued, indicating his cut palm, "wanted to get used to it. Help out. Sorry if I didn't.... notice you come in. I was just watching..... was looking at it. It just seems to keep going...." Ron trailed off. Kim was close to tears. Ron was acting insane and she didn't know what to do. She managed to get him up and to the bathroom to wash off his hand and arm. Once she had started applying some antiseptic to the cut, Ron was acting a little more aware of his surroundings.
"Look, I'm sorry about all that KP," Ron smiled, "I just thought that if I could get used to getting hurt, maybe I could toughen myself up a bit. You know, the whole Rambo thing." he joked.
"No, I don't know!" Kim wanted to shout, "This is not sane behavior, this is sick, scary behavior and you need help." But she didn't say it, she couldn't. "Okay Ron, but don't do it again, will you? I'm sure we can think of some other way."
"Sure KP," Ron smiled again, "and, hey, could you maybe not mention this to my parents. They wouldn't understand, probably think I'm crazy or something." Kim couldn't help thinking that maybe he was crazy. She wanted to believe his excuse, but thinking back to the look of fascination on his face, she couldn't accept it. That expression was something more serious, and she didn't see it going away so easily. She looked at Ron and felt her stomach tighten.
"Sure Ron, I promise." Kim looked at the reddish stain on Ron's pants and felt like she had just handed him a shiny new knife with which to hurt himself all over again. Kim stayed with him the rest of the day, only leaving when his parents returned. She said that her shoulder was acting up and she didn't feel like walking home, but she just didn't want to leave Ron alone. Rufus was confused at what had happened. Ron had looked hurt but had acted fine, and Rufus couldn't make out which it was.
Once the Stoppables had gotten home Kim said good-bye and left, keeping her promise. All the way home she wondered if she was making a big mistake. Ron WAS her best friend, but would she be betraying him more by telling someone, or by NOT telling them. As she sat at dinner that night there were a couple times where she actually opened her mouth to tell her parents, but she changed her mind at the last moment and kept quiet. Again, as she got ready for bed, she convinced herself that his parents needed to know, but, again, she stopped as she turned towards the door.
"What if it WAS just a one time thing," she thought, "if I tell his parents, he'd probably end up in counseling, on medication, and who knows what else. All for something me may never do again. I'll just have to trust him," she decided as she fell into bed. She lay there and was starting to fall asleep when, suddenly, she heard the beeping of her communicator. Sitting up groggily she began to look for it, but for some reason it was nowhere to be found.
"Kim," Wade's voice caused her to look down. Her communicator was in her hand, she also noticed that she was in her normal mission gear.
"I must be more out of it than I thought," she mused, "I could have sworn I was dressed for bed."
"Kim," Wade called again, "I've found Drakken's real hideout. It's an old abandoned factory at the edge of town. Cutter's Mill." Kim shook her head, trying to get focused.
"I'm on it Wade," she headed for the door and was soon outside the factory with Ron. It was funny though, because she couldn't quite remember the trip over, but she mentally pushed that aside.
"I've got more important things to think about," she reminded herself. Ron was standing beside her with the same goofy smile she'd seen so many times before.
"Ready to kick some super-villain butt, KP?" Kim smiled at him. In the back of her mind she knew she should be worried, but she couldn't think why. After all, this was the old familiar Ron, with his bad jokes and cheesy one-liners. What was there to worry about?
They got into the factory quite easily, and were soon running down corridors trying to find Drakken. The hallways seemed to go on forever with no change in them, but soon Kim began to notice that the ceiling seemed higher. Soon there was no doubt as the ceiling stretched far up above them and was soon lost in the inky blackness that seemed to saturate the hallway. In fact, only the floor along the middle of the hallway seemed to be lit, but how Kim didn't know since any ceiling lights had to be a good 200 feet above them at least. Breathing heavily they stopped and Ron leaned against the shadowed wall only to find that there was no wall there. Kim leapt forward, grabbing his arm as he fell from the narrow ledge that the hallway had become.
The floor seemed to slope forward, making it hard to stay on. She reached out, grabbing Ron's arm with her other hand, but everywhere she touched him large, bloody gashes suddenly appeared. Kim didn't know what to do. She was hurting her friend with every touch and the blood that flowed freely down his arm was making it impossible to hold on to him.
"It's okay Kim," came Ron's voice. Kim looked down at him. He seemed so calm, yet in a horrible way. The look was familiar, but she didn't want to remember where she had seen it before. "Kim," Ron said again, "it's okay. It's all ending." Suddenly, Kim's hand passed right through his arm, as if he where a ghost. Kim screamed in horror as she watched Ron swallowed up by the dark abyss. She stared after him, even after he was out of sight until she heard a noise above her. Looking up she was only able to catch a flash of metal and a thin, sharp edge before the thing hit her right between the eyes.
Kim screamed and sat up. Sat up? Looking around wildly she saw no hallway or bottomless pit, only her own room. Kim didn't go back to sleep that night. The dream had unnerved her, and she was terrified of having it again.
Next: One of the world's certainties rears its head. And it isn't taxes.
