Well, it's finally over. Those of you who thought the last chapter was the actual last chapter, you were so wrong! Well, technicly this is the epilogue. HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

(P.S. This new, sort of darker version of Chester is sort of a preview of the sequel.)

Chester licked the snow cone, the first one he had ever eaten. It tasted just like he expected it would, being nothing but ice chips covered in a blue sugary syrup held in a cheap paper cone… but with Abby resting her head on his shoulder, half asleep as they walked home from the end of school carnival… it was the most wonderful thing he had ever tasted.

Ty's jacket was loosely placed around his shoulders, looking just as silly on him as it did on its previous owner, but for him, new clothes were hard to come by... in legal ways, at least. He chuckled a bit remembering his own awestruck feelings when he tried to return it and Ty had actually let him keep it, jokingly calling it his sister's dowry.

It had not been even four months since that fateful Saturday but Chester pitied that poor soul he was back then, the young boy who didn't even live, just survive. That sad, lonely lad who counted his lifespan in weeks, who didn't expect to live to see high school, and in some ways… he was right. That kid did finally die, but not by his or any Chuck's hands. No, he 'went in the box' as he called it oh so long ago, by the kindness of Chester's friends, something he thought he would never gain in this lifetime!

Yes, that previous Chester was dead, but this brand new Chester, who had a life he never knew he could have. People still thought of him as Kid Rot, but he knew he had his friends to defend him against their hard words. He still had no money, but he had the Archers, who had practically adopted him as their other son.

True, it wasn't the perfect life; in fact most people would still say he had a horrible life, but it was getting a little better with every kind action his friends did for him, whether it was giving him a brand new copy of a book Kay thought was like his life, to just Naomi smiling at him and waving while her friends just stuck up their noses at him. Now if only…

Chester shook his head. No, he was getting greedy. He already had more than he ever thought he could have, it would just be asking for too much to wish for Chuck no.5 to be gone. Although, as he secretly confided in his friends one sleepover a few weeks ago, no.5 has scared him more than any of the previous Chucks. Chester didn't know why, although perhaps it was because no.5 seemed to defy the unwritten rules of Chuckhood, as he didn't seem to want to kill him but to just mutilate and torture him.

Now, Chester could take a Chuck trying to hurt him as a way of killing him, it was all part of the cat and mouse game Chester and the Chucks played, although Chester usually won their morbid game when they all died. But now this Chuck disgracefully was making a mockery of the game by just trying to hurt him! "And perhaps… that's why he survives." Chester muttered to himself, careful not to wake Abby, who he somehow managed to coax into still walking while in a state of almost being asleep.

He had often wondered, usually in the dark of the new moon when the only sound he heard was his own heartbeat, if he had somehow managed to cause the Chucks deaths. A mere mortal, able to cause other beings to die? A ridiculous idea… only, Chester wasn't sure he was a mere mortal…

This was his one secret fear that he never shared with his friends, even with Abby. The idea he actually is some sort of alien/mutant/immortal/devil's spawn/tooth fairy was one that shook him to the core. He shook his head hard, trying to get rid of those moonless midnight thoughts, because that's when he was supposed to have doubts about his humanity, not while walking home with his girlfriend sort of sleeping on his shoulder, enjoying a frozen non dairy treat and about to start his summer vacation!

They were approaching his house, Chester was about to take another lick of his snow cone when he froze, letting it crash to the sidewalk, covering his and Abby's shoes with half melted ice and blue syrup that won't come out of either of their shoes forever. Abby slightly opened her tired eyes then let them widen when the she registered sight in front of her.

In front of Chester's house, which looked surprisingly better then she thought it would, a police car sat, with the officer, a gruff old man with graying brown hair and thick mustache was arguing with a man Abby figured to be Chuck no.5. No.5 looked surprisingly different than she thought he would look like. It was hard to think of that man, a middle age, middle sized balding guy wearing a dirty T-shirt and loose worn pair of jeans as the demonic figure that had tormented her dear Chester. That was, until she saw the ice cold angry look she saw no.5 give Chester before grabbing him by the shoulder and pulling him close to him.

"Now… uh… 'Buddy', how about you tell this nice inspector that his visit is unnecessary, and that we're the closest of pals!" no.5 tightened his grip on Chester's shoulder so it actually hurt, and Chester realized what was going on. The police officer was going to arrest no.5 for child abuse. But before he could say a word against him, no.5 wrapped himself around Chester in a strangling vice like hug.

In the middle of it he whispered to his suffocating 'buddy' "If you tell him about me hitting you, I'll make every other injury I gave you seem like a paper cut, got it?"

He released Chester, but kept his incredibly strong grip on his shoulder. "Now, tell the nice man about how I treat you."

Chester remained silent, nearly in tears. He was torn between finally being free of this wretched man, and his fear of him. He finally took a deep breath and started to speak in a shaky sobbing voice. "Mis-mister Ba-barker has b-been nothing but nice to-to… me."

Abby couldn't believe the control this man had on her Chester. She felt the rage building up inside of her, magnified by each stuttered out lie Chester forced himself to speak. Finally she barged in front of Chuck no.5 and practically jumped him, trying to break his grasp on her boy, both his hand clutching onto Chester's shoulder, and the fear he inspired in his heart.

No.5 threw her off with strength nearly double hers, even with all her anger fueled power. Chester gasped as she hit the police car with a horrifying sound of human flesh meeting metal… and they didn't like each other very well. No.5 tried to excuse his actions. "Did you see her coming at him! I always knew she was a psycho, thank God I was here or else she would have seriously hurt him!"

And strangely enough, this was Chester's breaking point. Seeing his girlfriend groaning against the car door, her arm bent at the wrong angle, and no.5 excusing it as self defense. He tried to pull himself away from no.5. "You're the one who seriously hurts me." Chester muttered, trying to worm his shoulder out of no.5's hand.

Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately Chuck no.5 heard him. He grabbed the boy by the collar of his shirt and held him close enough so that Chester could smell the liquor on his breath. "What did you say?" No.5 asked, in a low voice that Chester learned to fear more than when he yelled, because this was when the knifes came out. But for once, Chester wasn't scared of him.

"I'd put the child down, if I were you." Both Chester and no.5 turned to look at the police officer, Chester with relief, no.5 with horror. The former Kid Rot ducked out, leaving no.5 holding nothing but an over sized shirt and a jacket he had no memory of ever buying the boy.

Chester, with all the cuts and bruises on his chest in view for the whole world to see, slipped over to his injured girlfriend. "Abby, are you alright? Oh, no! Your arm…" Chester felt guilty; if he just admitted how he was being treated by no.5 she wouldn't have tried to save him.

Abby, despite her pain, smiled at Chester. "C'mon, he's hurt you a lot worse than this… And besides, now I can spend the summer here instead of going to that stupid volleyball camp."

The two watched as the police officer handcuffed Chuck no.5 and dutifully read him his rights. Chester wrapped the arm which didn't have a busted shoulder around Abby's non broken hand and pulled her to her feet. The two stared at each other for a while before Chester broke the silence.

"Hey Abby…"

"Yeah?"

"You remember when I said I don't know my birthday?"

"Yeah,"

"Today. Today is my birthday." Somehow this brought tears to Abby's eyes as the two brought each other close with a soft, gentle hug and kiss, careful of each other's wounds. Then the two limped off into the night, hopefully to go see a doctor.

After the couple left, a car parked across the street started back up and drove off in the other direction, with the duo inside it talking about what they just saw.

"The call was enough."

"We had to make sure it got through."

"I could get you fired, Joe."

"Yeah, but then I'd tell them I caught you looking through the student records."

"…I hate you Joe."

"Meh, I'm kinda on the fence about you too Boil."

After this I'm going to write a sequel, although I have no idea what to call it. It's two or three years later, and Chester was a new Chuck (number 8 to be precise) but this new guardian is different from the rest, will the two's strange relationship end like all the other Chucks? Is this new guy just waiting for his chance to kill like Chester thinks? You won't know until I find a good title. Send in your suggestions!