Karkat was engulfed in darkness. He could feel the pain of his body, but it was muted, dampened by unconsciousness. He could not wake up, there was a barrier of some kind between him and awakening. Damn, he's never done anything like this before. I made him so mad by not dying in that trunk. I wish I had died there. When I come to, it's going to be hell. Since he had no hope of waking soon, he determined to just… drift. Letting his mind turn off, he entered a sort of trance-like state within his lucid dream. Images came to his mind unbidden: Kanaya the subject of all of them. He remembered how she continually tried to help him, and he, like an idiot, had tried to push her away.

Thinking about his actions toward Kanaya caused his dreamscape to change. At first, the transformation was subtle, but it quickly grew unmistakable. The black fog was beginning to thin, turning the area a now rapidly lightening grey. He was truly amazed at where he was. He was back on the lawn where his dream of Kanaya dancing had occurred. Hearing a startled intake of breath behind him, he turned around to see Kanaya in her golden dress getting up from under a tree. Strange, there wasn't a tree there before. Or was there?

"I've been waiting here for you for a long time, Karkat. Are you ready to live?"

"I-I can't live like I have been anymore. It's going to kill me, if I'm not already going to die…" He looked down. Unlike before, he was not garbed in an obsidian suit. He was clothed only below the waist, and his bare chest showed signs of his most recent tortures.

"I know. I know what happened, and you need to get help. But first, come with me." She held out her hand. "Come with me," she whispered, "I'll show you what life is about."

"I can't, Kanaya. I just can't."

"Why not? There are no chains binding you. You won't come with me because you're afraid of being thrown away. But I won't do that. There is more to life than what you've experienced. I can show you what you have missed."

"So? Other people deserve that life. I don't. I deserve only pain and fear." He sat down on the ground, bringing his knees to his forehead. "They're so much better than me."

"Karkat, don't you ever talk about yourself like that! Not even the worst criminals are treated like you are."

"What are you getting at, Kanaya? I am far worse than any of them."

"How? How are you so much worse than criminals that you deserve to be treated like this?"

"You… you really want to know?" He looked up, and saw Kanaya nod, "Alright. I killed my mother."

"You… what?"

"When she was giving birth to me, the strain was too much for her and her heart gave out. My dad… well…"

"He blamed you for the loss of his wife. Did he treat her as poorly as he does you?"

"As far as I know, he treated her like a queen. In the few times he mentioned her, he always talks in a reverent tone, almost idolizing. I think after I killed her, my dad went insane."

"Stop it! Stop saying that you killed her! You had nothing to do with it!"

"Really? Can you really tell me that my mother dying giving me life was not my fault? I see no way that it couldn't be my fault. He misses her so much that he is unwilling to kill her killer. Instead, he makes my life painful enough to attempt to atone for her murder."

"Karkat, this wasn't your fault. I just don't understand how he is willing to torture the only link he has to his beloved wife. You're his child, for goodness' sake! He might be your biological father, but he is not your real father."

"He's all I've ever known. He doesn't drink or do drugs either. He knows exactly what he does to me, and he enjoys it! He laughs as I scream! He'll kill me if I try to get help."

"If you don't get help now Karkat, you will die."

"Would that be so bad? My life isn't worth living."

"Karkat, you need to live! Fight! Do something to show that monster that calls itself human that you are not going to allow this anymore! Go!"

Karkat came to screaming in pain. Kanaya's orders galvanized him into action. Steeling himself for the ordeal to come, he slowly pushed himself to his feet. The pain in his body was excruciating, but he kept repeating Kanaya's words. He walked on legs that held him by sheer force of will, shaking with every move he made.

Reaching the door, he pulled it open. His dad's door down the hall was shut, so he might be asleep. Pressure from supporting his head and shoulders had caused the brutally cauterized wounds on his chest to tear open and start weeping crimson tears. He walked down the hall to the kitchen, staggering each step he made. His body was dying, dehydrated for God knows how long and accompanied by massive blood loss. He reached the kitchen counter and reached for the phone.

He picked it up in shaky hands and dialed 911. It was immediately picked up.

"911, what is your emergency?"

"I- I don't know where to begin, but can you send an ambulance to apartment #69, third floor, Sandy Shores complex." He heard his father's door open; he had five seconds at best, "Hurry!"

A brutally thrown punch to his side caused him to scream. He hoped that was picked up by the phone. His dad made no move to end the call, just went on silently brutalizing Karkat. He simultaneously kneed Karkat between the legs and drove a double punch into his solar plexus, knocking the air out of his lungs. Karkat reached out to try to catch himself, but his dad caught his arm. Grinning wickedly, he moved his grip so that one hand was on the wrist and the other at the elbow. Karkat watched surreally as he slammed the area between his hands onto his rapidly rising knee. With a sickening snap and a mind-bending pain, his forearm snapped.

Karkat screamed as loud as he could, but having no breath in his lungs, made no sound. He watched in horror as his dad did the same thing with his other arm. Bone shards protruded from his already seriously injured arms, bleeding profusely. His dad laughed then, the wild, crazy laughter of a sadistic maniac. The pain was so intense that he normally would have passed out, but he couldn't find its welcoming embrace.

The maniac turned away and picked up a short, yet very, very sharp knife. He kneeled down on the floor and flipped Karkat over. As his weight was placed on one of his shattered arms, he shrieked in anguish. His dad began making long, deep cuts along his exposed back. There was no semblance of order to the lines; he just wanted to cause as much damage as possible to Karkat.

Eventually, Karkat felt the telltale signs of shock setting in. His dad had stopped tearing up his back and turned off the phone. He still couldn't feel unconsciousness approaching, but he felt… something else near. It was heavy, but also light and free. He knew that it was death, that his time had come. Finally. I can just… sleep…

He was startled back to reality by a forceful pounding on the door. "Open up or we'll knock this door off its damn hinges!"

There was no reply, so the sound of splintering wood came. The kitchen opening was facing the door, so the EMTs could see exactly what was going on. "Oh, shit!" was said many times. One vomited on the freshly splintered door. His dad stood up and charged them with his knife forward. He didn't get anything but a tazer to the chest.

"Hey, where's that stretcher! We need that RIGHT NOW!" Gentle hands lifted Karkat off the floor and placed him on a stretcher. He felt it being carried out of hell, down the stairs, and into the ambulance. When he was put in, the driver must have looked back.

"Holy God! What happened to this kid?"

"His dad was carving up his back and I saw more wounds on his chest. Now DRIVE, DAMMIT!" No time was wasted carrying out those orders. Karkat finally felt his oldest friend approach, and he wasted no time in accepting her offer. Sleep overtook him.

(Time Skip)

He woke up in another hospital bed, restrained once again, but in a different way. There were two bulky casts on his arms, his head was wrapped and so was his chest. He groaned to alert anyone in the room that he was, indeed, awake.

"Oh, you're awake," a female voice spoke, obviously relieved, "How do you feel?"

"I feel like complete shit."

"I understand. For a while it… didn't look like you'd make it. You were dehydrated and had lost so much blood it's a miracle you didn't die from lack of oxygen alone. And… all of your… other injuries too."

"I know. I remember getting them too. I… couldn't go unconscious at all."

"You mean to say that you suffered through the shattering of four bones, the shredding of your back, and God only knows what else awake?"

Karkat cringed at her tone. That tone meant pain. "Y-yes ma'am." He tried to keep the fear from seeping into his voice, but it still shook.

"Sorry, I just didn't think that the mind could even handle that much."

"Oh, please. There are probably people that could do that without even flinching. And I go and overreact and call an ambulance. You're so weak, Karkat! So pathetic!"

"Hey! That's enough of that! Trauma like that would kill most people." The voice sounded alarmed at his self-hatred. "I'm going to go get some people. You need to talk about this."

The woman left, and soon returned with presumably more people. "I'm going to raise your bed so you can see us. Tell us if it hurts your back."

The bed below Karkat whirred and moved into a reclining position. The motion stretched his back and he felt some scabs open, but he said nothing.

"I am glad you're awake. We want you to tell us what exactly happened. Start at the beginning."

"At the risk of sounding horrible cliché, it all started when I was born…"

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Yes, to anyone that might be wondering, things are looking up for Karkat. I've decided to use the diamonds as a time skip mechanism. They won't cover the entire line, but I am confused about the transition from Word to FanFiction formatting. So, until next time, enjoy and review! – Manic-Catastrophe