Help

by AwesomePotterlover

Transitions aren't easy. Especially when you're 13-years-old, probably sociopathic, depressed, and a member of the Vantas family. And let's not forget about the physcopathic best friend, who just HAPPENS to be having worse problems than you. But of course, you aren't Karkat Vantas,so you wouldn't know about any of these things. (Humanstuck) (Sadstuck?)

2. Injuries, Ghosts and Bad Memories

AN: i'm updating cos u little babbu's wanted me to. Enjoy, my fellow fic readers and writers!

Karkat was pacing outside the entrance of two rooms in the hospital, his eyes diverted firmly to the floor. Gamzee was sitting down with his head in his hands. Karkat was pacing back and forth continuously and loudly. After ten minutes Gamzee yelled at him. "STOP PACING FOR FUCKS SAKE!" One of the nurses looked worriedly over to them. Karkat stopped, sitting down next to his best friend.

Suddenly, a nurse came to them. "Hello." She said gently. "Are you waiting for the two that are in there." She continued, gesturing to the rooms. Both nodded. "What are your names, then?"
"I'm Karkat, he's Gamzee." The teenager's tone was bitter. "Well...the other two's parents have been called. I'm sure they'll be able to comfort you a little." With that, she walked away. Predictibly, Tavros's and Mary's parents were there in ten minutes. Tavros's mother entered the waiting area first. She looked around worriedly, then caught sight of the two boys sitting next to two doors.
"Gamzee? Karkat?" She sounded confused. Then realization hit her. "Oh, you poor kids!" Next came Tav's Dad, and Mary's parents followed. They all looked worried sick. Karkat wanted to tell them it would all be ok. But he couldn't. Because it wouldn't be ok. It wasn't going to be OK!

After a short while a nurse came out of the entrance. Karkat and Gamzee were the first to her. "Are they ok?" Gamzee asked.
"Tavros Nitram is still being treated. Mary Doorwall is currently in a stable comatose condition." "Can we see her?" Karkat's voice cracked as he asked. The nurse nodded. He rushed into the room. Mary was in a white hospital bed, hooked up to a couple of weird machines, including a heart monitor. Its 'beep' was sort of comforting in a way. Karkat found himself tearing up. He didn't even try to stop it now. Gamzee pulled him into a comforting hug, letting his friend sob into his shoulder. Well, considering how tall Gamzee was, it was more of his chest, but it was comfort, nevertheless. They stood like that for at least 30 minutes. Then, a nurse entered. "You can see Tavros now. He's awake."
"Come on. You're not ready yet. Besides, Tavros is ok, right?" Gamzee was trying to make his voice calm and comforting, but it came out squeaky and nervous.

Gamzee rushed into the room without a second thought. Karkat watched from the door way as Gamzee raced to Tavros and kissed him. They pulled apart, turning red. "D'you need a second?" Karkat said, smiling. They just stood looking awkwardly at each other. Karkat laughed slightly, and then proceeded back to the waiting room for a while. Gamzee was right; he wasn't ready to see anyone lying in a coma, let alone Mary. And it was clear Gamzee and Tav didn't need interuptting. They're probably snogging each other's faces off by now, he thought fondly.

After a couple of minutes, Karkat got bored, so went to see how they were doing. They were just sitting talking, so Karkat decided to sit down next to his friend. "So, you guys, huh?" It sounded partly jokey, and quite a bit serious. Both other boys blushed at the same time, causing Karkat to laugh again.
"Seriously though, have they told you what your injuries are or whatever?" Karkat asked, looking at Tavros.
"I was afraid you'd ask that..." The small boy's voice was sad, which caused Gam to unnoticingly (or so he thought) hold the his hand. "The cuts and scratches weren't major. But..." He took a deep breath. "I'm never going to be able to move my legs again."
Both boys sat in a shocked silence. After a while, Karkat stood up. "W-where are you going?"
"To go kill that bitch that did this to you."
"It wasn't her fault."
"It was all her fault. You could have died, Tavros!"
"I know but-" It was easy to see Tavros was losing this arguement.
"No buts. I know we usually forgive her for what she does, but this, this has crossed the line. If I get arrested for murdering her, then I can say it was worth it." Karkat attempted to walk out, but Gamzee caught hold of his arm.
"Bro, calm down. They're alive."
"THAT'S NOT THE POINT! THE FACT THEY COULD'VE DIED BECAUSE OF HER, THAT'S THE POINT!"
"NO, THEY'RE ALIVE, AND PERSONALLY THAT'S ALL I NEED TO NOT GIVE A FLYING FUCK ABOUT WHATEVER SPIDERBITCH FUCKING SEKRET IS DOING OR WHETHER SHE'S ALIVE OR DEAD. ITS BASICALLY ALL MY FAULT! IF I HADN'T BEEN SO SLOW THEN NONE OF THIS WOULD HAVE HAPPENED!"
With that, Gamzee sat in the corner, pulled his legs to his chest and sobbed into his knees, his clown makeup running.
Karkat opened his mouth again, but Tavros interuptted.
"For Gods sake, don't I get a say in this?!" His voice wasn't nervous as usual. It was loud and angry...and fairly confident with the arguement it was about to give, it seemed. "I'm the victim in here! It wasn't anyone's fault! I was startled, and I lost my balance. Nothing more or less. It wasn't the teacher's or Mary's fault for shouting, it wasn't Vriska's fault for making me go to the edge, and it DEFINITELY wasn't either of your faults. If anything, it was my fault for falling a victim to peer pressure. " The others were too shocked to speak. Tavros had spoken his mind, loudly and confidently, without even one stutter, and seemed satisfied with his arguement afterwards. The hesitation lasted for about ten minutes, then Karkat sighed. "We can never get away from these tragedies, can we?" Tavros shook his head.
"I never thought I'd say it but, why is it always us? I mean, there was that trip to Doncaster Dome, where Vriska broke her arm, that trip to the Deep, where Sollux sprained his ankle and then Aradia-" All three flinched at the mention of her name. "Aradia...Drowned." It came out as a whisper.
"It's true...We never escape. Except sometimes Death thinks its caught one of us, but really, its like a game of Go-Fish. We make it think it has gotten the most people, then it finds it has a Joker, and we get all of them back." Karkat looked around. He hadn't said that. Gamzee hadn't said that. Tav hadn't said it. It was definitely a girl's voice. A girl's voice none of them had heard in a very very long time. "A-Aradia?" Gamzee's voice was a hoarse whisper. Tavros smiled.
"You see, I'm sure Tavros here told you I wasn't actually gone, but you were too busy screaming and crying to notice. All my family have regenerated as ghosts, what made you think I was gone? At first I thought it was just shock but you seemed thoroughly grief-stricken about my supposed 'Death'. Like I said, it's like a game of Go-Fish!" They couldn't see her, but they could hear her. "Why can't we see you?" Karkat asked. Aradia's voice sighed. "Turn off the light, you idiot." Confused, Karkat did as told. As soon as the light was out, you could see a faint outline of a teenage girl, which got stronger and stronger until it almost looked like a solid person. "Aradia!"
"Yes, yes, we've already done this part."
"B-but how?"
Aradia sighed. "Didn't I just explain? I regenerated as a ghost, you idiot."
"Then why didn't you see us earlier? Do you have any idea how much we CRIED over you?!" Karkat demanded.
"To answer your first question, because I wasn't strong enough. Tavros naturally has a strong enough mind to talk to spirits and animals and such. I wasn't strong enough to manage to manifest myself, or my voice to you. Tavros only heard me simply because he was unconciously doing all the work. Second question, yes, I have personal experience that tells me how much you cried over me, and personally, I was quite flattered. I didn't think you cared that much." Karkat mumbled something about 'Of course we cared that much' and 'well he could of told us' and blah blah blah.
"I missed you." Gamzee said. "Sollux did too. None of us came to school for a month. We were made to go to post-trauma therapy." Aradia sighed sadly.
"Yes. I am aware of how much pain you, dear Sollux, and all the others, went through after my unfortunate demise. I yearned to comfort you, but like I said, I wasn't strong enough to manifest myself in any form to any other being than Tavros. Noone has as powerful a mind, you see."
"Well that's nice!" Karkat said jokingly. All four laughed slightly. Its almost like they had returned to who they used to be. But then it was gone again. The old innocent them who was shocked when someone sprained their finger had been gone for a long time. It had been replaced with the more mature, wise version, who exprienced death every now and then, and injuries had become an normal thing to happen.
"Sometimes..." Tavros said, sighing. "I wish I could unsee everything all the way back to the first incident that seemed to start all this." The 'first incident' had been the death of Karkat's mother and brother in a house fire. Him and his father had lived with the Makara's for 6 months afterwards, then Aradia died, and two grief-stricken teenagers were too much for one house, so Karkat's Dad rented a flat nearby.
"Me too." Karkat sighed. Aradia looked at him sympathetically. "I'm sorry I died so close after the incident Karkat. It must have been really hard for you."
"You couldn't stop yourself dying, Aradia."
"Yes, but sometimes I wish I'd of done something different so I could stay alive and help you. You only tell Gamzee and Sollux about everything, and you leave the rest of us clueless. We're your friends, and its not trouble to us to be a shoulder for you to lean on when you feel like falling."

"Can't we just, stop talking about me, and my feelings, and figure out how our lives are going to go on from here?" Karkat said. Aradia sighed again.
"I suppose you're right. Despite us seemingly winning, Life plays us like unimportant pawns on a chess board, only protecting its queen and leaving the rest of its willing solidiers to die. "
"Ok, can you stop with the riddlepoetry thing, its sorta annoying."
"Well saying most things directly hurts people more than if its in a probably confusing riddle they don't quite understand."
"Well its better to be honest and clear about what you are saying, Aradia. Then the person can be hurt, but at least they know you have told them the truth."
"Yeah, I suppose..."
There was silence, in which all of them flashed back to the first incident.

'Karkat was sleeping when he coughed and awoke. His room was full of dark black smoke. Coughing hysterically, Karkat stood up and ran into the hallway. Now he could see that all downstairs was on fire, flames licking at the wooden banister of the stairs and starting to spread. Panicking, the teenager ran to his older brother's room. The fire had him surrounded and was creeping slowly towards him. Suddenly, he got dragged into the room. His older brother was in there covering his mouth with his arm. "GET OUT, NOW!" He shouted, pushing his younger brother towards the window. "What about mum and dad?! And you!?"
"DON'T WORRY ABOUT US JUST GET OUT OF THIS HOUSE!" With that, the 19-year-old pushed his sibling out of the window. Karkat landed safely, and looked up, expecting Kankri to be jumping after him.
But he didn't.
And the flames were all around the house.
And there was a scream.
Then nothing.
"NO!" Karkat screamed, trying to run back into his burning house. He was restrained by fire fighters. "NO! PLEASE, MY BROTHER, HE'S STILL IN THERE! WE HAVE TO SAVE HIM! PLEASE!" The shouts had attracted attention from the neighborhood, and Gamzee Makara ran to the scene of his best friend's ignited house. "KARKAT?!" He yelled worriedly, already panicking.
"G-Gamzee?" His best friend's quivering voice came from behind him.
"Oh, thank god you're ok!"
Karkat said nothing. He just seemed to...break. He collapsed onto the taller teen and sobbed loudly, not bothering about who was watching.
"Shhhhhhh. It'll all be ok, Karkat. Everything's going to be ok." Gamzee soothed, hugging his friend comfortingly.
"B-but K-kankri h-he's... He's dead!" Karkat wailed, tears streaming down his pale face. Only now did Gamzee notice how terrible his best friend looked. Karkat's face was pale and thin, his hair was a black mess, his eyes bloodshot and his nose running. "I know Karkat, I know. But I'm here for you. No matter what!"
"R-really?" "Yeah. Because thats what friends are supposed to do." Gamzee suddenly spotted Vriska Sekret slipping away in the shadows. She was laughing.

When Karkat walked into school the next day, one of your average popular kids shouted: "HEY LOOK ITS THE GUY WHO GOT HIS FAMILY KILLED!"
Immediately, Gamzee retaliated for his friend. "HE DID NOT GET HIS FAMILY KILLED! YOU DON'T JUST GET YOUR FAMILY KILLED! AND IF YOU DON'T LEAVE HIM ALONE HIS FAMILY WON'T BE THE ONLY ONES DEAD!"
Most sane people took Gamzee's threat seriously, like it should be taken, and laid off. But this certain popular boy felt like pushing it to the limit and beyond. "What orphanage you going to, eh, Vantas?"
"My dad is alive."
"I doubt he will be for long knowing your family."
Karkat's temper rose. "I WILL RIP YOU TO PIECES AND EAT YOU AFTERWARDS, YOU EVIL BASTARD! YOU ARE DEAD!"
"I'd like to see you try."
That definitely crossed the line. Karkat flew at the guy, and punched him hard in the jaw, then pinned him to the wall by his neck.'

Karkat laughed slightly. He had beaten that guy up. And got a detention for it. But it was all worth defending my family, the teenager thought. His memory drifted onto the educational visit to The Deep.

'The class streamed into the coach, taking seats next to there friends. Only a couple remained, talking to their parents. One of which was Karkat Vantas.
"Dad, are you sure you'll be ok?"
"Calm down, Karkat. I'll be fine."
"But-"
"Son, you go have fun. I'll be absolutely fine. Besides, you're not going for the weekend! Its just 6 hours. Now you go, and be careful."
With that, Karkat scrambled on the bus. He took the place near the window, with Sollux next to him, seeing as Gamzee was next to Tavros. He stared out of the window as his Dad and the other parents became smaller and smaller with every inch forward the coach moved.

In the middle of the journey, everyone was cheerfully singing songs. First was a pirate song that Sollux started when everyone was looking miserable, to lighten the mood.
"WHEN I WAS ONE I GOT A THMACK ON THE BUM!"
Everyone laughed at this, then began to join in on the chorus.
"The day I went to sea! I climbed aboard a pirate ship and the captain said to me: We're going this way, that way, forwards, backwards over the Irish sea! A bottle of rum to fill my tum and that's the life for me!AAAARGH!"
Gamzee took over the second part.
"WHEN I WAS TWO I HAD A POO!"
"The day I went to sea! I climbed aboard a pirate ship and the captain said to me: We're going this way, that way, forwards, backwards over the Irish sea! A bottle of rum to fill my tum and that's the life for me!AAAARGH!"
"When I was three, I had a wee!" Terezi shouted, laughing.
"The day I went to sea! I climbed aboard a pirate ship and the captain said to me: We're going this way, that way, forwards, backwards over the Irish sea! A bottle of rum to fill my tum and that's the life for me!AAAARGH!"
Aradia came in for four. "When I was four I fell on the floor."
"The day I went to sea! I climbed aboard a pirate ship and the captain said to me: We're going this way, that way, forwards, backwards over the Irish sea! A bottle of rum to fill my tum and that's the life for me!AAAARGH!"
Nepeta interuptted in her cute, squeaky voice. "When I was five, I knocked over a bee hive."
"The day I went to sea! I climbed aboard a pirate ship and the captain said to me: We're going this way, that way, forwards, backwards over the Irish sea! A bottle of rum to fill my tum and that's the life for me!AAAARGH!"
Tavros's voice was quiet as he attempted to continue the song. "W-When I was six, I, uh, ate a Twix?"
"The day I went to sea! I climbed aboard a pirate ship and the captain said to me: We're going this way, that way, forwards, backwards over the Irish sea! A bottle of rum to fill my tum and that's the life for me!AAAARGH!"
"JUST SHUT UP ALREADY!" Karkat couldn't stop himself screaming. Everyone stopped, looking at him.
"THAT SONG IS REALLY REPETITIVE AND FUCKING ANNOYING!"
"Geeth, thorry Kk, jutht trying to lighten the mood."
"Well maybe I don't want it to be lightened."
"KK thtop being thuch an athole, I know you've gone through a lot between thethe patht few weekth, but you don't have to take you're thuffering out on everyone elthe! Thith ith a trip to have fun, not to hear you whine about how bad your life ith!"

"Karbro, he's right, you need to lighten up."
"IF YOUR BROTHER HAD FUCKING DIED A WEEK AGO, ALONG WITH YOUR FUCKING MUM, WOULD YOU BE ABLE TO LIGHTEN UP!?"
"Some words they can't be spoken, only sung." Aradia's voice was soft and soothing. After all, they were friends. And friends help and comfort each other. Feferi joined in. "So hear a thousand voices shouting love."
All the girls joined in.
"There's a place, there's a time, in this life, when you sing what you are feeling."
The boys joined also, harmonizing perfectly with the girls' higher voices.
"Find your feet, stand your ground, don't you see right now the world is listening to what we say!" They all stared at Karkat, who had been calmed gradually by the comforting voices of his friends. "Sing it louder, sing it clearer, knowing everyone will hear you! Make some noise, find your voice, tonight! Sing it stronger, sing together, make this moment last forever, old and young, shouting love tonight!" They all looked at him expectantly. Sighing inwardly, he solo'd the second verse, like he always did in choir. He smiled very slightly as he sung. "To sing we've had a life time to wait." The rest of his class did the echo. "To wait, To wait, To wait."
"And see a thousand faces celebrate."
"Cele, celebrate."
All of his class were now singing fully to Karkat, who was smiling now.
"You brought hope, you brought light, conquered fear, no it couldn't have been easy! Stood your ground, kept your faith, don't you see right now the world is listening, to what we say?"
Then they all sung in perfect, beautiful unison.
"Sing it louder, Sing it clearer, knowing everyone will hear you! Make some noise, find your voice, tonight! Sing it stronger, Sing together, Make this moment last forever! Old and young, shouting love, tonight!"
Nepeta's voice did the solo perfectly, making some boys on the coach swoon.
"Some words they can't be spoken only sung. So hear a thousand voices shouting love, and light, and hope!"
Everyone else joined in.
"Just sing; Just sing; Just sing; Just sing."
The boys continued on and the girls continued the just sing part. When it got to the end, Nepeta sung in that cute,beautiful voice of hers.
"Hear a thousand voices shouting love."
Karkat grinned.
"Thanks you guys. I love you all."
"We love you too, Karkitty!" Nepeta said.
That had put a smile onto everyone's faces.
"We're here, kids!" The teacher said. Everyone cheered.
They all tripped, ran, stumbled and were dragged by the stream of others, out of the coach.
"WOW!"
The day all went according to plan until 1 o'clock. The group was investigating the bridge. Aradia walked along the edge confidently. "Hey Megido, careful not to get that dustbin bag caught on the sides!" A spiteful kid from another class yelled.
"Leave her alone. Or elthe."
"Whatever, wimp! I bet you can't even touch the water!"
"Oh yeah!" Said Aradia. "Well watch this!" With that, she dived into the river. "ARADIA!" One of the teacher's yelled. Her head popped up. The mean kids gawped. "HELP!" Aradia shouted as the current dragged her out towards the big river, which lead to the sea. Lifeguards rushed around, calling an ambulance and trying desprately to get her out of the water. "NO, ARADIA!" Sollux shouted, running towards the end of the bridge. "Sollux, you can't!"
"I HAVE TO!"
Suddenly, the girl was dragged underwater by the current, letting out a scream. An air ambulance had arrived 5 minutes later. They found Aradia quickly. Her body was drenched and limp. They landed, and started franticly doing CPR. After ten minutes, they seemed to have given up.
"We've lost her." One of the paramedics said.
"NO!" Sollux's scream was more painful to hear than Aradia's was. "No...Aradia..." Tears were streaming down his face, and everyone else's, as he clutched the limp body of Aradia Megido.'

AN: So, you like? This took me FOREVER to write. It's longer than my usual update, so you better be happy! Review? Please?