C/W: Implied self-harm, blood, themes of self-hatred and hallucinations
"Honey, are you ready yet?" Elsa called upstairs.
No response and it made her worry.
"Poor boy." Morten shook his head sadly. "Last Friday must've been hard for him."
"That woman." Carl grunted. "Who does she think she is, raising a hand to my grandson? If I ever see her face one day, I'll give her some to complain about."
"It won't make any difference, Carl. Let's just try to be there for Kris if he needs it." responded Morten with a remorseful sigh.
At last, Kris finally came down. But as Elsa got a good look at him, he didn't radiate that positive energy like he used to anymore. And he avoided all contact with all the adults. He seemed to have changed his look modestly. He wore his black-gray zipperless hoodie underneath his jackets with the hood over his head and he had his hair down (as it was always tied up at the back of his head), which now helped shield his face and eyes from view.
"Uh…morning? I guess?" Stig greeted him while taking in his state with unease. Seeing his brother like this almost chilled Stig to the bone.
"So you ready, sweetie?" His mother asked.
.
.
.
No answer.
Kris didn't say a single word and not even a sound. He only turned his head toward her and quietly walked out the door with his backpack. This caught Elsa way off guard. That didn't look like the Kris she knew at all.
But nonetheless, she drove the two boys to school. And the car ride was eerily silent, but not just from Kris's lack of communication. Not even Stig could muster the will to say anything to Kris at the moment, because he knew this anywhere and had a strong inkling on where this was coming from. Friday night must've really broke him. To his credit, getting fired, slapped in the face and betrayed by your best friend and secret crush all at the same time will certainly do that to someone.
Kris just entered the school with Stig, dragging his bookbag across the floor. Some students were giving him odd looks, some looked concerned and some looked confused.
"People are looking at you, you know." Stig whispered to him and he still didn't answer. His brother sighed at this.
"Kris!" Came the collection of worried cries from Miriam, Priya and Abby, who rushed over to check up on the poor boy.
"Everything okay?" asked Miriam, holding his shoulder. "Are you doing okay?"
"Yeah, and what's with the new look?" asked Priya.
"He's not…..doing so well." Stig answered for him.
"I bet." Abby agreed. "The other night was just such a hot mess. After everything we've done for Mei, she had to go and sell us out like that?"
"Not to mention you got fired because of it." Miriam stated. "How could she?"
"Well, I hope she's proud of herself. If she really wants her mom's approval so much, then she can have it." gripped Priya.
"We're sorry for what happened, Kris." Abby apologized, morosely. "We're the ones that dragged you and the boys into all of this in the first place. None of this would've happened if we had kept you out of it."
But when Kris didn't respond, they started to get confused and increasingly worried. Kris just continued walking without maintaining any contact whatsoever as he opened his locker.
"Kris? Did you hear me?" Abby asked, trying to get his attention, but got none. "Uh, Kris? Hello?"
"Kris, answer her." Miriam ordered.
"Girls, stop." Stig disputed. "He's been like this all morning. He hasn't spoken a word and he probably won't now. Let's just give the guy his space right now, okay?"
"But Stig-"
"Come on, he's fine. He's just not in the mood." Stig remorsefully urged as the goth boy gestured the three away from Kris and led them down the hall.
As soon as they were gone far away from his personal space, Kris taciturnly grabbed some stuff out of his locker and stored his bookbag away. Classes proceeded as usual, except the selectively mute Norwegian boy just sat there stiffly, rigidly like a stone statue in his new state of reserved inaudibility. Lunch was no different either. Roar and Rudolf sat with him, trying to converse with him and ask him about what happened at the party last night, but he still would not utter a single word, making them increasingly worried.
"Why won't you say something?" asked Roar.
"..."
"Was it something we did?" Rudolf asked uneasily. "If there's something wrong, you'd tell us, right?"
"..."
"I'm thinking of a number between 1 and 100. What is it?" He asked, attempting to invoke a reaction.
"..."
Nothing.
But Stig reminded them that he was in a rough spot at the moment and that he kinda needed his space right now. They decided it wouldn't be very wise to just force a response or reaction out of him at this time. Moments later, Kris was getting stuff out of his locker. And wouldn't you know it, the Monroes came meandering over to him.
"Well, well, well." Moose snarked smugly. "Little Bengtsson's all alone."
He and his siblings all snickered obnoxiously.
"Looks like ya little panda girlfriend ain't around ta covah yah ass anymore."
"Man, what a loother." Bruce jabbed. "Gueth thombody's off the deep end now."
"Yeah, deep end."
"Dweeb's gonna whine to his momma now, ain't that right?" Moose mocked the boy before him who didn't once turn to face either of them nor make a single sound, much to the brute's annoyance.
"..."
"Hey! Didya hear what ah just said!? I know ya hear me!" Moose stormed, flaring his nostrils at being ignored. Then he yanked the hood off of Kris's head. "Ah'm talkin' to ya!"
That's when Kris suddenly stiffened at his hood being removed, dropping his bookbag to the floor. Then slowly, ever so slowly, he turned all the way around to finally face Moose.
"Oh, look. It undahstands." Moose taunted, satisfied. "So what now? Are gonna beg for ya li-ACK!"
Suddenly, Moose felt Kris shoot up at his thick throat and clutch it with an unnatural iron grip, cutting off his air and nearly crushing his windpipe, then lift him up 12 inches off the ground while Bruce, Debbie and a few other students near them froze to eye the scene with total bewilderment.
And then, Kris threw Moose to the right side of the hallway like a ragdoll and the obese boy found himself flying through the air as if he had been shot out of a cannon, smashing through wall after wall before landing outside on the basketball court outside and landing extraordinarily painfully against the bleachers, which bent and buckled upon the large bully's impact like a meteorite. Students nearby had to duck out of the way to avoid getting hit and the students on the court had jumped, startled when Moose had broken through the wall like it was nothing.
Many students and teachers all cautiously approached the large walls Moose's body created in the process due the sheer force of Kris's toss. Everyone looked on in horror, shock, surprise, equal parts curious and somewhat amazed at what just happened. However, Kris wasn't fazed at all as he just casually placed the hood back over his head and walked away with his bookbag, acting as if nothing happened.
So long story short, Kris was suspended from school for the next 20 days after that.
And was grounded for the rest of the day.
Elsa went up to her bedroom to have a little quiet time after the incident. She slumped onto the bed and breathed outward, mulling everything over in her head. Then to take the edge off, she sat up and opened up the doors to her nightstand to reveal a personal stash of alcoholic beverages such as wine, vodka and some a six-pack of beer. She snatched a single beer can out, opened it and was about ready to take a swig of that sweet, burning feeling of liquor when a voice stopped her.
"Oh, Elsa, not again!" Her father had stepped into the room to talk to her when he caught her in the act. "You said you'd cut back on that!"
"It's just something for my nerves, okay? Just one little sip won't hurt." The woman argued and tried again to go for a sip, but then Morten grabbed the can to take it from her, but Elsa gripped it tight and within seconds, the two started a tug-of-war with it. They both argued in Norwegian until finally, Elsa ripped it from her father's hands, causing her to spill a portion of its contents.
At this point, she finally sighed in resignation and sat down on the bed, completely despondent and helpless. Her father sat down next to her.
"I'm sorry, but it's been really hard, you know?" She sighed. "With everything that's been going on lately. Kris having nightmares, getting fired from his job, putting a classmate in the hospital, getting suspended and he's, like, completely shut down. He won't even talk to me at all. And now his birthday is coming up soon and I just…I just don't know what to do."
She started to weep softly.
"I just wish he was still here." She murmured. "I wish he was still here."
The old man brought his arms around his daughter in a comforting hug. He knew she, too, was struggling to cope herself after what had happened years ago in her own convoluted and rather unhealthy way. But nobody in the family realized is that only he had picked up on the facts. Kris's unusual amount of superhuman strength and the sparks he's been making with his hands and the boy's been scrambling to keep this hidden.
"I didn't feel like bringing this up before, but Kris…." He began, sucking in some air. "I think he's changing."
"Well, yeah, I know. It's called puberty. But that has nothing to do with this." Elsa replied, not understanding the point.
"No, I mean…a very, very different kind of 'changing'." corrected the old man with an unreadable expression.
Elsa gazed towards him strangely.
"Into what?"
"I don't know."
Stig just sat in his room in miserable silence as he laid there in his bed, watching an episode from the adult animated show, Aqua Teen Hunger Force. His mother was never okay with them watching adult content of this length unless they were old enough, so he tends to watch them in secret. He enjoyed the solace of his room in the basement. There was hardly anyone down there to bother him.
But then there came a rapping at his door.
Thinking it to be his mother, Stig quickly grabbed the remote and changed the channel to an episode of Scooby-Doo! Where Are You?, just to avoid suspicion.
"Yeah? What is it?" He called.
"Stig, it's me."
He fought back a sigh of relief as soon as he recognized that voice. It was Priya at the door. So he got up and opened the door for her.
"Oh, hey, babe." He greeted, letting her inside and having a good idea on the reason behind her visit as he returned to his position on the bed while she sat down next to him.
Priya grabbed his remote and changed the channel back to Aqua Teen Hunger Force.
"You were actually watching this, were you not?" She eyed him smirkingly, knowing him too well.
"Yes, I was." Stig admitted. "It's a pretty entertaining show. Just don't tell my mom about this, okay? She hates it when I watch shows like this."
"You and me both, mon cher." His girlfriend agreed, since she tends to watch inappropriate shows herself back at home - without her parents knowing, of course.
The young couple sat together on the bed watching the show with deep focus, chuckling a bit from time to time at the humor. Then Stig finally decided to break the ice by asking the most glaring question.
"You're here about what happened at school today, aren't you?"
"Yeah." She sighed sympathetically, her trademark deadpan face faltering slightly. "From the students, of course. It was….insane. How was that even possible?"
"I mean, Moose did kinda have it coming, but that was way too extreme and even I wouldn't do something like that." Stig reasoned, shaking his head. "Kris has never done anything like that before. I think the incident at Tyler's party must've been his breaking point."
"But still, how the hell did Kris even do that?" Priya wanted to know. "The students say that he just threw Moose through, I think, four walls like a ragdoll. Where did that even come from?"
"I wish I knew." Her boyfriend sighed heavily. "But I think we best leave him be. He's gone through enough right now."
At that, Priya snatched up the remote and turned the TV off to focus all her gobsmacked attention at him.
"Really?! So that's it? We're just giving up on him? Are we just gonna completely ignore the problem and hope it fixes itself?" Priya gaped at him, surprised at him, losing her trademark deadpan expression.
"I didn't mean it like that!"
"Stig, whatever's going on with Kris, he's obviously dealing with it in a very destructive way. No matter what, he won't talk to anyone, not even us. And now he's hurting people. He needs his friends. He needs us and he desperately needs you."
"I'm trying to be there for him. I really am." Stig delicately stated. "But…..I dunno. I just don't know. And his birthday's coming up soon. It may not be enough to cheer him up. I'll think of something I can do for him. Maybe something we can do together."
"Well, that's considerate of you, at least." The Indian girl shrugged with a small smile. "He's lucky to have you."
"For the most part."
"Come on, sucker! Take it!"
"Eat my dust!"
"Boom! Boom! Pop! Shaka-shaka! Zap!"
Roar and Rudolf were at the local arcade to help get their minds off of the unease of the situation by playing against each other in a game of Mortal Kombat. Rudolf was currently playing as Raiden battling Roar's character, Goro. And right now, Rudolf was coming out on top by blasting Goro with powerful bolts of lightning, weakening him.
"Zap, zap, zap! Ha, ha, ha, ha! Eat lightning and chew bubblegum!"
"Damn!" Roar cursed and tried to fight back, but ended up dying and losing the round to Rudolf.
"Flawless Victory!" The game said. "Raiden wins!"
"Yeah, thunder god, baby!" Rudolf cheered. "Who taught you to fight with four arms?"
"I'm not the one with the power of storms. You were way too powerful."
"Guys, we need to talk."
They both turned to see Miriam and Abby standing there looking both worried and serious. The boys withdrew from their game to face their girlfriends and they both already knew what was on their minds to begin with.
"Hey, girls." Roar greeted them. "What's up?"
"It's about Kris." His girlfriend answered. "We're really worried about him."
"Yeah, what's the deal?" Abby asked. "Why is he just suddenly shutting us all out? I know he's mad at Mei for what happened - I am, too! - but does he really need to be pushing us all aside like this?"
"I'd ask Kris about it, except he just won't say absolutely anything. He's like a zombie." Roar explained with the same concern as theirs.
"Except he hasn't eaten any brains."
"Not now, Dolf." They all hissed at him.
"Well, his birthday's coming up soon. We'll try to give him something that may lift his spirits. But I'm afraid that it won't be enough to at least invoke a peep out of him." expressed Roar, rubbing his chin.
"What if we invited him to the 4*Town concert?" suggested Miriam.
"Uh, what?"
"And you guys can come too, if you want." Abby chimed in.
"But did we even make enough money to buy tickets for all of us?" Roar perplexed, since their whole red panda merch business had to be taken down after the party incident.
"Well, you guys are not gonna believe this, but Tyler still paid us the money he promised us, even though things went south." Abby explained. "And an extra $100 bucks for our troubles."
"Seriously, that little weasel?" Roar scoffed.
"You bet."
"I guess Tyler kinda felt a little bad about provoking Mei and, you know, being a jerk all the time, that he just wanted to smooth things over." said Miriam.
"Wow, we's got a lot a money now." Rudolf gasped. "Yes!"
"But we don't even like 4*Town that much. Besides, we were kinda thinking about taking Kris to Pizza Planet for his birthday." Roar then declared. "I mean, taking him to a very large place full of billions of fans screaming over a boy band that he's not even interested in may not be a good start. In fact, it'll probably prompt him to retreat even further underneath his shell."
"And plus, pizza!" Rudolf cheered.
"Well, pizza does sound delicious." Abby licked her lips.
"But we just want someone else to be there with us." Miriam pointed out, almost begging. "It just doesn't feel right going to that concert without her after all the work we've done just to reach this moment. Since she isn't gonna be there because she's got that ritual thing, we thought maybe we should bring Kris and his friends along."
"Will there be pizza there?" asked Rudolf.
"No."
"Aww."
"I'll ask Stig about it." Roar shrugged. "He's definitely not gonna want to go, but if Kris will go, then so will he."
"That is all we ask." Miriam hugged her boyfriend and he hugged back.
Elsa had taken Kris to an appointment with his child psychiatrist, Dr. Arthur Sturluson. So far, the boy had still refused to communicate verbally or otherwise and it was really, really beginning to worry her. So she thought maybe Dr. Sturluson could have some insightful advice for them. However, with Kris's sudden antisocialness and persistent silence, there wasn't much to say about what to do about him. However, the psychiatrist did mention that perhaps his trauma has reached a point where he's just either unable or unwilling to express himself anymore. Couple this with the fact that he's been bullied relentlessly at school and the negative and soul-crushing reception he had received at his job up until getting fired and slapped in the face by his ex-boss.
Him avoiding his loved ones and refraining from communication might be his way of shielding himself from any further pain. That he's created a personal bubble from which he feels safer and more comfortable. Or maybe because of Mei not defending him from her mother could've infuriated him enough to initiate the silent treatment, which is usually used as a tactic to make someone feel bad about themselves and to punish them. But Dr. Sturluson has worked with Kris for a long time and he knew he wasn't going to keep this up forever.
Kris, right now, was pretty much extremely hurt almost beyond repair and he needed time to heal himself from these negative emotions. He was even about to bring up a certain past event, but Elsa quickly shut down that line of conversation out of fear that this would make things worse for her son.
Inside the bathroom back at home, Kris started back at his reflection in the mirror. He just stood there shirtless quietly and apathetically, lazily observing the many self-made knife scars on his belly and chest and on some parts of his shoulders along with the fresh one that was still bleeding and dripping down his abdomen, courtesy of an 'old friend' of his - clutched in his fist and letting tiny droplets of blood fall to the ground.
He blinked.
The light in the room dimmed until the only lights were the bulbs on the top of the mirror, leaving the silent boy in a void of empty darkness.
And then his reflection morphed into the shadow of that same man once again, but this invoked no such reaction of any kind. Kris didn't look too scared or too worried at all.
Despicable human.
It growled at him.
Glass shattered and hands gripped his throat tightly, lifting him up and Kris didn't not fight back, but only gripped the figure's arms as he stared back into the two deep abysses that burned and boiled.
Nobody loves you.
Nobody wants you.
Nobody will miss you.
You should just die.
Words that only sounded more solid pieces of advice rather than insults. And then his back hurt as he was thrown to the ground, which broke upon impact and he fell endlessly into the realm of which no light shined.
"Mei is a very special girl and you are not."
"Why do I put up with a brainless idiot like you?!"
"How many times must you beat yourself up just to look 'cool'?"
"Your laziness will not be tolerated. Period."
" To think you'd actually commit to brainwashing my Mei-Mei with these wretched and sordid ideas!"
"Thinking she could ever be your friend."
"Turning her into a complete deviant like you!"
"She doesn't need a retard like you."
"And if you ever come near me, my Mei-Mei or the temple ever again, I will kill you."
Kris sat there on the bench of the park that had a lovely view of the city, all alone. It was beautiful. He needed to get out of the house and get some fresh air and have some time by himself, away from everyone. Then the area around him began to turn a hellish orange and dark red as it suddenly started to heat about, trees were set ablaze until they burned to a cinder and the sky looked like it was on fire. The people in the area now stood frozen in place as they, too, set ablaze.
But now the sound of metal clanging was heard again. Only this time, he saw exactly where it was coming from.
Sure enough, about a couple yards in front of him was a tall, bald muscular figure adorned in a torched cape with long dark gray hair that looked as if it was stained with ashes. His skin was blackened, with light orange, yellow and some parts red all over, which made it seem like it was made of molten rock and lava and his hands glowed brightly like they were burning. The figure had his back turned to Kris as far as he could tell and stood before a large and wide burned table of some sort, banging on something with a blacksmith's hammer over and over in a slow, monotonous repeated fashion.
CLANG!
CLANG!
CLANG!
CLANG!
All noise had halted when the figure stopped his hammering and dropped the hammer on the ground, then slowly turned his head toward Kris's direction, allowing the boy to see his features.
Glowing bright eyes that produced tiny smokes, a massive beard that matched his hair and some sort of symbol on his forehead. He wore some kind of Nordic style attire and was bare-chested. As soon as his eyes were placed on the boy, he turned all the way around to reveal a giant sword in his hand.
Though, Kris wasn't afraid or nervous. On the contrary, he looked a bit….curious.
Slowly and menacingly, the figure crept towards him with the sword, letting it drag across the grass, which burned a trail from the blade's tip. Large, thundering stride came closer and closer, yet Kris still did not move, run or even speak. The fiery behemoth kept closing the space between them until he stood right in front of Kris, staring down at him with those haunting, flaming eyes of his while the boy just stared back, unfazed.
Only tilting his head back to meet his eyes as the figure's height reached up to about 9 ft compared to his own, like a giant.
Then the humanoid being gripped the sword with both hands and lifted it up threateningly, but Kris still didn't move a muscle, not intimidated in the slightest and not even flinching to protect himself. Finally, with a low growl and crazed strength, the figure swung the weapon down upon Kris right at his head.
All Kris did was fall down on the bench to the side where the sword struck him towards. Still no reaction at all. Almost like he was allowing this to happen.
As Kris sat up and snapped back to reality, he realized something.
He did it again.
The armrest on the bench where his head fell had completely bent upon impact like his head was made of stone. Now curious about this, Kris sat up and examined the damage to it and wondered if he could do that, then what else was he capable of?
To test this theory out, Kris grabbed at the legs of the metal bench and then with all his might, he easily ripped the bench right out of the ground without effort and held it up high like it was made of paper. He eyed his anomaly with sheer admiration and wondered how strong he really was. So Kris flung the bench into the distance and watched intently as it flung extremely high into the air and so incredibly far away from where he stood much like with Moose - like it was shot out of a cannon rather than being thrown by a human. After a few silent seconds, he listened as he heard the sound of a crash and a car alarm.
With this in mind, he looked at his hands with more curiosity and focused, allowing them to conduct more of those electric bolts and let them intensify and increase. He let this go on for a whole minute, listening to the buzzing and crackling before looking directly at a tree nearby, which gave him an idea.
ZAP!
Shooting a hand directly at the tree's large branch, he fired a huge and powerful bolt of lightning at the base of the branch, cutting it completely and it blew right off the tree and dropped to the ground.
The spots where Kris struck and where the branch was cut from were now singed from the volts and they smoked. He then willingly ceased the volts and for the first in the past couple of days, he felt quite surprised at these new changes. He had been totally confused by these odd powers that appeared out of nowhere and was a tad scared of what caused them to happen, but he wasn't scared anymore.
He couldn't say so himself and he couldn't quite explain what was going on for sure, but whatever was happening to him and whatever this strange power was,….
.
.
.
….it felt…..
.
.
.
.
…great.
What a mess this is. The party disaster Friday night must've really broken him beyond repair.
So now Kris had completely refrained from verbal communication from absolutely everyone, much to their concerns. No matter how much anyone tries to talk to him or get an answer or reaction out of him, he just was won't say a single word. It's like he's just shutting everyone out, just done with the world and everything it throws at him. This is just him giving up. The other night may have been too much for the boy to handle, seeing as how he's been cast aside by the girl he's fallen madly in love with and can never be allowed to see her again.
And his worried mother is setting appointments for him with a head shrink to get to the root of the problem. But Kris's inner struggles are only getting much worse. Apart from occasionally cutting his skin with a knife to purposely hurt himself, his hallucinations are reaching to a crescendo. And a frightening one at that. However, Kris is starting to become more accepting to these new changes. Not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing.
Of course, it's not a Pixar story without a Pizza Planet Easter egg thrown in.
That Mortal Kombat game Roar and Rudolf were playing should have a deep sense of foreshadowing as well.
Quick pop quiz: Stig is watching an ATHF episode on his TV. The movie is set during May 2002 and only the first nine episodes of Season 1 had come out. Which one do you think he's watching? ANSWER: Reader's guess.
Next Chapter: The day of the Red Moon ritual has arrived, which also happens to be Kris's birthday. Mei's friends invite Kris to the concert with them to take Mei's place until Mei finally arrives after finally accepting her Red Panda. However, things go bad really fast when a furious Ming, having become a kaiju-sized Red Panda herself, storms the SkyDome in search of Mei.
Next Update: March 7, 2023