MoY: Chapter 2

It was now further into the day in Peach Creek, around nighttime. We zoomed in on the Cul-De-Sac once again, where we could see Eddy walk out of his house to look towards Double D's house. He could see the police were still there, looking for any evidence to try and find out who hurt his friend. He started to walk over to Double D's house to see if there was anything he could do to help them.

When Double D got to the hospital, the doctors concluded that he had been poisoned with thallium, which used to be a common ingredient in rat poison until the 70s when it was banned. They said he must have ingested some of it overnight before it finally kicked in earlier this morning. Thankfully, the doctors also said he did not take enough of it to kill him outright; he must have not taken much of whatever was contaminated in his house. Double D was still alive, but he was now in a coma with no signs of waking up. The hospital tried to get into contact with Double D's parents, but they were both out of town and did not leave an emergency number for anyone to call them.

When the news broke out about what happened and the diagnosis, everyone in the neighborhood was beyond shocked and upset, with Ed being the most devastated out of all of them; Eddy was also extremely upset. When the two Eds returned home from the hospital, Ed ran straight to his room and had not left it since.

As Eddy continued to walk to his friend's house, he could see a van starting to drive up to his house, parking into the garage as it did. He could see his older brother getting out of his van, and closing the garage door behind him. Eddy's older brother, Evan, had come to stay with Eddy and his parents for the holidays. It was extremely rare for him to ever visit them, let alone talk to his family normally.

At first, Eddy wanted nothing to do with him because of how his brother used to treat him in the past; not to mention the incident from four years ago was still fresh on his mind after all this time. But after a week and a half of staying here, Eddy started to see that Evan was not acting as cruelly as he used to be with him; it looked like he was trying to be friendly and patch things up. They started talking about what they've been doing lately and things they like. Evan never told Eddy or his parents the reason why he came to visit them this Christmas (besides it being the holidays in general), but everything seemed to be okay with him.

'Guess I'll catch up with him later,' Eddy thought to himself before turning back to Double D's house to walk to it.

He arrived at his friend's house, knocking on his front door before going inside, "Uh, hello?" Eddy called out to any of the officers here to see if they were around.

He could see an officer approaching him from the kitchen, "Can we help you, kid?" Asked the officer, "We're examining the house for clues, so we don't need to be bothered right now."

"I-I know, but I wanted to see if there was anything I could do to help…" Eddy started to say, "Maybe I can try to find some clues in his room? I won't bother you down here, I promise."

"… I don't see why not," the officer replied, "Just be careful about the evidence we marked down in there, don't touch those pieces. But if you also find something, please let us know, okay?"

Eddy nodded his head, "Okay."

He was about to go up the stairs before the officer stopped him for a moment, "Oh, we do have a question we need to ask."

Eddy turned back to the officer, "It's true that both of his parents are out of town right now, correct?" The officer asked.

"Yeah, they are… Why?"

"We found a footprint for the bottom of a man's left shoe in the kitchen," the officer explained, "We might be thinking it belongs to whoever did this to your friend, but we don't know who that would be."

Eddy widened his eyes at what he said.

"We still need to examine it further, but if you happen to know something or find anything out about who it could belong to, please tell us when you can," stated the officer.

Eddy nodded his head, "I will."

He then started to walk to Double D's room upstairs. Eddy entered his friend's room, he could see a few things had been marked as evidence in his room, including a bottle of water that was sitting on his writing desk. He could see that the bottle was still partially full of water, but some of it was gone, 'This must have been what was poisoned,' Eddy thought, 'But if that's the case, how did he not notice if it was messed with or not before drinking it?'

He shook that thought out of his head for a moment before looking around the room again. He walked over to his friend's desk, looking at some papers he left there; it looked to be some applications for entering a certain college when he would graduate high school next semester. It looked like he wanted to take some science courses there to be a physics major.

Eddy looked at the papers in sadness; he knew Double D was always the smart one of the three, there was no denying that. It honestly made him wonder why he always stuck around with him and Ed all this time, seeing that the two of them were probably holding him back when it came to studying.

It was while he was looking at these papers that he noticed something that caught his eye; a little section of the desk that had a pocket shelf hanging off the side; it was slightly hidden from view. Eddy sat the papers back down to see what was on this hidden shelf. He could see three decently sized leatherback books with a lot of pages in them, a lot of them were already written in; they were Double D's journals.

Eddy widened his eyes a little, 'Maybe I should put these back…' he started to think. Before he could put them back where he found them, another thought crossed his mind, '… Wait, there could be some sort of clue in these!'

Eddy went over to Double D's bed to sit down on it with the three journals in his hands. He did not really want to invade Double D's privacy like this, but if it could lead him to find out why this happened to him, then he would take that risk of upsetting his friend; if he ever found out about this, that is.

Eddy picked up the oldest-looking book first; this was the start of his writing in these books as journals. He could see the first entry was in the summertime five years ago; that was a few years after Double D moved to Peach Creek from another town. The very first entry was about him and his friends encountering the Kanker Sisters for the first time, "I thought they could be nice, but it turned out to not be the case," Double D wrote down back then, "I hope they don't become a problem in the future. I don't think my friends and I could endure something like that again."

"Geez, little did he know," Eddy stated with a small grumble.

Eddy continued to read more entries after that; not all of them were daily entries, but more so weekly entries that summarized what happened that week. He could see that Double D wrote down a lot of things they did, a lot of them were his thoughts about some of the scams they did, both successful and failed ones, as well as other folks at the time. It was while he was reading that Eddy came across a strange entry; the date to it was a few days before the terrible incident four years ago that made him and his friends run away for their lives from the other kids.

"I've been feeling a little down today about something that happened," Double D wrote down; Eddy could tell that he was upset about something while he wrote this entry because of how shaky his handwriting looked on the paper, "While I was with my friends, I could hear Ed and Eddy talking about something I didn't expect them to ever talk about; what kind of girls they liked."

Eddy arched his eyebrow in confusion, "I don't remember this at all…"

"I could hear what Eddy said very clearly," Double D continued to write, "He said he would like a kind girl with both brains and beauty… It honestly kind of surprised me. I couldn't remember what Ed said as a reply, I started to zone out at that point."

"… Did I actually say that?"

"It was a little later in the day that I thought about what Eddy said again, and… I don't know why I thought this, but I think he was subconsciously thinking of me when he said that. Or maybe it was my imagination, I don't know."

Eddy widened his eyes, "Huh…?"

"When Eddy described his tastes to Ed, it started to make my heart race very fast. Everything seemed to line up with me, minus being the right gender and the beauty part. I've never felt like this before except a few times towards Nazz, but those feelings for her were very fleeting and in the moment. It made me start to question myself a little… Do I feel that way to him? Do I love him? There's certainly nothing wrong with boys liking other boys, and vice versa, but I didn't think it would happen to me because I also like girls… I'm not sure about how I feel anymore. I should try and find out later why this could be the case," that was the last thing Double D wrote for this entry before the incident that happened a few days later.

Eddy only sat there on Double D's bed in shock; he had no idea about this. Double D never mentioned his feelings to him at all.

The last entry in this journal was about the incident itself. Eddy could see what he wrote down about it and his thoughts on what was going on. He came up to the point where they had a fight in the swamplands, "I was so fed up with them for the childish prank they pulled, even telling them I would rather face the consequences of my actions than stay with them to find Eddy's brother. I almost walked away from them until I heard Eddy scream at me an apology before he started to cry… In the years I've known him, I had never seen or heard him break down into tears like that… It broke my heart to see. I then remembered what he said earlier this week. I knew that I was not the one he was looking for in a relationship, but I still wanted to be near him as his friend, nevertheless. I went back over to their side and apologized to him, just like he did to me in that moment."

"W-What the hell… Double D," Eddy uttered out.

"Eventually we reach where Eddy's brother lived. We were about to approach his house before the rest of the kids caught up to us. But before they could do anything, the yelling and commotion we caused made Eddy's brother come out of his house. Eddy came over to him to tell him about why they were there. This was the first time I had seen his brother; it was kind of overwhelming at the time because of all the stories he had told us about him… Knowing Eddy, I knew half of them were probably made up to make him look and sound cool, but I also thought some of the stories could have been true. Sadly, that was not the case. Eddy's brother started to physically attack and mess with all three of us, harming us before knocking himself out; I assume that was a sign of karma finally catching up with both him and Eddy. That was when Eddy confessed that the stories about his brother were all a lie, so he could try to impress everyone and make friends. He also told us later that his brother was never a nice person and had hurt him a lot in the past… It honestly makes sense in retrospect; Eddy's attitude was probably a reflection of his brother that rubbed off on him, even if he didn't want to be that way or not. I think the other kids realized that as well, which is why they forgave all three of us after seeing what happened with him and his brother. It was a very emotional moment for all of us; I couldn't believe it at first, but it looked to be true… I was happy we were finally accepted by the others."

Eddy was silent as he read the last entry in this journal, a few tears started to form around the brim of his eyes. He did not know what to feel right now with what he read. He then placed down the first journal he had on the bed and picked up the second one, opening it to read those entries. This journal entry had a few entries that were not recorded by the week, but it was still a lot of entries. He could see he wrote a little less when it was around school time. That's when he noticed some of the entries Double D was writing about were about Eddy and how much his attitude was changing because of the incident four years ago. Eddy could slowly see that his friend's feelings for him were growing stronger over time, "I don't think I should tell him this anyway, even when I also like girls just like him," Double D wrote down, "It would be too awkward, and I never want to make him feel uncomfortable or hate me. So, I am stuck with being his friend; I'm okay with that."

"Holy shit…" Eddy muttered in sadness, "I didn't know…"

He read the last entry in the second journal, which was not too exciting or significant compared to the other one. Eddy then picked up the last journal he had; it was the one that had the most recent entries. He skimmed through some of them before getting to the entries that mattered the most. Eddy sees an entry that was from two weeks ago.

"Today was uneventful. Everyone else seems to be busy preparing things for Christmas… It kind of makes me feel left out. Mother and Father are usually away all the time, even during the holidays like this one. I'm not even sure they know I exist anymore… I wouldn't be surprised. But I least I still have my friends by my side, that gives me some comfort during these times that I'm alone at home."

Eddy made a sad frown at the entry, "I think the hospital also couldn't contact his parents… What the hell are they even doing?! Do they hate their son?!"

He growled a little before calming back down to keep reading the entry, "I also heard from Eddy that his older brother was coming to stay with him and his family for the holidays. It surprised me to hear that this was happening, considering what happened in the past. I really hope things have gotten better about his attitude. I don't know what I would do if his brother started to act like he did when we first met…"

Eddy turned the page to finally read the last entry he wrote. It was from four days ago.

"This could be the last entry for me for a while."

Eddy's blood started to run cold as he continued to read this entry.

"I was out in town today to go grocery shopping for the week. It was as I was passing by an alleyway to get to the store that I could feel myself being grabbed by someone very strong. I wanted to scream in fright, but the person covered my mouth before dragging me to the back of the alleyway. They eventually let me go but blocked me from running away from them. That was when I noticed who had grabbed me…"

Eddy's heart almost came to a halt at the next sentence he read.

"It was Eddy's brother. He had a look of anger in his eyes, and it frightened me. He then started to yell at me about being near Eddy, telling me that he knew what I was thinking about and how I felt for him. I was baffled by how he could tell, but I tried to tell him that I was bisexual; I knew Eddy was not interested in me, which I was perfectly okay with… Sadly, he did not see it that way. He then threatened me to stay away from Eddy or he would 'do something to a rat like me'… The way he said that made me think he would try to do something drastic, but I don't know what. He then walked away from me, leaving me behind in the alleyway. I couldn't stop shaking from what happened. He sounded very serious when he said he would do something… It legitimately terrified me, but I went on with my day, trying to ignore the threat he made. I honestly hope nothing happens from this… I don't want anything to happen to anyone, so maybe I should try to hang out with Eddy less, even though it would hurt me to not do so… I love him too much to stay away."

That was the final thing Double D wrote in his journal.

Eddy could feel his body grow numb from what he just read. He could not believe it. His BROTHER was the one who hurt Double D! It's probably why he's been trying to act buddy-buddy with him, to let his guard down! Eddy then realized that this was also why Double D had tightly hugged him before he collapsed into the coma; he knew what was happening and wanted to comfort himself before the inevitable. Because Double D loved him.

"Evan…" Eddy growled in anger, clenching his fist for a second before getting up from where he sat. With the journal still in his hands, he ran out of Double D's room to go downstairs to where the police were. He could see them still in the kitchen, "Is there something wrong, young man?" Asked the officer from before, noticing the look of both anger and panic on his face.

"I-I… I think I know who did this!" Eddy started to say as he gestured to the journal in his hands, "Read the last entry, please!"

The officer took the journal, "I'm the one he mentions in that entry, and my brother is home right now too. My house is the second house to the right of the entrance," Eddy continued to explain.

That was when Eddy darted off to his house, "H-Hey!" Yelped the officer in surprise before turning to his fellow colleagues to tell them about what happened.

Author's Note (November 21st, 2023): Uh oh! That's bad. How will this play out now?!