Confronting the Darkness
By: Yuki Mizuno
Summary: A sequel story to "Memories of You". The three Eds finally graduated high school, with Double D prepping for his college classes at the university he chose to go to in the first semester. While he was out in town, Double D came across a young girl, who was terrified about something or someone. She asked him to take him far away from where they were but did not say why. Having a bad feeling that something bad is going on, he takes her home to see if there is anything he can do to help the young girl before contacting the police or her parents.
CtD: Chapter 1
It was a warm, early June afternoon here in the little town of Peach Creek. We zoomed in on a part of the town where there were a few small businesses around, as well as a grocery store. We could see someone exiting the grocery store, holding, and pushing a cart full of groceries.
The person exiting the store was a seventeen-year-old boy. He wore a red-orange T-shirt, purple shorts that went to his knees, and a pair of light blue tennis shoes alongside some red socks. He also wore a black beanie over his messy, light blond hair, and his slightly glossed, bright green eyes were mostly covered by his glasses. This young man was named Eddward Johnson, but his close friends usually called him Double D as a nickname instead due to the two Ds in his name.
Today was the day he would usually go to the grocery store to pick up some things there. Previously, Double D would take a bus to go to the store; only to get two or more small bags to carry home, but his partner Eddy had let him start borrowing his car for this chore around the beginning of the year, seeing that Double D kept struggling a little when he came back with only a few small grocery bags at a time. Double D was not exactly the strongest person in the world, so he needed a lot of help for that.
Double D made a little smile as he pushed the cart full of groceries back to Eddy's car. It had been the start of the year since he and Eddy became a couple and started dating. Eddy was still living with his parents across the street from him, visiting Double D every day to check on him, sometimes staying the night there when he began to feel lonely while his parents were still gone. Despite what others thought the first time Eddy stayed over, they did nothing weird; both promising each other to wait until they were older to do anything, well, like THAT. They even had to show and tell Eddy's parents that nothing was going on when they asked about it. He did not exactly blame them; they were still seniors in high school at that point when they inquired about what they were doing, they were just worried for them both.
But now that both he and his two friends had graduated high school a few weeks ago, things seemed to be more open for them and their future! Double D had been accepted to a university that was located between Peach Creek and Savannah; it was located about an hour away by car from his house, and he could easily get to it if he took the bus at the bus stop that was ten minutes away. Double D was happy he found a college so close to home that had the classes he wanted to take for his dream job, which was to be an engineer; either a computer or electrical engineer, to be more precise. He also wanted to take a few Health classes and apply to be a part-time nurse of some kind. Even though his parents were also full-time international doctors who were never home because of their job, he decided to want to learn a bit more about being one to help others, due to something that happened to him and his friend at the end of last year…
Double D finally made it back to Eddy's car, unlocking the back hatch to put the groceries inside the back of the car. After he finished doing that, he closed the back hatch of the car before walking to put the cart away, which he quickly did so. As he was walking back to Eddy's car, Double D noticed something unusual; he saw a small pink blur in the corner of his eyes for a second before it went away. The blur seemed to head in the direction of Eddy's car. Being a bit curious, Double D went over to where he thought he saw the blur, only to see what the blur was.
It was a very young girl, probably a preteen if he had to guess at her age range. She had short, red-orange hair that was loosely pulled back into two short pigtails and brown eyes behind her thick glasses; her eyes looked to be more of a reddish color than brown, honestly. She wore a big pink hoodie over a white T-shirt, a pair of blue jeans, and white tennis shoes. The girl looked tired and was partially covered in dirt and grime.
The girl noticed Double D near her, widening her eyes in horror and gasping a little as she fell on her butt, "U-U-Umm…"
Double D could sense something was very off, but brushed that feeling aside for a moment, "Pardon me, but are you alright?" he politely asked the young girl.
The girl sat there for a moment in fright before saying anything back, "U-Umm… M-My mom and stepdad told me t-to not talk to s-strangers, but… B-But I…"
Suddenly, the two of them heard some sort of loud commotion in the distance, two people were shouting incoherent nonsense that Double D could not make out; the only thing he could tell was that the voices were very angry. That was when the girl jolted up a little before hugging Double D around his legs as if she did not want him to leave; her whole body was trembling, "P-Please help me! I need to get away! Please!"
Double D was taken aback by her actions before quickly realizing the commotion he was hearing was something that the girl was trying to get away from. He could tell she was serious, "O-Okay, please calm down, I can help you," Double D replied to the girl, gently placing his hand on her shoulder to show her that he was not going to hurt her.
The girl was still trembling a lot when she looked back up at him, the few tears that were in her eyes started to rub up against her glasses, making them a mess to look through.
"My car is right here," Double D stated as he gestured to the car beside them, unlocking it as he did.
The girl wasted no time in opening the door to the back seat of the car, jumping in before grabbing a blanket that Double D kept with him in the car and putting it over her head as if she was trying to hide.
Double D made a worried face at the girl before getting in the driver's seat and cranking up the car to drive away, which he did very quickly. He almost wanted to drive over to the commotion to see why this girl would be running away from it, but he decided against it. He can always contact the police later for them to help the girl. But for now, he needed to get her away from here, to a safer place.
Double D looked at the young girl in the rearview mirror to ask her to put on a seatbelt before noticing she had laid out across the back seat, sleeping with a peaceful look on her face. She had fallen asleep instantly when she got in the car.
'She must have been exhausted from whatever happened to her,' Double D thought to himself before looking back at the road. Thankfully, the trip from the grocery store back to this house was not a long one, but he had to be extra careful about not being distracted since the girl was currently not wearing a seatbelt. He did not want to get into an accident or get a ticket.
Double D began to ride straight back to his house before realizing he should try to contact Eddy before he got home. Double D reached out to the car's Bluetooth function that could let him make a phone call while he was driving. He dialed Eddy's cellphone number, hoping he would answer. Thankfully, he did so rather quickly, "Uh, hey?"
"Hello Eddy, I'm almost back home with some groceries. Can you come help me bring them inside my house?"
"Sure, I can help," Eddy replied, "I'm already here anyway because you have my car, you know."
"Oh, right. My apologies," Double D chuckled before clearing his throat, "I also need help with something else when I get back. Can you put out a towel and washcloth near my shower?"
Eddy was silent for a split second before replying, "Yeah, but why? Did you get something on you? I know how you are with trying to stay clean and stuff."
"N-No no, it's not that. It's… umm…" Double D started to say before stopping himself, "I'll tell you once I get home, okay? See you in a minute, Eddy."
"Alright… Bye, Double D."
They both hung up their cell phones. Double D made a sigh to himself, glancing a little back to the girl sleeping in the backseat, 'I hope nothing serious is happening that I don't know about, but I feel like it is… I should try to call the police or find her parents.'
It only took about five more minutes for Double D to get back home after he made the phone call to Eddy. He could see his partner standing outside as he parked inside his garage.
Eddy was a seventeen-year-old boy with very short, spiky dark blue hair that had three tuffs of spiked hair sticking out, and dark blue eyes. He wore a yellow shirt that had a purple collar and sleeves with a vertical red stripe going down the left side of his shirt, a pair of blue jeans with a chain for his wallet around his pocket, and red tennis shoes.
"Hey, Sockhead!" Eddy greeted as he walked over as Double D exited his car, "You said you needed some help getting the stuff in, right?"
"Y-Yes, I did say that to you," Double D nervously replied to him, which was immediately picked up by Eddy, "Listen, while I was leaving the store, I, um…"
Eddy was waiting for Double D to say what was going on before he noticed something behind his partner's shoulder. The blanket he kept in the back seat started to rise as if someone was getting up from underneath it, "Uh… Double D, is there someone in the back seat of my car?!"
Double D widened his eyes as he turned around to see the young girl, who was opening the car door to get out, yawning a little and taking the blanket with her as she did. She still looked dead tired as she walked a little bit before collapsing in Double D's front yard, "I'm okay now…" she sighed before going back to sleep.
"… Double D."
"Y-Yes, Eddy?"
"WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON?!"
Double D was unfazed by Eddy's loud voice, he was very used to it, "I'm not sure about all the details myself, but…" he looked back over to the young girl, "I found her when I was leaving the store. She was trying to hide near or behind your car, and it looked like she was trying to get away from someone. I heard a lot of loud shouting nearby as well… She told me to help her get away from there, so I did just that…"
Eddy groaned a little to Double D, "I hope you realize that you took someone's freaking kid! Even if was to help her out from something, what if someone saw you take her and got the wrong idea about it!"
"B-But Eddy, I had to do something to help!" Double D replied before making a sigh, "Besides, I DO plan on contacting the police as soon as I can to see if they can help her."
Eddy facepalmed to his partner. Double D was always too nice for his good, "Look, I get why you did it, but come on…"
"A-Anyway, can you please take her inside for now so she can rest?" Double D asked, "She doesn't need to sleep on the ground. I can get the groceries."
"Yeah, yeah! I hear you, Sockhead, I'll take her inside," Eddy stated as he walked over to the sleeping girl, picking her up before taking her inside Double D's house.
Author's Note (December 13th, 2023): Oh hey! Something new! What a shock... Not. Anyway, I had this idea spring in my mind as soon as I finished the story before this one. I hope you'll stay tuned if you're interested!
