Author's Note: Updates will be a bit slower from now on because I gotta deal with work stuff - but thank you guys so much for the love :) Truthfully, I had to rewrite the entirety of Chapter 6 because I didn't like how well the story was flowing (there needed to be some balance between aggro, calm, and talking scenes) so here ya guys go.
I am much happier with how it is right now and hope you guys are too! Please R&R, it inspires me to write!
Disclaimer: I do not own South Park or any of the references made in this series.
(Kenny's POV)
Drip, drip, drip…..
Kenny was staring off into space, slowly feeling himself slipping into numbness as he looked forward into the wall ahead of him. He had been standing in the shower for about 30 minutes now, not even making any motion to reach his hygiene products. He just wanted to stand there, under the shower of water hitting his head. It was his third or fourth day at the hotel now, and he was not sure what the fuck he was supposed to do next.
After standing for a bit more, he decided to turn off the shower knob and stepped out - looking at himself in the mirror. Kenny was about to have a mental breakdown. He hadn't felt as lonely before as he did now.
He examined himself in the mirror; noticing that his eye bags were huge, his eyes were bloodshot, his eyes were puffy, and swelling from crying. Kenny felt upset and didn't know what exactly to do with his feelings. All he knew was that he hadn't gotten any good sleep since the day that his mom called him to ask about Karen. Even until now, he hadn't gotten any new updates from his so-called mother, who he just assumed was busy with work or doing whatever the fuck she would do besides spend time with their family.
Honestly, looking at himself right now - he felt so pathetic. He felt so small, compared to how big the world was. So vast and huge, and he was just another turning cog in the wheel, at that.
How could I do anything about Karen's disappearance?
"You stupid mother fucker, what do you think you should do?" A deep voice suddenly spoke to him in an accusing tone, seemingly out of nowhere.
Kenny's eyes opened wide, feeling queasy looking at the image of himself in the mirror. There was someone else there, standing behind him. Was it behind him? Or was it in front of him? His eyes became blurry and he began to rub at them with the back of his hands. Kenny covered his eyes with his hands for a moment. Fuck, there is no way someone is talking to me right now.
"Look again, Kenny. Closer this time." Kenny was fearful now, afraid that his mind was descending into another level of absurd subconsciousness. Despite his initial hesitancy, he stopped covering his eyes and looked directly at himself in the mirror. He looked cynical, worn down, his eyes darkened - ultimately looking fucked up in the head. The figure had morphed itself into Kenny's body. The image made Kenny grin to himself. He started chuckling, transitioning into a low laughter, then full out cackling himself in the bathroom.
I haven't slept in so long that I'm starting to fucking hallucinate. Kenny thought bitterly to himself, taking in his surroundings. That there were cracks, that there were spiders in the walls. That there was someone, possessing him and his body.
"Stop lying to yourself. You NEED me." The voice said with some urgency, making Kenny snap back to look at himself in the mirror. Kenny stopped laughing now, turning on the faucet water so he could drown out the voices. He cupped his hands under the cool, running water and splashed it onto his face. With some fatigue, he started to drag his hands down over his face, seeing his eye bags stretch lower down his face. With a quick hand motion, he then took his wet hands and slicked his hair back, his face dark and serious.
There was a sneer on his face; and with a deep, low growl in his voice, he muttered, "Finally."
—
Breaking into the school was an easy feat. All he needed to do was sneak atop the roof, using the vertical rain gutters evident on the sides of all of the school buildings. He distinctly remembered where the computer lab was located from his days in high school, due to him messing around with his close chaotic friends. The computer lab gave him access to the server and surveillance room, where the school cameras would record constantly - day or night.
As he previously surveyed, the place was completely pitch black, save for the moonlight filtering in through some of the computer lab windows. He saw his own shadow in the distant rays of the moon, his long cape falling idly to his side. In the glassy black screens of the computer lab, he could see his hood fastened tightly to the sides of his head and the mask that darkened the upper half of his face.
Mysterion.
It had been a while since he claimed his superhero identity - but it was about time. The voice in his head had been growing louder by the day, and he had no choice but to listen to it. To save yourself. To save Karen.
He turned to face the surveillance room at the back of the computer lab and swiftly made his way over to it. Lockpicking also came easy to Mysterion, it was yet another one of his many skills he attained from his rebellious childhood. He eyed the computer at the back of the server room and powered it on. Unfortunately, it required an administrator's username and password…two of which were conveniently located in the desk below it.
These stupid fucks never thought to up their security once we left, huh? Mysterion snickered to himself, thumbing through the small notebook and inputting the appropriate words into the computer. He located the program that monitored the schoolwide security cameras and double-clicked to open it up. Mysterion skimmed through the different cameras, making sure his clicks were silent but precise. Trying to remember what classes Karen took like English AP, Statistics, Visual & Fine Arts… He thought long and hard, remembering the layout of the school he used to attend.
Then, he caught something.
Mysterion ran the tapes back one more time, seeing someone's familiar brown hair flicker in the bottom of the screen. Whoever took Karen, they knew that there were active cameras in the school. They knew where exactly to hide her so she was mostly unseen. He followed the shadows and outlines of Karen and her perpetrator, but found that all the cameras led to a dead end. Speeding through the tapes, all that he could see was someone wearing a snapback hat in the parking lot, carrying a particularly heavy instrument bag. This person threw their instrument bag haphazardly into the trunk of what looked like to be a black Jeep, speeding off into the distance of the parking lot before exiting.
It was then that he heard a sudden door click from the computer lab outside the server room. There was a blade of light that cut through the small windows of the server room, which meant that someone had turned the lights on in the lab. Shit, Mysterion muttered to himself darkly, taking back what he had said earlier. When did they get a night patrol?
Mysterion zoomed in on the black Jeep to get a license plate but it was too blurry, so he ended up taking a picture of the whole thing instead - including the driver of the car. Said individual had covered up their face and was ducking their head every moment they encountered a camera. The thought of Karen being shoved into an instrument case made Mysterion's stomach churn from a mixture of frustration and anxiousness.
But right now, there was no time to be angry. Footsteps in the next room were growing ever closer, so Mysterion turned off the computer by unplugging it from the wall circuit and hid inside a locker laid off to the side. He started recording with his phone silently, to identify them for later.
"What the hell, I could have sworn I closed this damn door," The individual muttered underneath their breath, moving past all of the servers and approaching the computer at the back of the room. Mysterion could see in the small cracks of the locker, a tall shadowy figure with their arms crossed against their chest. "Fuckin' Adler. He really should just get another job one of these days. Irresponsible hoot."
The shadowy figure looked around for a bit more, seeing if anything was out of place before leaving and locking the door for good. Mysterion stopped recording and breathed out silently, slumping into the bottom of the locker. Who the fuck is Adler? And why is there night patrol?
—
It had already been a week since Karen had been missing. Ruby reported to Kenny that the school had filed a missing person's report to the South Park Police, and that students close to Karen were being pulled aside for investigation. Despite all of this, nothing was going fast enough. Kenny worried that at this rate, they would never be able to find her. His spring break for university was already over, but he didn't give a single fuck. He emailed his professors and teachers that he would be on break for a while (insinuating that he is dropping out for the time being) because of a family emergency.
Kenny wanted to stay in South Park, and he wasn't going to leave until he found her. Even if that meant he was going to sacrifice his own future. Kenny was going to take things into his own hands.
Since the time he broke into the school, Kenny had gained more information posing as Mysterion. He found out that the car spotted in the school's parking lot matched a car he found in the stripper club's parking lot. For the past couple of days, Mysterion was hanging around the strip club and bar - seeing lots of people coming in and out at nighttime - one of them being his own dad. A couple of other not-so-familiar faces followed his dad into the strip club, the speakers blazing some Nicki Minaj song.
Mysterion knew that he needed to follow his dad in, so he broke into an air vent and crawled his way past the bug corpses and spiderwebs. He grit his teeth, feeling particularly disgusted that the strip club had not stripped their own air vents of shit. Finding the right area where his father walked in proved particularly difficult, since seeing out of the vents was almost impossible. The speakers were blaring and the crowds were loud in response to the performers on stage.
Smoke then wafted up from one of the open air vents and Mysterion had to choke back a cough. With quiet concentration he cleared his airways of the atrocious smell and kept crawling until he saw the familiar colors of his father through the slits in the air vents. He waited patiently, squinting to see through the air vent. Mysterion couldn't see anything but he could hear, so he pressed his ear closely against the cracks in the filter.
"...The money has been sent directly to the mole. If you have any questions or inquiries, let it be known that you need to speak to me with more respect and dignity, Mr. McCormick." A voice filtered in from below, sounding cold and condescending. Mysterion didn't recognize the voice but his voice sounded precise, sharp and piercing.
"I'm not here ta' fuck around, ya' know," For the first time in a while, Mysterion's dad sounded the most sober that he had ever been in a while. "I'm here to let ya' know that the mole never came. I went ta' the rendezhoo-hoo point like ya' mentioned and no one was there. Are ya' fuckin' screwin' around with me?"
Mysterion heard the two scuffle more with their vocabulary exchanges, but it was getting harder and harder to hear. The damn strip club had maxed their volume out in order to cover up any shady confrontations (that was unfortunately happening right now). Mysterion cursed under his breath, feeling the air vents shaking underneath him. It felt like it could give any moment. He felt uncomfortable in the crawl space, with his ear pressed hard against the opening and the heavy puffs of smoke that were being filtered out through the air vents. Now he was inhaling all of the shit. Fuck, I feel like I'm about to get lung cancer if I stay here any longer. Mysterion thought to himself, holding back a cough.
Suddenly, the calm and collected voice from earlier stopped talking entirely. Mysterion could hear him mutter harshly under his breath, "Fanculo, we've been compromised. Uomini, guardate in alto."
Mysterion eyes grew wide as shots pierced the metal air vents in front of him, creating an uneven, ragged line of bullet holes. The light from below began filtering in and he cursed himself as he retreated back the way he came from. He had been found out.
There were more bullet noises from the room beneath, causing Mysterion to panic as one barely missed his finger. Soon, he was outside in the parking lot again - but someone familiar was there to meet him.
"Fuck ya', ya' fuckin' asshole!" Stuart McCormick had been waiting in the parking lot, aggravated that something had interrupted his receiving of money. Stuart swung a punch at Mysterion, but he quickly stepped out of the way. "Oh, and you're a diaper-wearin' baby too! Fuck me and my luck tonight!"
Mysterion grit his teeth, seeing backup from the strip club arrive behind Stuart. They were holding AR rifles and ready to start guns blazing. Workers and customers from the club were now evacuating the building, screaming bloody murder and fearing for their lives. As much as Mysterion wished he could save them, he was in deeper shit than the rest of them right now. Mysterion knew he was outnumbered; however, just the mere presence of his dad standing in front of him made his knees weak. There was no way he could win this, but he didn't want his dad finding out that Mysterion was actually him.
Mysterion turned on heel quickly, the bodyguards shooting at him from behind. He felt a multitude of emotions right now - the most obvious one in his gut was yelling: fear. Mysterion retreated quickly into the woods, where he could find cover from the trees and the darkness of the night. The shadows made it easier for him to hide and get away. He knew that his perpetrators were on his tail, which made him run faster.
Cracking leaves and crunchy twigs were being cracked under foot as he navigated his way blindly through the darkness. He knew as he was running that he was making a lot of noise. He knew that his own breaths that were shallow and ragged, were giving him away. For the first time in a while, Kenny felt true fear.
Much like a rabbit being chased by wolves.
Mysterion felt the ground give way underneath his foot and he let out a breathy string of curses. He was falling. Down he went, as his body grazed against the deep cliff embedded with rocks, trees, and shrubs. He wasn't sure how long he had fallen, but every rock and shrub pierced his body like needles. Falling, falling, falling, until he finally hit the bottom, and his whole body was numb.
His body was surrounded by the needles of a fallen pine tree, his neck twisted in the wrong direction. As his vision slowly faded away, he could see flashlights aiming in different directions from above.
"That fucker! Do you think he got away!?"
"Nah, there's a cliff below. I think he got fucking wasted, haha. Poor sack of shit."
"Let's make sure he's dead."
Mysterion could see his father's face, small but noticeable, from where his body finally rested to lay. A group of bodyguards approached by his father's side, aiming their guns down the cliff, right at Mysterion. As the full moon in the sky became encased by a blanket of clouds - a barrage of thunder sounded and echoed throughout the forest. All Kenny saw was darkness, once again.
—
(Craig's POV)
"Hey man, I gotta go home early tonight. I'm not feeling too well. D'you think you can take out the trash for me and close up?" One of the baristas who worked late at the corner coffee shop of the library simpered up to Craig, leaning against the counter to meet eyes with him. It was more of a demand than a question.
Craig didn't bother to look in their direction before muttering a short, "Sure." He was too busy organizing the front desk to look presentable for the next day. Earlier, there was a wild kid on the loose causing havoc at the front counter. In the end, Craig had to contact the kids' parents through the intercom and let them know that there was a "lost kid" looking for their parents. Indefinitely, he had a bit of a rough day and couldn't care less anymore.
The barista cheered for himself and headed out, leaving Craig alone in the library once again. He really didn't mind if he had to clean up for others, as long as he was left alone in peace while doing it. And tonight, that would be the case. He walked over to the corner shop and started to clean up the floor and countertops, then promptly disposed of the cleaning supplies into the nearest garbage receptacle. As he grabbed all the trash bags and headed out the back door, he decided he would yeet all of them carelessly into the dumpster - not even minding if they made it or not.
But there was something off about this night, as there was someone - or something - limping towards his general direction. Craig stiffened up in place until he saw that individual wearing…a diaper?
Spandex leggings?
A hood and mask matching along with all of it?
"Mysterion…?" Craig breathed out the familiar name from his childhood, surprised that he could see one of his childhood superheroes that he used to play with. There was a limp in the superhero's walk and he was stumbling from side to side. As he came closer, Craig could see blood. Craig dropped whatever trash he was holding and ran towards Mysterion's side to catch him, as he was going to fall face forward onto cement.
When Craig assessed Mysterion's physical wounds, he got increasingly worried. Mysterion had dark, tire tracks on his body and parts of his clothing; his clothing was ripped in all sorts of areas - looking tattered and torn. There was panic in Craig's voice as he held Mysterion, his hands shaking. "What the fuck!? Mysterion, what happened to you? Why the hell are you bleeding so much?!" He knew asking wouldn't do much, so with one hand he pulled out his phone. "I-I'm going to call 911."
Mysterion was flailing limp in Craig's grasp, but his arm brushed away Craig's phone from his hand. It fell about 3 feet away onto the pavement, making a loud scratchy noise as it rolled away. "Don't even bother, Craig. I'm going to die anyway."
Craig snapped, clearly pissed off at the other's indifferent condition. "What the fuck do you mean you're going to 'die anyway'?! Do you not care if you die?!" Craig picked his phone back up, shakingly putting his password in and dialing the numbers 911 again. But Mysterion was adamant on not getting Craig to call an ambulance.
"Hey, I told you already! I'm going to die anyway, so there's no fucking point..just…just leave me be." Mysterion was struggling to speak as he spurted blood out of his mouth. Craig watched in horror and just sat, helplessly next to him. He decided to breathe in and out through his nose, accepting the fact that this man was going to die in front of him - whether he called an ambulance or not. It might have been too late to save him, anyway.
"...Alright, alright. I won't call an ambulance," Craig sighed heavily and put his hand to his forehead to try to stabilize himself. He didn't want to look at the man dying in front of him any longer. "Before you die…just…who the fuck are you? You know who I am - and I don't think it's fair that I don't know who you are."
The dying superhero only chuckled, struggling with his breath. He was bleeding out and there was nothing Craig could do. Despite this dire situation, Mysterion decided to tease him in his last moments. "...Kiss me and find out."
One of Craig's eyes twitched. There was only one person who had such a flirtatious reputation with him, and that would be…
Worry struck across Craig's face like lightning, as he approached Mysterion's limp body. "Kenny…!?"
He shook the man back and forth with his hands, but there was no response from the other's mouth. Craig gulped and flipped up Mysterion's hood to look at his eyes - but to his surprise, he was met with a flash of blonde hair. Blue eyes.
Kenny. Craig felt his heart stop in his chest as he glanced over Kenny's glassy, soulless eyes facing up towards the moon in the sky. His head sunk down to meet the other's lifeless chest, his eyes closed and holding a sob back in his throat. I didn't even get to tell you…
He remembered Kenny's glowing smile as he was with his sister. He remembered Kenny's cheeky little grin as he teased him and had the most outrageous banter with him. He remembered that he gave him a bag of pain killers because he saw how fucked up Kenny looked and was worried that the other didn't have enough money to get his own medicine, so he asked Token if he could give his to Kenny. He remembered that he gave him his phone number, even when Kenny didn't bother to call or text him. Most of all, he remembered that in high school, he was going to give him a letter in his locker - but after all the courage he tried to muster up, he pussied out and decided not to do it.
Kiss me and find out. Kenny's last words were tempting, as sick as it sounded for Craig to do something so inappropriate like that right now. But he contemplated it. If he wasn't able to kiss Kenny when he was alive, could he do it now?
Blood stained Kenny's lips the color of a deep crimson red, but in the moonlight the liquid looked dark and cold. Craig gulped as his sweaty, clammy hands brought Kenny's face close to his. He didn't mind. If he was going to lose Kenny like this, then the last time he could kiss him was now.
What Craig didn't know was the consequences that would come with it.
Once their lips touched, electricity the color of crimson coursed violently all throughout Craig's body. His heart rate quickened and his eyes pulsed in place. What came on as a flashback, took Craig back decades, back to when Kenny was first born. Craig saw, from third-person, how Kenny was born. He saw the excruciating pain that his mom was in as Kenny's head and body slipped out from under. Craig felt light-headed as he saw Carol McCormick cradle her newborn baby in her arms, cooing softly to him. He saw at her bedside, Stuart McCormick, lovingly caressing Kenny's cheek and holding a bottle of whiskey in the other hand.
Almost instantaneously, he was transported to another scene of Kenny's life in elementary school. Scene after scene, he watched as Kenny died en masse in different ways and days. Each time he was brought back, no one remembered how he mysteriously died. His head got decapitated, chopped, exploded, stabbed…the list could have gone on and on. When they were roleplaying as superheroes when they were younger, he saw Mysterion sadly convey to his close friends that no one ever remembered how he died. No one appreciated him and what sacrifices he made for them. All in all, he felt lonely that no one was ever grateful or thankful for his presence. Then, a bullet to the head to prove his point. He woke up the next day in bed, his friends telling him to get his lazy ass out of bed to help them.
Craig stood still and watched silently in horror as he saw Kenny smile sometimes as he passed on. He welcomed death, and yet death never gave him what he truly craved. Kenny was tired, but he had to live with this curse. Yet with his altruistic nature, he didn't care that he had to die for others if it meant protecting them and saving them from true evil.
Through this out of body experience, Craig had tasted his blood.
Craig had tasted Kenny McCormick's soul.
The raven-haired man was then suddenly rushed back to the present. His brain felt like he was going through a wormhole at a thousand miles per hour. The mental motion made him throw up on the other side of himself, his eyes wide open.
Craig sat next to Kenny's lifeless body, when he started noticing that his body was disintegrating into small pieces of black incinerated ash. They started to get blown away in the wind, until no pieces were left.
What the absolute fuck is going on.
—
Craig needed answers. As much as he didn't want to be involved in whatever the fuck was going on in South Park and with Kenny, he needed to know WHY. He couldn't continue living his life any longer, knowing that Kenny died over and over again - knowing that he was alone whenever it all happened.
He didn't get any sleep last night. And not in a good way, either. He stayed up, replaying the scene of Kenny dying in front of him over and over again. His brain was recapping the past decades of Kenny's life, as he remembered each and every time Kenny's heart stopped. It made his own heart stop in his chest.
He was pacing around his room when he got a text from Kenny, which made him internally scream and throw his phone across the room.
Craig only tossed his phone very lightly across the room, but all of a sudden, he heard his phone make a huge THWACK! noise against the wall and he opened his eyes curiously. What the fuck?
There was now a dark, gaping hole where Craig had thrown his phone, his phone making a rectangular-shaped indent in the wall. In Craig's horror, his phone lit up to show an unknown number - but based on the context, he knew it was Kenny and he finally texted him back when Craig had given him his phone number prior (at the library). His mouth was wide open as he came closer and read Kenny's text message.
(Craig's Phone)
Kenny: Meet me at Stark's Pond. asap
Craig was still shaken by the fact that he had 'thrown' his phone that hard. There was no way in hell he did that. He looked at his own hand, shaking in his socks. He repeated to himself again, What the fuck?
"Craig, honey, is everything okay?" He could hear his mom from behind his bedroom door, sounding a little bit worried in her response.
"Yeah, I'm fine." Craig called back, but he was looking intently at the hole in his wall. His parents really didn't mind much what he did with his room, but now there was an ugly stained hole in the middle of his room wall that was unpleasant to look at. He cursed himself for ruining the niceties of his room.
This must be a dream. I must be dreaming. Craig pinched himself, but there was only a sharp, biting pain on his wrist where his fingers went to redeem themselves. Even though it was a small pinch, blood started to erupt from his wrist. "Fuck," he whispered. "How the fuck is this happening?"
Craig pushed his bedroom door open, and made long strides down to the hallway bathroom. He opened the medicine cabinet and took out a roll of gauze, swiftly taking it to his wrist and wrapping it tightly, until it was wrapped around his arm a couple times or so. He took the gauze in his teeth and chewed at it, ripping it from the base roll. The gauze stopped the bleeding, but he could see a small circular stain of blood emerging from the under layers.
He sighed. As much as Craig wanted to not go, he knew that he should get his questions answered. He called in sick to work and started getting ready, throwing a scarf over his neck and shoulders. This morning's events had truly made him feel sick, and he needed answers. Ever since he kissed Kenny the other night, it seemed like he had (with the least resistance) superhuman strength.
The two met up at Stark's pond, as Kenny had requested.
Over the years, Stark's Pond transitioned from a once ratty-looking and shoddy place to a picturesque lake with grass and trees framing the watery area below. It almost looked like a completely different place from the one Craig recalled in his memories. He didn't visit it often - he really didn't have a reason to - but the sun rising over the horizon looked romantic and caught his breath.
He exited his car and closed his door gently (he didn't want to break that either…), making his way down to the docks at the lake. There, he could see a small silhouette with their hands in their pockets, looking out across the sparkling waters. Seeing Kenny sitting alone on the docks took the breath out of his lungs. He was actually alive, breathing, in the flesh. His crunchy, icy footsteps drawing ever closer notified the other of his presence, and he turned around to meet eyes with him. Craig was visibly shaking, not just because of the cold, but as he recalled from the other night - Kenny taking his last breath. His eyes stung, knowing that that reality was true. But here Kenny was, standing with his hands in his pockets - looking at the raven haired man.
"You're…alive," Craig breathed quietly, which made Kenny sorrowfully smile and looked away. "I watched you fucking die the other night."
Kenny took his hands out of his pockets and stretched them besides himself, he was smiling but his eyes looked dead inside. "Now you know my deepest, darkest secret, Tucker. I can die and come back to life again."
"I don't even know what the fuck to say."
"Are you scared of me?" Kenny grinned and took a step forward, which made Craig take a step back. He pouted and put his hands back in his pockets, straightening up his posture. "Guess so."
"I just want to understand what the fuck is going on." Craig said tersely.
Kenny took a deep breath, miniature clouds excusing themselves out of his open mouth. "It's a long story."
Craig took out his lighter and lit a cigarette, leaning onto one of the pillars of the dock. "Enlighten me, I got all fucking day."
The two sat and talked at Stark's pond for most of the morning and into the afternoon, until the sun started to set. Craig didn't believe that he was thinking this, but after hearing about Kenny's side of everything he felt melancholic. Besides that, Kenny had died shortly before he kissed him. So there was no way that Kenny knew how he felt about him. Craig wanted to help him. He didn't want to see Kenny suffer like this, all by himself anymore. If there was a way that he could help him, he wanted to see that happen.
"You must be bored out of your mind." Kenny spoke aloud, noticing that during most of their conversation, Craig was just agreeing and not saying anything. What Kenny didn't know was that this was just Craig's natural demeanor and disposition.
He looked over at Kenny, a stern look in his eye. "I told you I wouldn't judge you. I told you I'd listen, so that's what I did.'' They were both sitting on the grass now, Craig leaning back onto the hands that were supporting him. "Anyways, I agree that the cops here in South Park are pieces of shit that don't do anything. I wouldn't depend on them either and I've seen my fair share of some shit too."
Kenny was interested, staring straight into Craig's opal gray eyes. "And what things have you seen?"
Craig told the other man about the weird figures he saw when he was working at the movie theater, on his way to his car. Kenny raised an eyebrow at that, "That sounds kinda sus. Did you get to see what they looked like?"
"Nah," Craig took a long puff from his cig and expelled the air into the other direction. "They were both men though. One had a super angry voice and the other was more calm and collected."
Kenny thought back to the stripper club, when he was sneaking around in the dark. The boss' voice he heard who was talking to his dad had a calm, cool and collected voice. There was no way that it could be that easy to pinpoint.
"You thinking about something?" Craig pointed out, noticing that the other was quiet now.
"Did you, by any chance, get a recording of their voice?" Kenny inquisitively got nearer to Craig, their noses almost touching. Craig flushed and looked the other way. Kenny noticed that they were way too close and backed off, feeling a little embarrassed.
"Hell no, dude. Who the hell just pulls out their phone at a moment's notice to record something like that?" Craig scoffed, shaking his head back and forth. Kenny remembered when he was stuck in the cabinet of the school's computer lab, pulling out his phone. His ears turned red. Ha, ha.
It was quiet for a moment, the two looking off in the distance, admiring the sky falling upon them. The sunset created a magnificent blend of orange and yellow hues, contrasting against the lighter shades of blue. Craig felt like his eyes were being kissed by the Earth's version of Kenny. He could see Kenny's blue eyes reflecting the sky's natural blues, with the orange shades of his jacket like a halo encasing the sun, and the bright blonde hair that sparkled like the sun's golden rays.
There was only one thought in Craig's mind as he observed Kenny's beauty and grace. I would be damned if I chose not to protect you.
Craig threw his cigarette off to the side and smothered the embers with the front of his foot. "Kenny, I want to help you."
Craig didn't even know his own words were coming out of his mouth. Kenny gave Craig a questioning glance, shifting uncomfortably where he was currently seated. Craig softened his gaze upon Kenny, the sun both piercing them from the corners of their eyes. "I've seen you die Kenny, I can't just stand by and watch it happen."
Kenny's eyes widened open, his mouth parted lips. His eyes were watering right under his waterline but he kept blinking vigorously so they would go away. Craig could see him tighten his hands into fists - so much that his knuckles were white. There were a million thoughts whizzing through Kenny's head right now, and yet the thoughts that stuck were the ones that fell from his lips. "What if you get hurt? I won't be able to save you. I can die and come back, but you…you're not like me. Whatever the fuck I am."
Craig looked down at his left wrist, remembering the events of the early morning. The movement in his left arm was more constricted than usual, due to the way he had wrapped his arm earlier to stop the bleeding. He was contemplating whether he should open up and tell Kenny about his….'powers'. But then, he remembered that he might have gained these powers in the first place because he swallowed Kenny's...life source. He could just lie…right? Craig didn't need to tell Kenny the full truth that he kissed Kenny as he died and possibly drank his blood too.
"So, Kenny, funny thing is," Craig started, getting Kenny's attention to look over at him. The raven haired man was rolling up his left jacket's sleeve to reveal a bandage wrapped around his arm. There was dried blood showing through the cotton gauze.
"Oh fuck, what happened?"
"Watch this." Craig ignored Kenny's comment and unraveled the bandage, and to his surprise as well, the hole he made in his wrist from earlier was gone and so was the blood. Craig had a slight smirk curling at the corners of his mouth. He took the cigarette he displaced and put out earlier, twirling it between his fore fingers. Then, he took the cig and twirled it faster, soon letting it go and it spinning all the way across the pond.
Kenny's mouth was agape.
"Now are you gonna let me help?" Kenny bit his lip, thinking it over before agreeing. "Good. Where do we start?"
For the rest of the evening, Kenny and Craig discussed what they were going to do next, and agreed on how exactly they were going to help each other. For the first time in a while, Kenny felt heard and he didn't feel so alone. Right now, things felt just right. As the sun set behind the horizon, the two shared space together underneath the starry night sky.