Songs:
Don't Die on Me - Myuu
My Domain (feat. SVRCINA) - Tommee Profitt
Welcome to the Jungle (feat. Fleurie) - Tommee Profitt
Main Theme: "You Are My Sunshine" COVER by The Phantoms (From 'Its' POV on tormenting Kenny.)
There's a small click of a lock, then the turn of a handle as a heavy metal door creaks open to a dark room. Entering it are the three figures of Kenny, Stan and Kyle.
"We're here," Stan says, flipping on the light switch.
Lights reveal an office space, with a desk and computer on it. The faint scent of cleaning substance fills the air.
"You sure about this?" Stan asks, closing and locking the door behind them.
"Yes," Kenny replies firmly.
The three make their way down a hall next to the desk. Their steps echo down it in a jumbled mesh together before coming to a stop when reaching a door.
"In here," Stan gestures with his head and opens it, turning the light on.
"Are you really sure that you want to go through with this?" Kyle asks, concerned.
"Guys look," Kenny says as he walks over to a metal table in the center of the room, "you have to trust me on this. It's the only way I'll be able to do anything."
"But what if it doesn't work like you think it will? What if you end up accidentally dying because of it?" Kyle asks.
"It's the only way," Kenny smiles at him then looks at Stan, "and I have trust in you, don't be afraid."
"Kenny… I've, I've never administered something like this on a human before, or even more than once or twice on an animal, I can't guarantee that this will—"
"I believe in you Stan, I know you can do this," Kenny pauses, "you have to do this. For my sake, and possibly everyone else's as well."
Stan's gaze drifts down as Kenny examines the table. He presses down on it with his hands a few times, to test it, before getting onto it and lying down on its cool surface. His legs hang off the bottom a bit at an awkward angle, but figures it's to be expected with something that wasn't really made for a human to lie on to begin with.
Stan goes over to a cabinet and grabs a few things from it before walking back over to Kenny's side again. He takes a small cotton ball and pours a liquid on it then grabs one of Kenny's wrist and turns it over.
"Are you really sure about this?" Stan asks again, wanting to make certain that Kenny wanted to go through with this.
"Yes," Kenny replies, "I need to be asleep in order to do this. And this is the only way to be certain that I won't just wake up in the middle of it."
"But how do you know that going to sleep will get you there?"
"I just… know." Kenny replies, "I don't know how to exactly explain it, but I just know that this is the only way I can do this. Something inside of me tells me so." He moves a hand to his chest, "Maybe it's this crystal telling me, but I just… know that I have to be asleep in order to do this."
Stan watches him silently for a few seconds, worry covering his face, he sighs and gives a small nod before he wipes down the inside of Kenny's wrist with the cotton. He then grabs a long needle that he attaches to the end of a long thin plastic tube and slowly presses it down to his skin, and into a visible vein. He keeps it in place as he motions for Kyle with his head.
"Kyle, can you break off a small piece of tape for me?" Kyle picks up a small tape roll and tears a small piece of it off. "Place it here," Stan instructs and he does. Next he hands Kyle a bag of clear liquid connected to the other end of the tube, "hold this up for a sec." Stan walks over to a long thin metal pole with wheels on the bottom and moves it over, then hooks the plastic bag of clear liquid onto it. "Here's hoping I didn't mess up the dosage too much," He laughs nervously.
"I know this is a lot to ask, but thank you," Kenny smiles, "wish me luck?"
"Good luck," Stan says.
"Yeah, good luck and be safe," Kyle adds.
Kenny gives them both one last smile as his eyelids grow heavy. A few seconds later, they close and soon he finds himself drifting off.
His eyes don't remain closed for very long, because in the next couple of seconds he finds himself awake again. However, he also now found himself no longer lying down, but instead standing up next to the metal table. But when glancing down at it, he finds himself still lying on the table.
Confusion crosses his face and he reaches a hand towards his lying form. His hand passes through it though. He examines his hand. It was there but wasn't at the same time, solid yet not, for he could see traces of the things around him through it now.
"Do you really think this will work?" he hears Kyle ask and looks up at the two still standing in the room.
"I don't know, but… all we can do is wait and see. And hope for the best," Stan replies.
Kenny looks down at his body on the table, his gaze drawn to his chest where the crystal is. He touches it and an immediate burn stings sharply at his chest. A blinding light suddenly flashes, causing him to shut his eyes. When they open again, a strange thin white light of some sort is in front of him. He can't quite make out what it is exactly, but it almost looked as if it was some kind of…Tear? Like as if it was ripping through the very fabric of the space around it or something.
Cautiously, he lifts a hand up and touches it, it disappears into it. He hesitates to do more, but doesn't get the option to linger, as he finds himself slowly being pulled towards it. It spreads open more, and in the next instant he's being sucked into it.
White blinding light fills his eyes once more as he covers his face. When he moves his arms away, the light fades and slowly his vision adjusts. Glancing around, he finds himself in a familiar scene filled with monochromatic grays, including himself this time, and black trees and foliage, just like his dream. The sky is littered with the strange stars like last time, except even more now, since he found himself standing in an opened field. When looking around more however, he finds giant masses of land floating at various height degrees, all disjointed and scattered about. Strange black globs of stringy thread substance seemed to connect them all.
He glances around trying to figure out where his dream had taken place and go from there, but with how strange this place is, it's hard to do. The burning in his chest returns and he examines it. Pulling down his shirt collar, he finds the black crystal still embedded in him. There's a strange pull from his chest and he looks around again. He takes a step one way, to test something out, then takes a step another way, and finds the burning slightly stings more.
A hunch forms and he decides to walk in the direction it stings. With each step he takes, the subtlety of the stinging grows more. But despite the pain, he carries on.
He walks until the faint feel of familiarity crosses him when passing by a cave. It reminds him of the one from his dream, except it is filled with black ooze seeping out of it. Still though, the feeling remains while he observes it. He wonders briefly if the dark liquid could've been what he had stood in, before continuing on.
The familiarity lingers, like he'd walked this way before, while at the same time not, as some things were different. He finds himself shuffling along a narrow ledge at some point. When halfway across it, the burning spikes in his chest. The sudden pain causes him to lose his footing and fall. The drop is short, luckily, and he only tumbles down some feet. Sitting up with a groan, he quickly realizes just how lucky it is that he hadn't fallen from a higher drop. He'd stopped right at the edge of the landmass he was on. But had he fallen from any higher, he would've surely fallen off into the unknown below.
His eyes trail along the various landmasses leading from the abyss below, to the current level he was at, as he slowly gets up and backs away from the edge. There's a sigh he lets out, filled with mild relief now that he wasn't staring down into oblivion.
Once he collects himself from that, he readies to carry on, but something bright in the distance catches his attention. Unable to tell what it is, he only stares in awe and apprehension, as the whole of the landmass it was coming from shook under its presence in massive shockwaves. All erupting from whatever that light—explosion? Was at the center.
A throbbing starts in his head and he grips at it. Something in himself was… Off. The color of purple flashes in his mind in the form of… Eyes? A sudden voice invades then, startling him. The intensity of it makes him grip harder at his head.
"Who…?" he manages through the head pain.
The light in the distance fades, and so too does the voice. The pain subsides a short while after that. He stares where the light had been for a few seconds in thought. The presence of whatever it was that he just experienced surprisingly calmed him. Despite not knowing what the hell just happened, the voice and eyes didn't strike fear into him, the same way those yellow eyes that haunted his nightmares did. But knowing he most likely wasn't going to get an answer for it, he chalks it up to the weirdness of this strange place and continues on.
He finds a way back up, to the path he had fallen from, and makes his way along it. The burning sting intensifies as he nears a dense area of forest some time later. He stops, a familiar sense creeping in when looking the area over. Although not as dark, he knew that this was the place. This was the forest he had wandered through before seeing all those horrors. Part of him almost didn't want to take the next step, but he had already come this far. And this was the only way.
With hesitation, he steps into the dense forest and slowly makes his way deeper into it. Unsettle nestles into his every fiber. Every rock, tree and bush all seemed to connect from the strange black substance that threaded them all together like a web. However, it was the sight of hallowed trees that seeped globs of black ooze, that unsettled him the most. To him, it seemed like they breathed, almost as if this place was living. Pushing the thoughts away to quiet them, he continues on, not needing more things to be concerned with.
He walks deeper until coming to a clearing like from his dream. Most everything had looked the same from it, all except for the mass of swirling darkness in the center of it. The bushes around him start to rustle and he glances around. Unease creeping in. His gaze is drawn back to the clearing, finding a cliff on the other side of it. He scans it, searching for what he had come here for. Desperation slowly rises in him and he starts to worry that what he saw may not have been true. But the sting in his chest spikes and a faint glimmer at the top of the cliff catches his eye.
"There…" he breathes.
Hurriedly he makes his way through the nearby trees and bushes to the base of the cliff. Trying his best to remain hidden from the swirling darkness in the center of the clearing. The burning sting grows with each step he takes, causing his breathing to grow labored as he nears it. He examines the cliff, spotting some roots and ledges he could use to climb up. The pain in his chest makes the climb difficult, but he pushes through it and tries to keep to the side as best he can.
He makes it up about half way, before the rustling of the trees and bushes grows to such intensity, that he can't help but glance back down. The foliage of the forest shakes and shudders, then in a blink, hundreds of small glowing eyes emerge in the darkness of them.
The sight unnerves him and even more so when bizarre chirping of some sort fills the air. The mass in the middle seems to react to it as it grows more erratic in nature, thrashing about at the base of the cliff and trees around it. His grip has to tighten around a root he's holding onto in order to not fall. Once the thrashing dies down a bit, he tries his best to proceed. Something about this all, told him that he was running out of time somehow. And that the black mass and whatever those things that lie in the bushes were, were growing impatient.
He climbs up along the side for as long as he can, before he needs to start climbing over to the center of the cliff in order to reach his goal. For a while it goes well and he almost makes it to the top, until the sudden sound of silence makes itself known. When had the chirping stopped? He almost doesn't want to glance back, but needs to know the answer. So he does. The only thing he now finds, are two giant yellow eyes peering up at him from the darkness, watching him.
He freezes, his heart stopping at the sight of the eyes that had haunted his nightmares. They were so huge, that he could make out every detail in them. From the pitch black hate-filled pupils, red-ringed yellow irises, to the small blood vessels in the whites, that seemed to almost throb in rage at what they were witnessing happening before them. Then he notices it, all the other eyes hidden in the forest now watching him as well, making his skin crawl.
The dark mass starts to stir. A slow grin spreads across its form. It's enough to prompt him to start climbing again, this time much quicker. Ignoring the looming danger that approaches from behind, he finds himself only a couple meters away from the top.
Pushing through the almost unbearable pain, labored breathing, fear and exhaustion, he focuses solely on the goal that's now clearly before him.
A crystal.
A white glimmering crystal. It rests on a branch, angled in a direction right above the clearing below it. Set up for its purpose.
The burning is so strong in him, that he nearly misses his chance to grab the crystal when reaching it. But he extends just far enough to grab it in his fingers, and quickly swipe it to the palm of his hand. The moment his hand closes around it, warmth fills him. But not a painful one, like the burning he had been experiencing thus far, no this warmth was almost comforting.
Surprise crosses him, when color from his hand quickly spreads down to his body. He opens his hand to look at the crystal again. It was so bright and white and… Familiar to him for some reason.
There's a sound, ear piercing. A screech. It's so sudden that he goes to cover his ears and loses his hold on the cliff. The next thing he knows, he's falling. Two large eyes full of loathing and a massive mouth open wide, greet his sight. The dark was going to devour him, into a place where he'd never see light again.
He clenches the crystal in his hand, bringing it to his chest. It stings sharply and he pulls his shirt collar down. The crystal in his chest aches and pulses. A thought forms in his head, and he brings the white crystal to it. The screeching intensifies to a choir of chirping all around him the moment he does.
Sudden white light surrounds him, as what looks like the tear he had gone through before, quickly forms and appears under him. There's a quick glance he spares at the thing wanting to devour him. And for the first time since he'd ever seen it, it wasn't grinning. Instead, its wide grin had been replaced with pure rage in a downward pull of screeching hatred.
It was about to lose.
And it knew it.
All it could do was watch as he was about to escape its grasp.
Forever.
White light blinds him as he falls through the tear. Shutting his eyes to shield them from its sheer exposure. His breath held. It feels like he's falling, yet not at the same time. Warmth consumes him, soothing all his pain away. Then finally he can breathe. And with a very loud gasp, he does.
The moment the light has faded, his eyes open and he quickly sits up. The action is so abrupt, that he doesn't even realize that he's back in his world, or body, until he's looking at the two very frightened faces of his friends standing near the door and wall.
"Holy Jesus fucking Christ!" Stan exclaims. It takes him a moment, but when he finally settles down a bit he continues, "Kenny? Are you…"
"I'm back," Kenny finishes for him with a lopsided smile.
He's light-headed and dizzy, glancing down at the needle still in his wrist, he removes it unceremoniously. No blood seems to fall from the small puncture left behind from it, so he glances back up.
"Goddamn, you just about gave us a heart attack. The way you woke up so suddenly like that," Stan says and pauses, "although I wonder how the hell you even woke up from that at all."
"It was probably because of this," Kenny says and holds up a now clear crystal in his hand.
"Huh? Wait, wasn't that on your neck?" Stan asks, confused.
"No that was…" Kenny pauses as he pulls down his shirt collar and finds the crystal on his necklace no longer black, or embedded into his chest. Instead it was clear, like it had been back when he first got it.
"It's not stuck to you anymore," Stan says, approaching him.
"Yeah…" Kenny says, taking it off and holding it next to the other one.
He half expects something to happen when the two crystals touch again, but nothing does. To him, they looked like nothing but just ordinary stones now.
"…Kenny, what happened?" Kyle asks, approaching him as well.
"Yeah man, you never explained why you needed to go to sleep. Just that it was necessary for you to stop it," Stan says.
"I needed to be asleep in order to get this," Kenny motions with his hand holding the crystals, "it was the flaw I saw in my dream. That thing's flaw."
"What do you mean?" Stan asks.
"When I saw that dream, even though I only saw it briefly, this stone stood out to me in it. Because it was like the one I had. And when I saw what it was planning, it kind of clicked for me what these stones were going to be used for."
"Used for?" Stan asks.
"Yes. I think they were meant to be used as some sort of transportation through some kind of… rift, or tear, or something. To get directly from its location to ours. By using… my lifeforce, or soul, or whatever," Kenny explains looking the stones over.
"Your soul? Jesus, how… how do you know?" Stan asks.
"I could feel it…" Kenny replies in thought, "and the moment I touched it, I knew right away it was that."
"Wait, so you're saying that, that thing you kept seeing was trying to like, use your soul to try and swap places with its? In order to try and come here?" Kyle asks.
"Yes," Kenny replies.
"But, how did you know going to sleep was going to work?" Stan asks.
"I had a hunch. Because if that thing could come to our world, then why couldn't I go to its?" Kenny asks, "The dreams I kept having also made me think about it too. Since we both had these crystals."
"So you were able to go right to where it was?" Stan asks.
"Not exactly, but I was able to locate it, both from memories from my dream and the stone resonating with it."
"Resonating?" Kyle asks.
"Yeah, it's strange, but in a way, it kind of felt like these two crystals were pulling to one another, like a magnet. As if wanting to be reunited, or combined. I'm not sure how to explain it…" Kenny murmurs.
"Was it something you could feel?" Stan asks, and Kenny nods.
"Did you see that thing over there?" Kyle asks.
"Yeah, it's true form was massive," Kenny replies.
"How massive?" Stan asks.
"Just trust me when I say it was massive," Kenny replies with a slight chuckle.
"Damn."
" I hope I never have to go back to that place ever again. That place was… unsettling and strange," Kenny pauses, a thought coming to mind, "I heard a strange voice in my head…"
"A voice? Was it from that thing?" Stan asks.
"No… I don't know what it was…"
"What did it say?" Kyle asks.
"It said that… my mind was troubled… like… Craig's?" Kenny tells them, his brows furrowing.
Kyle looks at Stan who shrugs.
"Craig? Who's that?" Kyle asks, confused.
"I don't know," Kenny replies, shaking his head, "I've never heard or met anyone with that name before."
There's a short pause.
"Well, it probably wasn't really anything that important anyways," Stan says, "probably just part of the weirdness of that place or something."
"Yeah, maybe the environment was messing with you a bit, since you were an outsider going in there," Kyle adds.
"That's what I figured," Kenny says, "you guys are probably right though. It probably isn't really anything."
"Right," Kyle nods, "and that place is behind you now."
"Hopefully for good," Stan adds.
Kenny looks over the crystals in his hand, examining them once more, before closing his hand around them and looking up at his friends.
"Let's head out of here, I really need some sleep," Kenny says with a small smile.
"Me too man, me too," Stan says.
"I think we all could do with some sleep," Kyle yawns.
"What should we do with those?" Stan asks, motioning to Kenny's hand.
"I don't know," Kenny replies and glances at his closed fist, "destroy them somehow I guess?"
"Sounds good to me," Stan shrugs.
There's a small pause before they give a shared smile between the three of them. Finally glad to be done and over with everything.
"Come on, let's go guys," Kenny says, stuffing the crystals into his pants pocket.
And the three head off.
They decide to head home for the night, making sure to check in on the motel for anything they may have missed when they hurried out, before doing so. The feeling of being back home still somewhat unsettles Kenny after everything that happened, but he does feel some sense of ease knowing that he no longer had to fear seeing that thing again.
He knew that things weren't ever going to be the same for him after all he'd been through, but he was going to try his best to return to some normalcy. It helped that he didn't feel alone, since his friends had experienced some of the things too. But knew they had only seen a fraction of what he had. Still though, it was a small, odd kind of comfort, knowing that he wasn't fully alone in all that had happened.
His thoughts tire, he didn't want to think anymore about all of this. All he wanted to do was just rest. He and his friends would figure out how to get rid of the crystals, if possible at all, later when they were well rested.
There's a small exchange he and his friends give of good nights and making sure they are alright, before each one takes their tired leave and makes their way to bed. Kenny all but practically collapses into his bed with a heavy sigh. He lies there, just lying in silence, until sleep slowly overcomes him.
And for the first time, in a very long time.
His sleep is filled with nothing but peace.
END
A/N: And that's the end.
To anyone who read this story, thank you, and I hope that it was an enjoyable read.
And until next time, may I see you again in another story... Another, world.