Songs:
Billie Eilish - bad guy (PatrickReza Remix) (Main Theme 1)
Can't Help Falling in Love (Dark Version) feat. brooke - Tommee Profitt (Main Theme 2)
I Don't Know How but They Found Me - Mr. Sinister Studio Version
Marianas Trench - Toy Soldiers
Chase Holfelder - Tainted Love
AWAY x Koda - Help Me (Craig)
Mblue - Killing Me
An old empty office room lies before Kenny's gaze. The sight of it sends a chill through him, recalling the last time he'd been in one like this. He wanted to run, but was much too tired and scared. Even if he did escape, Craig would find him. He always did. Which is why he didn't resist when following Craig into this old abandoned building.
"Take a seat," Craig motions to an old wooden chair with wheels.
Unease fills Kenny, but he takes a seat in the chair.
Craig walks over to an old desk and picks up something from it, then walks over to Kenny. He stands behind him and grabs his wrists, tying them together with a zip tie. Once secured, he steps back around to face him.
"I suspected that something like this might happen. So I went ahead and prepared some things here. But there's still one last piece missing, so I'll need you to hang tight for a little while longer," Craig smiles, "it may get a bit messy once I return though."
The words unsettle Kenny, even more so with that eerie smile on his face. Although he was sure that whatever depravity thing Craig had planned for him next, wouldn't surprise him much at this point.
"I'll be back soon," Craig says, before exiting the room.
Kenny looks around the dimly lit room, it was mostly empty, said for a few things left behind, abandoned, and the stuff Craig had set off to the side on the desk. He can't quite make out all the items resting on it, and isn't sure if he really wants to know what they are.
It's silent, for what feels like an eternity, before the sound of faint footsteps coming back down the hall grabs his attention. His heartbeat increases with each step he hears, bracing for the worst to come. The door to the room opens with a small creak, and—
"Kenny?"
Surprise crosses Kenny's features.
"Stan…?" he asks, confused. Stan looks at him, seeming relieved and makes his way over to him, "Wh—what are you doing here?"
"I followed you from the park, because something didn't feel right. And when I saw Craig, I kept my distance until I saw you guys enter this place, then came in once I saw him leave alone," Stan explains, "anyways, I'm here to get you out of here."
"Stan, I…" Kenny shakes his head, "no, I can't go with you. Craig will be back, and if he sees that I'm gone—"
"Fuck Craig!" Stan interrupts, "I understand that you're afraid, but this is ridiculous! He's kidnapping you! And you're just letting him! Come on Kenny! You can't just let this happen to you!"
"Stan—"
"I can't just let this happen to you!" Stan exclaims and Kenny falls silent, "I'm sick of just idly sitting by and watching you continue to suffer alone in silence… Just let me help you already."
Kenny's heart skips, if only for the briefest of moments. He wanted to take Stan's words, take them and grasp on to them so tightly. He wanted truly nothing more than to believe that Stan could get him out of this hell. To take his hand and be pulled out of the depths of this abyss. He wanted to believe. Believe so badly.
…But he knew he was foolish for believing in such an escape, as a tall dark form slowly appears in the doorway behind Stan.
"Like a lamb to the slaughter," comes Craig's voice, causing Stan to turn around, "welcome, Marsh."
The glint of something metallic is revealed from behind Craig. A knife grasped tightly in his hold.
Craig enters and shuts the door behind himself.
"Well now, since the last piece for this scene is here, it's time to begin," Craig says, an eerie grin across his face, slowly turning into a malicious one.
The knife starts to raise in his hold and Kenny begins to panic, knowing what he was about to do.
"No—don't hurt him!" he pleads.
Stan quickly looks back at him, not afraid, but determined.
"Do you want me to help you? Yes or no?" Kenny looks at him panicked and confused, not knowing why he'd ask such a question right now. "Kenny," he says again, "yes, or no?"
Beating pounds against Kenny's ears, his gaze flicking between Stan and Craig in rapid movements, his body shaking at the oncoming scene that was about to play out before him. His gaze drifts over to Stan's one last time, before his eyes squeeze shut.
"Yes!" he shouts, his eyes open, pleading, "Help me!"
There's a moment where Stan smiles at him, before he quickly pushes Kenny back in the rolling chair and just narrowly dodges Craig swinging at him. He loses his balance, only for a moment, before steadying it on the desk. Quickly he grabs for something on the desk, a bottle that he manages to use to divert Craig's next swing at him. It knocks the knife out of his grasp and Stan takes the chance to rush back over to Kenny, while Craig goes to pick it up.
Unable to undo the zip tie, he instead props Kenny's arms over the back of the chair, as he helps him stand up. Just as the two stand up straight, Craig also stands back up, with the knife in his hand once more.
"You've been nothing but a constant thorn in my side, Marsh," Craig murmurs walking over to them, "I can't wait to finally cut you off!"
He rushes at Stan, who just narrowly misses him again, this time by the skin of his teeth as the knife just grazes his cheek.
"Stan!" Kenny says worriedly, watching a small trail of blood rolls down his cheek.
"I'm fine," Stan says, wiping at it.
"How irritating," Craig mutters, "you don't deserve his concern."
Craig swipes again and Stan falls back.
"Sta—"
"Go!" Stan tells him, "I'll be fine! Just go!"
Kenny looks between him and the door, unsure of what to do. But when he sees Stan struggling to get back up, with his one good arm, and Craig standing over him, knife raised, he quickly finds himself ramming into Craig and shoving him over instead. He looks at Stan, who offers a small thankful nod, as he gets to his feet once more. Hurriedly, the two take the chance to run, before Craig gets back up.
"You can't run!"
Comes Craig's voice, as they exit the room.
They run down the hall and up a set of stairs, trying to lose Craig in the labyrinth of rooms and halls.
They come to a stop in one of the rooms and hide behind a desk, trying to catch their breaths.
"Thanks," Stan says and Kenny looks at him, "for helping out back there."
Kenny smiles at him.
"No problem."
"What should we do about Mr. Psychopath out there?" Stan asks.
"No idea," Kenny shakes his head, "for now let's just try and get away from him."
"Alright," Stan nods.
While resting, Kenny struggles to get his arms under and around his feet, so that they're now in front of him, instead of behind. Making his tied wrists a bit more comfortable to rest against his chest now. Just as he finishes with that, the sound of faint footsteps echo down the hall. So faint that you'd miss them if you weren't paying proper attention, but loud enough for them to hear in their heightened adrenaline states. They hear one door after another slowly creak open as each room is examined in search of them. Eventually, the door to their room opens, slowly. There's a deafening long pause as the two stop breathing, trying not to make a single sound. But when the door shuts once more, they let out an exhale and breathe again.
They stay hiding in place until the footsteps fade down the hall and disappear. They exit the room cautiously and head down the hall in the opposite direction that they heard the footsteps go down, thinking it's the safest choice. They take their time, minimizing every movement so that it won't echo in the vacant spaces. They reach the stairway door and open it, quietly as they can and begin their descent down the stairs. Planning to go all the way down to the exit. Or at least that's how they hoped things would've gone, had the all too familiar form of Craig hadn't been waiting for them in front of it, leaning against it and blocking it with his body.
"I had a feeling," Craig says, and pushes off the door, uncrossing his arms, "a predictable move really," He takes a step towards them and they tense, "Hey Marsh, need help going down another flight of stairs?" he taunts with a smirk.
"Fuck you," Stan says.
"No thanks, I have a type," he glances at Kenny.
Stan protectively grabs Kenny by the arm to move him away.
Craig scowls.
"Don't touch him."
In the next moment he's rushing at them, they try to run back up the stairs, but only make it up one flight, before Craig grabs Stan by the waist and slams him into the floor. Stan cries out in pain from both the impact and his injured arm. Craig sits up and plunges the blade. It misses Stan, narrowly, snagging the side of his jacket. Craig readies for another attack, but Kenny kicks him off. Losing balance, Craig grasps for something to hold onto, and grabs Kenny's ankle. Causing both of them to fall down the stairs. Kenny falls halfway down them, managing to stop himself by grabbing onto the banister, while Craig falls to the bottom of them.
Craig coughs a few times, as he turns to his side and pushes himself up.
"Why…" Craig murmurs, "why are you trying so hard to protect him? He doesn't deserve your protection. You are much better than him, than anyone else. They are unworthy of you."
"You're wrong," Kenny pants, trying to catch his breath, "he is worth it. He's worth it more than anyone I know. You'll never be worth a fraction of what he is."
Craig stares at him, his gaze cold and piercing.
"Is that so?" he asks and gets up, "If that's the case, then…" he begins making his way up the first step, just as Kenny starts to get up. Then abruptly, he lunges at him, grabbing him by the shoulders and shoving him back down into the stairs, "If I'm not worthy of having you, then nobody is!"
He places the blade over Kenny's neck, using all of his weight to try and lodge it into him. The two are immovable in the struggle, Kenny only able to keep the blade from piercing him, because of the zip tie around his wrists slowing it down with friction, as he tries to push it away from him.
"Why are you fighting me so much on this? I thought that this is what you wanted? What you begged for. A sweet release from this world," Craig says, struggling with him, "I'm even using the same knife as before, for you. All for you."
"There's something I want to live for…" Kenny grits out.
"Who? Him?" Craig seethes out.
Kenny uses all he can to turn his body to the side and shove Craig off of him, the motion is so strong, that it ends up snapping the now weakened zip tie off of his wrists. There's a quick brief thought that passes through Kenny's mind, when realizing just how close he came to death. But he quickly scrambles to his feet, and helps Stan get up, while Craig watches them with the intense burn of hatred now in his eyes.
Kenny stops and looks back at Craig for a moment, then grabs Stan's hand.
"You wouldn't understand," he tells him, before rushing up the stairs with Stan.
"Kenny!"
Craig's voice booms throughout the old stairway's passage, shaking Kenny to his very core. It had been the first time that Craig had ever referred to him by his actual name throughout this whole ordeal, and the way in which it was said, was filled with so much vitriol and hate. It chilled Kenny to the bone, because unlike the other times where Craig unsettled him, this time it was very apparent that Craig had every intention to want to harm him. To want to kill him.
Kenny and Stan run up, until reaching the exit to the roof.
"Careful," Kenny says, stopping Stan from running out, "the wood up here is rotten."
"Rotten?"
Kenny scans the surface of the roof, before guiding Stan along, his old nightly skilled instincts kicking in. A short while later, the door to the roof slams back open, and Craig exits it.
"Stop all this pointless running around," Craig says, "just accept my release already. You have nowhere else to go."
Kenny carefully moves around the uneven surface of the roof, while keeping his gaze trained on Craig. Craig makes his way over to them, his gaze unwavering from Kenny's.
Kenny frowns slightly and his lips tighten in a thin line, in thought. He had a plan, but it wasn't going to work, unless he was able to get Craig to blindly come at him enraged. He needed to do something, and do something quick, before Craig managed to reach them.
He glances at Stan for a moment, then back at Craig. Another idea was forming.
"I don't know how much clearer I can make it," Kenny says, "I'll never belong to you!"
Then, within a split second, Kenny turns to Stan, grabbing him by the collar and promptly brings their lips together. Kenny's wish is granted then, as an enraged, yelling, Craig comes running blindly towards them.
The roof floor wanes and creaks under Craig's weight as he runs across it. Until a very distinctive crack is heard. Then, just as fast as he had run out towards them, he's falling. The roof giving way underneath him, opening a hole into the abyss of the building.
The kiss breaks and Kenny looks back at him, one last time.
"Rest in hell," he mutters.
The building consumes Craig, his cry of anger echoing throughout its vacant spaces below, as he falls deeper and deeper into it. It's only once all sounds subside do either Stan or Kenny dare to peek over the edge of the hole. Neither one able to see the bottom of it, where Craig now lies. Who, unlike them, could still see them from his position on his back, their silhouettes dancing lightly around the edges of his fading vision. There was nothing but pain for him now, and the faint thought of his hero forever being out of his reach, unable to join him.
Everything begins to darken, the last of his consciousness fading from existence. All that would await him now, was the…
"Cold…"
With his last breath, his vision completely fades and the abyss welcomes him into its cold embrace.
Kenny lets out a deep sigh as he moves away from the side of the hole.
"Sorry about that," he says to Stan.
"Huh?" Stan says, looking at him.
"About the uh, kissing you without asking," Kenny explains.
"Oh that, uh, it's fine, don't worry about it," Stan murmurs. There's a slight tinge of color on Stan's cheeks before he glances away, "Thanks for… accepting my help back there. I know that it was a lot of pressure that you were under, but…"
"It's alright, I know what you were trying to do," Kenny smiles, faintly, "thank you for opening my eyes."
Stan smiles back.
"We should probably get out of here though, before anyone sees us," Kenny says, knowing that while the ordeal with Craig may have ended, a new one that was sure to involve the police was about to begin.
…
Over the course of the following week, it doesn't take long for people to notice Craig's sudden disappearance from school. And when a search is inevitably initiated by his parents, the news spreads like wildfire throughout it. Only a few days later, his body is found, at the bottom of an 8 story drop. The only belonging found on him was his phone, which broke during the fall, while the knife seemed to remain unfound, having landed elsewhere. Conspiracies spread amongst the students, about what could have possibly happened, until the official news about it being an accidental death is confirmed by the local media, quelling them.
For Kenny, while he did feel bad for Craig's parents, having to mourn the loss of a child, he couldn't say he felt the same as them. Which only made the interaction he needed to have with them feel a bit awkward. There were some things he needed to get from Craig's room, things that he needed to get in order to put this whole ordeal behind him for good. Luckily for him though, they allowed him to retrieve them, since they knew there had been some kind of—at least from their perspective—'relationship' between him and Craig.
The memories of Craig's room still haunted him as he searched for what he needed. He grows anxious with each passing second in this place, but eventually finds what he'd been searching for, a box. Which had been moved to the closet at some point. Praying that it had been Craig that placed it there and that no one else had peered into it, he makes his way over to the laptop and removes its hard drive. Then lastly grabs the cards out of the cameras and tosses everything into the box. Once he's sure that he has everything, he makes his way downstairs and thanks the Tuckers for allowing him to get his things and offering a sympathetic sounding apology for their loss. They only give a small nod in acknowledgment at him, before he exits and meets up with Stan.
Stan had come with him, but said he'd wait outside, seeming to have sensed Kenny's unease about him possibly seeing something that he didn't want him to see by accident. Which Kenny was thankful for.
They walk in silence until coming to an old familiar park, and stop in front of a metal trash barrel.
"So this is everything?" Stan asks.
"Yup," Kenny replies, and tosses the box into the barrel. It lands on its side, spilling open a bit, and showing just how much content is inside of it.
"Shit, that's a lot of stuff," Stan says in shock.
"I know…" Kenny murmurs, distant.
There's a gasoline container they have prepared next to the barrel, which Stan picks up and dowses the stuff in, while Kenny lights a match.
"Any final words?" Stan asks, standing next to him.
Kenny looks at the stuff for a long moment, before throwing the match in.
"No."
The trash can ignites on fire the instant the match makes contact with the dowsed stuff in it, engulfing it all in one fell swoop. It burns, bright and bold against the sunset sky. Its smoke carrying away the remnants that haunted him. That tormented him. Now they were no more. Now they were gone. And finally, he was able to put everything to rest for good. No longer would this past hurt him anymore. No more shame, humiliation, hurt, sadness, fear or anger would tie him down to the physical evidence of that time.
Finally, he was free.
END