King groans, squinting his eyes shut when the sun shines.
"Ugh...can't I just wake up earlier...?"
His motions move to his phone, before he finally registers what was going on and what happened.
Purple.
A sob bubbles in his throat, but he forces it down, shoving his phone back in his pocket and standing up. His hand reaches for the doorknob. Victim said there'd be a body.
Rocket Corp should have some development by now.
It would be nice to have some closure. Gold never got that.
A proper burial.
The eulogy he'd half-assed in his notes app on his phone is the first thing he sees on his phone.
He puts it away. It's anything and everything he could say to Purple one last time.
I'm so sorry for everything I've done to you.
Thank you for everything you did for me.
I never got to tell you in person that I loved you more than I would ever be able to say.
You mean so much more than I say you do, because I can't describe how much you mean to me.
I love you so, so much, my beloved sunshine. Always and forever.
Tears form in his eyes again, but he wipes them away, shoving his phone back in his pocket.
He can't look weak anymore. Not here.
He's fallen apart in public enough times.
"Your up early."
The sudden, yet familiar, voice makes King stop dead in his tracks. The person in front of him doesn't move.
King almost doesn't want to look up. The voice bounces around in his head.
There is no way.
I have to be going insane.
It's a ghost.
There's no way.
King's eyes filled with tears again. He glances up, his entire body freezing up.
Purple. Purple . Stares back at him.
King takes a few hesitant steps closer, a hand reaching out.
"Purple...sunshine..."
Purple smiles up at him.
The kid gently takes his hand, and King's heart races when he realizes it's real.
He's here.
He's alive...
"Purple...You're alive..."
"Did you ever have a doubt?"
King collapses in front of him and pulls him close, a shaky hand gently running through his hair.
Purple only stands there. He doesn't hug back.
It feels wrong.
"I'm sorry...I'm so sorry, baby, I never should've-"
"I know. I know. Your son will be most pleased hearing those words out of his dead father. "
King's heart plummets.
This isn't Purple.
"W-What?"
"Purple" steps back, an evil smirk King had never thought possible on the child's face.
This was not Purple.
"W-Who are you?! Where's Purple?!"
"Being taken out of town by Luna," The fake said nonchalantly. "He got told you didn't love him anymore, and died in a house fire, and that was the end of it."
King's heart races. "You-You burned my house down. Didn't you?"
"How else were we supposed to sell the ruse if he ever did make it to town?" The fake muses, tilting King's head up. The look in his eyes made the older stick shiver.
"You put one hand on my son, so help me-"
"Please. Your kid has been drugged and raped, how much more damage could we do to him?"
King's heart shatters.
No, no, NO-
The ground disappears beneath him, and he falls.
King makes contact with cold, hard ground, sending shots of pain through his body.
Jesus fuck-
"Ow! What the-"
Darkness greets him.
God fuck, is he dead?
"Hello?!"
King slowly gets to his feet, ignoring the shots of pain all over him.
What the hell just happened?
Who the hell was that?!
…And how did they get themselves to look so much like Purple?
His voice, his appearance, everything was on par with the real kid.
How did they do that?
Someone grabs his arm, and King nearly screams at the contact.
"Hey, hey! Relax! It's just me!"
Oh.
It's Agent.
"Jesus fucking Christ, don't scare me like that!"
"Sorry!"
King sucks in a few breaths, letting the adrenaline drain from his body. "How did they do that…?"
"Do what?"
"Whoever got me stuck here somehow manipulated their entire appearance to make me think it was Purple."
"...What? How?!"
"I don't know! But they looked so much like him! Voice, appearance, everything! It was like Purple was cloned!"
Agent looked thoughtful. "That couldn't be Purple…Purple wouldn't do that."
"Purple's dead, Agent. Whoever that was, it wasn't a ghost. It was someone pretending to be Purple-"
"Purple isn't dead, King."
King's tangent is cut off by Agent's flat response. "W-What?"
"A few hours or so after the shooting, his vitals came up. He was very much alive, was alive the entire time, and probably still is."
King doesn't even know if he's felt this relieved.
"What…how?!"
"I guess we underestimated his ability to swim, and some quick thinking saved his life," Agent explained, fiddling with his bracelet. He pulled up a map of the region, and sure enough, there was a dot driving out of the city.
"Is that…?"
Agent clicked the dot, and King's heart almost stopped beating from the information given.
Name: Purple Clementine
Age: 15
Status: Alive
Heart Rate: 80 bpm
"Oh, thank god."
"It's a pure miracle, isn't it."
King sighs in relief, the worst feelings of his life finally dissipating.
It really was real.
Purple was alive!
…But where was he going?
"Where is he going, though?" King pointed to the dot. "Isn't Rocket Corp in the opposite direction, or am I reading the map wrong?"
Agent took another glance at the map. "No…I think you're reading it right. Meaning he's with someone who is a fucking moron…"
King doesn't want to think about the other outcome.
The other outcome is something he wishes would never happen to his little sunshine ever again.
But alas, that was how it was going to be.
Something flashes before his eyes. Something the doppelganger had said earlier.
"Being taken out of town by Luna. He got told you didn't love him anymore, and died in a house fire, and that was the end of it."
"Oh, shit…"
"What?"
"I have a pretty good idea about what's going on."
Agent looked up at him, curiosity in his eyes.
"Luna."