imaginary | karlnap

twenty

"karl honey, your uncles are here to see you!"

two hours had passed since karl escaped up and locked himself in his room after the appointment with doctor soot. he had laid down on his bed, putting his phone on do not disturb, and rolled to face the wall by his bed. the silence had settled over the two in the room comfortably.

now it was broken by his mother yelling at him to come downstairs. 

the boy begrudgingly got out of bed and shuffled to his door, opening it before looking back at nick, who was on the floor, looking up at him with puppy eyes. 

"you coming?"

nick nodded without saying a word and pushed himself up and off the floor, stretching before heading over to karl's side.

"you looked like a lost puppy, i couldn't leave you behind," he muttered, his tone still cold as the two headed downstairs. 

karl's mom had her bag on her shoulder as she looked up the staircase, seeing her son come down, but she didn't see the male behind him. the others though could see him. 

"hi honey, i'm gonna go get your prescription. your uncles are gonna be here until i get back," his mom states cautiously before making her way out of the house.

once the front door shut, everyone who was still in the home went to sit in the living room.

"prescription? for what?" clay's voice sounded out as he glanced over in karl's direction.

"apparently everyone thinks i'm ill because sapnap is still here," karl muttered, a bitter taste in his mouth as everyone's eyes widened.

"how can we see him then?" bad questioned, pushing his glasses up on his nose, glancing over to where nick was sitting, which was next to karl.

"not sure, maybe we're all insane," karl replied, his gaze shifting over to the brit who was holding a book in his arms, "what's that?"

george looked at the seventeen-year-old before holding it out toward him. 

"it's a photo album of clay, bad, and i with a very special friend," george told him, stumbling over his words slightly, letting the boy take it from his grasp.

karl glanced at nick, who just shrugged before he looked at the cover of the album. it was leather with three names on it.

dream. sapnap. badboyhalo. georgenotfound.

"sapnap?" karl questioned, not even hearing his own voice come out of his mouth for a few moments. 

"yeah," clay simply said as karl fiddled with the edge of the plastic pages, "whatever you see in there isn't illegal to look at."

karl nodded before opening the photo album, seeing a variety of photos looking back at him. almost all the pictures were of the group of four, with some solo shots. karl's eyes darted around the pages, seeing the younger boys smiling with no care in the world. 

them playing at the beach, riding a rollercoaster at an amusement park, and exploring the country together.

happy.

the pages went on as the four kept on smiling in every picture. a certain picture caught karl's eye halfway through the album. it was a picture of younger dream, george, and sapnap in front of a go kart track. no scars or injuries that resulted in the crash that any of them refused to talk about. 

sapnap was in a white thrasher hoodie and a pair of adidas sweatpants with checkered vans. he seemed to have been the same age he was now, as if nick had stopped aging. his smile was so bright and blissful, his pure happiness captured in one photo.

after studying the picture for a moment, karl moved on to the next page, where nick was no where to be seen.

"what happened to the photos of sapnap?"

"oh um.. did he not tell you?"

"tell me what?"

"sapnap died about ten years ago."

"he's dead?!"

for karl, 

everything finally began to make sense.