"Dude, what's up?"
"Why the hell haven't you been at school dude?"
"Oh, dude I've had these Monster headaches. It's so weird."
"What? Really?"
"Yeah, Like — Kenny dude I had this one hella whack ass dream a while back that Stan, Cartman and I kicked Mysterion's ass. It's hella weird."
"Uh... Th—That is weird."
"Yeah and Then like I guess I had a nightmare or somethin after cause I woke up on the floor with some bruises from falling off my bed bro."
"Have you had any dreams like that since?"
"Nah—Wait why do you ask?"
"Oh, uh... I'm studying that kind of stuff with Butters. O-On our free time."
"Ohhhh, didn't you become his SC?"
"Yeah."
"What are you his Boyfriend too?"
"What? No."
"Ya sure?"
"Yes I'm sure—Look we're getting very off topic here."
"Kenny, chill it was a joke haha. Anyway, I gotta go. I gotta get ready for school. Prom is coming up bro."
"Oh. Yeah. I guess?"
"What? You're not going?"
"I mean... I don't know. I'd have to find a sitter for Karen and—"
"Dude What is she? A preteen or somethin? She can take care of herself."
"I... I guess..."
"Dude, Kenny, you worry too much. Just let Karen stay home and go to Prom with Butters or something."
"Wha—? We. Aren't. Dating!"
"Suuuuure, sure. See ya dude."
I half angrily ended the call and sighed, rubbing my face and falling back onto the bed. I called all three of them. They said the exact same thing. They never mentioned that one thing though. It's weird.
~DingDing~
I turned my head to see my phone light up from a text. Leo.
LEO 🦁: Did you call them all?
I felt a small smile raise my lips. That little Lion emoji always made me feel a little bit better.
Me: Yeah. They all said the same thing. Headache and thinking it was a dream.
Leo 🦁: That's Odd. You'd think at least Kyle would remember.
Me: I guess not.
Me: Any Ideas?
Leo 🦁: Nothing. We'll talk more about it tomorrow at Lunch.
Me: K.
I sighed and looked beside me to See Karen sleeping soundly on my pec. What am I? Everyone's personal body pillow? Sheesh.
I gently nudge and Poke at her face,"Karennnn, Kaaaaarennnnn~"
"Mmmmmhuwanhhhhnhnhnnnn" she groaned and mumbled.
"You have a perfectly good bed in your room." I chuckled.
She then mumbled something along the lines of "Make me leave you pubescent Sponge" and I chuckled. Challenge accepted.
Grabbing her by the legs I slowly pulled her off my bed and started to drag her back to her room. She clawed and grabbed at the follicles of the carpet,"Noooooo! Noooooooo!" She repeated over and over.
I (gently) slammed her into her bed and walked to her window,"Go to bed in here, you've got school tomorrow."
"But Kennnn I feel sickkkk." She pretended to groan and cough, but I just laughed and closed her curtains, after locking the window.
"Nice try, Hun. It ain't working."
"Blehhhh." She huffed.
"Ha ha. Now go to bed. I'm serious." I patted her head as I walked around her bed,"You need sleep."
"I'm a strong and independent woman, you can't tell me what to do!"
"Uh-huh. And I'm the tooth fairy. Go to sleep."
"Ugh, Fine fineeeee."
"Thank youuuuu." I smiled and closed the door. Jeez, I need some sleep too. I may be a sting buff man at night, but by day I am weak marshmallow man from Siberian alps who know not nothing but sleep. Yeah.
I trotted back into my room and plugged my phone in, resting it on my nightstand so I could hear my alarm. But, downside comes along. I'm an insomniac. I can't sleep. Yay.
As I laid in bed I started to think about that Thing that Drained me—What was it? Didn't it call itself the Ghost Eye or something? If that's supposed to be a villain name, it's very dumb, not gonna lie. But still, shitty names or not, I'm concerned. Very concerned. How can he just move like that? It's... unnatural. And that way he controlled the boys? And me? God... it felt so bad. No wonder the boys seemed dead. I was only forced to be calm and I couldn't walk, I couldn't imagine being totally subjected like that.
And I'm worried too. Sure I have cameras installed and everything, but... I'm worried it's going to take Karen. The way it talked about her and Leo... I don't know. I'm scared it's gonna take her and not me. I'm her big brother—I'm supposed to protect her and love her. If I can't protect her from a shadow what good am I??
I flipped over onto my stomach and hugged the mattress. I don't know what to do. I want to protect her but I don't want her to know what's going on. And I certainly don't want to have her know I'm Mysterion. I'm called Mysterion. I'm supposed to be MYSTERIOUS, duh. How the hell am I going to do this??
After a while, I finally fell asleep.
"KENNY!!! KENNY!!!"
My adrenaline suddenly kicked in and I sped my way to her room, as she kept screaming for my help. When I tried to open the door, it was locked.
"KAREN HOLD ON! STAY AWAY FROM THE DOOR!"
I backed up and ran full force, ramming my shoulder into the door, hearing it splint the wood. I trotted back and ran again, another dud.
"KENNY!!!! GET AWAY!! GET AWAY!!!" She screamed, and I heard her kick at something.
"Third Time's the Charm." I growled to myself and Rammed it again, the wood finally giving weigh against my weight, and I nearly fell inside her room. I quickly got up and gasped.
Karen was crying and holding onto her doll tightly, her arm limp around her bed post. It was broken, it was already starting to bruise and bone was slightly poking at a thin layer of skin. Around her ankles were a black substance and stain, her legs were cut up and some of the cloth on her shorts were too. Along the carpet black stains trailed out to the windowsill, where it looked almost like someone had just thrown a bucket of black paint at it.
I ran to Karen and hugged her tightly, careful not to hurt her arm more. She leaned into me and sobbed.
"I-It was so scary! I-It ca-came th-through the wi-window and—"
"Shhhh.." I hushed softly,"I have to get you to the hospital first."
I hesitated before slowly picking her up. I took one last look at the window before walking out the house.
—————————————————————
"So, someone broke into your house and Tried to kidnap your Daughter?"
"What? No I'm her brother— anyway yeah. Pretty much." I shoved my hands in my pockets as the cop stared me down.
"I-It's true officer!" Karen suddenly spoke up,"He was dressed in all black—I could barely see his face!"
"Uh-huh." He wrote it down and closed his pad,"Look, we'll check around for him but I doubt we'll get him. People like that tend to flee real quick." He bummed and shoved his hands in his pockets.
"Can you just try?" I asked.
"We will, don't worry." He nodded,"If you need anything else, call my office." He handed me a slip of paper containing a sloppily written number. God, we're they sevens or ones? Or even worse, sevens AND ones???
"Yeah. Sure." I nodded and watched him walk out the room, leaving Karen and I alone.
"Kenny." She whined suddenly, making my head turn to her,"I'm scared he's going to come after me again—L-Like I know I'm supposed to be brave since I'm older but..."
I frowned and walked over, and gently ran my hand through her bangs,"It's Okay to be scared sometimes, yknow. It's hard to be strong all the time." I sat down on the bed, the shifting of the air causing her to bounce from the mattress,"I'm scared too. I was scared that I wouldn't get to you in time too."
"But you're strong—you broke my door!"
"Physically, maybe." I chuckled,"But I'm just as scared as you, if not more scared. Why? Cause I'm your brotherrrr!" I ruffled her hair, in a feeble attempt to make her laugh, in which worked. My hand gently caressed her cast, tracing the plaster,"And I take care of you. You're my only family I got left, and I don't know what I'd do if I lost you."
"Even though I annoy you?"
"Even though you annoy me." I chuckled.
"Aw, thanks Kenny." She smiled, but then frowned,"It was so scary, Ken. I thought I was going to die."
I paused,"What... What exactly happened?"
"I..." She gulped and started to chew on her nails,"I woke up... from a nightmare. And I was just... I was paralyzed. I-I couldn't move. And then... the window just opened and they jumped in." She shuddered, and looked at me,"They sat on top of me, and just... Stared at me. I didn't know what to do."
"How did you break your arm?" I blinked, trying to pay attention to as much detail as I could. I needed to remember. It was important.
"They started to pull me out of bed.." She looked down at her cast,"That's when I screamed for you. I held onto the bed post as they tugged on me, and they tried to make me let go by curving my arm around the post." She winced just trying to remember it,"Before you broke the door down was when they jumped out the window again."
"They curved your arm around the post? That must have hurt huh."
"Well, Yeah! I was screaming wasn't I?!"
"Yeah, you were. We might get some noise complaints when we get back." I chuckled and sighed in embarrassment. Yknow, that "Yeughhh" sound? Yeah that. I hated our neighbors. They were pricks.
"Did you tell Leo anything?" Karen suddenly asked.
"Huh? Where'd that come from?" I blinked.
"I dunno, Aren't you friends?"
"Well, Yeah. What? Do you want him to sign your cast?"
"...Maybe.."
"Aha! I knew it." I chuckled,"But... If it'll make you happy I can text him to come over if he's awake."
"Please!" She smiled brightly, almost already bouncing with excitement.
"Okay, Okay!" I chuckled and quickly unlocked my phone.
Me: Leo. Are you awake?
Me: We have a serious Problem.
—————————————————————
AN: I Love and Hate seeing people who I know have come from this story look at my insta story and seeing my persistent crying and me going thru my shitty days like HI I'm like REALLY GLAD ur here but like aLsO I DONT WANT YOU TO SEE ANY OF THAT BC I DONT WANT U TO THINK LESS OF ME AS A WRITER and yeah lmao
Also? I'm gonna open a QnA thing.
So basically if you have any questions for me in my personal Life, me as an author, the story, the characters, the universe this takes place in or etc, just ask them below or on this wall of text. I'll slowly go through them as they come and go. And I'll post a new QnA line every few chapters so you can comment again, yeah lmao.
(I just thought of this and idk if I'm ever gonna remember to delete this but Imagine a small animatic w these two where it's the "Get Help" elevator scene with Thor and Loki. Please someone do that lmao)
Anyway? Fanart!!!!
Made by @RandomGeek-Vale !
Okay but??? This was made before I posted Leo's reference and I actually really like this! :0 His turtleneck is so cute! 💙✨ Very techie and geeky like he is lol I can 100% see this Version of Leo wearing that at some point of this book! What can I say? I'm a slut for cute & simple 💙😍
This one was made by @SouthParkCrap !
I really like this one because Kenny has such a cute little angry expression 😭😂💙✨ Look at him go! I also like the little detail of the Broken and Boarded up windows! At least you got what I was going for in the scenery 😭 I really need to improve my detail work in my writing when it comes to stories with a lot of talking like this one.
These were Made by Catsomuch, and I got this Via Email.
I gotta say, you captured this scene PERFECTLY! When I was going to draw this, this was actually EXACTLY what I had planned! So Bless AND curse you for beating me to the Punch 😭💙✨ The expressions? Wonderful! The green eyes? SPOT ON! The little details like the closed eye and the blood going down Kenny's face are really nice touches too 😍😘 10/10!
This one was by @/honeeestorms on Instagram!
Okay? BUT SERIOUSLY MY WIG? SNATCHED! I LIVE for this art style the FUCK. I love the details from the shadings in the Hand and the Sparks, to how the eyebrows make his eyes look tired. It's ?? AMAZING. I also love the speech bubble. That's the ONE thing I can never do good in comic art/art. Speech bubbles. But the way you captured the emotions in the scene PLUS those little details? 😍😍😍 God I love it!!
That's all I have for now. Please please please let me know if I missed anybody! (I'd stab myself with a spoon if I did).
Thank you all so so so so SO MUCH for even taking the TIME to make fanart of my shitty fic 😭😭😭 bless you all omg
-AJ, Author 💙