Chapter Text
── .✦
"The other day, I… I killed somebody."
"...What?"
That's just absurd, right? You wouldn't expect your best friend to show up at your doorstep as you're about to leave for school, in tears and trembling despite the heat of the summer that had barely begun, and then just… admit to having killed someone.
Yet here Stormz stood, hands limp at his sides, eyes wide with shock and confusion—his best friend stood in front of him, clenched hands raised up to their tear-stained face as they desperately tried to wipe away the stubborn tears that refused to back down. Their backpack was lazily thrown over their shoulders; the straps holding it up were all twisted, and the bag was practically falling off their shoulders.
"Dude, what the hell do you mean?" He attempted again, hoping he'd get a response out of him this time, although he didn't really have high hopes. Good thing he didn't, because Dumb remained silent except for the occasional sniffle or sob.
"Actually, just… Just come in, " The pale-haired boy said, having given up on questioning—it wasn't obvious whether it was a demand, a suggestion or a request. His voice was tainted by a mix of what must've been every emotion there was; not even Stormz himself truly knew what the tone of his voice was meant to convey.
Dumb didn't react to Stormz's words, she just sniffled and attempted to wipe her tears again. Stormz stood still for a second before ultimately deciding to force her indoors, doing so by grabbing her by the arm and pulling her into the apartment with a swift motion.
Stormz pulled the door shut behind the two of them, hoping it'd keep some of the summer heat out and ease the job of the AC that had been humming for atleast ten days now—despite the machine's endless effort, heat still managed to creep into the apartment.
Stormz guided Dumb to the kitchen with little to no resistance from the latter. He pulled a chair out from under the table, offering the seat to his crying mess of a best friend. "Sit down," the pale-haired boy demanded, albeit there was a softness to his voice that wasn't an usual characteristic of demands, especially those from Stormz. Much to his delight, his best friend did what they had been asked to and took a seat.
Stormz sat down on a chair at the opposite side of the table, a confused yet soft expression on his face. "Talk to me, what happened? I know you're not one to like, y'know, let everything out, but this is one of those times that I need you to do it," he tried, hoping he'd manage to pry information out of Dumb.
── .✦
If it weren't for the clock that had been constantly ticking in the background, Stormz wouldn't have known how long it had taken for him to coerce Dumb into telling him the full story. However, thanks to the clock, he was able to deduce that it had taken approximately an hour and a half; or more precisely one hour and 33 minutes.
In that hour and 33 minutes Stormz had learned that the victim of Dumb's—mostly unintentional—crime had been their classmate Sharooh; Sharooh was known to bully Dumb with the help of his friends, though they were mostly in the background compared to Sharooh.
Stormz wasn't entirely in the know of what Sharooh had done to Dumb, seeing as Dumb refused to tell him about most of it, always insisting that it was nothing and that she was doing just fine; he had a feeling that there was something that Sharooh held over Dumb's head, like blackmail or such.
As for what the crime itself entailed, Dumb had revealed that she had shoved Sharooh down a flight of stairs in a fit of what could be described as bravery, considering that it was the first genuine attempt she had made to defend herself.
"I got fed up and shoved him, but he landed on a bad spot," the dark-haired boy had explained through their tears, although by that point, the stream of tears had begun to die down.
Stormz struggled to believe anything that he had just heard; his best friend, who tended to comply with what he was told, who didn't speak up about his feelings beyond surface level and who wasn't one to defend themselves, had actually ended someone's life? How could anyone believe that?
If it weren't for their tear-stained face and trembling voice, Stormz didn't think he could have ever believed Dumb's words.
Dumb brought their hand up to their face, wiping away the last remnants of their tears with a familiar motion they had repeated countless times by now. "That wasn't what I actually wanted to tell you," they broke the silence the two of them had fallen into ever since Dumb confessed their actions. "I… Uh, I actually came to say goodbye."
Stormz's eyes widened; huh? What the fuck?
"No you didn't dude, you're not going anywhere," the pale-haired boy was quick to protest in a half-laugh; he obviously didn't want to believe his best friend's words, instead opting to outright refuse them. He leaned forward, closing some of the distance between himself and Dumb.
"No, Stormz, I'm serious. I don't think—no, I actually just can't stay here anymore. Not after… y'know," the pale-haired boy's protest was dismissed. " I can't stay here anymore, so instead I'm going somewhere far away to die."
...What?
"Somewhere far away to die"?
No, that-… That's absurd. He wouldn't, would he? Maybe he would. What did Stormz know?
Stormz didn't respond right away. His gaze stayed fixed on the boy in front of him, scanning her face, body, anything, for proof that they weren't being serious; he was disappointed—devastated, even—to not find anything. He waited for her to laugh, to tell him that he looked stupid with his shocked expression, but she said nothing.
"You're actually serious?" He asked, leaning backwards again. His gaze drifted to the side, hovering over every millimeter the messy space they occupied. His eyes landed on the trash bag he had intended to take out, then shifted over to the clothing rack where he stored his currently unused winter clothes, after which he settled on the two backpacks they had thrown next to the clothing rack, then over the calendar; every date up until may 27st had been crossed out, and may 30th was decorated with an ice cream sticker Stormz had found from beneath his desk.
He had been counting days until schools would be closed for the summer, until he could spend every day adventuring with or just enjoying the presence of his best friend—it was so close, but now they'd never get the chance to do anything they—mostly Stormz—had planned.
Stormz let his gaze linger for a while before he ripped it away from the calendar, turning it to Dumb again.
"Then take me with you."
"No, Stormz, what—"
"No, no, take me with you. You're not just gonna go die somewhere and leave me behind."
"Bring a wallet, a knife, and we can take some games too. Then we can, I don't know, burn everything we don't need," Stormz instructed, refusing to give Dumb a chance to protest against his seemingly finalized decisio. "Let's also bring and burn a copy of our schools yearbook, specifically the pages with Sharooh's and his friends's pictures. As a fuck you to them for putting you—no, us—into this situation."
Stormz wasn't sure why he felt the need to join Dumb on this suicide mission. Obviously, Dumb was his best friend, which contributed greatly to his desire to not let Dumb go by herself, but it felt like there was some other underlying reason as well. Maybe he'd figure it out once they actually left.
Dumb inhaled, preparing to speak again.
The pale-haired boy prepared to argue with Dumb once more, to keep convincing them to not go alone, to convince them to not try to leave him behind, but to his surprise, they only laughed.
"Sure then, since you insist," they complied, either having given up or realized that going to die with his best friend is much more preferable when compared to dying all alone.
── .✦
Dumb glanced up from the ground where she had settled to tie her shoelaces, turning her attention to her best friend.
Stormz stood by the door, black backpack hanging limply over his right shoulder; he held onto the strap that curled over shoulder with his right hand, mostly out of habit—according to him, it made him look cooler as opposed to wearing the backpack like any other normal person. Dumb had given up on trying to understand why Stormz kept hopelessly clinging to meaningless habits such as that one.
Afterall, being" cooler" had never helped them or their situation. To anyone but themselves, they were nothing but a pair of good-for-nothings—maybe they'd never be anything more, even to themselves.
No.
They wouldn't be good-for-nothings forever—that had changed the second the darker haired of the two had laid their hands on Sharooh.
From that moment on, they had become a killer and a monster willing to harbor the killer. Maybe that was worse than being good-for-nothings, but now atleast when they died, they wouldn't be forgotten.
It must've been selfish to hope that their deaths would be remembered as tragedies, as caution tales of what bullying can do to the minds of teenagers—thankfully, neither of them minded being a little selfish. They deserved it for everything they had been put through.
"Dumb, we should go," the pale-haired boy piped up from his position at the door. His voice pulled the dark-haired one out of her thoughts and back into the moment—she looked up from her position on the ground, quickly reminding herself of what she was meant to be doing.
She tied her shoelaces swiftly, finishing the bow she had barely started before her thoughts drowned everything else out.
"Yeah, sorry. Let's go," he lifted himself from the ground, smiling awkwardly at his best friend. The other laughed, or more so chuckled, in response; the sound of it was something that Dumb had grown to love, as stupid as that sounds.
He reached down to grab her backpack, swinging it over his left shoulder, almost imitating Stormz with the way it only hung over one of his shoulders.
Dumb followed as Stormz pushed the front door open, stepping out into the almost scorching sunlight that coated every surface that wasn't blessed enough to be covered by the shadows created by either buildings or trees.
The air was clear, and this time it felt like it too; the last time Dumb had been out here, the air felt like it replaced by a thick cloud of smoke.
It was refreshing to breathe in fresh air after sobbing in Stormz's poorly air conditioned apartment for what felt like hours. It didn't feel suffocating anymore—actually, nothing felt suffocating anymore. Maybe it was his best friend's presence, or maybe it had been confiding in him?
Whatever it was didn't matter in the grand scheme of things—what mattered was what the two were going to do now that they were set on running away. Dumb hadn't really been paying attention to where they were going, but he trusted that Stormz would lead them out of this town without letting them get caught. It wouldn't be the first time they ran away from this town, although this was the first time authorities were after them—or atleast Dumb assumed they were; he had just committed a murder, after all.
Then again, it had already been a day since Sharooh's death, and she hadn't even been suspected yet, atleast as far as she knew. Even then, it'd be foolish to think she'd get away with it, but they had time to run away before she was caught. Maybe the authorities would spare them a day or two before capturing the two of them.
It felt weird to run away into the small mountains surrounding their hometown, even though Dumb and Stormz had done it countless times before—this time was fundamentally different though.
Every single time before this, they had simply been running away for a little getaway or to escape the looming threat of Sharooh and his group finding them, or more specifically Dumb.
Dumb had been the primary target of their bullying due to her more gentle, even sheepish nature—she wouldn't stand up for herself the same way Stormz would for himself. Sharooh also held what he called an IOU over Dumb's head, although they both knew that it was stupid and wasn't an official contract in the eyes of the law and therefore completely void of any meaning, considering that neither of them were adults at the time of writing and signing it.
The reason she couldn't go against the IOU that kept her not only from defending herself, but also from telling anyone about the bullying in detail was that Sharooh enforced the IOU through making threats against the pale-haired boy Dumb held so close to her heart—he didn't know of the threats since Dumb had chosen to not tell him, but it didn't mean that they hadn't been made.
Stormz had been left in the dark about almost everything, but he had thankfully understood to not pry too deep into Dumb's business even if he wanted to do nothing else.
A bird cawed overhead, once again snapping the dark-haired boy out of his thoughts. He blinked before raising his gaze from the black shoes sinking into the grass beneath them to the almost pure white hair of the taller boy in front of him.
It was almost soothing to watch the strands dance in the wind. Stormz's hair was seemingly freshly washed, unlike Dumb's. They hadn't had the energy to wash it in a few days, so it stuck together in greasy clumps.
It didn't matter anymore, they would never need to keep up appearances again. They'd simply enjoy eachothers company for a day or two before taking their lives together.
Dumb couldn't pinpoint when exactly they had left the asphalt streets of their hometown behind them, but they were glad that it had happened already.
They had finally ran away—escaped—from that cramped, cramped world they had been stuck in for all their lives.
── .✦