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The place, it seemed... Dead.
He looked at the wide open windows. It could almost be mistaken for some abandoned house. But no. Not at all.
He knew he was there. He wasn't going to fool him. The Void Star crown had told him every detail about his location. He could feel him. Inside. Somewhere. Probably depressed.
The wanted posters on every corner, a couple of months ago. More or less. The little kid, c00lkidd as he had called him. He'd run away in the night, the reason? Probably some senseless outburst from that stupid kid. He laughed knowing that things would go back to the way they used to be. Afternoons of hacks would go back to the way they used to be.
Especially now that he had the blissful Void Star crown. Together, he knew they would get them all, just as it should have been forever. Together they had researched these. Obsessing completely, nightly readings of the most hidden forbidden writings, readings that never seemed to end. Seven always insisting on continuing.
He had to admit it was sad that a little one had kept him from his goals, still, fate was calling him back. Together they had become obsessed, together they would find them, fulfilling their goals, their destiny, one they had sealed together since their first breath. From the first glance they'd taken at each other in that dingy college all those years ago.
He kicked open the door. The wood barely put up a fight. Creaking pathetically forward. Collapsing.
'‘Seven... I know you're in there...’'
His tone without any layer of drama, tired of all this. Neglecting his house, the light payments, the phone payments. He didn't even go to work anymore, locked up all day in his house. He had probably become some strange hermit. Eating bugs or rotten wood. The thought turned his stomach. Pathetic, really. Especially when there were more important things to worry about. About him. About his future as a hacker. Of what he would be able to do now, without the unnecessary burden of having a child to take care of.
Everything could be perfect, he just lacked vision, and that's what he was here for, ready to light his way, to show him all the new possibilities. What they could do together.
He searched in every room. He went through every flipped and torn photo, ones that he'd pick up with cold fingers and throw out the window as if they were nothing more than obsolete pieces. They were just stupid pictures of memories with that kid. They were no longer of any value. The little one had made his decision to run away, he hadn't intervened, he wasn't in the position to blame himself for a decision he hadn't made instead.
But there he was, completely depressed. Somewhere.
'‘You can't hide from me, SE-SEVEN’'
His voice crackled in the absolute silence. There was no response at all. Good. He would destroy every memory of that worthless dump he called home until he appeared.
A foul, nauseating smell pervaded his senses before he could take a picture. The closest one he had been able to find. He staggered from the foul smell. Wanting to vomit. His stomach churning furiously.
Then he saw it. Some kind of basement hidden behind some manic notes and pictures someone had painted. The paint was dry. Probably a few weeks old. 07 most likely responsible for such ramblings. He didn't even take the time to read. It was probably just nonsense, even so, he made out his name on some of the little squares of paper maniacally pasted side by side. This guy had really gone crazy.
The fear of finding him completely lost in himself, settling in his stomach already churning from the nauseating smell.
He watched the half open door with narrowed eyes, it was completely dark and no doubt the smell was coming from in there. It was completely repulsive to think that maybe he would find him eating rotten meat, or worse, eating some dead animal in a state of decomposition.
What was he thinking?
He wasn't in some old horror movie or something, one that Seven would probably put on to scare him on some strangely dark night.
This was real life. There was probably some reasonable reason for all this.
Perhaps, a bad joke, one that 07 left to scare unwanted guests away from his house. It would be typical of him. Always ready for some late night guffaws at the sight of his terrified face when he discovered some fake body full of prop blood. The nauseating smell, well, it could easily be simulated with rotting flesh. Seven had always gotten into those types of characters a lot. Sometimes it scared him how much he could get into these.
He found himself rambling more than usual. Was he really scared as he walked down those stairs? Not at all. How would he be scared of those stairs? Those same stairs that creaked with every footstep, those that seemed to scream like dead bodies crying for help with every new footstep that he tried to make silent. Okay, maybe he was scared. But, just a little. It's just that, the last time he'd been the target of an 07 prank he ended up being chased by him, dressed in a scary clown mask, fake machete in hand for twenty whole blocks straight. He had squealed like a little girl until he seemed to take pity on him when he saw him completely locked up, shaking and terrified. It had been a very strange way to meet.
He really hated being genuinely afraid at that moment. To think that it wasn't just a joke, well, what other explanation could there be than that.
He dragged his feet against the wood of the basement, shivering slightly with each new breath. The smell, it came out stronger and more concentrated from in there. Deciding to hold his breath, if only for a few seconds, he moved deeper into the darkness. It didn't help much. The smell just hit him harder on the next inhalation.
He probably should have taken at least a flashlight. Something, anything brighter than his crown would have been perfect. He mentally cursed himself for not coming in the daytime, as he had let himself get carried away with the drama that would come with going into a night like that. Cold, dark. In a practically empty neighborhood.
He tried to adjust his eyesight to get used to the darkness, it only took him a few minutes, but, finally, he succeeded.
He distinguished the darkened, protruding silhouettes. Completely broken, begging to be taken somewhere else. He didn't even flinch, just continued on his way.
How could Seven live there?
He had always been a rather orderly person, even in the most elaborate pranks everything seemed to be completely planned. This, the change, was a total mess, an irreparable disaster.
There was no pattern, no logic whatsoever.
He spotted some dark, metallic smelling stains. Probably blood. No. Prop blood, but since when, this one, smelled so…
...so real?
He staggered back in shock, his hands shaking, it had to be a joke, a bad joke. But, then, he felt something against his foot, something cold, metallic, a sticky substance clinging to it. He turned quickly. His heart pounding against his chest. Fear making him stagger with every movement. A gun, glowing with a foul liquid, one that dripped onto the wooden floor. At his side. He didn't want to see. He couldn't.
That kid, it had all been his fault, and his only. He had killed him, had been the cause of killing the only person who really understood him.
He looked at the beginnings of Seven's inert body, at the rotting flesh, at what was eaten by animals and bugs that came to feed from him. Of what he could still offer.
He was so afraid without him. He was nothing. No one. He had no name, no destiny, no future.
He collapsed before the limp body of the one he had once called friend. Perhaps, something more, something he would only admit to in the depths of his heart.
It burned. It burned his insides as never before. The smell, the recognition that it wasn't all just a joke. It made him feel completely insane. He couldn't deal with it. He couldn't accept, that, he had lost it.
'‘Its o..-Okay...-..Y..-YOU'RE...O…K!!!’'
The words, coming out distorted, he moved erratically against the wood, he grabbed Seven by the arms and shook him. As if he could repair what was already done. Somehow. There had to be a way. He would find a way. He would bring him back to life. With him. Feel his warmth against him again. It would drive him completely insane.
''I PROMISE, S-...SEV-E..N.. .. YOU'LL BE FINE!!!‘’
...
It wasn't true. He would never be fine.