Chapter Text
It had been a week.
A week since Avery got knocked off that damn platform.
A week since...
Since Derek died.
A week of walking around like a zombie, the world just seeming like mindless chatter - going in through one ear and out the other. A week much like those...
12 hours, 12 hours of planting flowers at graves that didn't exist. 12 hours lost to his own mind. 12 hours lost to someone not quite him. 12 hours... God, Avery really didn't want to think about that right now... quite honestly, he didn't want anything to remind him of the King in Yellow. That cursed world. He didn't want anything to remind him of Derek.
Avery, unfortunately for him, had a good imagination. In 168 hours, Avery had surely lost countless of those to staring at a wall, just picturing Derek. A corpse... staring at a still-glowing computer monitor-
Avery didn't realize he was even thinking any of this until he let out a choked sob, falling onto his bed and curling in on himself. My fault my fault my fault- my fault any of this happened. I'm such a useless person I can't do anything right- I can't even save the one person who risked his life for me. I can't even return a small favour. Why am I even still alive? It should be me, not him...
He lay crying on his bed for what felt like an eternity, and the sun soon set. Set on his last hope of ever seeing Derek again. 12 hours.
12 hours... what had gotten him out of that state? It was. It was Derek, wasn't it. Derek was always so good at words...
You are real. You are special. Remember who you are.
At the crossroads, keep going forward.
Avery nearly stopped crying as soon as he heard these words. He is real. He is special. He is Avery. And... he has to keep going forward. Even through everything.
Reading over that PDF had basically become a nightly routine... even through everything, he would always be grateful that Derek had shared him that Google Drive.
Wait.
Google Drive?
Surely he could...
Maybe Avery wasn't so stupid after all.
Avery scrambled out of his bed, wiping tears away and practically launching himself to his computer.