Chapter Text
Benny stood in his own bedroom. Trinkets filled every corner, shelf, you name it. Trinkets of things he absolutely loves, at this very moment he doesn’t feel anything when looking at them. Just toys.
Was he glad to be alive? Yes, but the change was going to kill him.
Sending Benny out alone was Ethan’s worst idea. Well, maybe Benny just missed home and Ethan knew that. Now that he’s here, it doesn’t feel much like home. Left alone with his stupid stupid brain. His brain was his worst enemy. Shaped by disappointed and distant parents. Can’t blame them, he’s a difficult person. Maybe even a bad person.
Looking into the Lucifractor, holding it, made him feel so good. He felt drawn to it. Why? It was a thing of evil. It put his friends in danger. Benny just hadn’t felt power and control like that. Benny never felt in control, people made him feel stupid and weak. It was hard to undo even when he had someone who made him feel the opposite. Did feeling this way make him evil? He didn’t want to find out, he was going to take these thoughts to his grave.
Jesus, Benny was so alone. He had friends but they didn’t know all these things. Benny would rather die than tell them all these gross sad details about him. To be vulnerable is to walk into the den of a bear and poke it with a stick.
Ethan was no bear, he’d understand, but trying to piece together the words to explain these emotions would take so much work. Maybe he is the bear. Maybe his brain is the bear. He is his brain though, so same thing. Whatever it is, the bear is starving. It has been for years.
Aw shit, this whole time he’d been moping he should’ve been looking for something useful. He went over to his bedside table, opened the drawer, and started rummaging around. There had to be something in the piles of junk he had. He felt a smooth and rounded object and dug it out. Ah, a rock, tiger’s eye, obviously hasn’t done much protecting. Benny shrugged and put it in the back pocket of his pants. He honestly had no clue what exactly he was looking for.
The floorboards behind him creaked. Benny turned to see Ethan peeking into the doorway. “Hey, find anything you think will help?” Benny looked at him confused, “help with what?” Now Ethan was confused, “I don’t know, finding our friends?” Benny nodded slowly, he forgot about that, he was too busy fist fighting his own conscious. “We haven’t tried calling them have we?” Benny picked up his phone, scrolling through his contacts.
He clicked on Rory, the phone rung. It rung and rung and rung. Nothing. Rory Keaner was the type to immediately pick up no matter what. He even picked up mid-funeral once.
Benny missed Rory. That’s for sure. He couldn’t be dead, he just couldn’t be. To Benny, Rory was like a younger brother. He definitely played the part too.
“Try Erica? Rory probably lost his phone or broke it again.” Ethan’s optimism killed Benny.
“What’s up?” “Erica holy shit where are you are you-“ “Just kidding! I’m not here right now, go bother someone else.” Erica’s stupid voicemail. Something Benny has fallen for too many times. That cruel bitch, she should’ve been here with them right now. She’d probably be knocking everything off Benny’s shelves. She probably would refuse to even step foot in his room.
Benny looked up from his phone at Ethan. You could tell he was starting to panic, his eyes were frantically looking around and he was fidgeting with his fingers. Benny grabbed the fidgety hands, holding onto two of the main problem fingers. Sarah was next. “Do you want to do it?” Benny asked, holding out his phone. Ethan quickly shook his head, now he was looking at the floor. God, the kid was freaking out.
Benny tapped on Sarah. His phone rung, then answered. “Sarah?” Ethan said shakily. No reply, only static. “Sarah, dude, please.” This time Benny was trying to speak to her. Still nothing, sometimes the static would make a loud cracking sound but that was about it. Eventually, Ethan hung up the phone for Benny.
“This- this is good! She answered!” Ethan was pacing now, totally freaking out. All Benny could do was hold those two fingers and watch him do his circles. “E. Don’t get your hopes up.” This made Ethan look up at Benny, some sort of betrayal and gloom in his eyes. Ethan’s fingers were taken from Benny’s grasp. Ethan left the room.
Nothing would ever be like it once was. Ethan and Benny lost their friends. How were they going to function in this new world. His grandma said it herself, they were something powerful all together.
Benny didn’t know whether to stay and crumble or search for them. Ethan had their fate decided, Benny would follow him to the ends of the Earth. With that, he left the room, they’d find them.
Ethan was out sitting on the porch, course he couldn’t just leave Benny there. His head was in his hands. It was terrible to see the dude so beaten down. “We should uh, track Sarah’s phone.” Ethan looked up at Benny, optimism back in his eyes. He ran to his house and Benny followed.
Once hooking it all up they finally just had to hit a button to view the map. Ethan hesitated only for a second before clicking. Woah, out of all the times they’ve done this they’d never seen this before. Multiple red dots, from one phone. She was scattered across Whitechapel. Ethan furrowed his brow, Benny copied, they were extremely confused.
Usually clicking on the dots would tell you their exact address, it didn’t work. Ethan clicked repeatedly. Nothing. The map suddenly changed, multiple red spots, this time in new places.
Sarah’s location was a complete mystery.