This Is Paradise (Kellic)

Chapter One

A/N: So this is my newest Kellic fic, and if you're reading my other one, you'll know that that one isn't done yet, so I may not regularly update this one until that one is finished, but then again, I may just slap it on my new update schedule of every Friday. Please know that this story is going to go heavy into self harm and other triggering content (without giving too much about the story away), so be warned if you're going to read this. I don't want to be the reason any of you guys hurt yourselves. So, without further ado, here's This Is Paradise, a Kellic fanfiction.

[Vic's P.O.V.]

I'm standing in my room, looking around at the now bare walls, staring at the sea of boxes making it almost impossible to leave without it taking an excellent amount of skill. I sigh, wishing that we weren't about to leave the only house I've ever known, though all things considered, it's kind of my fault. My parents think I need "a fresh start" after everything that's happened here. That sounds so incredibly stupid, and I do know what they actually mean. It's complete bullshit to try to make me believe this will be good for anyone. Here's the thing, I don't actually regret doing what I did. It's not like all those movies where they're magically all better when they get out. Nope. Those movies are all lies, you don't have to be a genius to see that.

I don't really feel all that bad about leaving, because any friends that I had probably don't want anything to do with me after my little... incident, if you can even call it that. I do, however, feel bad for my brother, Mike, who is one year my junior and now has to leave all his friends behind. This includes Tony and Jaime, who probably wouldn't have wanted anything to do with him anymore either, just because he's a Fuentes. To be fair, there are a lot of Fuentes kids at our school, but it just so happens that Mike's the only one unlucky enough to be related to Victor Vincent Fuentes, who tried to kill himself and failed, only to land himself in a mental institution for six months. The only Fuentes related to the one with the hereditary mental illness known as depression, cliche as that may sound, and the only Fuentes related to the one now on multiple antidepressants and mood stabilizers. Poor kid never stood a chance. People shy away from you when they know you're a freak, even more so if you're related to that freak, for fear you'll turn out to be just like them.

What I'm trying to say is that Mike used to be popular, and so did I, but Tony and Jaime practically ruled that school and if you were lucky enough to get on their good side, you'd better not do anything to fuck that up. If they built you up fast, they could definitely tear you down equally as fast, and damn did they tear me down fast. From what I heard from my brother when I got back just as school ended for the summer, they had everyone talking shit about me two days after they hauled me out of the hospital and checked me into the psych ward. I'm not really surprised and I don't really care, but I am surprised they didn't make Mikey's life a living hell after that moment. Guess they aren't completely heartless, after all. I'm sure if we were both to show up the first day of school next year, we'd end up flushed down the toilet in an instant. Which, all things considered, I could probably handle, seeing as I'd be drugged up for the rest of my existence and it would be my senior year, Mike's only a sophomore, and so he'd have two full years of this bullshit to deal with compared to my one. I'd go batshit crazy if I found out they did anything to him, so it's probably for the best that we're leaving.

I navigate my way out of my room and find Mike sitting against the railing of the stairs at the landing. I sit next to him and he very briefly looks over before staring off into the middle distance, presumably thinking about how shitty his high school career will be without the friends he's had since his early childhood.

"I'm really sorry about all of this, Mike," I say, for once entirely genuine in my apology. Most everything else I've ever apologized for since that night has been incredibly disingenuous, but not this. I truly did feel bad for being the cause of all of his distress lately.