The Creature He Is

CHAPTER 3

When Monday morning comes around, needless to say that Craig has barely gotten any sleep that night. After what happened, he ended up staying up the rest of the night thinking about it. Now it wasn't just one eye, it was both that he saw burned in to his mind. And the faint lingerings of blood, which he tried not to think of too much.

Two questions were on his mind currently, one being, how come Kenny was there last night? And why? The image of a restaurant window flashes in his mind, and he starts to wonder if Kenny had been following him somehow that day. And if so, for what purpose was there? Craig let's out a slow long groan. There were to many questions racing through his mind and not enough answers.

He rolls over on his bed and reaches for his recovered phone and looks at it. There's a couple messages on it and he replies to them before getting up and getting ready for the day.

When Craig arrives at school, he's fully awake, having coming to terms with everything. He didn't think about it much as he got ready, but now that he was walking towards his first class of the day, one of the ones that he shared with Kenny, apprehension takes him over. He wasn't sure on what to expect, or how to react to seeing him again after last night. But as he takes a step into class, his breath holds, although only for a moment, when seeing that Kenny wasn't in it. He glances around, but there's no sign of him anywhere. For some odd reason, a strange tinge of disappointment settles in Craig. He doesn't understand why though, and ignores it as he takes his seat.

His morning classes come and go, and when lunch comes, he doesn't see him in the cafeteria anywhere either and starts to wonder if maybe he skipped school. But by the time his second shared class comes, Kenny is there. Craig stops in the class doorway when he spots him, and has to remind himself that there are other people around, before he continues to his desk. He's tense the whole way over to it, despite the fact that Kenny's head was down on his desk. It was like he was sleeping, which was very unusual. Actually, Craig was pretty sure that this was the first time he'd seen him like that at all since being at school. It almost made him seem normal, despite what Craig had witnessed beforehand of him. For all of the class, Kenny's head continues to stay down until the end of it, when he finally looks up to leave. Never once sparing a glance in Craig's direction. But despite that, it still felt to Craig as if he knew he was there for some reason.

As Craig's last class of the day arrives, he goes out into the hallway to get a sip of water from the fountain, after a bit of an intense game of basketball. When he stands back up, he catches a small glimpse of Kenny walking by the hall. Is... he following me again? He thinks and isn't sure why, but all of the sudden a spark of nerve runs through him, and he found himself walking down the hall to where he was.

There were two things gnawing at the back of Craig's head as he followed after him, one telling him that this was probably a stupid thing to do, and the other a small lingering of curiosity. But it didn't matter which it was, because more than that, he was tired and if not, also a bit irritated by all of this. If Kenny was indeed following him, then he didn't care what he saw before, he wanted to put an end to this now. He didn't want to have to deal with having to look over his shoulder and seeing him there all the time.

As he gets around the corner, he catches another glimpse of Kenny turn down another hall and again when he catches him around the corner of the next hall. And the next thing Craig knows, he's running after him. He makes it down another hall and finally sees him walking down it clearly with a backpack on, and just as he sees him about to go around another corner, he calls out to him, but Kenny keeps walking.

He runs faster and shouts out again, just as Kenny exits a school side door. When Craig reaches the door, just as it closes, he pushes it back open and heads outside himself. He glances around quickly and catches the tip of Kenny's backpack go around the side of the building. He runs after it, and just as he's about to call out again, he finds himself running smack dab into something. So hard in fact, that he nearly falls over.

He takes a couple steps back, and glances up at what it is. He freezes when he realizes that it's Kenny's bag he had run into as he looks up at the back of his hood. Craig finds his ground again and stands up straight.

"Don't you know it's rude to ignore someone, when they are calling out to you?" Craig manages to say, from his now gone dry mouth. He waits for Kenny to say something, as he catches his breath, but he doesn't. "Um..." he trails off and walks around Kenny to try and face him, and just as soon as he does, Kenny starts to walk again. "H-hey!"

In a quick move to stop him, Craig grabs onto Kenny's shoulder and pulls back on it, so that he can face him. He half expects to see glowing eyes, but there are none, just the usual deep shade of blue that they always were.

"I was talking to you," Craig says, and let's go of him when Kenny looks at his hand.

Kenny looks back up at Craig, and Craig suddenly feels a bit anxious under his gaze. They may not have been glowing, but they still sent his heart racing. And he wasn't sure if it was because of intimidation, fear, or what.

"I uh..." Craig gets out after a few awkward seconds, and thinks that maybe he should've listened to that voice at the back of his head about how stupid this was, and just went back to class. Which surprised him at just how far he followed him now that he thought about it."I just wanted to say uh, thanks, I guess. For helping me out last night." It's a strange way to start off, but it's the first thing he can think of to say at the moment, till the rest starts to process for him. "But that doesn't excuse all the other stuff you've been doing!" he adds.

There's a pause and just as Craig is ready to say more, a sudden deep, low, scratchy voice interrupts him.

"Strange."

It's muffled, and at first, Craig thinks he just imagines it, because it sure as hell was not a sound he was expecting to hear, or ever heard from someone he knew before. When he processes it as the only one logical thing it could be, he's a bit taken back by the surprising sound of it. Craig's mouth gaps a few times, opening and closing, before he gets out a reply to the unexpected word.

"Strange?" he repeats back, "What's strange? Me? Because if anything's strange, it's you! You're always staring at me, or following me! And it's just-"

"Aren't you always staring at me?" Kenny asks, cutting him off and it catches Craig completely off guard.

"I-I don't stare at you!" Craig says, his face burning slightly at realizing that it was actually true and that he had been caught before by him almost every time. "You just happened to be in my line of sight is all!"

"And you just happened to be in mine as well," Kenny says back, and for some reason, Craig internally squirms at those words a bit.

"Yeah-well-it doesn't excuse the fact that you've been following me!" Craig retorts.

"Aren't you the one following me?"

"That's not-this is-I only followed you out here to say thanks for before, but to also knock it off OK?! Don't get it confused!"

A deep sound erupts from the back of Kenny's throat, to what Craig can only describe as a laugh or chuckle.

"Wh-what's so funny?!" Craig asks, ignoring both the burning feeling rising in his face and the bizarre feeling of Kenny's rumbled laugh passing throughout him.

"You are very strange," Kenny says and turns away.

"Hey! I'm not done talking to you!" Craig says as Kenny starts heading off.

But Kenny keeps walking and Craig doesn't follow him this time, deciding to just stay where he is and watch him go instead.