Better Off Dead (Kellic) ✔️

17: Kellin

**Kellin's POV**

"Kellin, hey, wake up." A voice called out, slowly pulling me from my slumber. A hand grabbed my arm and started shaking me. "Seriously, wake up."

I groaned, pulling my arm away and covering my face. "Just ten more minutes, mom." I complained. Then realizing that I didn't even live with my mother anymore.

"What do you want?" I then grumbled, finally recognizing that it was Vic.

He grabbed my hand and pulled me up right. I yawned and rubbed the sleep from my eyes with my free hand, before something hit me.

Vic was touching me! I could actually feel him fucking touching me! I mean, I touched him before but he always felt different... unreal and cold. But this felt real. Way too real. I could actually feel the warmth of his touch. 

Had this all been a weird dream all along? But then if it was, how was he here?

"How the fuck are you touching me, dude?" I asked, my eyes wide as I stared down at his hand, which was still holding onto mine.

I looked up and he just smiled, a wild fascination glimmering in his eyes. Then I gasped. "Are you dead?!" I choked out in shock. "Like, did someone kill you? Did you... did you kill yourself? How is this happening?"

I hadn't felt anyone's touch in so long. Even back when I was still alive. It felt weird, yet somehow comforting. The comfort was soon gone though when Vic let go of my hand and stepped back.

"I'm not... dead. At least, I don't think I am. I feel alive, if that makes any sense." No that definitely did not make sense, Vic. "Anyways, I found out what the key was for. I can't really explain it, but I can show you."

I frowned at him questioningly. "Show me what?"

He grabbed my hand again, acting like a young child full of excitement. "It's in the basement, come on, I'll show you."

I was so confused right now. How the hell was this happening? I mean I could already always see Vic like this, even though now I could tell there was something different about him. I just wasn't sure what.

Him being able to touch me was definitely different. It made no sense whatsoever.

He practically dragged my down into the basement and pulled me in front of him, making me come face-to-face with him. But it wasn't him. Or at least, it wasn't the him that just dragged me down here.

I was looking down at a chair, Vic sitting on it, with some weird thing strapped to his head and to the back of the chair. His eyes were closed and he wasn't moving. He looked asleep, if that was the right word for it. The thing on his head was made up of all kinds of gears, bolts, straps and whatnot. It also had some sort of clock on it with strangely familiar symbols.

I looked behind me for a moment, just to see if my mind wasn't just screwing with me. But nope, there it was. There was a Vic behind me, and one in front of me.

"The big breakthrough that you wrote about on your research." The Vic behind me then said. "This is it. This machine... I'm not really sure how it works, but here I am. It freaked me the fuck out to see myself like that, but when I found you, and I saw you, I figured out what it meant."

"You're a ghost." I breathed as I looked back at him.

"Yeah, isn't it cool?"

His excitement felt so misplaced. I furrowed my brows and shook my head in a disapproving matter, which instantly wiped the smile off Vic's face.

Why didn't I remember having this machine? How could I not remember anything that had to do with this machine, for that matter? My notes, my research, the key. It was all a big blank.

"You need to get back into your body, or wake up, whatever, I don't know." I mumbled, trying to understand what the heck was going on.

"Kellin, it's fine. I'm not dead. My heart is still beating in there, I checked." Vic calmly said, smiling softly at me.

I shook my head almost violently. "We don't know how dangerous this is, Vic. What if this is what killed me? I mean, I don't remember this thing, so it could be!"

Vic shrugged a little. "I guess. But the thing has like a timer on it. I think it's set to two hours, so I still have time. How about you just chill out and we make the best of it? I mean, I kinda like seeing you and being able to talk to you like this."

I frowned questioningly, but couldn't fight back the smile that appeared on my face as I looked at him. "Really, you do?"

He nodded and smiled back. "Yeah, I really do." He said it like he was kind of surprised about that fact himself.