We Are the Kids From Yesterday

Can I Be the Only Hope for You?

Lately, sleep had been coming easier for Party. He thought he'd never get a wink of sleep again since everything that happened and for a period of time, that seemed to be the case, but a good three weeks later, Party was sleeping again. Maybe it was a sign that things were starting to feel a bit better, but when the morning came, Party still felt awful. Maybe it was finally bearable for him to look in Ghoul's direction, but whenever he did he felt disgusted. Ghoul deserved so much that Party just wasn't giving him. That Party gave away selfishly.

"You guys ready to get going?" Jet said after everyone had woken up and seemed to be somewhat awake. "We can make some good progress if we get going now."

"Okay, but can we be careful?" said Ghoul quietly. "I-I don't want to run into a few things from my past. It was all here in Zone 3..."

"Yeah, sure," said Jet, as he started to lead the guys on their way.

Party hated how fragile Ghoul seemed as he spoke. Were the things from his past something he had told Party about? The abuse from his parents he had to go through? It must be pretty hard to revisit the place that all happened and Party wished he could go and talk to him. Maybe it'd ease his nerves a bit, but he didn't want him to get awkward or upset. So he stuck with watching the shorter boy from afar, looking away whenever he glanced in his direction.

But really? Ghoul seemed to be perfectly fine if you ignored the couple anxious glances around. Probably looking to see what was around him, hoping his past hadn't caught up to him. It was completely understandable, Party didn't know what he'd do if he or Kobra had to go through the deaths of their parents again. It was so traumatic, especially for little Kobra, who was only 10 and had never experienced serious violence like that before.

But the guys really just expected a calm day of walking. Which didn't often happen, they'd always run into something but for once, things seemed rather normal. Thankfully. Finally, things felt regular and simple again. Soon enough, they were reaching further parts of Zone 3 and they were completely expecting to get out with no troubles. No one was expecting Ghoul to suddenly panic.

"No, we can't be here," he said, suddenly jumpy and anxious. "We need to go somewhere else. We can't be here."

"Why not?" asked Jet, stopping at Ghoul's anxious voice. "You okay?"

Ghoul shook his head. "B-bad things happened here." He pointed towards a seemingly abandoned hospital with wide eyes.

Hospitals, like Ghoul had first said so long ago, when it was the four of them far in the zones, had always been unsettling to him. And then he had told Party about the abuse he went through in a hospital, the reason he couldn't stand them. The experiments his mad scientist parents had submitted him to against his will, permanently scarring him. Was it possible this was the hospital he went through everything in? Was this his past finally returning to haunt him?

"I-I can't be here," Ghoul said again, slowly backing away. "My-my parents... they were ba-bad people."

Party wanted to run to Ghoul, to wrap his arms around him, to comfort him, to kiss him softly and tell him it'll be okay. He was the only one who knew of everything that happened meaning he was the only person able to truly comfort him. But he knew Ghoul wouldn't want him to so he just looked at him, his expression concerned, trying to fight the urge to reach towards him.

"I'm sorry about that Ghoul, but do you think you can do it?" continued Jet, putting a hand on the boy's arm in comfort. "I hate that you're so upset, but we're so close to Zone 4. Do you think you can handle it until we make it out?"

Ghoul nodded his head, looking horrified and Party hated Jet in that moment for forcing him to be put through this. He knew that if he was in the same area the car crash that killed his parents and brother went down, he would want to leave immediately. Or if Party and Kobra were back in their old neighborhood, where their parents were murdered, they wouldn't be able to stand it. Who was Jet to tell Ghoul to just 'handle it.' Though he didn't know what Ghoul went through or how traumatizing it was, it was obviously something serious if he couldn't stand the sight of hospitals.