“But that’s so mean!” Ruby cried. “The monster didn’t do anything to you!”

School had ended, and Ocean sat at his desk playing a handheld video game. Ruby had pushed up a chair right next to his in order to watch.

“No, this one keeps eating the crops of a nearby town,” Ocean said clacking away at the buttons. “It has to die.”

“That’s so sad though,” Ruby frowned and shook her head, making the red ribbon in her hair bob up and down. “Can’t you just move it to a different area or something? You should really try and get along.”

“Quit it Ruby. The monster isn’t real, the crops aren’t real, the town isn’t real,” Celeste flicked her in the back of the head. “None of it's sad and none of it’s real.”

“Celeste, you’re terrible,” Ruby whined.

Ocean grinned.

“Do we really need to wait around until Cory’s finished?” Celeste said.

“That test was hard!” Ruby said. “We need to show mortal support!”

“Moral support.”

“No, Ruby is right,” Ocean said, still keeping his attention on his game. “It’s mortal support. That’s all we can offer. We’re not going to live forever, after all.”

“Don’t make me flick you too,” Celeste said.

“Wait, is it really moral support?” Ruby put her hands over her mouth.

“Mortal support,” Ocean said.

Celeste smacked him on the back of the head.

“What the hell? That wasn’t a flick!”

“I flicked you with my entire hand.”

Ocean wanted to shoot her a mean look, but his eyes were glued to the monster in front of him. He had been hacking away for a while now, but its health bar was only half gone.

“Oh, have you been looking at Clock Link?” Ruby asked.

“A little, why?” Ocean asked.

“There are so many posts about the KPW,” she held her phone in front of his face, obstructing his view.

“About what happened yesterday?” he peeked around it to see his game.

“Yep,” she obliviously moved the screen even closer to his face. “Look, Ocean. Pause your game.”

“There’s no pause button.”

“Just a peek then!”

Letting out an exaggerated sigh, he gave it a glance. It was a picture of someone in a long cloak that covered their face. They were standing in front of a car, which had its entire front end smashed in.

“The caption says that this cloaked guy stopped a high speed chase with his body,” Ruby said, looking intently at him.

“Ruby, do you have any idea how easy it is to doctor a photo?” Celeste asked.

“Yeah, but this was posted by John Doe,” Ruby said.

“That guy’s posting stupid stuff all the time.”

Ruby pouted, turning back to her phone and swiping through furiously. “Well how about this?”

“So a guy walks around downtown with a sword?” Celeste waved her hand like her was shooing away a dog. “Doesn’t mean they’re a member of the KPW.”

“Okay, but the article says that one of the officers fired a shot at him,” Ruby said. “And he cut it in midair.”

“This reeks of April Fools.”

“This was over a week ago.”

“You heard her,” Ocean said. “KPW confirmed.”

Ocean cracked a smile. Even with things like time stopping watches, he still couldn’t bring himself to believe in something as stupid as the KPW. This was the kind of thing his brother North would have been all over though.

“Stop it,” Celeste flicked him on the forehead, bringing him back to his senses. “Stop smiling. You’re creeping me out.”

“What?” Ocean scowled. He hadn’t even been aware of what was going on with his face. “I’m not allowed to be happy around you or something?”

“Exactly,” Celeste said. “I’m glad you finally understand.”

“Uh-oh,” Ruby tugged on Ocean’s sleeve. “I think you just died.”

That’s right; he had been fighting a monster to save the town.

“You playing Creature Killer?” A voice behind them said.

Fae’s twin brother Jaden stood at the door of the classroom.

“Yeah, just died on the crop eating boss.”

“Seriously?” Jaden laughed. “It’s super easy, bro.”

“Whatever,” Ocean rubbed his forehead. “Celeste just distracted me.”

“You idiot,” Celeste said. “You were spacing out long before I said anything.”

“Hi Jaden,” Ruby waved. “You play this game too?”

“I destroy this game,” Jaden said. “People say it’s hard but I pretty much never die. You should watch me play some time, Ruby. I put gameplay videos on my Clock Link if you wanna add me.”

“Not happening,” Celeste moved in between Ruby and Jaden. “You try something with her and I’ll make sure that you never reproduce.”

“I’m not trying anything,” Jaden forced a smile.

Ruby looked completely clueless as to what the two of them were talking about.

“So what are you doing hanging around after school?” Ocean asked, turning his game off and slipping it into his school bag. “You decide to turn over a new leaf? Make up all your lost work? Get into a good college?”

“You’re real funny,” Jaden sneered. “I’m just here waiting for my sister to make up a test.”

“Wow,” Ruby said. Her tone seemed hugely exaggerated, but Ocean knew it was perfectly genuine. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen Fae get less than a perfect score on a test before!”

He had never seen it either.

“No, it’s not that,” Jaden said. “She got sick yesterday and missed it.”

“Oh.”

Now that he thought about it, he had run into Fae yesterday. She had been going to the nurse’s office at the time, but that had been after school. How could she have missed a test?

“Is… she feeling okay?” Ocean asked.

“It was just some stomach thing,” Jaden said. “She’s gloomy and quiet as hell but that’s nothing new.”

“I imagine hell’s actually a pretty loud place, what with the eternal torture and all that.”

“Shut up.”

In any case, he was glad to hear that Fae was alright. He hadn’t been able to impress her yesterday, but he supposed that girls ready blow chunks at any moment weren’t really looking to be picked up.

“You’re making that face again,” Celeste looked down at him. “What did we just talk about?”

“Oh that’s right,” Ocean put his elbows on the desk. “I’m not allowed to experience this ‘happiness’ you speak of.”

“That’s right.”

Jaden let out a snicker.

“That goes for you too,” Celeste pointed at Jaden, her eyes shooting a cold glance. “Your happiness is even worse. I don’t want to even hear from other people that you’re happy. Makes me sick just thinking about it.”

“What about me?” Ruby pouted.

“You’re allowed,” Celeste said. “Actually, you have to be. You’re not allowed to be sad.”

“Objection,” Ocean said, resting his chin in his palm. “Special treatment.”

“Yeah,” Jaden said.

“I don’t want you on my side.”

“Overruled,” Celeste slammed her hand onto a desk like a gavel. “My decision stands.”

“Wait your honor,” someone said.

“Cory!” Ocean and Ruby yelled together. He made sure to look at Celeste out of the corner of his eye for her reaction.

“I’ve brought the most crucial piece of evidence!” Cory stormed into the room.

“We’re not doing this,” Celeste said.

“There’s a contradiction in your testimony,” Cory said, motioning his finger at her like he was firing a pistol. “You forgot that we all can’t help but be happy when we’re around you!”

“Aw, that’s sweet!” Ruby gasped.

“I really don’t think courts work like this,” Celeste said.

“Cory, you all finished with everything?” Ocean asked.

“Yeah, all ready to go,” Cory said. The two of them exchanged a look.

“Hey, Moretti,” Jaden walked over to Cory. “Is my sister still in there?”

“She finished way earlier than I did,” Cory said, raising his eyebrows. “Are you waiting for her or something?”

“God damn it. She left without me?” Jaden took out his phone, mumbling something under his breath before turning back to Cory. “Anyway, thanks man. See you around.”

“Okay, later.”

“Oh, I almost forgot,” Jaden said. “Are you going to Sadie’s autograph signing on Tuesday?”

“I was thinking about it,” Cory said.

“Well it’s going to be amazing. I got something really cool planned to make sure I get more than just her signature.”

“More than her signature? Like a picture with her?”

“You’ll just have to wait and see.”

With that, Jaden hurried out of the room.

“Thanks for waiting for me,” Cory said.

“Of course,” Ruby smiled. “Giving mortal support is what friends do!”

“Mortal?”

“Forget about it,” Ocean said. “Let’s get going.”

“Where are you guys going?” Ruby hopped up from her chair, rocking back and forth on the heels of her boots.

“Home,” Ocean said.

“Can’t really hang around with all the homework we have,” Cory added.

“I guess we can’t really stay either,” Ruby said. “A family friend is coming over to the house.”

“Same,” Celeste said. “If I don’t get home soon my dad’s gonna get pissed at me.”

“Your dad isn’t that mean,” Ruby laughed.

“You only see his good side.”

“Must be nice to have friends over at you mansion,” Ocean said. “You could always invite us over sometime, you know.”

“Yeah, right,” Celeste said. “My dad would kill me if I brought boys over. Well, actually he’d just kill both of you.”

“Jeez,” Cory winced.

“We’ll see you around then,” Ocean said. “I’ll try and be good and sad while we’re apart.”

“Good,” Celeste said, grabbing Ruby by the hand. “While you’re at it, make sure you’re sad while I’m around too.” With that, they said their goodbyes.

He and Cory were the only ones left in the classroom, but they waited a minute before speaking.

“Are we… Are we really doing this?” Cory asked.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

Cory brought up the topic so suddenly, Ocean wasn’t sure how to respond.

“No, I want to. I have to,” Cory reached into his pocket. “It’s time for me to follow through with something for once.” He pulled out the black wristwatch and clenched it tightly in his hand.

“What are you talking about?” Ocean asked.

“I always play it safe,” Cory said. “Remember that girl I liked last year?”

“The one that dyed her hair every week?”

“Yeah. I liked her the whole year, and I never even said anything,” Cory walked over to the windows in the room, looking out over the schoolyard below. “Even when she was going to move… I couldn’t bring myself to tell her how I felt.”

“Everyone does things like that,” Ocean got up from his seat. “Don’t beat yourself up over it.”

“But it was different for me,” Cory said.

“I really doubt it,” Ocean said. “Like I said, everyone does that.”

“I convinced myself to give up, Ocean,” Cory turned toward him. His eyes looked glassy and his voice was starting to waver. “I convinced myself to give up before I even tried. I told myself that I was garbage. I told myself that she would be disgusted with me if she knew.”

“Where is all this coming from?” Ocean asked. “Sure, you might not be popular, but I can’t think of a single person in the school that dislikes you.”

“I’m just the ‘nice guy’,” Cory said. “The guy everyone likes but would never be with.”

A sound rang through the room and Cory stumbled backward.

“What was that for?” Cory asked. His face was red from where Ocean had slapped him across the cheek.

Ocean wanted to tell him about what a good friend he was, that he was a far better person than he could ever hope to be, but the words didn’t seem right in his head.

“I don’t want to hear this ‘nice guy’ shit,” he said. “Now don’t make me hit you again.”

Cory looked down at the watch in his hand, “Sorry. I don’t even know why I brought it up.”

Ocean stayed silent.

“I guess we should go over the plan,” Cory said. “Before we can start, I need to meet with my friend. He’ll be going around a different part of downtown so that we can cover twice as much ground.”

“I suppose I’ll have to be somewhere else while you’re doing that?” Ocean sighed.

“Sorry,” Cory said. “I need you to wait for me in the meantime.”

“It’s fine. I get it,” Ocean said. “I’ll wait for you at Peace Café then.”

“As for this,” Cory slipped the black watch onto his wrist. It glistened in the light that shone through the window, making it appear slightly more stylish than it really was. “We’ll have to use it in short bursts, and in places without security cameras, if possible. It’ll have to be so fast that even the killer won’t have time to see me.”

“What do I do?” Ocean asked.

“If I see someone keep moving after the stop, I’ll point him out to you,” Cory said, extending a finger toward him. “Then you use your phone to take his picture and we get out of there.”

“And what if something goes wrong?”

“If… something goes wrong,” Cory looked around the room. “We use these.” He reached into his other pocket and flashed a set of switchblade knives.

“Where did you get those?” Ocean flinched. Bringing weapons to school wasn’t exactly something that was encouraged.

“My brother gave them to me a long time ago.”

“Not to burst your bubble,” Ocean said. “But I don’t really think we’re capable of fighting a coldblooded killer.”

“This is last resort stuff,” Cory said, cramming the knives back into his jacket pocket. “We would just threaten him so that he can’t use the watch. Go up behind him and hold it to his back like in the movies. We have the element of surprise.”

“I’d rather not.”

“Well it’s not going to come to that anyway,” Cory said, obviously becoming frustrated. “We probably won’t even find him today.”

“I guess,” Ocean said. The tone of his voice was monotonous, but he was actually getting excited. They weren’t quite super heroes, but this was probably as close as he was going to get.

“Let’s get this guy behind bars,” Cory said, extending his fist toward Ocean.

“What are you, an old police chief?” Ocean looked down at Cory’s fist before meeting it with his own. “Let’s do it.”

They parted ways and Ocean made his way to the café.

Even from the outside, he could tell it was busy.

He went inside the automatic doors and was greeted by the familiar scent of coffee and cakes. Behind the counter was Sebastian. Although he insisted it was his real name, Ocean had to wonder how likely it was for someone born in Japan to have parents that would call their child that. He supposed it wasn’t impossible.

Taking orders was Manami, a girl with jet black hair in pigtails in her early twenties. With just the two of them behind the counter, it was clear that they were struggling to keep up with the number of customers.

“Ocean!” Manami noticed him in the doorway. She waved frantically for him to come up.

He walked leisurely to the front, playing it off like he wasn’t excited to see her. “Hey. I see you’re overdressed as usual.”

“Coffee is serious,” Sebastian yelled, continuing to prepare drinks. “You don’t brew a good cup looking like a bum. The coffee won’t respect you.”

“Sounds like coffee needs to learn to stop judging people based on their appearance.”

Sebastian turned back to look at him. The expression on his face indicated that he wasn’t amused.

“Sebastian!” Manami suddenly slapped him on the back. “I’m going on break.”

“It’s busy!” Sebastian slammed his fist onto the counter. “I need you to take orders.”

“Look, I haven’t taken a break in like eight hours,” Manami said. “You want me to get you in trouble for violating Oregon state law? You need to hire more people. Just the two of us isn’t cutting it anymore.”

Sebastian turned back around. “Take your damn break.”

“I know you’ll be just fine,” Manami smiled, but there was a hint of mischief in it. She quickly turned away from the long line at the register, taking Ocean by the hand and leading him to an open table. “Let’s sit down and catch up.”

“The coffee’s all stressed out now,” Sebastian yelled loudly to no one in particular. “Why even bother staying open?”

They took a seat at one of the only open tables.

“It’s crazy how busy this place is now,” Ocean said.

“I know,” Manami said. “When we opened this place three years ago, we’d only have a handful of customers on a good day.”

“I remember.”

“So what brings you back to our neck of the woods?” Manami asked.

“Hunting,” Ocean leaned in over the table. “I hear there are monsters in these parts.” He was trying to make a joke about her ‘neck of the woods’ comment, but he supposed it wasn’t exactly a lie either.

“You’re weird,” Manami laughed. “Reminds me of something North would say.”

“Yeah, I guess so…” Ocean said, letting his voice trail off.

“I actually thought of him just yesterday,” Manami went on, her eyes tracing the ceiling. “Everything stopping, I mean. We didn’t see any of it here, so I don’t really know how much to believe, but I’m sure North would have been all about it.”

“Yeah.”

“North was always into that kind of stuff. I remember once during our senior year, he heard that there was a school legend about a ghost that lived in the auditorium,” she swirled the tip of her index finger in a spiral on the surface of the table as she spoke, as if doing so helped bring the memory to the surface of her mind. “He convinced me to sneak into the school after hours with him to find it.”

“Sounds like trespassing,” Ocean said plainly.

“Like you’re a goodie-two-shoes or something,” Manami rolled her eyes. “We just borrowed an auditorium key. They never even knew it was gone.”

“So did you find a ghost or what?” Ocean asked.

“Of course not,” Manami said. “Anyway, there were no windows, so it was really hard to see. We sat in the seats right up in front of the stage and just waited in the dark for an hour.”

“Sounds like a good time.”

“I know right?” Manami giggled. “I got mad at him though. I told him I wasn’t going to wait around anymore and demanded that he walk me home before my parents noticed I was out of the house.”

“Let me guess,” Ocean said. “He begged you to wait a little longer.”

“That’s what I expected him to say but…” Manami seemed to be searching for the right words. “Instead, he agreed that we should go. In fact, it seemed like he wanted to leave that place as quickly as he could.”

“He was that disappointed that nothing showed up?” Ocean asked, his lips forming into a faint smile.

“I don’t know,” Manami’s expression grew more and more troubled, like she had started the story with something else in mind, and was only now remembering things that derailed her train of thought. “It was just for that moment, but I remember feeling so scared when I heard him say that.”

The smile faded from Ocean’s face. “I don’t get what you mean.”

“It was just so unlike him,” Manami said. “Part of me wondered if he had actually seen something there in the darkness of the theater. Something only he could.”

There was a moment of silence between them. These breaks in speech were normally enjoyable for Ocean. This one wasn’t.

“That’s some story,” he finally said, moving his eyes to the automatic doors of the café. If he didn’t find something new to focus on with his eyes, he knew his mind would end up somewhere else. A place as pitch-black as the theater must have been that night.

He spent many nights like that. He would sit in the darkness, waiting for his eyes to adjust until finally, something would form in front of him. He would come face to face with what he tried to avoid at all costs.

It was an idea that was always in the back of his skull, hiding just inside of the grooves of his brain. It was that his brother might be dead.

Sebastian started grunting from behind the counter, intent on letting the two of them know that he wasn’t going to let them spend any more time together.

“Oi, Manami! Kyuukei no owari da!” he shouted something in Japanese.

“Alright, I get it! Sorry Ocean, gotta get back to work. Don’t be a stranger okay?” She shot him an apologetic smile and hurried back behind the counter.

Sebastian’s outburst was a welcome one, as it had brought him back to the reality of the café. He let out a deep sigh, moving his gaze to the windows. With schools out and people beginning to get off work, the congestion outside was astounding. People were so close together that they ceased to look like individuals, becoming a single mass of flesh, hair, and clothing that wriggled and undulated, pulling itself in every direction.

Ocean looked at his phone. No messages yet. It could still be a while longer. He supposed he might as well order something to drink to help pass the time.

The thought that Cory might never show up didn’t even cross his mind.