Vidare 02: The Carnival

"Dude check this out." Derrick giggled as he passed his phone to Garrett who burst into a fit of laughter.

"Fuck yes please send that to me." Garret returned to typing.

"What are you working on?" Derrick asked curiously.

"I'm trying out this new program. You know about DDOS attacks?" Garret didn't turn away from his work as he cranked code onto the screen.

"No." Derrick said.

"When you flood a website or a server with a shit load of signals, you crash it. All it takes is a click. The Mercurial Elite had me write this new one to bypass these code scanners they have."

"They?" Derrick peaked over his shoulder trying to make sense of it.

"Let's just call them The Dicks. See The Dicks monitor for code that got through their systems. They spend a shit load of money trying to stop people from breaking into or crashing their servers, so we have to write new programs. I pass this up the ladder and everyone adds or edits as we go." Garrett scratched his unshaven face.

"Who are you gonna use it on?" Derrick smiled at the deviance of the member closest to him in age.

"Probably a bank." Garrett said calmly and pushed up his glasses.

"You're gonna fuck up a bank?" Derrick nearly yelled.

"Oh hush, it's fine." The twenty year old hacker laughed as he sat back.

"You're crazy Garrett." Derrick pulled at his hair nervously.

"Shouldn't you be in bed?"

"Can't sleep." Derrick said quietly.

Garrett took his hands from the keyboard and flipped around. "You sleep like a dead horse. What's on your mind?"

"Did you ever...have any vivid dreams?" Derrick shifted his weight and started to run his hands through his hair.

"Sure I did. I still do. Some of the things we do are...grizzly...to put it lightly. What got under your skin?"

"This stupid vampire." Derrick kicked the floor angrily. "He looked like my Dad."

Garrett went quiet for a minute as he thought of what to say. "What did you feel?"

"...Angry. I felt like when I got in a fight at school."

"Back then you said you saw nothing but red, and you put five kids in the hospital." Garrett nearly whispered it. "Have you told the others?"

Derrick shook his head in shame. "No. I snapped his leg. Kai let me shoot him though."

"How thoughtful. Look uh, can you keep something between you and me?" Garret took off his glasses to clean them and saw the blurry child nod his head. "A couple of your teammates grew up in homes like you did. I didn't, so I can't personally say what it's like. I know Miles carries a lot of baggage about his past, and you've heard Jason scream in his sleep."

"I didn't know that...do people still grow up normal?" Derrick tried to wrap his head around the damage and how it changed the people he knew.

Garrett put his glasses back on, leaned back, and sighed. "Yeah. Everyone grows up to be how they're supposed to be. If you have a strong will you can change a lot of that though."

"What was your house like?" Derrick tried to imagine it.

"Very calm. Very quiet. I had good parents, couple of older brothers." Garrett smiled to himself as he thought about them.

"I didnt know you had brothers. Did any of them awaken?"

"No." The smile faded. "I had to hide it from everyone. It sucked ass. I felt like I had to give up the closeness I had with my brothers. I still really love them, but they think I work at a call center."

"That must've sucked, I'm sorry." Derrick frowned.

"It's okay. After a few year of hanging with these idiots I finally feel like I have a real family." Garrett smiled again.

"Garrett...can I tell you something?" Derrick sat on the extra stool.

"Of course. You want me to keep it between us?" He smiled and sat forward.

"Please. I know the cabal wouldn't care but I'm really not wanting attention on this one." He kicked his feet for a second or two. "I think...I think I'm bi."

Garrett stood and hugged Derrick for a minute, and when he sat back down he saw a big smile on the boys face. "Congrats. When did you know?"

"I guess I've always known. I've had crushes on boys in school, girls too. You know and...porn." Derrick said the last part weakly, expecting to be in trouble.

"No judgement. I have an entirely separate hard drive for my weird shit." They laughed together.

"I have these dreams...where I'm at this carnival with a boy. I'm so nervous, and he takes me by the hand and he's just so excited to be out with me. We play those cheesy old games and he wins me a bear with this cute little purple bandana and a pirate patch on its eye." Garrett motioned for him to keep talking as he flipped back to his computer and started typing something. "At the end of the date, he pulls me close on this bench and I feel him kiss me. He tells me he's ready. Then I just wake up all hard and confused." Derrick laughed at himself but stopped when he saw the screen.

"Is this the bear you're talking about?" He pointed to a slideshow of pictures from an old and rundown carnival.

"Holy shit." Derrick practically jumped into his lap as he got closer to the screen. "Where is that?"

"It closed down in '92. I could take you there." Garrett watched as Derrick longily put his hand to the screen.

"Tomorrow?" He pleaded.

"I dunno man, I gotta ask Ariana and Kai and they might -"

"Please Garrett, please! I dream about this place every week, please can you talk to them?" He held his hands together begging.

"I...fuck man alright don't look at me with that face." Garrett shut his screen off. "If you go to bed right now.

"Of course!" Derrick shouted and bounded up the steps as Garrett ran his hands over his own face in consternation.

***

"It's fucking weird is what it is. Look he's an awakened kid going through puberty." Kai shrugged.

"That's exactly the shit you said when he broke that kids collarbone...and his ribs...and the fracture to his-"

"Would you shut up!" Ariana slammed her tea down in frustration. "He's not your child!" She roared.

Garrett felt his eyes tug at him to tear up but he puffed out his chest. "I'm trying to validate and give space to a kid who hasn't asked for anything. He hasn't asked to visit his Dad, or his home, or even to drive. You took him out to beat up vampires, I just wanted to go stand at the fence of the carnival and see if anything comes to mind for him."

Ariana glared at Kai, her soft brown skin covered in flecks of her relaxation tea. "This is absolutely what I told you. My body hasn't even finished processing the backlash of that spell and he's already getting dragged into more danger."

"What if I go with?" Kai offered to ease the tension.

"I can't trust you!" She slammed her hand on the counter.

Kai opened his mouth before he grit his teeth and took a deep breath, his lips shaking as he steading his anger. "Give Garrett a chance. He clearly wouldn't have asked if he didn't care. If he's our son, then you gotta let me help him get back out into the world. Ari, think about it. He didn't leave his room for two months when he got here. If he's excited to do something, let's do it."

Ariana breathed angrily for a minute before picking up her tea and storming out the back door. "I want him home by seven, not a minute later!" She yelled back at Kai who flinched and nodded.

"Go get the kid. Hey, Garret." He stopped him as he was walking away. "No bullshit this time. No crazy, no illegal shit, no messing with people."

Kai wandered up the stairs and knocked on Jason's door. "You wanna come with Garrett, Derrick, and I? We're gonna check out something the kid wanted to see."

Through the door he recognized the sound of Jason curled up in a small ball as he yelled. "I'm not fit for duty today."

Nodding and looking at Miles door, he knocked and received a quick, "No and fuck off."

"Fair enough man." Kai muttered.

Walking back downstairs, Derrick had a big grin on his face as he put his coat and shoes on. "How far is it?"

"It's about a twenty minute drive. We're taking my car." Kai grabbed his keys from the ring and walked them to the car. Derrick looked excitedly out the window the whole drive, waiting for the carnival to come into view.

"Alright." Kai picked a parking spot and fed the meter, beginning the walk through downtown Denver. Garrett kept his hoodie up the whole time, while Derrick looked with a big smile at the buildings. "Keep together." Kai said with a soft smile as they passed various buildings and businesses. As they turned a corner, a large industrial fence came into view and Derrick took off running. "Hey stay with us!" Kai yelled, but Derrick gripped the fence and looked in with a smile.

"This is it!" He shouted. "Come look!" Slowly the two adults caught up, both of them staring at what remained of the rundown park.

"Cool." Garret smiled.

"You watch him, I'm gonna look for a better view." Kai started to circle the fence as he looked in.

When he was out of earshot, Garrett turned to Derrick and smiled. "Tell me about the dream again."

"He's super cute. He has brown hair and brown eyes. He's short, but so am I. I feel like in the dream we're both older than I am now. He wins me the bear, and then he sits with me on a bench. I can feel him get closer and closer until he kisses me. It's...warm. Then I have...different parts..."

"Oh?" Garrett smiled even wider.

"Well...you know... we're kissing and our shirts are off." Derrick turned bright red.

"Hey guys I found it!" Kai called to them. Running over, his hands clapped together happily. "There's this security guard and he's willing to let us take a quick peek."

"How much did you give him?"

"Shut up Garrett." Derrick smiled as Kai gave Garrett a stern look.

"Let's go check it out." Garrett smiled as he walked with Derrick towards the old security booth.

They circled the perimeter until the booth that Kai had mentioned was in view, and an old man sat with a cheap uniform on. He gave a smile and a wave. "Hey there!" His white hair was gently tucked under a company hat, and in his belt he carried only a walkie talkie and a large taser. "Your Dad here said you never got to see the park!" He smiled with a warm Santa like demeanor.

"Yeah he tells me about it all the time!" Derrick smiled and played along.

"And who is this young fella?" The security officer held out his hand to Garrett.

"Oh I'm Adam, I'm his cousin." He smiled and shook the mans hand.

Kai frowned at the lie but sighed and shook his head as the old man led the way. "This park was opened in uhh '79. It was initially funded by a wealthy guy who I think passed it down to his son. Well the idiot kid didn't know the value of giving kids and teens a place to hang out, so he closed it down in '92." They passed booth after booth that had been stripped and graffitied, food stands that had been looted, and Derrick finally stopped at a ring toss.

"I remember this one." He paused at the old man's strange look. "Dad you mentioned they used to have a little light up display on the side with a big rainbow right?"

"Yeah. All the time." Kai nodded slowly.

"That's a sharp memory you got!" The old man laughed.

"You used to be able to win a bear right?" Derrick asked.

"Yeah you know I have one of those old things in my patrol car if you want it little man." The old man smiled. "Will you three promise not to make any trouble while I go get it?"

"Absolutely!" Garrett chimed in. As the old man started to walk away, Garrett turned to Derrick. "So what's going on here. You seem like you know this place inside and out." He had seen the longing stare that Derrick gave every booth.

"That popcorn booth." He pointed. "A guy named Harry worked at it. He liked his job a lot and he had a crush on the balloon girl."

Garrett looked at Kai with confusion. "Keep going."

"The prize counter lady had blond hair. She liked knock knock jokes and they we're god awful. Her name was Lizzy. She had a bad day one time because the ferris wheel broke and a parent kept yelling at her about it." Derrick wandered around some more until he pointed to a large booth. "They sold drinks here, and the guy who ran it was always gross and sick. We didn't buy any of the open drinks because of it, so we got bottled soda." Kai looked worried at this point but Garrett was curious. "That's the bench!" Derrick smiled as he ran to it. "This is where he kissed me." He said softly.

"Ahoy there!" Called the old man as he returned, holding up a large brown Teddy bear with a purple bandana and a pirate hat.

"Oh wow!" Derrick ran back to the man with a grin on his face and laughed when the man handed it to him. "He's so soft!"

"What do you say little man?" Kai added.

"Thank you so much!" Derrick smiled, his chipped and broken teeth showing.

"Of course! Unfortunately my shift is almost over, is it okay if we head out?"

"Absolutely, thank you so much." Kai shook his hand. "It seriously means a lot."

"It's really no trouble. Take care of that bear!" He called out to Derrick who ran ahead to the car.

***

"Hey thanks for coming down." Garrett said solemnly.

"You need to clean your room man." Kai shifted as he looked at the mess of cans and discarded food items.

"I broke into some old records, namely the corporate payroll for employees. I found them." Garrett sounded almost afraid. "Lizzy and Harry, the ones Derrick mentioned. They're real."

"Maybe he's gifted with time and he's flexing some psychic powers too." Ariana dismissed it with a handwave.

"I thought you might say that." Garrett sighed. "Lizzy died in a car crash about five years ago, but Harry is still alive, he works at a car dealership." He held up a photo of Derrick. "We should go talk to him."

"Alright this has turned from indulgence to madness." Ariana sighed and shook her head.

"You can't honestly tell me this isn't weird." Garrett looked to Kai for help. "He knew that place like he spent every day there. We still don't know who his mystery boyfriend is."

"Derrick has a boyfriend?" Kai asked and Garrett smacked himself hard in the face.

"I swear on my order if you two leak this I'll crash your accounts." He pointed and both of them nodded at the threat. Taking a big sigh he leaned forward. "Derrick has dreams of that place and says he's in love with a boy in the dreams. He talks about it pretty intimately."

"Maybe he's picking up vibes of a boy he likes." Ariana again shrugged it off.

"Kai help me out here man." Garrett looked exhausted as he tried to reason with them. "I know he's 16, he could be exaggerating or lying or just flexing his powers, but something feels off."

"It wouldn't hurt to go visit the guy." Kai offered to Ariana. "Could just be me and you."

"Fine. I'm obviously not going to win here so let's go harass a car shark." Ariana groaned. Snatching the photo from Garrett, she pouted as she climbed the stairs. "You have to watch him till we get back."

"No sweat. I'm texting you the address now." Garrett didn't even look up as Kai and Ariana left, and a few minutes later Derrick came bounding down the stairs.

"Hey what's up?" He said as he offered a seat to the kid.

"Not much. Pretty bored. You wanna play some games?"

"I just got Ultimate Horse Warriors

4 on Kinetic." He passed Derrick a controller. "If you use Simeon I'm gonna strangle you."

"You're going down old timer." Derrick grinned as the game booted and a furious metal song with whinnies incorporated blared through the screen. Two hours ticked by as they gamed, and the front door suddenly slammed shut. Derrick and Garrett looked up.

"Don't you walk away from me damnit!" Kai yelled.

"This is crazy!" Ariana screamed. "You're listening to bullshit!" Ariana cursed at him in Spanish.

"You're the one whose fucking deluded. You're ignoring the evidence!" Kai smacked something onto the table.

"I won't have you corrupting him!"

"Corrupt? You're the one who offered him pot!" Kai roared.

"He is NOT your little brother!" Ariana screamed and the whole house went silent.

"...Another round of Ultimate Horse?" Garrett asked awkwardly.

"Uh...yeah." Derrick hit the start button but flinched when he heard Ariana call for him. "Gotta go man."

"Hey Derrick...thanks for hanging out." Garrett said quietly.

As the kid bounded up the stairs, Garrett reopened his code and began typing. It was near midnight when he saved and uploaded his program, biting his nails as he thought for a bit. Curiosity itched at him like it always did before he got into trouble, and with a few clicks he was staring at images of the park again. Garrett opened some of his sacred code that he had written when he first awakened, and looked at the search program like it was an old drug. "It's not gonna hurt anyone."

Pressing his palm to the computer, he shut his eyes and clicked the start button on his program, information quickly compiling and sorting as he was fed thousands of gigs of data into his brain. Before his eyes every file he came across flashed, added itself to his short term memory, and was filed into it's appropriate place. His hands started to shake as the file transfer got faster and faster. Blood trickled from his nose as he sorted it with his mind piece by piece, sifting through records and databases, until his laptop pulled up an old text file, and his vision went dark.

"Garrett what the fuck!" Miles shook him by the shoulders. The morning sun poured in through the basement window at the top of the ceiling. Blood had run freely down Garrett's face and stained his shirt heavily. "I need a fucking medic!" Miles screamed.

Quickly the cabal was gathered and Kai pressed his hands to Garrett's face. "C'mon, don't crash on me now." Kai pleaded as his hands seemed to tint with the healing glow that emanated. "Wake up!" He cried as he worked more and more energy into the man. Ariana hugged Derrick close as he watched in fear, Jason and Miles standing with sorrow painting their faces.

As Kai worked more and more, tears started to run down Ariana's face. After five minutes, a cough spat out from Garrett's lungs, and blood sprayed Kai in the chest. "That's it! That's it, just breathe." He propped up Garrett and set him against a wall, putting his ear to the heavily strained chest as he listened closely.

"We gotta get him to a fucking hospital." Kai picked him up and started carrying him up the stairs as the group piled into their cars. Speeding through traffic, the six arrived at the hospital with screams as they burst through the door, Kai placing Garrett on a gurney and heading back with one of the doctors as he rattled off his condition.

"Is he gonna be okay?" Derrick asked Ariana nervously.

"Kai is there. He's gonna be fine." Ariana put her hand on his shoulders but quickly heard other doctor's rushing to the back where Kai had gone.

"What the hell is going on?" Jason whispered.

Ariana pulled Jason aside as she watched Derrick get a hug from Miles. "Garrett has a drug problem."

"A what?" Jason almost yelled.

"Keep your voice down. Look he took something he shouldn't so he's probably just having a mild OD. Kai and I have seen it before. Miles doesn't know about it and the kid doesn't need to." She put her hands on Jason's shoulders. "I need you to take the two of them home while I stay here with the guys. Kai probably overextended himself pulling Garrett back, so he's gonna need some help too."

"Ari I'm not good at keeping secrets." Jason whined.

"I know your not, but you got this. Just feed them, and get them situated. You could throw on the extended version of that series you like." Ari smiled.

"That's twelve hours long." Jason looked back at them for a second. "How am I supposed to keep them calm?"

Ariana paused as she waited for a nurse to pass her. "You remember that one ritual you used when we broke into the factory?"

"The one where I use tones to bore people to sleep? Isn't that a bit unethical to do to the kid?"