Chapter Text
The Colorbar Incident of 1987. A day long lived in the minds of the nation. A national hijacking like none the worlds ever seen. Nothing like Stephanie’s ever seen. She was there when it happened. She lived in the town where it originally happened. She knew the person who caused this to happen.
Kennith Simons. To the public, he was just the kid behind the broadcast. The one who hypnotized parts of the nation. Everyone perceived him as a villain, a coward. Someone who planned to take over the world and do whatever they wanted to with it, but when it failed, killed himself to avoid the consequences. Of course, the public questioned the motive. The broadcast ran all night for hours. Yet nothing much was done; perhaps to weaken the minds of those who watched or to show the world how much more superior he was, but none of that mattered. In the end the negative press painted him to be awful. Stating his motive to be one of revenge. Kennith was bullied and ostracized for his identity. Giving leeway for the press to paint the story however they liked. But none of this was true.
Stephanie knew it wasn’t true. She was Kennith’s closest friend. She knew him better than anyone else. And the way the media and people around her talked about him sickened her to her very core. Yet she couldn’t speak up… she couldn’t even hear the world around her. Stephanie was deaf, which meant all she knew about everyone's thoughts of the event were through news articles and trying to lipread. It wasn’t easy to see what her peers were saying, but when she could, she could only make out awful insults about him and even her. Stephine was also picked on for being his friend. It was even worse now after the fact. She was avoided like the plague. Some rumors said that she was involved, or that she had some role to play in it. Of course, she didn’t and was just as curious about what really happened that day. She still couldn’t believe it. Even weeks after it happened, the loose threads of the case kept filling her mind. To the police, it was a pretty open and shut case. Kennith was known for being a smart kid who messed with technology and electrical things, and his suicide was quite literally broadcasted to the whole world. Even when at the scene, Stephanie tried to bring up some weird things like the camera that turned off by itself even though Kennith was dead by that point and the lack of bloody footprints that would indicate that that happened. She was just brushed aside and ignored. Who would listen to some deaf kid anyways?
That scene. Some people wondered why Stephanie was there at the crime scene and was allowed to stick around the area. The answer was simple. She was the one to discover his dead body. She had originally watched the broadcast yet didn’t seem affected by the hypnosis. Seemed she would have had to have heard it to be completely under the effects. She saw Kennith perform on camera. Granted she couldn’t make out a word he was saying on those granny TVs, but a lingering thought in the back of her head made her think it might have been directed at her. Whatever he said, it all led to the same ending. The broadcast played colors and images throughout the night after Kennith’s initial appearance, and in the morning, it shut off. Only to turn back on to reveal Kennith slumped over next to a row of TVs, blood flowing on the ground. Initially Stephanie couldn’t process what she saw. Was he hurt? Was that blood? What happened? Stephanie ended up running to his house, a home she had frequently hung out in, and knocked on the door. When no answer came she, and the help of others in the neighborhood who awoke from the hypnosis and wanted answers too, kicked in the door. Stephanie had recognized the background of the broadcast as Kennith’s garage and checked there first. Only to be met with a grizzly sight.
Kennith was dead, wrist slit open with a box cutter lying next his hand. He had killed himself. By this point all the cameras were off and so was the mic he had used. Only thing left on were the TVs behind him, which originally projected a spiral-like image, but now only showed static. Stephanie screamed, or that’s what she was told. Of course, she couldn’t hear herself, but according to others she let out a loud scream that alerted everyone to the gruesome scene. The rest of her memory of that day was a blur. It was all too much, and it happened all too fast. She couldn’t understand. She still didn’t. The only other thing she could remember was holding Kennith, crying. Blood stained her clothes, but she didn’t care. She cried and begged for him to wake up, she shook him, hugged him, and cried. She wanted her friend back. She wanted him to know that she cared about him. Even if they stopped being friends around that time. She hugged his corpse. It was such a strange feeling. A feeling that would linger on her skin for the rest of her life.
But those memories were in the past, now Stephanie lives a life of regret and grief. God does she not have a lot of regrets. Her biggest regret would definitely be not being able to say sorry. She was sorry for how insensitive she was. It was the reason they stopped being friends. They had a large argument about Kennith’s self-harm and Stephanie’s ignorance and insensitivity didn’t help. Of course, her intentions were good. She didn’t want him hurting himself, but she couldn’t understand that it wasn’t something you can’t just stop. If it wasn’t for her actions, maybe they would still be friends. Maybe then Kennith could have still been here.
Kennith felt hated by the world...but now…he was.
…
Senior year was hell. Now Stephanie was truly alone in a hearing world. The silence was loud. It drove her crazy, it never had bothered her so much as it does now. She walked through the halls, being followed by the stares of her peers and the unended ringing of silence. She kept her head down. There was no point in looking up at a world that has lost its colors. Color’s Kennith had helped her to see. The clocks on the wall ticked so slowly. The hands of the clocked kept moving and Stephanie kept waiting. Waiting for graduation, waiting for college. She just wanted to get the fuck out of here.
The school day finally ended after what felt like an eternity. Stephine sheepishly got up from her seat with her stuff and walked out of the classroom. She continued to walk to an exit. Her tired eyes and painful posture just gave the aura of someone who had given up. Her grades were slipping as well, but she had to keep going. She left the building and had her way home, dodging the stares of people around her.
Halfway on her walk home, she was approaching Kennith’s home. They lived pretty close to each other which made hanging out so much easier. But now it was just another painful reminder. Although this time as she passed by his house, she noticed something on the lawn across the street. They were TV’s… Stephanie stopped in her tracks. About 5 TV’s were laid on the lawn, near the trash bin. It appeared they were going to be thrown out. As Stephine got closer, she thought they looked familiar. She narrowed her eyes and then realized she recognized them. They were Kennith’s TV’s! The ones seen on the broadcast.
Kennith had a collection of 1980’s Tv’s. He always liked electronics and would often mess around with them. He’d show Stephanie his work and do his best to explain what he did, even with his limited knowledge of sign language. Later on, during Kennith’s broadcast, he had those same TV’s behind him, flickering and displaying colors. Despite that, fond memories of those simpler times flooded her mind. Now looking at those memories laid out on a lawn to be thrown out made her upset. Granted she could understand why. They were a part of an awful moment in history. Doubt Kennith’s parents would want to keep something that was so engraved from that day, but then again Kennith’s parents never really seemed to care about him. Perhaps they are just happy to be able to finally get rid of Kennith’s electronic junk without fighting Kennith over it.
Stephanie stared for a few more seconds and continued to walk forward. She wanted to grab one of the TV’s. To Kennith they meant a lot and he always told her about his collection. If he was here, he probably would have wanted someone to take them instead of them being thrown out. Unfortunately, Stephine had no means of taking on. It felt too awkward to ask his parents if she could take one of the TV’s, not to mention they wouldn’t be able to understand what she was saying anyways. Stephanie kept going down the street, eyeing the other side of the street until it left her vision completely. She couldn’t let those memories get thrown away, but for now she just wanted to go home…