Archive of Our Own ^beta

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…

Chapter Text

Stephanie finally got home from school. She threw her bag down by the side of her bed and fell face first into her pillow. Only get back up after a few seconds to toss her school id on the nightstand and take off her shoes. Then proceed to get back into bed and take a nap. She didn’t have the energy to do anything right now… neither to eat or do work. Stephanie just sighed and covered her head with one of her arms.

She laid there for a while. Maybe like 20 minutes; she still couldn’t fall asleep. But she still felt tired, just the mere thought of getting up sent waves of exhaustion through her body. She tried again to fall asleep with very little success. Stephanie couldn’t stop thinking about those TV’s. The thought that they would be thrown out despite how much they meant to Kennith made her nauseous. But what could she do?

“Steal it? No that would be wrong… “Stephanie thought, “I could ask for it… but then again, Kennith’s parents never really liked me. Besides, they can’t understand ASL anyways.” Stephanie weighed her options, from the logical to the not so logical. In the end her first idea seemed like the best even if it was kinda immoral. But his parents didn’t even want them anyways so it’s not so bad. How would she do it though?

Stephaine had no experience in stealing nor doing things that were considered wrong. Mostly because she was too scared that her parents would find out. Her parents raised her to be on a high moral stance and never do something wrong or face serious consequences, since they were very religious. This meant that any mention of those activities made her feel so guilty. Kennith had helped her to rebel in small ways from her parents' strict teachings, but he wasn't here to push her out of her comfort zone. She had to do it herself.

…

It was around 9pm now; it was completely dark outside. Stephanie had done some research and planning the past few hours. The trash company would come by tomorrow morning at around 7am, so she had all night to take a TV. The biggest issue to this plan would be trying not to get caught of course, but since Stephanie was deaf, she would have a much harder time determining if someone was coming or if she was being loud. Stephanie would have to be extra careful then.

Stephine changed into some more dark clothing, which was a lot harder than she thought. Her closest was quite colorful, she had very little in terms of blacks and dark blues. Eventually she dug through her closet enough to find an old dark navy-blue hoodie and some black jeans. It wasn’t exactly what she wanted but she had to make do. She put on the clothes and headed for her journal on her desk. She had written her plan down there.

1987:
-Sneak out when everyone is asleep.

-Walk through the darker street around the neighborhood.

-Sneak near Kennith’s house and check if anyone is awake.

-Go and quickly grab a TV and take it back where I came from.

-Take the TV home and take it to my room.

-Hide it.

“Simple enough on paper. Doubt it’s actually gunna be that easy.” She thought. “God I’m bad at this.” She could feel herself awkwardly laugh. Granted writing this down was probably a bad idea, but Stephanie has a chaotic mind, she has to keep some form of plan or else she can’t focus. She could rip it out later anyways, but still, she couldn’t believe she was actually committing to this. But for now, it was a waiting game; waiting for her parents to fall asleep.

…

It was now 11pm. They had finally gone to bed around 10:30, so Stephanie waited a bit for them to actually head to la la land, but now she was certain they were asleep. The house felt quiet. She couldn’t tell if it was, but it gave off the ambiance of a still home. She slowly made her way through the house. Her eyes darting around the house for any sudden lights, her hands on the wall for any vibrations that might indicate someone was awake. She clung the rails of the stairs and ever so slowly walked down them. After a few minutes, she made it down. She made sure her shoes were soft and walkable, reduced noise from what she read. With every step closer to the back door, the pit in her stomach grew, it was painful almost. But she had reached the door, luckily for her, she had unlocked it before her parents went to sleep, so she didn’t have to worry about fumbling with keys. Her hand touched the cold knob. This was her last opportunity to turn back. She could feel her hand shaking, guilt began to weigh down again. Guess it only just now hitting her that she was going to sneak out and steal from something. She closed her eyes and tried to shake it off. With a deep breath she opened the door and snuck out.

She slowly closed the door and walked down the patio. Now that she was in her backyard, she could move a bit more. She walked to the fence gate near the side of her house and clicked open the lock. She walked past the gate and closed it, but not locking it. With that she was on the street in front of her house. Now she had to avoid the streetlights, which is why she wrote to go through the darker street. Stephanie lived in a small town in the middle of nowhere, the government clearly didn’t care to keep this run down town in shape. Which meant some streets didn’t have functioning streetlights, lucky for her.

Stephanie walked down the street, avoiding the lights, and turned a corner into a street with barely any working lights. She had grown up here for so long and walked around a lot, she knew the layout of the neighborhood like the back of her hands. By this point, Stephanie made it about ¾ the way to Kennith’s house without running into trouble. Stephanie did panic a bit when she saw the gleaming lights of a car’s headlights, she ran into some bushes of a nearby house. Luckily, the car turned left and out of sight. Stephanie stayed in the bushes for a bit longer before getting back out and continuing on her way.

After walking a bit further and turning a few corners, she made it to Kennith’s house. Stephanie crouched to a nearby bush and hid behind it. She kept a careful watch for a couple of minutes. The lights of all the nearby homes were off, no cars, and minimal lights- perfect. Stephanie slowly crouched to the home’s lawn, looking in direction. She has to use her sight as best she could to make up for her lack of hearing. She reached the pile of TV’s and inspected them. Which should she take? Each one was special in their own way; it was a tough choice… In the end she decided to just grab a TV stacked on the others. She reached her arms out ready to lift, only to barely be able to move it. “Crap-” She thought. She hadn’t accounted for the weight of the TV’s! Stephanie was very strong, and hauling a TV would take forever. At this point she would have to take the smallest one and endure. The smallest TV was also stacked on top, and as she tried to grab it, she noticed car lights heading her way. She panicked and darted her eyes around. She didn’t have time to run to a bush, so she dove behind the TV’s and prayed the car didn’t notice her.

But to Stephanie's horror, the car stopped just a house down. She could tell from the still lights. She peered from the TV’s to see it was actually a van. “Oh, hell no-” She thought in fear. She wasn’t trying to get kidnapped tonight. She continued to look as the van's lights turned off and a man stepped out and began walking towards her direction! Stephanie shuffled back a bit, the lack of lights only let her see a silhouette of a man with long hair. “Wait a second…”

The man walked up to the TV’s, Stephanie staying out of his line of sight as best she could, holding her hand over her mouth, hoping that she is quiet. The man walked right up to the Tv’s and began examining them, muttering as he went, “I should take this one… but this one is also nice, but I don't have the space for more than one…” The man spoke. Obviously, Stephanie couldn’t tell he said anything, but she could feel his lingering presence. She peaked through the cracks between the TV’s to see the man, “Is that…Greg?”