Chapter Text
Kevin was once again failing to not think about his family and the home he'd grown up in. He still hadn't come to think of the apartment he'd recently moved into as “home”, but maybe one day he would've gotten used to living on his own. To do that though, he would've had to be able to keep living.
He'd still kept regular contact with his moms and would often see extended family for holidays and occasional visits. He'd been excited to move out because he prized his independence, but he still loved his family very much.
He didn't tell them about his new job. He hadn't wanted to make them concerned. If they did believe him then it would be scary, and if they didn't then it would look like he was trying to be a scammer.
They'd probably found out by now. He'd have become a missing person's case and his website would probably be found. He hadn't meant to keep secrets, he would've told them eventually.
They'd probably blame themselves. He was twenty-five years old, living on his own and having a successful self driven career. Up until something went wrong and he died, he'd been thriving. He was doing so well on his own, his moms had done their best to prepare him to be independent and he was good at it.
He wanted nothing more than to see them again and tell them that what happened to him wasn't their fault. He just wanted them to hold him and tell him that everything would be alright like how they would when he got scared as a kid. Everything used to be so simple and every problem had had a solution. There was no solution to being dead, no way to undo the pain he'd felt and witnessed.
He'd grown to love the Morris family like his own, but it just wasn't the same. He still felt that ache of longing whenever he thought about the people he'd abandoned with his carelessness.
They were looking for him but they'd never find his body and he himself was so very far away.
He didn't regret that he was protecting Gavin, they were a good kid and sometimes he almost felt like he could describe himself as feeling parental. He's taught them skills to protect themself that he'd hoped that they wouldn't need to use, but he also liked teaching them other things. They'd enjoyed learning and it had warmed his heart to see them start to relax.
He should've known that something would eventually go wrong and that he'd fail again.
Just as he was learning to adjust, he was once again pulled away from the people that needed him by his own recklessness. He should've known better.
Being trapped there was a nightmare that made him realize just how badly he'd missed his old life. Not only that, but he'd left his kid all alone to face the horrors by themself.
By the time that strange entity and the probably not human player showed up, nothing had felt real. He could barely comprehend what was happening, he'd just expected more pain.
But the pain didn't come. He was being rescued, and the rescue had been orchestrated by the very same kid that he was supposed to be protecting. They had put themself on the line, continuing to keep that world even without him there to save them if something tried to attack them. They could've died, but for his sake they took that risk. They were just a kid, they shouldn't be risking themself to protect him!
He couldn't even complain, he'd been so worn down by his imprisonment that he could only feel relief to be out of there. What kind of protector was he?
And then so soon after he was back, their brother was attacked and had to defend himself. He could've helped him, but he didn't realize the danger was there until afterwards. A kid could've died and he was uselessly waiting in a different room.
And the kid, Collin, was so nonchalant about it. He insisted that he was fine, that there was no need to worry. That probably wasn't Collin's first encounter with something dangerous during the time he was uselessly rotting in a Minecraft prison cell. The family had suffered in his absence and there was nothing he could do about it and even now that he was back he was still failing to be their protector.
It was obvious that Collin was trying to care for him as well as his little sibling. Kevin was the adult here, he should've been the one making sure that the kids were okay.
But he just couldn't, no matter how badly he'd wanted to. He felt like just another burden. The kids had had to use the things he'd previously taught in order to save their own lives because he'd been absent, and even now that he was back he'd become just another burden.
Just when he'd started to think he might be beginning to recover just a little bit, another kid almost died near him without him even knowing about the danger until it was over. The poor kid had just gone to the bathroom and had returned as a shaking mess, having had to fight a dangerous monster all by himself.
This kid had been a fan of his back before he started his mercenary gig and had just been a YouTuber. Not only that, but he came very close to publicly humiliating the kid over a fake Herobrine sighting. How could he have possibly considered doing that to a kid who just wanted to have fun? And then this kid had helped to save him, no questions asked. But he failed to return the favor.
Zander told him that because he'd been responsible for the weapon that he'd used to save himself, that he had saved him. But just helping with a weapon wasn't enough, he should've done something! The kid had looked up to him without knowing what he'd nearly done and even though he was so useless now. Kevin didn't feel that he deserved to be this kid's hero at all.
He just wanted to see his home and his moms again.
Everyone who'd ever cared about him was suffering and he couldn't do anything to stop it.
His train of thought was broken by Collin trying to get his attention. Collin had seemingly been trying to talk to him for a bit, but he'd been too out of it to notice.
Looking at him, Kevin tried to show that he was listening now. He gave the go ahead for Collin to tell him whatever he'd been trying to say.
“I think… I think it might benefit you if we could contact your family. I don't know how to break the news to them, but I think you should be able to see them. Do you… want to?”
He didn't know how to answer that. He wanted to see them more than anything, but how could he face them? Would seeing him like this only hurt them more? Would it hurt them more to forever wonder about his fate than to know exactly what had happened to him?
He had to see them again. Maybe it was selfish of him, maybe ignorance would be better for them, but he just needed them so badly.
He nodded at Collin and grabbed a piece of paper to write down his parents’ address.
He was really going to see them again. What could he possibly say? He hadn't spoken much since being rescued, but he'd been slowly managing to recover that a bit. He still didn't know what he could possibly tell them when he saw them again. How could he possibly explain any of this without freaking them out too much?
Collin looked at the paper and started doing some research. The house was about seventeen hours away by car, so it would be a decently long road trip. Planes were a no-go, a haunted plane would be way too likely to crash. It was just too dangerous.
Collin would have to ask his parents to drive him and Gavin there since obviously neither of them could drive themselves. It would be a family road trip.
They hadn't done a family activity in awhile and winter break was coming up. Maybe this could be a good bonding experience to have while helping Kevin.
Collin brought it up to his parents at dinner that day and it was agreed upon. Kevin had done a lot to help the family and it would be good to help him in return.
Packing was mostly uneventful, except for when one of Gavin’s shirts briefly disappeared. They grabbed their mace and the shirt reappeared in front of them. The entity that had stolen it had likely decided it wasn't worth the effort to mess with them.
During the trip, the car has more maintenance issues than normal, until Kevin looked around inside the engines and found something hiding inside it that was trying to siphon some of the car’s energy. Fortunately that was the only thing messing with their car and dealing with it was pretty simple.
They got to their first rest stop and there was a paper on the door warning that it was haunted. The writer explained that it wasn't officially closed down, since no one believed them, but that if you entered it could be dangerous.
Gavin ended up bringing their sock mace. They really needed to pee and this probably couldn't be any worse than their own bathroom.
Kevin insisted on going in first, but he was rusty as it had been some time since he'd fought properly and this other ghost was as strong as he was. It didn't retain its personality like he did though, seemingly stuck in whatever emotions it had experienced at death.
When Gavin heard the crashing, they opened the door to see the fight and they saw Kevin struggling. The other ghost turned to them and snarled before attempting to fly at them. The sock mace to the face got it by surprise and it was stunned long enough for Kevin to recover and strike it again, this time finally weakening it enough for an exorcism. Hopefully now it could finally find peace…
That was way too much effort just to use the bathroom.
Once they finished, they took a pencil out of their backpack to write on the sign and say that they managed to exorcise the spirit and thanked whoever gave them the warning about its presence.
Their parents were not happy that they chose to intervene in a fight against a dangerous entity and neither was their brother. They couldn't just do nothing though. Collin at least understood that part, even if he still didn't want them risking themself.
They passed a roadside attraction. Gavin secretly wished they could beg their parents to stop there so they could have some fun, like how they would on previous road trips. They didn't dare now though, and neither did Collin. They didn't want to risk spoiling someone else's fun. They just looked at it through the window while the car kept moving.
They stopped at a motel for the night. No one was happy with it since the place looked haunted enough as it was, but there weren't any better options available.
They got a room with a small couch. Collin and Gavin shared the couch, careful not to kick each other. Their parents took the bed. Kevin, meanwhile, took watch to make sure nothing attacked.
At one point, unnatural fog started to seep into the room. Kevin had to wake everyone up to address the situation. The fog was cold as ice to the touch, so everyone tried to avoid touching it. Kevin was immune to this though and went to try and find the source.
Gavin tightly gripped their mace while hugging their brother for comfort, they didn't know what to do except hope that Kevin could succeed in stopping the fog.
He did fortunately succeed and the fog soon began to recess. Nothing else showed up that night, though it was hard to get more sleep after that. Gavin stayed snuggled with their older brother while still holding onto their weapon.
In the morning, they headed back to their car and got breakfast at a thankfully unhaunted diner. It was nice to have some good luck for once.
The trip wasn't too eventful after that, it was mostly just them trying to keep themselves entertained as they spent so long in the car.
The next motel they stayed at was also fortunately normal, though it was still hard to relax enough to fall asleep properly.
By the time they reached Kevin's old neighborhood, it was starting to get dark. Kevin perked up when he saw things that were familiar to him. It was strange looking at the place he spent his early years now, everything was so different. He was looking at the life he used to have before he lost it.
Eventually they reached a house that matched the address they were given and everyone turned to Kevin.
He stared at the house. He hadn't truly expected to see it again. Everything was different, but he was here now.
“h… home…”, he finally said, voice unsteady.
Everyone slowly got out of the car and stayed close to him as he floated towards the door. Collin offered to let him borrow his hoodie to hold in order to hide the gaping wound on his front.
Reaching the door, Gavin ended up knocking on the door after Kevin signaled that he was ready.
There wasn't a response at first, leaving Kevin feeling even more anxious about this than he'd already been. What if they weren't home? Would they have to come by later? He wasn't sure if he could bring himself to do this again. What if they'd moved away in response to grief? What if… What if something happened to them?
Finally, footsteps began to approach the door.
A woman opened it, she appeared to be in her fifties. She had a sorrowful frown on her face, but that changed into a look of confusion when she saw the family in front of her.
Gavin hadn't actually thought of what to say, so it was a bit awkward.
“Hey… So um… I'm not really sure how to explain this but…”
Kevin floated forward into her line of sight. She gasped, struggling to comprehend what she was seeing.
Her son, who had mysteriously disappeared. He was here now, but he was different. He wasn't standing on the ground, but was instead floating in the air completely weightless. He wasn't fully solid either, instead appearing as translucent. There were tears in his eyes too. She knew he didn't cry very often, he must have gone through so much.
Even after finding out about his secret job, she'd still hoped that he was still alive to be found and that he would come back to them, though the chances of that happening grew slimmer the longer he was away.
He wasn't alive, but he still came back.
“mama…”
She cried and went to embrace him. He dropped the thing he was carrying to hug her back, being so careful to keep himself from phasing right through her. Physical contact wasn't easy, but he was doing his best.
They stayed like that for a while before another woman appeared at the doorway.
“Is this… real?”, she asked, voice soft.
“It is… mom…”
The Morris family just watched the tearful reunion happening, not wanting to interrupt.
Eventually the hug ended and everyone was invited inside. The two had wanted an explanation, but they didn't want to push Kevin to say everything if he wasn't ready to talk about it.
His presence here had a lot of implications. He was dead, he had clearly suffered a lot, but he was here. The paranormal was real and there was so much that they wanted to know, but weren't sure how to ask.
It was all so surreal and Kevin felt like he was dreaming and would wake back in that cell any moment now, even though he couldn't ever sleep. But he was here, in his home, with his family.
Gavin ended up telling the story of how they hired a paranormal mercenary online to help them, but it went wrong. Collin held their hand to support them as they struggled to talk about it. From there they talked about how Kevin ended up with them and continued to protect them.
They didn't mention the admins, they hadn't told their parents about that yet and they weren't sure if Kevin was okay with hearing it.
After that, Collin mentioned realizing how homesick Kevin was and suggesting traveling so that he could reunite with his loved ones. He'd helped them all so much, and they'd all wanted to help him.
They all stayed at the house overnight. Kevin's moms did have many more questions about everything, but they made it clear that the Morris’s were welcome to visit any time they wanted. They were family now too, after all. The poor kids had suffered so much, and their own son was doing all he could to keep them safe.
Kevin was able to catch up with them about all that had happened between being a YouTuber and becoming a paranormal mercenary. He was given privacy to vent to them about his struggles and he even opened up about getting captured and rescued.
It was the most he'd spoken since being freed. He felt a bit better, having opened up to someone he trusted about what he's been through instead of holding it all in. He couldn't talk to Collin or Gavin about it, not fully. He trusted them so much, but they were just kids, they shouldn't have to hear about all his problems. He still felt bad about dumping this on his moms, but they had helped him through difficult things before.
The visit ended up lasting another day before it was time to separate again. Promises were made to visit each other and numbers were exchanged. They'd stay in touch, no more being left in the dark and wondering what had happened to each other.
It was hard to say goodbye, but it was eased by the fact that it would be easier to contact each other in the future. Kevin still was sad about it, but it would be alright. He was finally starting to feel a bit more optimistic again about the future.