It's A Temporary Title, Okay?

Part 5 (I'm just gonna stop putting titles lol)

Henry was still shaken from the tremors, but also from the phone call with his mother and the argument with Nancy. Today was certainly not going to be a peaceful one for him if things kept going the way they had been this morning.

Nancy had gone outside to see if the neighbors were okay, but she had been out there for quite awhile. Eventually, Henry walked over to the window to check and see if she was still there, only to see her leading someone inside. They looked badly injured and Henry was sent into a panic.

Before he had a chance to wonder what was happening or who this person was, they had already arrived at the door.

"Sit down here if you'd like sweetie." Nancy said, gesturing to the couch. The stranger responded with a hesitant nod and sat down, head still low.

"Nancy," Henry started. "Do you think... can we speak alone, please?"

Nancy glanced at the two of them nervously. "We can talk later. Let's just get you cleaned up for now." She said before leaving to grab a first aid kit and a towel.

It took a minute for Henry to get the courage to speak again, but when he did, he was full of enough questions to forget his fear. "So... who are you? Where did you come from? How old are you? Where are your parents? I don't mean to imply that you look like a child, but you do look quite young. How did you get so hurt? Oh, I'm sorry, I don't mean to pry, but this is very sudden and you are in my house now and, honestly, I think it's reasonable to want to know who you are..." Still, there was no response. "Alright, how about a simple question: what's your name?"

Finally, the stranger glanced up again. "Kennith."

Henry smiled and offered his hand. "Henry."

Kennith shook his hand quickly before moving to wipe his eyes as he was tearing up again. "I don't know what happened..." he whispered. "It wasn't supposed to go this way. I don't even know where I am right now. I wanted to go back but it was too late. I passed out and woke up with everything broken and I don't know where I am and everything hurts and I probably deserve it anyway. Nobody probably even noticed I'm gone. They're probably glad. God I'm so pathetic. Why-"

"Kennith." Henry interjected. "Look. I don't know you, but I'm sure none of that's true. There must be someone who will miss you. I'm sure they're looking for you right now! If you wanted you could use our phone to call home. Would you like that?"

Kennith hesitated for a moment. Who could he even call? His parents were unreliable and he'd probably be better off with them thinking he's dead than however they'd react to him acting out again. He didn't really have anyone else. Steph probably wanted nothing to do with him, and even if she did care she couldn't hear him talk on the phone anyway, and he certainly wouldn't try to have her parents pass his message on. The only other person he was even remotely close to was Greg. He wasn't the most responsible or helpful or anything really, but at the very least he might be willing to come pick him up and let him stay with him for awhile.

"Okay" Kennith muttered.

Henry brightened and led Kennith to the phone, who was a bit surprised at how old the phone looked. Kennith didn't actually know Greg's phone number, but he knew the number of the gas station he worked at. He supposed that was the best he could do.

After a few moments, someone answered. "Hello, this is William speaking, what can I do for you today?"

Kennith didn't remember a William working at Greg's gas station, but, then again, he wasn't really familiar with most of his coworkers. "Uhh, this is Kennith. Is Greg working today? I kinda wanna talk to him."

The other line was silent for a minute or two before William came back. "I'm sorry, I don't think we have a Greg here, you probably dialed the wrong number. Is there anything else I can do for you?"

Kennith sighed, "no, sorry for bothering you" and hung up.

"Is everything alright?" Henry asked.

"I tried to call my friend but I dunno his phone number and I guess I don't remember his work's phone number either " Kennith grumbled.

"Well, we do have a phone book." Henry said, pulling it out and handing it to Kennith, who began flipping to the H section before hearing heels approaching from the other room.

"Where did you two go?" Nancy shouted, somehow still having a level of gentleness to her voice even when yelling.

"In here sweetheart!" Henry shouted back. "Kennith, we can come back to this in a bit, you should sit down so Nancy can patch you up."

Kennith complied and walked to the couch to sit down.

"Kennith?" Nancy repeated the name as she sat down in front of him and opened her first aid kit. "A very lovely name." She began pulling out different bandages and other things that Kennith couldn't exactly identify but assumed were for cleaning wounds. "Do you mind telling us what happened, dear? I'm sure you're under a lot of stress and I don't want to overwhelm you more, but I would like to know how you ended up here in this state."

Kennith winced as she started disinfecting some of his cuts. He contemplated how much of his story he should tell. These people seemed nice enough, but he probably couldn't trust them enough to tell them the things he did. He decided on leaving out some of the details. "Well, I was working on a... project..." he started. "I like messing with electronics. I was... experimenting with an idea and I, uh, jumped into it without thinking about it enough. I made this machine that was supposed to put people in a trance. Just to play a prank on my friend that is-" Kennith fidgeted with his hands for a bit, looking back and forth between the two strangers, trying to figure out their expressions before continuing. "I had it running for a few minutes before I realized it was a bad idea and it might hurt someone and I didn't wanna be the cause of that, so I tried to turn it off, but it didn't work and it started malfunctioning or something and then it exploded or some shit and then I woke up and my house was gone and the machine was broken around me and stuff..." he didn't know how to continue, so he stopped there.

The older two stared blankly at him, and then each other, and then back at him.

"Well, Kennith. I'm not sure what to say, really. But I'm glad you are at least alright." Henry said.

"I am too. We can help you find out what happened and get you back to your family, alright?" Nancy said, patting his head.

"I don't wanna go back to my family." Kennith muttered. "They hate me. They have for years. they'll only hate me more now. I'd rather just die honestly. That'd be-"

"Oh dear! Kennith! That's awful!" Nancy cut him off. "You shouldn't die sweetie." She glanced at Henry for a second before continuing. "You can stay with us until you find somewhere better to be, alright?"

"Nancy, hon, don't you think we should talk about this first-" Henry started.

"Henry, dear, this sweet young man needs somewhere to stay and his family isn't good to him! I'm not going to back down on this. It doesn't have to be long, but I can't just leave this poor boy alone like this." She turned to Kennith. "It's up to you, alright Kennith? You're welcome here."

Kennith was dumbfounded. He wasn't used to strangers being so kind to him. Even if Henry seemed apprehensive. "Are you sure? I don't wanna be a bother..."

"Nonsense! I don't mind at all! I'll take care of everything. Neither of you will have to worry. We even have a guest room! It's pointless if it's not put to good use is it not?" Nancy insisted.

Henry sighed quietly. "Kennith, Nancy and I are both happy to have you here. At least for a little while. You're safe here."

"Okay..." Kennith responded. "But I don't have a real job. I can't really pay rent consistently. I can fix stuff and people pay me for that sometimes but it's not reliable."

"Oh don't you worry sweetheart, you don't need to pay us." Nancy assured him.

"Okay, thank you." Kennith said, hesitantly. "Do you mind if I lay down maybe? I'm really worn out."

"Oh of course, dear!" Nancy said, jumping up. "Here, I'll show you where our guest room is." She held out her hand, which Kennith took, and led him out of the room.

Henry sighed and watched them leave. What have we gotten ourselves into, he thought.