Consuming Darkness, Arising Light

Chapter 12: Silver

(A/n: Trigger Warning: animal death/suicide)

August 23rd- Craig

Nothing but rain, thunder, and lightning on a Wednesday morning.

It's been storming nonstop ever since Sunday, and school was cancelled as a result ever since Monday. Who knew the constant flow of heavy rain would cause all of the snow to liquefy in such a short period of time? It's been a long while since South Park had a storm, let alone rain. Not a single soul is out in this severe weather, making the small town look barren.

The dark grey clouds loom overhead, casting a sepulchral feel into the air and putting a damper on Craig's mood. He's looking vacantly at the raindrops that are abusing his window. Boisterous thunder had rudely woken him up an hour ago, as well as his baby sister but their mother quickly went to calm her down the moment she started crying.

Craig blinks when a bright yellow light flashes in the sky, then flinches at the thunder that follows suit. He covers his window back up with his blue curtain, and ambles over to his bed. Sitting down on the edge of his mattress, he looks into Stripe's cage. Frowning not because he sees the guinea pig still asleep, but because both its food and water bowls appear untouched. He refilled Stripe's blue water bowl yesterday, so it's very surprising to see that it didn't drink any of it.

Figuring Stripe will eat and drink when it wakes up, Craig scoots back and lays down facing the ceiling, pulling his dark brown bedsheets over himself. Now feeling extremely bored, he decides to let his mind wander. The person he thinks about is Tweek, and his frown deepens.

It was just last Wednesday when him and Clyde last talked to the boy, demanding they be told the reason for his avoidance. "I didn't care anymore at first, but his reason for ignoring me and Clyde was weird, stupid, and creepy," Craig thinks, picturing the look of fear on Tweek's face. At first, Craig felt bad for being mean towards Tweek, but the negative feeling quickly returned after Tweek finally gave them an answer. "Who's 'he' Tweek talked about that said would kill me and Clyde if we kept hanging around him? I bet he made that up. If he didn't wanna be friends with us anymore, then he just should've told us flat out instead of lying." After Tweek ran away, Craig looked over at Clyde, who appeared just as nonplussed as he did. "I asked Clyde did he believe what Tweek said, but all he told me was that he didn't know." Then after that, they went home.

Craig remembers the following days in school after that day, Tweek was absent both the last two days and Clyde was late to class that Thursday. Nothing seemed wrong with the brunette, so Craig asked him why was he late once the boy sat down. "I overslept," was the terse answer he received, and it was left at that. Craig wasn't sure if Clyde was lying or not, but he assumed Clyde couldn't stop thinking about what Tweek told them the previous day, which was why he-

A vibration of thunder startles Craig out of his thoughts. He's seriously starting to hate storms now, and it's something this town seldom gets. He doesn't mind the rain, but not at this velocity. The raindrops sound like pebbles pelting against the house. He flinches when he feels another rumble of thunder, which awakens his baby sister yet again. She starts crying and Craig groans.

"Craig, check on Tricia for me!" His mother says loud enough for him to hear over the girl's bawling.

"Awww, whhhhy?" The boy whines. He flings the covers off of him and gets out of bed, grumbling as he plods towards his door. As soon as he opens it, his baby sister's wailing agitates his eardrums. Wincing, he covers his ears with his hands as he heads to Tricia's nursery room that's across the hall from his parents' bedroom. He pauses in the doorway just as some more thunder kicks in, causing Tricia to cry even harder. "Ugh, why couldn't dad check on her instead?" Craig grouses as he approaches his baby sister. The room is small and contains little furniture - there are only a pink-colored crib, a brown nightstand with a lamp on top of it, a table that's next to the nightstand, and by itself on the opposite side of the room is a white dresser.