Split Souls (an OK K.O. fanfiction)

Chapter 6

Dendy had to help K.O. get home. K.O. could hardly focus; he felt lightheaded and his head was killing him. Once he got home, he collapsed on the couch. "Ugh, great, now I'm super tired again," he groaned.

"Are you okay?" Dendy asked.

K.O. yawned. "Nothing a nap won't fix," K.O. said, trying to fall asleep.

K.O. woke up a couple hours later. Dendy sat on the floor nearby, sorting her Pow cards.

"What time is it?" he asked sleepily.

"About..." Dendy paused to check her holo-screen. "2:00 pm."

K.O. sat up and walked into the kitchen. He was hungry. He grabbed some bread and jelly to make himself a sandwich. Suddenly, he felt something pound against his head and heard a voice: I can't believe he let me out.

K.O. dropped his bag of bread and applied some pressure to his forehead. What was that? It wasn't him who thought that—was it? Either way, it scared him. "Dendy! I need help!" he called.

"What's wrong K.O.?" Dendy asked, running up to him.

"Th-there was this voice in my head, and i-it sounded like me, but it wasn't m-me, and—" K.O. stammered.

"K.O., calm down," Dendy told him. Quivering, K.O. nodded his head. "What did the voice say?"

"It said, 'I can't believe he let me out'," K.O. said.

Dendy gasped. "What? What is it?" K.O. asked.

"I think you're still connected to T.K.O.," Dendy said.

"What? How? Why?" K.O. asked.

"One, you two are still connected. Two, I think it's because he used to be a part of you. Three, I don't know," Dendy replied.

"Ugh, how do I make it stop?" K.O. asked. His head was still pounding, and he could still hear T.K.O.'s thoughts. He was feeling a lot of things right now: confused, excited, grateful...happy? Either way, it made K.O.'s head spin.

"Maybe tell yourself they aren't your thoughts," Dendy suggested. K.O. slowly nodded his head and closed his eyes, breathing in and out. These thoughts are not mine, these thoughts are not mine, these thoughts are not mine, he repeated. As he focused on his own thoughts, T.K.O.'s slowly faded away. When K.O. opened his eyes, he realized the only thoughts he could hear were his own. "It worked!" K.O. exclaimed. "Thank you so much, Dendy."

"No problem, K.O.," she told him.

"Hey, do you think we'll run into T.K.O. again?" K.O. asked.

"Probably," Dendy said coolly.

"You're not worried?" K.O. asked.

"Well you did say he wouldn't harm your friends, family, or the plaza. And he should be grateful to us!" Dendy exclaimed.

"I guess," K.O. agreed. But he still couldn't shake the feeling that he and T.K.O. would cross paths again, but he wasn't sure if it would be a good thing or not.

For the next three days, K.O. felt awful. He tried not to let his mom know, but he was always exhausted. He'd fallen asleep more than a few times during work. If it wasn't for Rad and Enid waking him up, he probably would've gotten yelled at by Mr. Gar. Neither Dendy nor K.O. had seen anything from T.K.O. over the past few days. K.O. occasionally heard T.K.O.'s thoughts, but he tried his best to block them out.

However, one day after school on the way to Gar's Bodega, K.O. heard something coming from a couple bushes and a tree near his school. It almost sounded like snoring. Curious, K.O. pushed his way through the bushes and was shocked to find T.K.O. asleep at the bottom of the tree! K.O.'s first impulse was to wake him up, but he stopped himself. K.O. noticed something was off about his counterpart. T.K.O. looked a little worse than K.O. had last seen him. He seemed to have lost weight, and he had sticks and dirt in his wild hair. He looked kind of dirty, and his feet were covered in cuts. Even though he was clearly sleeping, the bags under his eyes told K.O. he hadn't slept in ages. "T.K.O., wake up," he said softly.