Sounds of Darkness

Chapter 29

"How was art?" Pidge asked their friend as Keith slouched down in the passenger seat of their car.

Keith simply shrugged.

"You don't want to talk, do you...?"

Keith shook his head.

"That's okay." Pidge said in a positive tone. "You don't have to. Talking is boring, anyway. Want me to put on some music?"

Keith nodded.

It wasn't that he didn't want to engage his friend in conversation, he had simply had a bad day. He wasn't trying to be anti social, but today had not been his day.

"Radio? Or Spotify?"

Quietly, Keith gave his answer. "Spotify."

Pidge did as they had been asked, connecting their phone to their car and playing their 20 hour long spotify playlist.

It really was 20 hours.

Keith had, a few months ago, skimmed through it, and it wasn't all that bad. He skipped about every other song that played, but in his opinion, Pidge had a pretty good taste in music.

"I'm not driving unless you put your seatbelt on, Keith. Safety is my number one priority in this vehicle."

Keith only nodded his head and clipped in his seatbelt. "It's on..."

No further conversations were had. It was just the two of them, and Kosmo, sitting in silence as Pidge's playlist played on shuffle.

Keith had no reason to talk.

He knew Lance had told someone about his song lyrics. He knew that all too well. He knew, going into the situation, that Lance would tell someone. For some reason, he had hoped Pidge and Hunk wouldn't find out. But obviously, that's not what happened.

Keith, once again, didn't get his way.

Lance told them. They knew. He could tell they had sound out from the second they talked to him. Pidge and Hunk were being overly kind, supportive and caring. Keith felt they were trying too hard. To him, it didn't matter what they thought. He was in a dark pit with no way out. He had dug himself a hole, and the only way to get out was to climb his way out. He didn't want anyone's help. He didn't care how his actions impacted anyone. Quite contrary to his mindset earlier this month.

Pidge knew he wanted to kill himself. Hunk knew. Lance knew. And even Kosmo probably had a sense of the idea. The only person that didn't know what Shiro.

That meant nothing could be done to stop him.

In a sense, Keith was a ticking time bomb.

He was in dire need of someone to cut the wires and fix him. But even if someone tried to help, if they cut the wrong wire, it would be game over. If even just a little incident triggered him, he would do it. He knew he would. And this didn't bother him. He didn't care that he was one bad step away from death.

Some in him believed it was the right thing to do. He may have wanted to get better, and to be happy, but he couldn't. Not anymore. Not without coming clean. And he couldn't do that. No matter how hard he tried. He couldn't bring himself to come clean. He couldn't tell Shiro. He had made his friends promise not to tell anyone . He had convinced them he would solve his problems. But in reality, he wouldn't be solving anything.

He couldn't.

"Alright." Pidge's voice, which was barely louder than a hushed whisper, broke through Keith's building mental wall of instability. "This is your stop."