Seeing Things

you know how sucks that is for me?

Gordon decided the best course of action was to take another shower. Maybe he could clear his head a bit before he made any sort of rash decisions. So, at nearly 5 in the AM, he took a shower. The hot water rushing over his back soothed some of his rampant thoughts, allowing some calmer and more rational ideas to form. Yes, rational ideas, such as, if I die I wont have to deal with the problem anymore. Completely rational thoughts.

The shower turned off with a clunk, water dripping from the faucet. He turned to the sink and opened the mirror cabinet. Pulling a toothbrush and toothpaste, he started to brush his teeth. His eyes looked anywhere but the mirror, fearing that they would be there when he looked back. He dipped his head down to spit into the sink, and when he came up he screamed. Standing behind him in the reflection of the mirror, was them.

"WHAT THE FUCK"

"you look like shit-"

Gordon was already out of the bathroom before he could finish. Benrey, who wasn't really there to begin with, huffed and dissipated into nothing as they did every time. The door to the only bedroom slammed closed as he vanished. In the room, Gordon has shoved himself under the covers of his bed like a small child hiding from a monster. The only difference being he wasn't a small child. After staying still for a moment, he popped his head up to look for the disappearing menace. He was nowhere to be seen.

Letting out a sigh of relief, Gordon untangled himself from the sheets. A headache started to form in the back of his head when the phone on the nightstand began to ring. He reluctantly picked it up, to see the caller ID read as 'Coomer'. The last time he got a call with one of his friends names as the ID, he nearly had a heart attack when he heard who was on the other end. The phone stopped ringing as he contemplated answering, thus getting rid of the problem. That is, until it began to ring again. Without Gordon even touching the screen, the call answered and a voice came through.

"Hello Gordon!" said Coomer, enthusiastic as ever.

"Coomer? Is it... actually you?" Gordon asked tentatively.

"Of course Gordon! Who else would it be?" Coomer replied cheerfully.

"How...how did you get my number?"

Coomer paused for a second, the sound of fabric shifting coming through speaker before he answered, "Tommy gave it to me!"

"I don't-" Gordon started on a disbelieving rant, but cut himself off short. This was the first time talking to Coomer after the events of Black Mesa, and he didn't want to make him upset. "What're you up to?" he asked instead.

"Well Bubby and I have taken apart our TV and now it can get ALL the channels!"

"Wait what-"

"Anyway, I called because I would like to catch up with you! And Bubby would like to chat as well! We have much to talk about." Gordon could practically feel the smile in his words.

"Uh, yeah sure that sounds good!" the words practically tumbled out of his mouth. They chatted for a bit, and then Coomer hung up. A smile tugged at the corners of his mouth as he got up and fixed his glasses. It would be nice to see the two old coots again, and he was looking forward to it. What he saw earlier was completely forgotten about.

...

They huffed as the other man bolted from the room in a panic. Benrey just could not figure out how to approach him! They tried popping up in his house, tried going into his dreams, but nothing was working. And it frustrated them to no end. They couldn't figure out if Gordon was scared of them, or if he was angry at them. The whole dream thing didn't work out as planned, due to Benrey vastly overestimating how easily they could infiltrate and stay in someone's dream. Especially Gordon's. The emotional barriers he had were way bigger than they had expected, and had proved to be pretty good at keeping them out. Letting himself go back into being invisible, he phased through the wall to find the guy. It was stupid hard to keep a physical form for long periods of time.

Like the giant man baby he was, Gordon had hidden himself under the sheets. Like that would stop them. They watched as he stayed still for a few moments before peeking out. When he didn't see them, he unraveled himself from the sheets. Quickly after, the phone rang and someone was on the other end. Benrey decided to not stick around, as listening to Gordon talk seemed to be the last thing they wanted to do at the moment.

They kept trying to get the Science Team's attention, but only Tommy and Gordon had actually noticed them so far. Coomer and Bubby seemed completely oblivious to the security guard. The reason why only half of the gang could see Benrey was a seemingly never ending mystery. Walking along the halls of the apartment complex, they spit out a few notes of their Sweet Voice in varying shades of blue. The sound of their boots echoed in the empty halls, which made sense considering its relatively early in the morning.

Coming upon Tommy's apartment (weird that all of them lived in the same complex but never even noticed), Benrey could already hear barking from within the door. The apartment didn't exactly allow pets, but Tommy was an exception because Sunkist really was the perfect dog. Phasing through the door, the sight of Tommy running up and down the apartment with Sunkist was enough for them to crack a smile. Now would be a pretty good time to try and get his attention, seeing that he was in a good mood.

Gathering their energy, Benrey managed to form into more than just a shadowy figure, but a form nearly exact to the one they had while they were alive. Security guard outfit, bullet proof vest, Standard Issue Black Mesa helmet, the works. Sometimes it felt like Tommy had a sixth sense for knowing when Benrey was nearby. It was a nice change from literally having to appear directly in Gordon's line of sight so he'd see.

"Hello?" Tommy called from down the hall where he'd stopped.

"tommyyyyy" they called back, reminiscing on how they greeted each other in Black Mesa.

Tommy was dead silent, and they almost thought that he must've crawled out the window or something.

"Benrey?" he replied at last.

"bro, you gotta tell feetman to stop running away from me." they said, walking towards the hall where the other man was. Sunkist growled from the end of the hall as they rounded the corner, something the dog almost never did.

"Benrey?" Tommy repeated as he locked eyes with them.

"yo."

"What-what are you doing here? I thought we- I thought we killed you!"

"yea you did," they said, leaning against the wall, arms crossed, "but i kinda don't like it that much."

"Well that-that makes sense! I wouldn't want to-want to be dead!" he exclaimed, stroking Sunkist's head.

"yea bro, it kinda sorta sucks. and stupid cringe fail fffffeetman keeps running away when im tryna-tryna like... tell him. y'know?"

Tommy nodded in agreement, continuing on petting his dog's head.

"So how do we get you to be...not dead?"

"that's kinda where im stuck." a wave of fatigue crashed over them as they finished their sentence.

"B-Benrey! You're..." Tommy trailed off, ceasing from petting Sunkist in favor of wringing his hands.

"yea...thats gonna-" they stifled a yawn,"that's gonna happen sometimes." they knew their figure was waning when they looked down and could see the floor through their arms. "'m still gonna be here, you prolly just cant see me."

"What-what do you mean?"

"honestly, i barely even know." they were almost completely transparent at that point, only the faint outline of their form still visible.

"Uh-um-be safe!"

And with that, Benrey was gone.