“Are you, uh, who I think you are?”
He was greeted by silence. As expected, the dark figure he saw coming to him were two spirits floating side by side. For once, they were a real pair: a male and a female. They were of normal human height, but were hovering about 3 feet above ground, making them look taller. They didn’t have any feet, and half of their white-as-paper faces were covered under their hood, revealing only their mouths. They looked almost like the Dementors from Harry Potter, only that they have hair, and that the female was wearing dark blue while the male was in black. The male had long sideburns that ran down to his waist, while the female had her raven-black fringe sticking out of her hood, covering more of her face. There was a long thin red string tied on their pinkies, connecting them together.
“I, uh, don’t suppose you could tell me what kind of love you represent, huh?”
Still, they didn’t reply. Ron felt a little awkward. Was it their job not to speak? Or were they also survivors of eaten mortal food? He looked again at their tattered robes and their deathly looks and made another wild guess.
“Are you guys, like, represent suffering love? Like Romeo and Juliet kind of love?”
The spirits finally nodded slowly.
“Including…dead lovers?”
Another nod.
“Then…can I call you guys The Dead Lovers?”
No indication of reply. Ron took that as an OK sign.
“I believe you’re my guiders-in-duty then. For, uh, Valentine’s Day Yet to Come?”
The spirits nodded. Ron took a deep breath.
“Then take me there. Take me where you want to show me.”
The Dead Lovers held out the dangling string to Ron. Tentatively, he reached out and held it. He soon found himself back in Middleton Town, only that it was Middleton of the future. It had developed way beyond his wildest imagination and even darker than the one he saw when he and Kim traveled to the future ruled by Shego the Supreme One. It’s almost like an even darker version of Gotham City. The Dead Lovers led him to a long dark alley where he saw quite a lot of bums walking around or pushing trolleys collecting things they barely need. Well-to-do people ignored them totally and went by with their business without any second thoughts. Bueno Nachos was still standing, but seemed like it needed more customers than what it’s having right now.
“Where are you taking me?” Ron asked, curious. “Look, I know you guys can’t speak or anything, but at least show me where we’re going.”
They didn’t reply. They just continued leading him down the alley, passing through traffic, buildings, houses and people. When he thought their walk was going to continue forever, they’ve stopped abruptly. The female Lover pointed towards a house in front of them. Ron looked and noticed that it was Kim’s house. Nothing much has changed, only an extra floor was added and it looked a little old. As he walked in, he saw only the twins Jim and Tim in the house. They looked taller, bigger, older and more mature now—maybe 25 years old or less. They were clad in scientist robes and were busy with their tools. Only that they weren’t making new inventions like space rockets or whatsoever. They were actually making and upgrading weapons!
“What…?” Ron was shocked. “What are they doing? Why aren’t they creating something outrageously scientific? The only thing they’d hurt is themselves. Why would they create things that hurt people?”
The Dead Lovers didn’t reply. They pointed to a door that was under the stairs. Ron looked at them questioningly but they didn’t seem to want to tell him what they want him to see. Ron shrugged and walked towards the door. He passed through it and walked down the stairs leading to the basement. He almost gagged when the smell of rotten flesh shot up his nose. The basement was slightly illuminated by dim light, so he could only make out just enough. The floor was rather moldy and there were chains, ropes and all kinds of bulky tools all over the floor. There were more ropes dangling on the ceiling and, if he wasn’t mistaken, a number of kitchen knives were also tied to it, the sharp end dangling dangerously above his head. The walls looked like they’ve seen better days too. In short, everything you’d expect a future basement to be was in a total shamble.
Suddenly he saw two figures at a distance. Instinctively, he backed away, afraid he might be seen. The realization of him being a spirit hit him when he felt the touch of The Dead Lovers’ hands on his shoulder. He nodded and walked over towards the two figures. One of them was a woman, standing tall and proud with a weird mask on her face, its empty sockets glaring maliciously at the other figure. The other figure—the man—was sitting on an old wooden chair chained from the chest down. He was blindfolded and seemed rather apprehensive about his surroundings. It was obvious that he had no idea where he was and what was he doing here.
“Where…Where am I…? Who are you? What do you want from me?”
The prisoner began to pour dozens of questions the woman refused to answer. There was something familiar about the woman, especially her body and her weird Predator-like outfit, that Ron couldn’t put his finger to it, but before he could find out, the woman already made her move. She raised her fist and brought it down hard on the prisoner’s face, breaking his nose. It was repeated again and again until his face was a mixture of red and blue and purple altogether. She broke a few of his teeth and made his forehead bleed, and still she continued to sucker-punch him. All the while, the prisoner kept yelling and struggling in agony, demanding to know what the woman want and why was she doing this to him, and all the while the woman tortured him in silence. Ron winced at every blow inflicted at his prisoner; it felt as if his own skull was cracking.
Finally, after what seemed like forever, the woman stopped. She stood there staring at her blindfolded prisoner spitting and choking in his own blood. His face seemed almost like he needed a facial reconstruction. A few seconds later, she moved closer to the prisoner and removed his blindfold. Ron almost fell over when he saw that the blindfolded prisoner was actually Brick Flag, the high school quarterback! What was he doing here? What did he do? Why was he tortured like that? Did the woman have something against Brick? Ron’s stomach began to do flip-flops at this unseen reality.
“Brick Flag?” the woman asked as she brandished something sharp and jagged-edged from the gadget on her wrist, almost like the Predator’s weapon. Her voice seemed like it was forced out of her throat than spoken normally. Brick shivered in fright and almost wet his pants as he stared in horror at the blades.
“Why? What have I done? Why are you doing this to me?”
His questions were never answered. Within seconds, the woman grabbed Brick’s hair and thrust the blades into his gut. It didn’t take long for Brick to breathe his last. Ron, who was holding back for so long, finally doubled over and puked. It was horrible. Not just sick and wrong as he would put it, but horrible. It was like watching The Chainsaw Massacre in front of your eyes in real life. After puking his guts out, he watched again in horror as the woman removed the chains and let Brick’s body fall freely towards the moldy floor. Brick’s blank eyes fixated at his made him puke again.
“Why are you showing me this?” Ron exclaimed after pretty much puking everything there is inside his stomach. “Are you some kind of sadist or something? Who is this woman? What is she doing in Kim’s basement?”
The Dead Lovers, as usual, remained silent. They pointed towards the woman’s direction, as if insisting him to keep watching. Ron reluctantly obliged. As he watched the woman clearing away the chains and the chair, she removed her mask to take a breather. Now Ron was in for a shock—the woman was no other than the auburn-haired Kim Possible he had loved! She looked a lot older now, maybe close to her 30’s, and looked almost as similar as her mother. She had her hair tied up to a ponytail and her jade-green eyes gleamed in a sort of way Ron had never seen before. So cold…so malicious…so vengeful. This wasn’t the Kim he knew. This wasn’t the Kim he had admired for her beauty, her smarts and her agility. This was the Kim who was a complete stranger to him, the Kim that had lost all her compassion and heart to the world and left them to rot while a new cold one came in. It was like she had changed so much within just one night.
“Tell…Tell me…Tell me it’s not true, guys,” Ron shivered as he watched Kim stuffing Brick’s body into a synthetic bag and hung it at one corner of the basement together with the other bags he had missed. “Please tell me this is not my Kim…”
The Dead Lovers only shoved him a little, signaling him to follow Kim up the stairs. With his body shaking and still recovering from the shock and his puking trauma, Ron followed her as he was told. He saw Jim and Tim greeting Kim warmly, and Kim walking quietly up to her room without a sound. Jim and Tim continued to do their thing while chitchatting like they used to as kids. At least that didn’t change.
“I hope Brick didn’t suffer for too long,” Jim commented.
“Knowing Kim, I bet she’s not gonna go too easy on him,” Tim rolled his eyes in defeat. “She was, after all, her good friend in high school. Who would’ve known that a quarterback like him would become the world’s dirtiest stock broker in the entire Middleton?”
“Uh huh. I heard he caused quite a number of families to commit suicide when they lost their stocks to him or couldn’t compete with his stocking expertise. And when things don’t go his way, he’s got all the strings pulled to his favour. Shocking, isn’t it? I bet death isn’t gonna be unpredictable for him.”
“She’s getting more and more sadistic, isn’t she?”
“More like The Grim Reaper.”
“She looks kinda good in that outfit, don’t you think?”
“I didn’t think she would even buy it. We only introduced that oldie movie for her to cheer her up and suddenly she starts creating an entire female copy of it. That ‘AVP’ movie sure got her hooked and stuff. One look and she starts watching over and over again just to learn about their moves and stealth and everything and stare at their printout outfits from the net for days. Do you remember she asked for us to look for the 2 oldies Predator and Predator 2?”
“Tell me about it. We spent almost a month on the streets trying to look for it and another week looking for it online. It’s so rare that it’s almost a limited edition or collector’s item. She didn’t make our job easy either.”
Ron’s breath hitched as he saw the scars on the twins’ arms as they pulled up their sleeves to see them. Kim hitting her brothers? She may feel irritated at their overly genius and prankster attitudes but she would never hurt a hair out of them. Why the drastic change in attitude?
“Well, we can’t blame her,” Tim sighed as he covered the scars. “She took most of the blow hard. If Mom and Dad hadn’t died, she would’ve been her old singing crime-fighter self again.”
Ron was again shocked. Mr. and Mrs. Possible? Dead?
“Yeah. Remember that concert she was doing in Alabama? We were there and she was singing so great…then that weird golfer came…what was his name again?”
“Duff Killigan,” Tim reminded his twin. “He had to pop up suddenly to blow up the entire stadium and Kim almost couldn’t manage to save the audience.”
“Almost. Mom and Dad told her to save us first, which she did, and died because of that. Kim tried to run back to them and shield them from the atomic golf ball, but she was 2 feet too far from them. The atom exposure cost her her voice—it ruptured her voice box and she couldn’t sing anymore. She can still talk but it gives her throat rashes every time she does. She kept blaming herself for Mom and Dad’s death and she couldn’t accept the fact that Duff Killigan managed to escape and avoid arrest. Remember her first kill after we showed her the AVP movie?”
“Duff Killigan himself, who could forget? It was all in the news. Badly mutilated and shred to inhuman pieces and tied upside down by the ankles onto the ceiling of his own home, just like what a Predator would do. She’s an all out crime-fighter who looks for bad guys with bad reps to punish them for their deeds. She’s a full-time vigilante now. No one can stop her, not even Monique or Ron.”
“Come to think of it, where did Monique and Ron go after that incident?” Jim asked, scratching his head. “After Duff Killigan, I was kinda still in shock and I wasn’t really paying much attention to my surroundings, that is until you suggested cheering all of us up with that movie. You’re pretty much the most stable of us all.”
“As far as I can remember,” Tim said as he tapped his chin, recalling the moment, “Ron did come over to visit Kim for a few weeks while she was recovering from her exposure and another few weeks while she mourned at home after the funeral. Monique also visited occasionally. Since the incident, she moved on to managing other stars and was working her way to the top. I have to say she’s got talent.”
“Yeah, but what about Ron? I was hoping he’d…well, you know…”
“Yeah, I know, but didn’t really go well. Kim was a total devoid from the reality world and Ron wasn’t any help if he tried. She just couldn’t face the truth and she’s putting all the blame on herself while Ron tried to convince her that it wasn’t. Finally he just gave up and went on with his life trying to work at the Bueno Nachos industry. After Duff’s murder, he had his suspicions and he came asking about it with me. You weren’t there; you were in the science lab trying to clean up that mess you made with the gerbil,” Jim grinned stupidly upon hearing that, “and of course, I denied everything. He was still suspicious though, and I heard that he quit his job and volunteered himself to that Global Justice, that GJ Kim and Ron used to talk about back then.”
“I thought that GJ stuff was all fake!” Jim exclaimed.
“Not anymore,” Tim replied, shaking his head. “He’s now an active member of GJ and is up to his heels trying to track down Kim and bring her down, maybe try to rehabilitate her, but I guess she’s just too fast for her, huh?”
“It feels a little weird though. A crime-fighter trying to arrest a crime-fighter. I still can’t help feeling that they would’ve been better together. Hicca bicca boo?”
“Hoosha!”
Ron went weak. He fell onto his knees and was shivering from head to toe. How could this have happened? He found it hard to believe that this was the Kim he knew since pre-K. She was the toughest, strongest and most optimistic person he knew, yet she broke down on this. She had experienced so many times of her parents being in the brink of death by the villains’ treachery and pulled through, yet she lost herself because of this. How could this have happened?
Before he knew it, the red string from the spirits was wound around his wrist and he found himself standing in Kim’s room. She was in her usual bedclothes now and was lying on the bed staring at the ceiling. She let out a sigh and turned around to look at a photo frame where the picture of the Possible family was taken at Mount Rushmore. She stared and stared until tears began welling up in her eyes. She put it down gently and her eyes caught sight of another photo frame that was behind the first one. She picked it up and Ron saw that it was the picture of them in their 1st Halloween outfit: Kim the cowboy and Ron the ballerina. She stroked the picture for a while, let out a small smile, then suddenly widened her eyes in some sort of realization, narrowed them in contempt and flung it straight towards her table, smashing the glass of the frame into a million pieces. Ron almost jumped. Why did she throw away the picture? That was their first trick-or-treat memory together. Why did she do that? He turned to look at Kim for answers but was only replied with Kim burying her face onto the pillow with muffled sobs.
“Why…? She’s been through so much death defying missions…and yet…was it that bad?”
The Dead Lovers nodded. Ron suddenly felt so bad for her, a little bit guilty even. He wanted to reach over and hug her close to his chest, to comfort her, or maybe even just hold her hand or lay his hand on her back to make her feel better. But this was the future, and he was an observing spirit, so there was nothing he could do about it. He lowered down the hand he was ready to reach out and sighed.
“Isn’t there anything I could do to change it?”
The Dead Lovers remained silent. Again, they wound the string around his wrist and transported him into somewhere else. This time he was walking along the streets with people talking very excitedly and all that. Their speech was almost incoherent and too elaborated that he couldn’t make out what was going on, but it seemed like they were very happy about it. He got the idea of what were they talking about from the bits and pieces of their conversation that some evil person was already dead and they were glad that they can roam around the streets with an open heart and mind without worrying about becoming his or her next victim. He found himself standing at Kim’s house again, but this time it was completely deserted and had a sign with a sticker label saying “SOLD” over the “FOR SALE” words on it. It seemed like they have already moved out and someone had bought over the place. Ron was a little puzzled.
“Why are we doing back here? How far back in the future have we gone?”
The Dead Lovers pointed towards the south side of the direction. Ron followed to where they were pointing and soon realized that he was standing in the middle of a graveyard. Despite being the future, the graveyard looked very ‘80s with its tall spindly black gates and tombs everywhere randomly, some even with only wooden crosses. Weeds grew everywhere and fog was in the area, making it more eerie. Ron wanted to ask what were they doing here but The Dead Lovers continued to point south, so he had no choice to go where they want him to go.
Soon they stopped at an unmarked tomb. Someone in a dark blue cloak with a hood (almost like what the female Lover was wearing) was half kneeling over it in silence. He ran his hand over the wooden cross and let out a silent sigh. Ron noticed that he had blonde hair judging by the fringe that was sticking out of the hood. After a long moment of silence, the hooded blonde stood up and dusted his knee before turning his back towards the tomb and left. Ron thought this guy was familiar until he caught sight of his freckles and eyes in the shadow of the hood—he was no other than his future self! Ron the adult! The Ron who was around the same age as Kim was! He wanted to get a better look at him but he had already left, passing through him and left the graveyard as silently as he came. Ron stood there in a daze until The Dead Lovers’ touch brought him back to the conscious world.
“Was…Was that me? Why do I look so dark and all? Whose tomb was I visiting?”
The Dead Lovers pointed at the unmarked tomb. There wasn’t much to tell about that grave. There was only a wooden cross for a tombstone with no markings or name of the deceased or anything that indicated the identity of the person who once lived. Then, without warning, the male Lover grabbed Ron’s hand and placed it onto the wooden cross. Ron let out an agonizing scream as a long and hard current ran through his arm and through his veins, like a heavy electric shock. The next thing that happened was way beyond what he had expected.
A stream of images began to flash through his eyes. First he saw himself in the GJ uniform confronting Kim with her Predator outfit. They were almost getting ready to battle each other. She was also surrounded by a number of GJ members along with Dr. Director but adult Ron decided to take this matter on his own. He tried to persuade Kim to let them take her in without a fight but it was obvious that Kim wouldn’t consent to that. A huge hectic fight began and it was clear to the GJ members that they were no match to this sadistic blood-lust killer. Ron was ready to take her down—he knew her better than anyone else put together—when a dying GJ member decided to shoot Kim while she wasn’t looking. He had no idea that it was going to be a stray bullet and would kill Ron, but Kim knew. She suddenly got in the way, blocking the shot a split second before it could burst through Ron’s chest. It was a clean shot through and through before it landed into Ron’s shoulder. Ron yelled and as he nursed his throbbing shoulder, the reality struck him as he saw Kim lying on a pool of her own blood. The bullet had burst through her heart and she died instantly. There was no way she could survive that. Ron trembled as he cradled Kim in his arms. He kept shaking his head and muttered “No…No…No…Kim, wake up…” over and over again, rocking her to and fro. Even Dr. Director couldn’t bring him back to reality. Finally, with Kim still in his arms, he screamed in agony as his body began to fill with intense bright light. His hair suddenly grew longer and an aura began to build itself around him. It was like an inner power he never knew he had was forced out of him. What he didn’t know was that the trauma of Kim’s death had actually activated the Tai Sheng Pek Kuar that was deep inside him when he was chosen to be the Monkey Kung Fu Master. As soon as the powers were activated, Ron saw himself leaving GJ, draped himself in that cloak and began roaming around in the shadows of the night, continuing what Kim had left off and becoming GJ’s next target…
Ron jerked his hands away and fell to the floor. He gasped for breath and tears were falling freely from his hazel-brown eyes, as if he had just been strangled. As soon as he regained composure, he touched the unmarked tomb; he finally knew who was resting six feet below him.
“Tell me…This is not Kim’s tomb, right…? Tell me she’s alive…Tell me she’s alive and well, hiding as she continues upholding justice in her own sadistic way…”
The Dead Lovers continued to stare at him without an answer. Ron couldn’t hold back the pain in his heart anymore. He let out a wail and hugged the wooden cross, calling out Kim’s name. He pounded his fists onto the earth and yelled, “Why all bad things must happen to Kim? She was the most wonderful and greatest crime-fighter of all time! Why must she suffer after all the good things she had done? Why can’t it be me! Why is it not that I’ve died! Why must she die! If I die, then it wouldn’t be so bad for her! Why! How could you allow her to die this way!”
Still no answer from the spirits. They were looking away now, holding each other close. Ron continued with his raving, “Is this the eternal punishment I have to endure if I don’t resolve my problems? Am I going to be like that hooded me, doomed to be a vigilante like Kim and punishing myself forever? Am I going to end up all alone, dark and cold and bitter for the rest of my life continuing a mission for the person I should’ve confessed to a long time ago? Tell me that all these are just something that might or could have been and will not be! Tell me that I can stop her from being who she is now! Tell me I can stop all this from happening! Please tell me I can change all this!
“I will never talk bad about Valentine’s Day ever again! I will never view it as a curse, as a burden or even an irritating day! I will honour and keep it in my heart always! I won’t ever think that it is only for mushy people, or wish that it would go away or disappear! I will finish what I have never started! I will do what I was supposed to do back after Camp Wannaweep that summer! I promise I will change! I promise I will not let my heart be listed as a Broken-Hearted! Please tell me that this future can be changed, please!”
The Dead Lovers didn’t seem to be interested in his ranting anymore. They were prepared to leave him alone there at this unmarked tomb with his sad thoughts and regrets. Ron tried to grab hold of them but instead of their robes or anything, he groped at thin air and soon found himself falling into an endless pit of darkness. He saw The Dead Lovers above him as he fell, staring at him behind the shadow of their hoods as they held each other close in their arms. He held out his hand to them but they made no attempt to catch it. They just hovered there, watching him fall. Ron continued to fall and fall until there was no end…
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