#grayham crackle

Graham held his breath as a knife was pressed to his neck.

"What will it be, Carmen?" the lady holding him- Tigress?- taunted. "The vile? Or Crackle?"

Crackle. They kept calling him that. It was strange, Graham felt like he recognised the name. He couldn't quite remember though… it was like it was dancing just out of sight.

Carmen bit her lip and glanced down at the vile in her hands. It contained a cure to a deadly disease that had been devastating the Philippines.

"It's okay Red, " Graham whispered, as Tigress pressed the knife further into his neck, "don't worry about me, "

Carmen shook her head. "No, I can't- I won't let them hurt you again!"

Again? What was she talking about? Graham had never encountered this V.I.L.E before.

Carmen slowly held out her hand with the cure. "Okay. You win. Release him, "

Tigress laughed in delight as she shoved Graham forward into Carmen's arms, and grabbed the cure.

"Are you alright?" Carmen asked softly.

"Why would you do that? The cure-"

"I'll get it back, " Carmen replied. "And I know you have a lot of questions, but I'll explain later, I promise, "

…

"You knew me, from before, " Graham stated, stairing straight into Carmen's eyes. The cure had been secured and delivered to the appropriate medical scientist, and now he and Carmen were sitting in some random restaurant eating dinner. "From before the car accident I mean- if it even was a car accident, "

Carmen looked down. "I did, "

"Why didn't you just tell me?"

"I wanted to keep you safe, " Carmen sighed. "We were mixed up with some bad people. Doing bad things. I didn't want you to go back to them, to get hurt by them again, "

"You keep saying that; that they hurt me, " Graham said, "is that… I have these scars. I was told that I got them in the car accident, but they're pretty weird,"

"I don't know what they did, " Carmen admitted. "You told me that initiation was tough, and whatever they did must have been bad to make you… you're a good person Gray. I believe that. But something they did really hurt you and as a result you started hurting others, "

Graham felt a little sick. "What did I do?"

"Mostly just steal stuff, " Carmen mumbled.

There was silence for a moment.

"Carmen, please tell me, I didn't kill anyone? Did I?"

Carmen looked away. "As far as I know, you didn't,"

"But could I have?"

Carmen sighed and put her head in her hands. "I stopped you, the first time. But then I didn't see you again for quite a while. Anything could have happened, "

"Did we fight? Did I- did I hurt you?" Graham couldn't help but ask. He had to know.

Carmen shook her head and smiled softly, "I'm way too quick for you, "

Carmen: "aLRIGHT LISTEN UP BITCH CONSTANTINOPLE IS CLEARLY THE BETTER NAME"

Zack: "okay so no joke one time i ate a sock and let me tell you: it was actually pretty good not gonna lie."

Ivy: *running into theatre* "yOU FUCKING IDIOT FUCK YOU YOU BASTARD YOU LEFT YOUR HOMEWORK IN MY BAG"

Player: "ok so what if a hacker gets hacked and then the hacker who hacked the hacking hacker went yeet and just hacked the battery source and the keyboard went up in flames."

Gray: "aight mate let's see how many crackers i can eat in one sitting time me"

Tigress: "has anyone seen my poison-black nail polish?"

Mime Bomb: *signs 'fuck you'*

Le Chevre: *at a rock climbing festival* bonjour you little hecky i bet i can push you off halfway

El Topo: "wa-wait you actually thought i slept? naw man i just dig underground tunnels"

Shadowsan: "behold! the art of origami!"

Coach Brunt: "yaint"

Countess Cleo: "nO YOU IDIOT THAT'S THE DESSERT FORK"

Maelstrom: "why do people mix up psychopath and sociopath? like, clearly, there's a huge difference."