Be HONEST #5 – CHAPTER 4: VYLE · 4:30pm Jan 15th, 2022
It took me an eternity, but I finally completed the 4th chapter of my passion project, Kyle & Lucy. For those who are new or need a refresher, here are the last four previous chapters:
Chapters
PROLOGUE
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
Also, I could take all the feedback you got. I want this story to be the best it can be. What would you like to see in a tale like this? Ideas or suggestions will be considered!
Lucy and I took a little detour across Silver Shores. Seagull security – once they got their freak out session over with – allowed us to cut through the bottom of the pier so we don't "disturb the peace" and all that junk. It always reeked down there for me, and it didn't help either with Lucy snacking on nasty barnacles sticking all around the pier's crusty wooden beams. Nevertheless, we carried on and chatted further.
"So you got in trouble here for wasting sugar to catch candy fish?" the girl laughed, picking her teeth.
"It makes perfect sense!" I crossed my arms.
"That's nothing. There was an all-you-can-eat at McEmerald's back home, I took it as a challenge and...things got ugly. I may not be able to buy another box of drench fries for a long time, but at least it helped create my rule list."
Lucy caught my lost expression.
"My list, Lucy's Lessons For the Surface World. Like, Lucy Lesson #12: Dirt Naps. Dirt is surprisingly refreshing to sleep under. I say go seven feet under instead of six, because I like to go one step beyond."
It amazed me how weird this girl's mind worked. Her rules reminded me of Milton's guide to laziness, like Lazy Rule #1: I'll Tell You Later.
I had to speed up until Lucy was out of earshot after the most crusty barnacle pulled her attention away. I just couldn't hear another bite. I understood it though. When you're born and raised in the center of the planet, everything above becomes all the more fascinating. My curiosity got the best of me more than it probably should.
I'm still wrapping my head around how Sunday mornings are "easy", exactly...
*insert image of Kyle laying next to a record player looking confused*
At the end of the day, Lucy was happy, and that was good enough for me. It was a rocky start, but things were going so smoothly, I knew right there it was a matter of time before—
Snap.
Oh, right on cue.
Almost as if the crashing waves went silent, the echoing sound of snapping fingers surrounding me was the last thing I wanted to hear. The sight of those four sets of ringed tails and grey shadows zipping in and out through the pier's beams were the last things I wanted to see.
Unless it was a traveling act of Pesticide Story – which would've been awesome – I wasn't liking where this was going. The slippery figures drew closer into the scattered rays of sunlight, their snapping getting louder and louder. Snap. Snap. Snap. Snap.
I've been told to stay away from many things. These guys were one of them.
Ricky and the Raccoon Brothers.
*insert image of four thuggish raccoons*
Sounds like a trashy band, I know. From what I've heard, they lived around the more trashy, shady side of the woods far far from town, La's Wages.
The four thugs looming in, Ricky slid over to rest an elbow on my head. "You're the weird, quiet kid with the stitches, right?" he uttered.
Rate, the scrawny, nerdy raccoon, looked over me. "What gave it away, brother?" he asked bluntly, kneeling to my level. "Rate Raccoon, a pleasure."
"Kyle," I signed, shaking his paw. "What brings you here?"
"He asks what brings us."
"Pops cut us off, bud," Ricky said, yanking me up by the hood. "Says we're not 'thieving material' and all that noise. We're just crashin' in this hippie town 'til we get our own business goin' and buy the place, so mind helpin' a mammal out here?"
The raccoon's expecting paw in my face, I reached into my hoodie's pocket and placed an orange slip of paper in his grasp.
"What's this?" he asked.
Coupon for 1 Free Cuddle Session, it read.
"You kiddin', right? Do I look like I need a hug?"
"To be fair," Rate joined in once more. "You do often use aggression to hide your feelings, so–"
"Zip it, brother!" Ricky slugged his sibling in the gut.
Rate wheezed. "Noted."
Your loss, I thought as the bully flicked it into the sand. If my weirdness gets me a shot on the big silver magic box thingy, pretty sure everyone would want a piece of this fluff.
"Kyle, look at this!" Lucy approached us with a hefty red crab, startling the brothers. "I'm gonna call him Mr. Crusty. I gave him a big warm hug, and now he smells yummy!"
Ricky's mouth hung. "Is that a..."
I nodded.
Soon, the demon spotted the gang around me. "Oh, hi! Who are you guys?"
"L.A.Z.Y." the youngest raccoon, Runt, said confidently. "League of Angsty Zealous Youths!"
"Ooh, sounds dangerous. I'm Lucy."
"For the last time, we are not callin' ourselves that, Runt." Ricky sighed, rubbing his forehead.
"We're gonna own this town, bro, just you watch!"
"Relax, we'll worry about names once we hit payday. Rob?"
Rob, the buffer raccoon, grunted as he delicately hoisted Lucy up by the wings.
"Ow!" she whined. "Those are sensitive!" she whined.
"Folks sell a lot of crazy loot back home," Ricky pondered. "Probably worth, um...Rate?"
Rate scribbled hard on a notepad. "I can confidently state that, with a set of young demon wings, we would make approximately..." he mumbled, claws clacking against a scuffed up calculator. "A lot."
"Works for me."
"I sense a great pain, and not the fun kind, under all that greed," Lucy pouted. "Wanna talk about it?"
"No, not really."
"Guess that's all the development he's getting in this chapter."
"Shame." I shook my head.
"Enough with the yap!" Ricky shoved me into the sand. "Runt, scissors."
"Kyle!"
I wasn't sure I was going to walk away from this easily. I've tried every calming exercise known to mammal, flooded every corner of my brain with happy thoughts, but it was no good.
He was coming.
One thing to note is that I never believed in violence, but when he comes along, whatever I thought didn't matter.
*insert image of Vyle*
I called him Vyle, for everything about him chilled me to the bone; the blank, emotionless stare, the jagged rows of razor-sharp teeth, the blood red eyes, the skinny pupils and the prickly fur. The stuff of nightmares, the anti-me.
It takes a lot to make me lose my temper, and hurting those I care about...that is a lot. Seeing my friend kicking around helplessly was too much, and that uncontrollable beast inside was beyond ready to take the wheel.
In Vyle's case, when push came to shove...
*insert a few images of Vyle savagely beating the raccoons*
Know what, I won't go into the not-so-gory details. I will say that I haven't seen that many teeth flying since the squirrel clan's children raided Gram's sugar supplies.
Vyle wasn't just a mindless killing machine though. When Rate tried to use the "can't hit a guy with glasses" excuse, he chose a more reasonable approach.
*insert image of Vyle punching Rate OFF the glasses*
It was bad enough I had to sit there and watch this brutal display unfold, but then...
"Kyle?" I turned to find Lucy staring in both awe and confusion before her face flinched. "Look out!"
I didn't need to. Seeing my claws dig into a wooden bat an inch away from my cheek was proof the monster was always five steps ahead of me.
"What kind of psycho cat are you?!" Ricky hissed, snatching the weapon back.
"Hey, psycho is my thing!" Lucy huffed.
"Put the bat down." I begged, ducking as the bully made another weak swing.
"Stop mocking me with that crazy paws!"
My arm shot out and clawed a deep cut at Ricky's face, shaving the whiskers clean off his right cheek.
"Down!" I signed again.
Vyle's message made clear, Ricky gave in and dropped the stick. The groans and whines of the gang echoed under the pier's creaky boards.
"This cat's a freak!" Runt howled, limping to his feet. "Scatter!"
Everything became less of a blur and Lucy's concerned gaze met mine once again before something shiny flashed in the sand beside me.
*insert image of a rainbow shaped emblem*
It was a little rainbow emblem thing. I tried to see who it might've belonged to, but the gang had already fled. Lucy had rest a hand on my shoulder, but I didn't process what she what she was saying to me. That same word kept repeating in my head.
Freak. Freak. Freak. Freak.
I couldn't take much more of it, so I just ran off.
"Kyle, come back!"
Rude of me, I know, but I had too much going on in my mind to listen. I just...needed to be alone.
Aww, poor Kyle, but good job with the chapter!
It has dark undertones and dark humor. This is a unique story I think would be received quite well, you've done an excellent job here. I'm a fan of the world and characters made, it's a fun read.
5634567
Squee! 🥰
The dark undertone and the dark humor is definitely a nice touch.
That was surprisingly dark-ish, but still loved this little chapter! I sure didn't expect Vyle, but it really added spice to the entire story.
The mysteries around Kyle seem to be quite a few, and I'm looking forward to the tale advancing. Really good job, as always!
Poor Kyle the darkness within haunts us all, very nice undertones.
Great job!
Now this chapter is quite the turn in the story, hearing about Vyle and seeing how things played out. I'm very glad to see Lucy not getting hurt, though I must admit something like this makes it a bit hard to understand (at least in my case) just what "Vyle" is for Kyle. Is it an alter ego, just what he calls himself when he gets upset, a part of him he can't control? It's a bit hard to tell but other than that this chapter was very refreshing and I'm excited to see more!
5651871
Vyle is another part of him, I guess like an alter ego?
Basically in a future possible sequel, it's revealed that Kyle is a soldier created by a scientist rat couple. One wants a peaceful soldier, the other wants a violent one. So the two are crammed into this body, but Kyle is mainly in control.
5651873
Just a quick thing I wanna say now that I've gotten the time to come back and read this comment, I would tread carefully with the idea of an alter ego in that sense. By alter ego I kinda meant like how a super hero has a "secret identity" but from this it sounds more like you're saying it's two split people, and that seems a bit uncomfy to me as it's treading on DID territory. There's already a large amount of stigma around mental health and mental illnesses and stuff like this only adds to and reinforces the stigma, so please be careful how you approach this, I've seen firsthand the kind of mistreatment and misunderstanding towards those actually affected this kind of stuff can cause when it paints this sort of stuff in a bad light. And this isn't to say I think you have bad intentions, I know that's usually not the case with this stuff, but it's just something I wanted to add as a bit of a caution I suppose. Still a lovely story so far, it has wonderful potential!
5651894
It has nothing to do with mental health, it's supposed to be in the veins of, say, Spider-Man and Venom.
5651895
And that's fine I get that, no worries! Just something to be mindful of because that might not always be clear is all
Gnar, really gnar.
This was such a wierd chapter. It was my favorite but also felt completely different than the rest of the story. Also those jokes are so obscure but land really well...or I just think I'm getting them lol.