Gravemakers

Benji wasn't sure how much time had passed since he arrived in his bedroom. The sudden appearance of his 'father' left much to be desired, and whether he liked it or not, thoughts of 'what if' and 'if only' crossed his mind more than once.

The rain fell in sheets around the home now. He looked to his left toward the window. The curtains had been drawn. Water pelted the glass mercilessly, and he sniffed away what remained of his sorrow as he thought of Sunny. No doubt, Ren and June were having their words with her. Part of him blamed himself for not dissuading her, but she was stubborn. Even if he hadn't gone along with her plan, she would've gone alone. No; it was good that he went.

The aftermath just sucked.

Benji sat on top of his bed, arms wrapped around his legs. Suddenly, three taps came at his window. When he looked over, he saw a long nail and an accompanying furry hand attached to it. He blinked, frowned, then gasped. How could he have forgotten? He threw his legs over the other side of his bed and ran to the window. Leaning forward, he could see G hanging clinging to the wall, a dopey grin on his face.

Gently, Benji pushed the window open, allowing a light blanket of rain to hit the carpet in front of him. G reached over with both arms, extending a folded piece of paper as he scrambled upward and perched on the windowsill. Benji took the piece of paper, frowning at the squeak of wood beneath G's weight.

"Uhh, why don't you come in?" Benji said, standing to the side and gesturing. G stumbled forward, scratching some of the wood on his way in, and Benji cringed, looking toward his door. Oh, right. He hadn't locked it. "Just a sec." He jogged over, turning the nub on the knob to the right, then put an ear to the door. Nothing. Not a peep.

Benji breathed a sigh of relief, then returned to the window. After shutting it, he closed the curtains and sat down beside G, who'd already made himself comfortable. He set Sunny's note down beside him and crossed his legs and tucked his hands between them.

G tilted his head, then nudged Benji with a bit more force than he'd expected. He'd nearly pitched him to the side. Maybe he could tell something was wrong with him. "My dad's just a jerk. A guy who left his family and decided he could just show back up whenever he felt like it."

"Food," G said, blinking.

"Oh, right. I did promise you food, didn't I?" He scratched the back of his neck. Going down there right now wasn't something he could do. Emotionally, he couldn't handle it. On top of that, he hadn't expected Lyro to come home. He'd need to be very careful not to have G get caught. "Sorry. I'll get you some later, okay? I didn't expect him to come home."

G seemed to understand. He patted Benji on the back, practically shoving him forward. Benji caught himself, and G chuckled. "You telling me not to worry?" Benji asked. When G didn't respond, Benji continued. "I'm glad you have someone who's there for ya, G. Kiska is like your family, right?" He bowed his head. He had plenty of people he could depend on, but it would've been nice if there were some family members in there too.

G hummed. "Family."

Did he even know what that meant?

"My mom was my family. It was usually just the two of us most of the time, but we had a lot of good times." Benji hummed, bowing his head and recollecting on the peaceful mornings when he and his mom would wake up and have breakfast together. He smiled. "I don't know if you've had a mom, or if you know what that even means, but she very special to me. She'd always watch Gori Gori and the Gravemakers with me on TV. Ever seen it?"

Benji felt his eyes water.

G scratched the side of his head, then sniffed himself.

"It was so awesome, dude," Benji whispered. "I loved their music. I still remember sitting on the floor with my portable table, peeling my orange and eating cereal before school." He paused to examine G. He seemed to be paying more attention now. "Those small tables are great, you can eat anywhere you want." He sniffed. "Mom had a habit of doing the same stuff every day. Sometimes, that wasn't a good thing, though." He sighed.

The rain wasn't as loud as it was. It seemed to be calming down. He always did like the petrichor in the air. So fresh and full of life. Before his thoughts could go back down the rabbit hole that was his mother, he shook his head and attempted to veer to another topic.

"'G' is kinda a weird name, don't you think?" He stared at the necklace around G's neck, blinking. From what Kiska had explained, that was the only identifier she could use to name him. G didn't seem to care one way or the other, but reducing him to a single letter felt weird and wrong somehow. "We need to give you a better name."

G leaned forward and tucked at the front of Benji's shirt with a single nail. Benji gently pushed it away, which proved to take more effort than expected. To Benji's dismay, G had managed to poke a tiny hole in his shirt. Those nails were sharp.

Benji frowned. "What if we called you Gori? Or…" Would it be too on-the-nose? "Gori Gori?"

"Gori," G said, seeming to take a liking to the sound. "Gori. Gori. Gori."

Benji smiled. "Well, you seem to like the name. Gori Gori, then?"

"Gori! Gori!"

Benji's smile widened. "Then it's settled. From this day forth, you are named Gori Gori."

G—or, Gori Gori, as he now was named—rocked back and forth with a toothy grin, hands on his forelegs. "Gori Gori," he growled. "Gori Gori."

"We need to start you off right if you're going to be representing the Gravemakers." Benji stood up and made his way over to a bedside drawer behind Gori Gori. He fished through the clothes, tickets, trinkets and countless notes he and Sunny passed to one another at school—he liked to keep those—and found an old comic book at the bottom featuring Gori Gori and the Gravemakers. It was one of their first issues, and although Benji treasured it, he liked to believe that the newly named Gori Gori would like it, too.

"Here," Benji said, sitting in front of Gori Gori. He proffered the comic book, and Gori Gori took it with minor hesitation in his movement. To Benji's surprise, he was delicate with the comic, and with a bit of trouble, he opened it up to the first page. "These guys were heroes. They would fight crime, and their music made people happy. You can read it in your spare time if you want. I don't need it anymore."

The necklace caught the gentle light of the lamp, and its presence felt offensive. Like Gori Gori was a pet or a slave. Benji was suddenly uncomfortable, so he leaned forward and yanked the necklace off of Gori Gori's neck. His friend was surprised, tilting his head in confusion as he liked to do. Benji imagined that was his way of asking a question he didn't have the words for.

"It seemed cruel to me," Benji explained, unsure if Gori Gori would understand. "What kinda person just wraps a necklace around someone like that?" It wasn't a standard necklace. It was worn, bitten into, frayed and tight—almost like a collar. "Whoever did that was not your friend. I just know it."

Gori Gori smiled wide, rocking back and forth with his new comic book. He licked one nail tenderly before using it to turn the page. Maybe he saw someone do that before. There was a sort of gentle giant air about him, and Benji found that charming. "What do ya say, pal? Why don't we become heroes like the Gravemakers?"

Gori Gori suddenly put the comic on the floor beside him and reached over to embrace Benji in a hug. It was warm and kind, soft and strangely comforting considering what Gori Gori could do to Denizens. As it went on, however, Gori Gori continued to increase his strength, and Benji patted him on the shoulder.

"Ack! Gotta… gotta let go!" Benji wheezed.

"Oooh?" Gori Gori released his grip and pulled away. Benji coughed and tapped his chest with his palm.

"Jeez, you're strong."

"Ooooh." Gori Gori nodded, then resumed his time with the comic.

With that out of the way, it was time to see what Sunny had written on the note. Benji plucked the note from the floor and unfolded, mouthing the words.

June said I can go back to school again. I found out that the goopy stuff we found is called NEON. I think that's the same stuff they talked about on the news! We need to investigate this!

As much as Benji agreed, Lyro's sudden interest in being in his life again complicated things. As far as he knew, Lyro was still home, and that made the task of getting Gori Gori to disappear a little more difficult. In any event, this had to be followed up somehow. While he wasn't sure what that would look like, he could at least write back.

Benji returned to the bedside drawer and extracted a pen and a slip of paper. He set it down and began to pen his response.

I agree. Lyro's being a bit of a…

Benji scratched it out and rewrote it.

Lyro's being a huge pain right now. He's watching me, and he even made dinner! He never does that! We should probably do most of our investigating at school, and through Gori Gori and Kiska. Oh, that's right. I gave G a real name. It felt too simple, too strange to just have a letter for a name. So he might respond to that. He seems to like it.

Benji folded the piece of paper and tucked it into his hoodie pocket before sitting back down in front of Gori Gori. He was halfway through the comic now, and Benji liked to imagine Gori Gori liked how colorful and impactful the pictures were.

Now what?