Author's Note: After reading Auntie Shara's fic Ice Queen, I decided to add an alternate ending.

Song choice: Running Out by Matoma

Warning: This story contains graphic content and suicide.

Oh God...

Kevin sat on his bed with his head in his hands. How could everything turn so bad so fast? He had gotten the guys to back off Edd for a while by sadly turning their attention on someone else, but the raven had always been the football team's favorite. But then they wanted him to join in on his secret boyfriend's beating.

Kevin should have said no.

He should have stood up for him.

But he didn't.

Now the star quarterback was sitting alone with the angry thoughts that felt something akin to an angry swarm of bees. Or better yet, it felt like there was another part of him that was just itching to come out. The real Kevin. The one that would take Edd out on dates that he truly deserved. The one that would smother him in kisses when everyone was looking. The one that would get them out of this tiny ass town. Oh, how desperately he wanted to live as that Kevin.

The redhead stood up and started to pace as the loud thoughts began to consume him. Actually, they sounded more like real voices at this point.

"You broke his nose. How could he still love you?"

"You know how depressed he's been the last couple weeks."

"You let him down."

"Edd hates you."

"STOP!" Kevin roared, his hands flying to either side of his head as he willed the voices to stop. His actions at school had caused the usually muted words to transform into commanding, negative voices. God, when was the last time that he was alone in his own mind? Years, probably.

After a moment or two, Kevin allowed himself to stop his pacing and let his arms fall to their sides. "J-just stop, okay? I know that everything I do is fucked up. I get it...just stop the yelling." he said, letting a few angry tears slide down his face.

"It was always about you. Never once did you do anything good for him."

"I know."

After that, his mind was quiet save for the now muted voices that acted as a white noise effect. That night Kevin reflected on his heavy thoughts much like what his boyfriend did every day as the depression sunk itself deeper into the raven's chest.

What could he possibly do to make everything up to Edd?

The redhead decided to think it over with a bottle of his dad's Johnnie Walker. Drinking never actually helped him think per se, but it helped him forget. But before he could pull the small cabinet open, a thick manila envelope on the kitchen counter caught his eye.

It was his parents' vacation plans to California.

...

Edd sat back on his hands as he sat on the hood of his car as he stared out into the deep ravine in front of him. His cherished hat lay abandoned on the ground by the driver's side, but that was okay. The way the wind tousled his inky black hair made him feel a a sense of peace before the storm.

As he thought it all over, Edd decided that there would be no terrible impact from his death. Contact with his parents was minimal at best, only sparing a second or two to tell him that their move to New York had been successful and to wish him luck in his upcoming years of adulthood. They were never close. So like their leave, his will be accepted openly, albeit sadly...hopefully.

His friends- friends? Edd shook his head and laughed a little at the thought. The Eds had broken up years before and the cul-de-sac as a whole was no different. Everyone grew up and apart from one another. The only things that seemed to remain constant where himself...and Kevin.

And what about Kevin? Would he be distraught over his boyfriend's death? Or would he steel his emotions like he usually did and bare the small pain alone? Would there even be pain for him at all? The depressing thoughts made Edd tip his head back and sigh through his bruised nose. It was past noon by this point, he should really get his show on the road.

Edd sat there for a few more minutes with his eyes closed before hopping off the hood of the car. By the sound of it, there was no one around for miles. When he and Kevin would sometimes come here, the sound of cars passing could be heard on a nearby highway, but even that was silent today. There would be no one to witness his Volvo as it would careen off the edge of the cliff or hear his screams on the way down.

Climbing into the driver's seat, Edd shut the door quietly and revved up the engine after a moment of crushing silence. He was supposed to be at lunch right now. He should be sitting in one of the bathroom stalls with a soggy sandwich, waiting for his tormentors to get tired of looking for him so that he could run off to his AP math class. But no, Edd was sitting in his car with his foot lightly tapping the gas, secretly waiting for someone to come to the rescue.

Oh, how badly he wished for Kevin to pull up on his motorcycle and talk him out of it. He wanted Kevin to hold him close and tell Edd that he loved him. To tell the raven that they were running away together.

But he wouldn't come. Kevin never did.

Sucking in a breath, Edd shifted the car into reverse and backed up a little ways until his back bumper hit a tree. Then, with one last look to the empty road, Edd sucked in a breath, put the car in drive, and slammed his foot on the gas.

The tire's spun in place for a second before the car bolted ahead and Edd started to sweat. Maybe this was a mistake. Maybe he shouldn't be doing this, but at the same time, the voices of different people rang inside his head like a final bell.

"It gets better, Dee."

"There are other people that are worse off than you."

"It sounds like you're just doing this for attention."

Then, a memory of a scoff and an eye roll. "The only one that you're hurting here is yourself, Edd. If you don't like feeling this way, then change."

"Suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem. Don't be selfish. Think of your friends and family!"

And that had worked for a time. The guilt of potentially hurting his parents and acquaintances kept his actions at bay. But when Edd's sleeping pills ran out and the beatings at school intensified, he just couldn't bare the pain anymore. Something had to be done.

So now, even if Edd wanted to slam his foot on the brake and go back to try to make it through tomorrow, it was too late.

Edd felt his bottom lift from the seat as the car propelled itself over the edge and for a single second, the raven was at peace. His hands and hair started to float upwards towards the roof of the car. He felt weightless. Like all the depression and stress was lifted from his shoulders and left back up on the cliff. And he didn't scream, his throat was clenched tight as worthless tears dripped from his wide, cerulean eyes. Edd's head bumped the ceiling of the car a little and his foot fell away from the gas; the raven was literally floating in midair.

But, everything that goes up, must eventually come down.

Edd's chest was slammed up against the steering wheel with such velocity that the breath was knocked out of his lungs in the form of a loud gasp. Glass littered itself everywhere when the front of the car smashed into the jagged rocks below; the hood of the Volvo suddenly looking like an aluminum can that someone had squashed under their boot.

The smell of gas and burnt rubber entered Edd's nose as his neck settled over the steering wheel. Thick liquid that tasted something akin to copper was quick to fill his mouth and then form a steady drip out of the corner of his mouth as the car eventually found its final resting place at the bottom of the ravine.

And then the worst thing imaginable happened. It wasn't the fact that Edd couldn't feel his body from the waist down, or the agonizing pain in his neck and shoulders as his head lay bend unnaturally over the steering wheel. It was worse than the overwhelming pain in his chest or the shard of glass that was stuck into his right eye, rendering it useless, or the blood that poured from his mouth as he struggled to breathe.

Edd's one working eye widened in horror as he realized that he had survived the horrific crash.

Small, gargled whimpers escaped his bloody lips and his bruised and battered frame shook as he started to panic. His heart pounded against his flattened chest and his lungs struggled to expand from the crushed sternum and broken ribs that were still pressed against the steering wheel. A few tears escaped the one eye that was closed by choice when another realization hit him that no one had seen him crash. Everyone was at lunch, like he should have been. But he wasn't.

Edd died two days later.

His totaled car was found by a local teen. Search and Rescue teams had been organized two days after Edd was reported missing, but his mangled body wasn't discovered until the fourth day along with the wrecked Volvo.

There wasn't a funeral. No parents or relatives could be contacted, so the teen was cremated and put in a small box to whoever wanted to take him. Otherwise, he would be buried in the local cemetery with no marker. Just a small mound of freshly turned dirt and a lonely figure to remind people that someone had once been buried there.

Kevin went to the grave everyday after Edd was buried. Each day he thought about how if he hadn't skipped school, if he hadn't slept in from his hang over the night before, he would have realized that his boyfriend was missing. But he didn't.

And Kevin hated himself everyday for it.

Kneeling down in the dirt, Kevin noticed how there were small patches of grass covering the bare spot; the one indicator that revealed where the love of his life lay was being washed away by time. The redhead hit the ground angrily as tears flowed steadily from his eyes.

He was supposed to tell Edd how much he loved him. Ask the man to run away with him. Kevin had even imagined the two of them, somewhere in the heart of Southern California, kissing freely under the bright sun. They could have been happy. But now Edd was dead because Kevin wasn't there in his time of need and it made the redhead want to die.

So later that night, after his parents that were naive to his immense pain had gone to bed, Kevin walked up the stairs into his father's study. The light from the moon shone in through the window and splayed itself across the floor, giving Kevin's legs a ghostly glow.

Kevin walked over to the old fashioned desk and fumbled around in the drawers for a few minutes before finding his dad's handgun. The polished metal felt cool and heavy in his hand and as he held the barrel up to his temple, Kevin thought about Edd.

"I love you, I love you, I love you..." he chanted to himself, squeezing his eyes shut. But just before he pulled the trigger, Kevin swore that he heard his voice among his quiet chanting.

"I love you too,"

And shot resounded itself into the night.