Last’s Plan

Last grinned at me.  “Surprised?”

“Honestly?  Not really.  You have a lot of contacts that a runner wouldn’t, so I had kind of guessed you’re a proxy.  Not too much of a stretch to think that the ‘boss’ these guys have been talking about is you.”

“Well, good intuition then.  I’m sure you have a lot of questions.  You guys mind if I borrow him for a second?”

Benjamin shrugged, Maggie crossed her arms, and Jerry gave me a slap on the shoulder.  “Sure thing!  We’ll see you guys later.”

“So,” Last said as the other three slipped out of the room, “that thing you and Rogue Shadow tried working out to convince me to compensate him?  Well…I’d like to welcome you to the official founding of…the California safe house.  I really haven’t come up with a name for it yet.  It’s part of the…well, Rogue Shadow calls it the Resistance, but I personally prefer the Runners’ Foundation.  I dunno, maybe someone will come up with a better name.  Right now, there are only three of these places: this one, one in Kansas, and Shadow’s place in Florida.  But the plan is to start with these three and slowly start developing a bigger web of these places all across the country.  Maybe eventually spread into Canada and Mexico.  Oversea branches don’t sound like a possibility quite yet, just due to funds.  The plan, I think, is to try to pull in donations from runners to try to get it funded best we can.  Every little bit helps, am I right?”

“You think it’ll work?”

“I don’t know.  It’s a pretty good idea, though.  The two of you should be commended for coming up with it.”

“First question, though: aren’t you a proxy?”

“Well…yeah.  But it’s complicated.  I’ll explain later.  Ask me something else first.”

“Okay, what was with the wild goose chase?  What exactly are you guys up to?”

He sat down on the couch and gestured for me to join him.  “I’ve been trying to…teach you.  In a way.  What I want to teach you isn’t really something that can be taught.  You had to learn it on your own.  All I could really do is put you in situations where you could learn it.  You met Raggedyman.  That was good.  He helped you train.  But you needed to put that into practice, so we tested you.  You needed to meet other runners.  You needed to learn from them.  You needed to meet proxies and realize that some proxies aren’t so bad, and some runners aren’t so great.  You needed to learn to discern which is which.  With Ryan and Jenny, you needed to take what you learned and figure out how to pass it on.  And again, I am so sorry for how that backfired. If I had known—”

“It’s in the past. Let’s not bring it up.  So why were you teaching me all this?”

His weasel-like face lit up.  “Ah.  Yes.  Well, simply put, you have…potential.  You fit a sort of certain character archetype, and I know it’s weird hearing me talk like this is just some sort of story, but I really thing that character archetypes are what we need to pull of what we’re going to be doing.  See, you have a lot of potential to develop.  And you’ve done so!  You’ve developed a lot, and I wasn’t even trying to guide you for most of it.  It just happened naturally.  You’re growing, Kenny.  You’re coming out of your shell and starting to grow as a person.  You’re not that scared little kid you used to be.  You’ve got determination.  Compassion.  Some leadership skills.  What I’m saying is that I think you have the potential to become someone heroic.  Someone who can inspire others.”

“And what does this have to do with anything?  What purpose does that serve?  I mean, you guys are proxies.  Why are you trying to make some sort of…of ‘hero’ if we’re not on the same side?”

He was grinning really wide at this point, and I could tell that he was excited to deliver his punchline.  “Right, right, you’d think that would be the case.  But in this case, we’ve got the same goal.  ‘I’m on your side,’ remember?  You see, we’re doing all this because…okay, you’re listening, right?”

“Get on with it, Last.”

“Okay, okay, sorry.  We’re doing this—we are trying to help you unlock your potential as a hero—because you, Kenny, are going to help us kill the Slender Man.”