"Greg?"
He was gone, he was lost-
"Greg? Where are you? Greg?"
He couldn't see anything, feel anything, only the cold, the branches pulling him back. He was-
He was in his room.
Wirt stared up at the ceiling for a moment before retrieving his covers from the floor where they had fallen, subjecting him to the drafty coldness of his room. Huddled under the covers, he glanced over at his little, blue radio. 5:38. He could go back to sleep.
He closed his eyes and lay there, awake, until the sudden sound of the alarm pulled him from the bed.
As he rifled through his drawers for a sweater, prepared for the cold spell that was to set in today, he came across it. The hat, still stained with dirt, dark red and balled up in the furthest corner. With it, he remembered his dream, his nightmare, from last night.
He had no fear of The Beast, not anymore. Wirt knew he had uncovered The Beast's incredible, almost pitiable, weakness. The screams of the shadowed creature, the glowing of its eyes. It was all too real to be doubted. The Beast was gone.
Then why had he come back alone?
The boy shook his head, pulling his woolen socks onto his feet and standing. He hated moments like these, moments when the memories took him away from this world, took him back to the guilt and fear of the end of the journey through those woods. He slid out of his room, wood floor slippery underneath his socks, and walked to the kitchen to fix a quick breakfast before catching the bus. The silence of the morning pressed in on him like a vise, forbidding forgetfulness.
There was nothing he could do.
Greg was gone.
Drowned in the river, killed by The Beast, gone.
Gone so that Wirt could be here.
He grabbed some toast, picked up his pack, and walked down to the bus stop.
School had been different ever since the accident. Students who he barely knew were kinder to him, teachers gentler with him, as if afraid he would break at the slightest raised voice, the simplest questions.
Yet, somehow, it seemed as though there were a wall around him.
He understood. People didn't know what to say, didn't know how to act, around the quiet kid whose cute little brother had gone missing, somehow gone so quickly when he survived with only a few broken ribs and bruises.
"Wirt!"
"Hey, Sara."
It was another cold day. Sara shivered, zipping her jacket up to her chin, and burying her frigid hands in her pockets. She was close enough to school to walk, and usually didn't mind, but on days like this…
But, hey, at least it made the prospect of arriving to the warm, early morning class more inviting.
As her hands plunged deeper into her pockets, she felt something- a small, smooth corner. A tape.
She laughed quietly. That's right. She hadn't listened to it yet, that new tape that Wirt had given her. Of course, she didn't have any way to play it, generally relying on computers and CDs like any other classmate.
Wirt was just a weird kid.
She'd always liked him, though.
Poor Wirt.
She had been there, that night. People often asked her about it, what she'd seen. Of course, she had not even arrived in time to see them fall into the water. By the time she had scrambled down the steep slope, only Wirt was there, collapsed on the edge of the riverbank.
She, like everyone else, assumed Greg would be found someday, further down the river…
The site of the brick building, surrounded by chattering students, distracted her from delving to deeply into the dark thoughts surrounding that night, and she raced towards the open doors. She was early- the busses, always arriving ahead of schedule, had already pulled up and released their hordes of students.
Peering over the colorful hats of bundled up high schoolers, she saw him. He was walking alone- he claimed to know nobody on his bus route- hunched over from the weight of his bag.
"Wirt!"
He looked up to her, a quick smile plastered on his face. "Hey, Sara."
She weaved her way through the crowd until she reached his side. He looked down, tired. As though he'd had a bad day, though it was only 7:45 in the morning.
"You have… history class now, right? I'll go with you- I actually need to ask Ms. DeWitt about an assignment she gave me. The homework from that class is ridiculous…"
On days like this, she would often fill their silence with her words, however shallow or boring they seemed. It seemed as though Wirt appreciated the mindless distraction, and Sara was confident she would be able to tell if her presence irked him.
Her fingers touched the tape resting in her pocket.
She wondered, in the back of her mind, how stupid it would be to mention it, to bring back memories from the night she had found it in her pocket, and never had a chance to ask him about it. Her curiosity got the better of her.
"By the way… I found a tape in my pocket. Jenny told me it was from you." Wirt froze. She plowed on, "But I don't have a tape player…"
Her turned to her with an exaggeratedly horror-struck expression on his face. "Oh, uh, yeah, that." A hesitation, and a sheepish smile, "I was wondering if I could have that back, actually."
She grinned. "What's on it?"
"It's…" He paused again, failing to find a way to avoid her question, "of course you don't have a tape player. I have one at home. But, maybe we can just… work up to this tape. Listen to it a little bit later."
"Sure."
Whatever was on it, Sara was positive Wirt's horrified embarrassment was an overreaction. Still. He obviously wasn't ready for her to hear it yet.
The idea of what must be on it made her smile. She couldn't help but feel a bit regretful handing back to him, watching him hastily stow it away in his backpack's side pocket.
"Sorry, I just, it was dumb- I'll talk to you later." They had reached the classroom door, and a wave of kids was ushering him inside.
"Wait, Wirt!" Something about the way he carried himself today, something about his tired eyes, made her ask, "Can I come over after school today? Somehow soccer practice hasn't been cancelled, though it's, like, 2 degrees outside. Hanging out in your room sounds a lot more appealing."
He seemed surprised. "Yeah, sure."
"I'll meet you after school!"
"Okay."
Author's Note!
Hey guys! Yeah, I'm going to try writing a story. Like an actual, longer than one page story. Crazy stuff! Not sure how it's going to turn out, I've never attempted something like it. I'll see where it takes me!
I couldn't decide whether to go from just Wirt's POV, just Sara's, or to switch. If you have suggestions for that, I'd be totally open to hearing what you'd like to see for the rest of the tale.