Disclaimer: Don't own, Don't flame, Don't sue.
Warning: My usual, yaoi, shounen-ai whatever!
Summery: Where all the eyes can see is an endless field of yellow and the homes seem as old as time itself resides a wishing well. Trowa a natural skeptic, Heero an honest country boy, and Duo an innocent boy since his day of birth all place their wishes in the hands of fate or rather a Well. People tend to find themselves in the strangest of ways,and although pain sometimes overwhelms others. For one person you could mean the most, and that in itself is a wish come true. Meet the Devil in the Wishing Well, he is who you are, yourself.
It's A Long Way Out
Chapter 1
Rebirth
As I cross the grave stones along this crimson path alone, feeling the emptiness inside, this heart use to be so warm, no longer feeling the pain that use to dwell in me, I think I've finally learned to see.
I met him at my aunt's house I was fourteen at the time. My cousin Heero and I had been out walking in the dry grass of the abandoned farm about three miles from his home. He talked about a family, how a mom and dad murdered their children and how they buried the remains and that the police had searched and found nothing. He said the parents of the missing children had moved away to a mansion far away where the sun always shined. I hadn't believed him then not until I had met Duo.
XXX
It was the summer before my high school year and my mother told me she wanted me to spend time in an atmosphere less pressuring than that of the city. Recently I had gotten caught drinking and smoking with some of my friends in the sad excuse for a back yard we have, hence less pressure. So that's how I found my self at my aunt and uncles home with my cousin Heero as my one and only new "best friend".
"Bullshit Heero!" he turned around from his position on the top of the roof.
"I swear on my life that's what happened."
"If that were the case then how come they weren't arrested?" I picked up a rock and threw it at the window causing it to shatter.
"Don't do that we'll get in trouble! And like I said they had no way to pin it to them." yelled Heero as he jumped down from the two-story house and I wondered for a brief moment if it was as easy as Heero made it look or painless for that matter.
"Then how in Gods name does everyone know they did it huh?" as we started to walk back to his house I pulled at the tall dry straw that lined the dirt road.
"It's the most obvious answer, who else would get all the money, right?"
"For some reason I really doubt your logic cuz."
"You only doubt it because you're a very skeptical person."
"That's a mighty big word for a farm boy." I said dragging my feet on the road.
"Trowa, I know you're my cousin and all, but if you ever call me farm boy again I'll seriously have to kick your ass."
"God what do you people do here for fun? I think the only thing that's going to save me from boredom is the fact that you guys got satellite." we made it to the paved road and walked right in the middle of it.
"Actually my mom told me that Aunt Liss doesn't want you watching TV while you're here; something about sun being good for juvenile adolescents." said Heero waving his hand as if brushing it off.
"Juvenile adolescent! I told her my friends cohered me into doing it."
"Cohered is a big word for a juvenile and are you even using it right?" we cut threw the overgrown hedge Heero said was a short cut, which also meant we only had fifteen minutes left till we got to his home. I suddenly dreaded going back there I was going to be completely bored.
"Oh come on don't make that face Tro you can read a book." said Heero making a hand gesture.
"Wait you get electricity out here?" he glared at me.
"You're acting like a prick you do realize that right?"
"Are you allowed to use that sort of language?" my mouth is so going to get me into trouble one of these days.
"Look just because you aren't allowed to do anything that might further "deteriorate" your already damaged brain doesn't mean you can't make the best out of staying here this summer."
"Yes it does."
XXX
When we got back to the house he gave me a huge eight-hundred page book from his bed-room. It consisted of three books all together in one edition Heero said something about the individual books being out of print or something, in all honesty I just wanted something to do. I finished the first book in a couple of hours and was left slightly disturbed but strangely intrigued by the contents. It had something to do with a new race and each book was apparently done in a different point of view.
"I had no idea you were into guys Heero." I said after I had finished up in the bathroom.
"I'm not." stated Heero from the living room.
"Then what the hell are you doing with a book like that?" I asked as I sat down on the arm of the couch and watched him as he continued to play a typing game on the computer.
"I was bored and decided to look up different types of books and while looking something up for a friend I saw something on the side and clicked on it. All the reviews were positive so I decided I'd ordered it and well it sort of grew on me."
"Do your parents know you read that sort of stuff?" I asked as I stretched out a little.
"So what if the book deals with hermaphrodites and so what if basically all characters are referred to in the male sense. The topic in general is intriguing enough to keep my attention and apparently yours." he turned in his chair so that he was facing me.
"I'd have to say so far my favorite character is Cal." I flopped back onto the couch and stared at the ceiling.
"It would figure the guy's so screwed up, quick to judge, and cynical."
"And obviously is completely in love with Pell. In a way I hope that they end up together and have a kid."
"Harling." stated Heero turning off the computer and coming over to the couch and leaned over and blocked my view of the ceiling.
"Whatever." I said waving him off.
"You're so going to be upset in book two then."
"Why?" I sat up and stared at him. Who would have figured that I'd be so totally into a book about she-males? That probably sounds really bad, in fact, I know it does! I really should start considering other peoples feelings, maybe later, I'm young yet.
"Into the book much?" he asked jumping over the couch sat down grabbed the remote and turned on the TV.
"The scary thing is it's like watching TV with all the good stuff still in it."
"You mean like sex scenes, foul language, and generally taboo topics all together?" he pressed down on the channel down button and didn't lift. I stared at the TV screen as every channel known to man passed by at God knows what speed.
"Yeah actually, but don't ever let it get out that I actually read a book for once." I picked at the loose thread from the tacky couch cover.
"Yes Aunt Liss? Hey you know Trowa read a book about gays and hermaphrodites and guess what? He enjoyed it." I grabbed one of the couch cushions and hit him with it.
"Touchy aren't we!" said Heero laughing.
"Shut up!"
"Look you're turning red!" said Heero still laughing as I continued to beat him with the cushion.
"Shove it!" I grabbed more cushions and then promptly tried to smother him to death.
"Mom!"
XXX
"Are we allowed to be here?"
"You're not afraid are you?"
"No."
"Then why the hell you stall'n?" said Heero quirking an eyebrow in my direction.
"Like fuck I am!" I promptly shoved past Heero and stood at the entrance of what looked like an abandoned mine or cave.
"Ooh the scary cave." drawled Heero creeping up behind me and shaking my shoulders.
"Will you cut that shit out!" I slapped his hands away from my neck. I never did like it when someone would get that close to me.
"Touchy aren't we? Honestly who knew that living in the city could make you such a sissy?" Heero turned on the flashlight he had brought with him from the house and I felt the immediate urge to clobber him with it.
We crawled on hands and knees for a long while with dirt surrounding us and the only light came from the yellow flashlight that Heero held. I stared into the black void of the cave and wondered where the in Hell he was leading me. I could both smell and taste the moist dirt as we went deeper into the cave. Cold seemed to work it's way into my bones and my feet were colder than ice. Suddenly Heero seemed to disappear from my vision and franticly I turned my head trying to figure out what had happened to him. Then his head popped up almost from out of nowhere; there he was in a round grove in the deep pit of the cave. I felt as if I had crawled into the pit of a monsters belly. Old magazines littered the dirt ridden floor and an old tattered blanket which I supposed was once new and clean lay beneath all the rubble. Bottles were piled up in one corner and empty cigarette packs lay burnt and torn alongside open condom wrappers. I dare not wonder what people were doing in here; let alone what they did with the used condoms.
"Neat place isn't it?" I looked at Heero and felt like we definitely came from different worlds. Here he was impressed by a damn cave and all I could think was: God how cold it was down in here.
"I guess if you're easily entertained." for a brief second I thought I had saw something move and wanted to flee, but the last thing I wanted was to let Heero know that I was easily scared.
"I'm gonna be right back I need to take a piss." he started to make way for the way we came.
"Wait you're taking the flashlight!" there was no way in Hell I was going to stay here in complete darkness while he took off to go pee.
"Fine be a baby." he tossed me the flashlight and took off. After five minutes had passed I felt like a complete idiot.
Heero was a complete asshole. I know I was being a jerk, but I would never leave him in some damn cave because of it. After half an hour had passed I finally decided that he had abandoned me here. Worst yet was that the batteries that fueled my precious beacon of light were dying on me. Now being sure well that Heero was not around I let my panic take place. What if something lived down here and when it found me it'd try to eat me? This was the last place I'd want to die in an old moss mold ridden cave full of spiders and other creepy crawlers. Just thinking that made my body shiver with fear. I hated spiders. The light finally dissipated from my plastic flashlight and I was left in complete darkness. I had no watch so I had no idea what time it was. I was afraid for one of the very first times in my life. I wished to God that I was back home sitting at the local park with my friends smoking while we swung on the swings. I wasn't going to cry though; I knew that this was what it was all about. Heero could kiss my well tanned ass before I'd let being alone in this place get to me like that.
Hours seemed to pass like days and the next thing I knew I had fallen asleep. I remember dreaming that I was back home with my friends and that we were all in this small house that was actually a two story home. There was a stairwell that lead upstairs, but it seemed like it belonged in a rundown old farm house. Sun was shining threw the terribly noticeable cracks in the walls and straw seemed to dangle overhead. Then I was in a room where all the walls had been painted a very light blue color or I guess as most people call it baby-blue. I was sitting on a mattress on the floor next to some guy with long black hair and long nails. I remember him picking at his black painted nails and saying something to me, and then wrap his long white slender arms around me. Suddenly the room had been covered in blood and my friends and I had panicked and left in a hurry. We somehow were in front of the local mall and in the parking lot; there was a guy craning his truck out the back of his brown SUV. We took the guys keys and got in. The middle seats were glass and suspended only about an inch from the top only they weren't fashioned like normal seats. They were more slightly angled so that the tips of the glass were touching on the back and underneath you. We were then in a hotel room listening to some rock music. There was a knock on the door and the lady who owned the place said she was fine with us not being able to pay, but to at least keep the music down. We said sorry and ok. You could hear sirens screaming in the background and we knew it was for us. Buildings were on fire with smoke trailing up and the next thing I knew I was standing on a green patch of grass surrounded by water and alligators. One of my friends had come over to me and tried to push me towards the alligators; I had then shoved him down and started to choke him with the heel of my shoe. I let up and knew automatically that he was back to normal. A boat with two of my other friends had rowed up and we jumped in.
After that I woke up freezing. The first thing I saw was the most stunning shade of eyes I'd ever seen in my life. For a second I thought I was still dreaming and let my hand move to try and touch the strange apparition in front of me. That was the moment in which I knew I was no longer dreaming. It was hard to see, but I could tell that what stooped above me was a person. The most beautiful creature I had ever laid eyes on. I could tell by the build of the person that it was a guy. He let me touch his left cheek and even nuzzled my hand and smiled warmly as I did so.
"Come, I'll be your body in the night and I'll lead ya where you might find yourself, better if you followed me." if anybody else had said those same words it would have come off as weird, but hearing him say it was just, right somehow.
"Ok." I had no idea who he was and just followed him like I had known him all my life and trusted him with just that….my life.
He didn't say much and yet there were no awkward silences between us if that makes much sense. Carefully he lead me threw the cave with what seemed like practiced ease. Who could he possibly be? Heero had never mentioned this person to me and Heero had told me of everyone who lived in this sad excuse for a town that he lived in. Did Heero even know this guy, and if so, why would he have failed to mention him? When we had made it out of the cave I felt as if it was the first time I had ever inhaled fresh air. I dusted off my pants and noticed that there was a full moon tonight. With the glow of the bright moon on my side I looked at the person who had saved me from the damp cave.
Before me stood this wondrous guy with long light-brown hair and amethyst colored eyes. He was wearing clothes too big for his slight frame and some old worn red sneakers. His hair was tied into a neat braid and there were dried bits of grass covering him. A quick glance at myself told me that this boy was not alone in the country fashion statement.
"My name's Trowa and thank you for getting me out of there." I held out my hand to him.
"It was nothing. But why would he leave you in there like that?" he took hold of my hand and shook it vigorously.
"I was being rude to him, but I don't see why he was so damn butt hurt over it." the boy seemed to latch himself onto my right arm and snuggle up against it. The boy seemed to have a smile that reminded me of the Cheshire cat from Alice and Wonderland. Only the boys' eyes would be closed as well as his mouth if that's even understandable. Slowly we started to walk.
"Rude?" the boy looked up at me with curious eyes.
"Uncouth, impolite." how old was this boy?
"Oh." the boy seemed not to mind that we were moving.
"Hey what's your name and how old are you?" it was a nice night. The air was cool and crisp; all the stars in the sky seemed to glow with life even though I knew that they were long past living and briefly wondered if I was just a passing memory for others to gaze upon.
"I think I'm fourteen and my name…….is Duo." he smiled up at me with those eyes of his and I knew they were eyes I'd never forget.
Before I knew it we were but feet from my aunts' house, that's when Duo stopped walking with me. For a few seconds he stood in place holding both my hands and looked at them. It seemed as if he was trying to decipher the differences of our hands and slid his own pale hands up my own slim city tanned arms. The touch itself was something I wasn't quite use to. It was a weird feeling unto itself and knew instantly why this slim boy in front of me liked the feel of someone else's skin pressed against his own. In a sense it was comforting and scary at the same time. Then whatever trance had been bestowed on us was gone and in the distance I could hear yelling. With that Duo quickly pecked me on the cheek and left without a word.
I walked back to the house quietly wondering if by chance Duo was even real. I could feel the small rocks and gravel from beneath my feet and as they pressed against the cold soles of my feet I wished that all of this was just a dream. So that when I woke up I knew that there was something in my life that I wasn't missing. I walked up to the front porch and into the house.
"Heero I can't believe you left your cousin out there all by himself like that!" I heard my aunt yell.
"I didn't leave him there. I just forgot that he was even with me, you know I have a bad memory." oh yeah that was a very plausible explanation.
"Go out and get him now!" just as Heero was turning around I grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him.
"Holy shit!"
"My don't you have a mouth on you?" Heero got in trouble and was now grounded as I was. He wasn't allowed to go out with his friends or get on the computer. We spent that night talking about what I had seen.
Heero told me that what I had seen was probably a ghost and that no one else besides him and his friends knew their way around the cave. But the boy I met couldn't have been a ghost he was too real, too innocent, too warm to be something that was just a spirit. Heero said I was reading too much into what had happened; that strange unexplainable things were bound to happen, but I knew the even he didn't believe in that. He wanted to find out who that boy was just as much as I did. Only I'd be the one to find out I just knew it.
XXX
Most of my days were spent like that here, pondering whether or not most things in my life really carried much meaning to start with. I wanted to see that boy again even knew that I'd see him again, but how I wasn't sure. It had been a week since that moment in the cave and all I'd done since then was finish all the books Heero had given me. I was sick of being cooped up in my aunts' house. I was sick of having to help my aunt cook pies and cakes. I was sick of raking the backyard. Sick of everything short of breathing let alone this monotonous life. Today Heero was supposed to take me somewhere he said was really "neat". I wasn't quite sure how to take that.
"So what is it that you want me to see?" we had been walking for Lord knows how long. Currently we were walking past an abandoned Hotel near the water. The hotel was near the side of a cliff out in the middle of nowhere. It looked as rundown as it sounded. Windows were broken the walls were gray in color and paint seemed to be torn from it by the rough salty air. I could almost taste the salt from the ocean below.
"It's a Wishing Well." Heero pointed to a round pile of rocks protruding from the ground.
"Oh yeah and what do I do toss a quarter down there and make a wish?" I couldn't help but ask that question in sarcasm.
"No you dumbass what you're supposed to do is write down something important to you on the Wishing Well wall. Like a secret, if it really is a true piece of "who" you are, all your wishes will come true." I got the feeling that Heero had done it himself.
"Does it really work?" I'm naturally a skeptic person I blame it all on my upbringing.
"For some it has and others………well we're still waiting." I watched Heero shrug his right shoulder and stare down the Well. Leaning over carefully I also stared down the Well; in the depths of this void lay all the dreams, secrets, wishes, and darkness that was our generation of hopeful believers. Those who wished they'd be able to live a life greater then the ones they were given. Wishes by those who desired nothing but someone to talk to in their life. He was the one to make the first wish, Duo. All those that came afterwards were those hoping for the same out come.
This was something that should be done in private. Away from all the prying eyes that would usually surround one. One day I'd be the one to get to go into the Well and not only see the wishes of those before me, but all to come.
XXX
A/N: this is something that I've worked on slowly and will probably be updated whenever inspiration hits. I hate to leave half baked things on the stove so no matter what, whatever I have written or will write will be finished in due time that's a promise I made to and for myself.
Inspired by the Five For Fighting song: The Devil in the Wishing Well.
The fist line Duo says is part of the song, but only slightly altered.
The book mentioned is Wreaththu by Storm Constantine I highly recommend it.