*John Egbert*

I live a simple life.

I live in a universe, in the Milky-Way galaxy, in a solar system, on the North-American continent, in the United States of America, in the state of Washington. That was my official address that I had learned in 4th grade. My house a little ways away from town. It's surrounded by trees that kinda give off this ominous feel sometimes. The people who live in my cabin-like house is just me, my 1-year older sister Jane, and my dad. We attend a school down the road a bit, both of us getting decent grades.

My dad works hard at an office job in town and is gone a lot. But whenever he's home, he spends all of his time with us. Dad is the cookie-cutter image of what a dad is supposed to be. Slightly annoying at times, always wearing a suit, constantly has a pipe in his mouth, and always having a good prank or joke up his sleeve. The only thing that didn't fit that image was his passion for baking. But as long as I didn't have to eat all of those cakes, it was fine by me.

Jane also enjoyed playing pranks and joking around, it was sort of a family thing. On April 1st the house became a war zone. Jane had inherited dad's flair for baked goods, and on my birthday I basically drowned in cakes that they both constantly cooked. She also likes to read mystery novels. I'm always the one stuck listening to her blabbing on about what's just happened in her latest book and who she thought the murderer was. Not that I minded that much. It was nice to see Jane so excited and happy.

I myself like to watch movies. And I don't care if people call them 'bad' and 'cheesy', they're awesome! I also play the piano, dad taught me when I was little, and on some of my more morning days I play a piece I composed myself to pass the time. Not that I'm some expert composer, just a guy that can dink around on the keys.

Yeah, life was running smoothly. But of course, it wouldn't be much of a life if nothing unexpected happened.

It was the summer of my 15th year. My sister was working a summer job, my dad was at work, and I was left alone during most of the days. The summer had started only a week ago, and I was quickly growing bored. In all the years before this, it was a great chance to hang out with jane and just play around, act like we couldn't feel the weight of the world slowly falling onto our shoulders as we grew up.

So, on the 2nd Monday of the break, I grabbed myself a water-bottle, filled it with some apple juice, made a quick sandwich and headed out to the woods to help cure some of my boredom. During my younger years, I used to play around out there all the time, hoping to find something strange or magical or really anything. Jane usually hoped to find a murdered body and to try and solve the case of their death. Our dad sometimes told us stories of ancient people who lived in the woods. Originally, we both thought he was talking about Native Americans, but when we brought it up one day he just shook his head and said that these people had been around for far longer than Native Americans.

We never found anything that wasn't an animal or litter in the woods, but it was still fun to pretend. So I wandered around through the woods, brushing my hands against the rough bark of the trees that I passed until I came to a really small clearing where my dad, sister and I had picnicked at a few times before. I layed down and watched the clouds passing by. I had summer homework I could've worked on instead of going on this little hike. But the summer had just started, I still had plenty of time to do it. Anyway, I'm a master procrastinator.

Done with my sandwich, I got up and and started to head back, water bottle open and sipping at the apple juice as I went. I hadn't made it a yard back into the trees when I stopped abruptly. Something seemed off. The hairs on back of my head started to raise. In my right peripheral, a blur of red, orange and black rushed past. My heart skipped a beat and I started running. I had the distinct feeling that I was being hunted by something that knew these woods far better than I do.

The only reason I got away was probably because whatever it was let me, maybe thinking that this was a great game or something. A few times as I ran the blur would dart in front of me and make a grab for my water bottle, but held it tight. Mostly because the fear coursing through me wouldn't allow my grip to loosen. My other hand was clenched into such a tight fist that I'm pretty sure my nails were starting to draw blood.

At last I made it to the edge of the woods became my backyard. Not slowing down, I looked back to see one of the higher tree branches shaking, something glinting in between the leaves. Looks like whatever it was didn't want to be found out just yet. Once I was inside, I slammed the door shut and went into lock down. After I was finally starting to calm down, I looked out the window. The branch had stopped shaking, but the glint was still there. It caused a shiver to run down my spine.

Jane would've probably gotten a kick out of that, probably say that it was a serial killer that was hiding in the woods. I wasn't so sure. Sitting on the dining room table was the bottle. I hadn't drunk much of it, considering that'd I'd been running at full speed and hadn't had much time to do anything but breath. For the life of me I didn't know why the thing/person would've wanted it. The bottle was normal enough, and all it had was apple juice inside. I looked back outside. The branch was shaking again and the glint gone.

As the day passed, I stayed inside and binge-watched a TV show about some guy who could bring people back to life with a touch, but killed them again with another. It was really interesting. Another show that was cancelled by some stupid decision. Jane came home in time to make dinner. A nice pasta. During dinner she talked about her day. Not really anything out the usual for her. Jane worked at a bakery and was one of their best employees. She great at decorating a baking and talked about what she had made today. She talked about her co worker that she could hardly stand and the new customer who had flirted at her. When asked about my day, I just smiled and told her that I watched TV and that there wasn't much else to say about it.

Dad came home a little while later. Together we sat around in the living room and played Monopoly. In the end, Jane won. She claimed it was because she was better than me. I'm pretty sure we all knew that she had cheated. Why did we even trust her to be the banker anymore? Afterwards dad headed to bed since he had to be to work early the next morning. Jane and I sat up until 11:00 watching late-night cartoons of our favorite TV that they didn't show during the day anymore. She headed to bed after one last episode, yawning and explaining that there was a huge order to finish tomorrow and wanted to be at least somewhat rested.

I turned off the TV and the lights, grabbing my Iphone and planning to head to bed myself when I saw my bottle. Throughout the entire evening, the short but memorable events of earlier had been turned over and over in my head. I looked out at the tree line. Yeah, why not, I had nothing better to do. Summoning courage I'm not really sure was even real, I grabbed the apple juice and a hammer from a drawer, unlocked and opened the back door, and strolled into the night.

Space was shining down from above. They were stunning, but I didn't stop to admire them. If I did, I think I would turn tail and run back to the safety of the house. The night woods had always struck me as sort of scary and off-putting. I stood at the tree line, doing my best not to shake and failing miserably.

"Uh, so whoever or whatever you are, if you're still nearby even, this is for you." I placed the apple juice bottle on the ground. "I don't really know why you want it, but I don't really need it. So… here you go." I waited for a minute. When nothing happened I just sighed and speed-walked back inside, to my bedroom, and allowed sleep to overtake me.

The next morning, after dad and Jane had left for work, I saw it sitting on the back porch. An empty water bottle. I went out back, looking around in case the person/thing was still around. The glint was in the trees again. Written into the dirt just off the edge of the porch was 2 words.

More AJ.

(A/N) Okay, so that's chappy one! :) If you guys would like to read more, please review. It will help me to decide how frequently I should be updating! Also, I'm sorta new to the fandom and this is my first Homestuck fic, so if John or later on other characters are a bit ooc, but please bear with me and maybe give me a few helpful tips!