1. Chapter 1: Runaway
That night, it happened that night, the night that changed my life...forever.
Pitch black darkness of night has blanketed an empty field. The field is quiet and desolate except for the peaceful howling of the wind. Then, a faint sound occurs, the sound of feet rushing in the grass, a silhouette in the darkness sprints across the field, panting ever so slightly and sweating profusely. Then suddenly, another sound is heard, rushing feet pounding on the hard, damp ground. Treading loudly through the rustling grass and cutting through the darkness of the night. It sounded to be about 15 men. All who were huffing, groaning and yelling at each other to "find him"!
Flashlights shone through the darkness, searching for someone. The lights searched through every direction while, the person in question, is running faster away.
The person groans as he tries to dodge the light of his adversaries. He runs faster and faster into the field, feeling the loud thump of his heartbeat in his ears and then out of nowhere he loses his footing and clumsily falls into a large, furry bush.
The suddenness of the fall didn't go unnoticed. One of the guys after him picked up on the sound and called the others to investigate.
"I think he went this way." said one of the guys pointing in the direction of the sound and coincidentally where he was hiding. The men started to look there.
"Are you sure that kid is even here, Steve?" said one guy combing his hands through the bushy area. Clumsily, reaching into the bush, feeling for any signs of the kid.
"I'm sure, I mean, where else would he hide?" said Steve using his flashlight to point at yet another ordinary bush. " I'm sure I heard him here someplace." Steve muttered as he searched in empty bush.
The guy twisted his face sourly, and stops mid-search to turn abruptly to Steve, " This is stupid, we're here at night, in a empty field for what, a stupid runaway kid!" he obnoxiously rants while waving his arms irattically.
This was true, they were indeed searching for a runaway, orphaned kid. All this time, they were running after a KID! But, this kid wasn't your everyday orphan. This boy- yes he is a boy- has practically been in every orphanage in the tri-state area. Despite the countless locked doors, creaking staircases, dingy barred off windows and bloodthirsty guard dogs, he always managed to escape without a trace. He was most certainly clever; a jack of all trades you could say. He picked locks, hacked computers, and practiced mad fighting skills, just to name a few. His caretakers we're fed up with his shenanigans and agreed it was best to send him to a psychiatric facility for troubled juveniles. What the kid would like to call the 'nuthouse'. All of this was so the kid could get some psychiatric help to deal with the trauma of his past. They thought maybe, just maybe, that he could get the help he really deserved. Of course, the kid wasn't too keen on spending the rest of his days in a nuthouse, so he did what he does best -ran.
The caretakers of his orphanage called the police station and instructed them to go out and find the boy. Yes readers, the men looking for that boy were indeed cops, the po po , and whatever else you'd like to call them. They had followed the boy from the city to this empty field.
Yeah, isn't that just a great way to spend a Friday night.
"Oh shut it, George!" Steve yelled "you know that his cartetakers expect us to find him, safe and sound. And you don't know what this kid has been through, I know I don't. But I can tell you one thing for sure, he definitely hasn't had a great life telling by how he's acting now. So don't judge, George." Steve glared and pointed angrily at George who just glared on back. After a long staring contest, George rolled his eyes and went back to searching in the bush as Steve did the same.
George muttered and cursed under his breath, as the rest of the cops searched tirelessly for the kid. Out of sight, the kid is slowly tip-toeing away from the bushes, sneaking is also one of his most valued skills, he once got away with sneaking out of a tiger's cage at the zoo but, that's a story for a different time.
All the men spread out, throughout the whole empty field. Their flashlights shined brightly through the dark, and the boy dropped to the ground to avoid the increasingly prying light. He decided to crawl the rest of the way until he got far, far away from the blinding lights and swarming cops. Spotting trees in the distance, a light bulb went off in his head and he saw the opportunity to get away and carefully got up and ran towards the line of trees guarding a small forest.
He frantically sprinted the long span of field towards the trees in the distance. Until he noticed he had gotten away from them and he finally slowed down. He walked for what seemed like hours on end, admiring the serene trees as walked past. Noticing how the moonlight shone majestically through the leaves flooding the forest with light in the cold darkness. His eyes wandered to the sky and watched the slight glimmer of the stars above; he got to love nature's beauty. But don't get me wrong, he liked the city. The city was his home, minus the high crime rate, pollution, and etc, it was quite alright. Nature, and the woods are like a private sanctuary in his woefully bad life, why can't he enjoy it more often, well because he had idiots who think he had problems. Why can't they just leave him alone for once? After all, he was alone for almost all of his life. His parents left him at the orphanage. Even when he was surrounded by hoards of people there he was most certainly all alone. Not to mention, the kids made fun of him, avoided him like the plague and made sure he had absolutely no friends. Even when he tried to reach out and confide in the adults in charge, he was only met with uninterested stares ready to write him off as just another messed up kid. They tried to understand his predicament and problems with socializing, but all he ended up feeling was alone. These unfeeling adults, by the way, made everything worse, because of their sometimes ignorant and down right cruel standards.
He was just alone.
Alone.
A-L-O-N-E.
How he appreciated that word.
That word made him feel safe, calm, and collected. He liked to be alone so he didn't have to deal with the lies and hurt people cause him. He didn't like to rely on other people. No stupid stuff to deal with like, ambushes, influences, and other things he despised.
He just wanted to be alone. But, people got in the way, trying and failing to help what problems he had. They just made it wost. Why can't they just left them alone? Forever!
'cluck'
He jumped back with pain. He dropped to the floor and groaned loudly. He just hit his foot on a rock. A rock!
He got so caught up in his thoughts he forgot to watch where he was going. Dumb, right?
He decided to rest there. I mean, why not? He had some time before he ran for his life, or from the cops at least.
He sat under the tree. Nothing, but the sound of his breathing filled the eerie air, nothing else. 'That's weird' he thought, shouldn't there be more sounds in a forest, or at least a chirp of a bird or something? Even the air was desolately silent, like something was going to happen. Kind of like in movies where the hero is at rest, then suddenly a bomb goes off and kills his friend or a monsters eats him at the last second. Whether it was going to happen or not, it would definitely be because he had to rest for a second.
He was dead tired. Sweat trickled down his face, like rain falling in the midst of a tropical rain forest. He thought he would make a new river if he wiped his brow.
Boy, would people be surprised to see a raison looking kid, next to a river. That would be funny, if you ask him. But, where as now he just wanted to rest and get some water.
Then, he heard a crinkle coming from the back of him. What was he lying on? A bug. He hated bugs. He slowly stood up and turned to see.
He expected a range of little insect limbs, a head, and a splatter of army green bug guts smeared against the bark of the tree. But instead he saw...nothing.
He was confused, then he remembered he had his backpack on. He slapped his forehead, of course he took his backpack with him. He always took his backpack with him when he was going somewhere, he made sure he always had what he needed. Stored inside was a pack of crackers, a notebook, pencils and pens, an eraser, 3 waterbottles, an- Wait he was instantly filled with relief, of course he had water.
He slung his backpack off of his shoulder and onto the ground, then unzipped the top zipper. He then dug and rummaged through the contents of the pack, he then found the thing he needed, the water, he pulled it out of the pack. He unscrewed the cap frantically, proceeding to tilt it back fervently letting the water rush his tongue like a gushing geyser. He gulped it down greedily like it was the last drink of water in the world.
. . . Gulp. Gulp. Gulp. Weez. Huff. huff.
This was the sequences of sounds, which is loudly magnified in the quiet environment, until a big crunch was heard. Seeing the deflated bottle in his hands, he blew air into it until he was able to get a good look inside. He peered inside the bottle, and seeing nothing but small drips of water in there, he tosses it.
With his thirst quenched, he decided to sit back on the tree.
He leaned into the trunk of the tree and shimmied himself down, until he was on the ground.
He didn't care if he was on the ground, at least he was hydrated, still tired out, but hydrated. He wanted to rest some more, but he needed to keep on going to avoid those idiots.
Decisions, decisions.
As he was trying to decide whether to keep on going or rest some more, a sound broke the tie wagering in his mind.
The sound of faint voices. Followed by shimmers of light in the trees and bushes.
That meant one thing.
Time to go.
As quickly as he was before, he got up from the tree trunk and ran. Sensing the situation was dire, he decided to increase his sprint speed to ten-no-Twenty times more!
He ran through the forest crushing and crashing into tree branches, rocks, rose bushes, and cracks in the ground. Cursing and groaning all the way. He continued on running, looking back periodically to see if the coast was clear. But with this technique he's using, there is the danger of smacking into a tree, tripping on a rock or falling on the ground. The danger morphs into reality when he looked back for the tenth time, then...
WACK!
He -get this- he tripped on a rock and fell down a steep hill full of rocks, hard dirt, thorn bushes, and finally falling on a hard concrete road.
This is the time that the narrater says "I told you so!"
Alright, altogether now.
I TOLD YOU SO!
(You can add a taunting laugh and/or a funny dance or song.)
Yeah.
Back to the story..(if anybody is even reading this story?)...
He groans with pain as he gets up. He can still hear the voices of his adversaries in the distance, right by the hill he fell off of.
He saw the prying beams of light from their flashlights searching over the hill.
"I think I see him, yeah, he is down there!" said one of the men he points down straight towards him. He starts to run again, not into the forest, but rather onto old and cracked road. He didn't care that he didn't know where the road lead, but it had to lead somewhere... anywhere...
The man quickly slid down the hill, and took off after the boy. The others were trying to find their way out of the forest, on top of the hill. The man knew he was on his own. He ran after the kid with all the power he could muster. Which was about as fast as a middle age man. Which is about as slow as his unfit body is.
The kid is fast as average kid or better. He ran a lot in his life so he developed the ability to run faster than what average human kids run. But given how tired he was, he was just as fast as the guy after him.
That meant they were neck and neck.
The chase lasted for what seemed like an hour, both parties were sweaty and tired, and looked like dead guys in a horror movie.
"Stop, please." yelled the gruff and tiredly hoarse voice of the man chasing him "I just want to help you kid, please, just cooperate and everything will turn out fine." His pale face wrinkled with exhaustion and he was sweating like a hog on a farm in a heat wave. His eyes were adorned with glasses that really old people had, hmm what were they called then, bifocals, whatever the eyes looked sincere enough but the kid knew better.
He knew that he was going to a prison for Coo-Coo kids, so other people could forget them just like their lousy parents did. He wouldn't go there for all the gold at fort knox.
He was no nut.
Just because he wasn't friendly to the other kids. Didn't respect authority or anyone for that matter. Or even had some weapons he got from the streets. And he'd use them to intimidate some creeps. He just didn't like people, people like the ones he met were always jerks hiding behind smiles and nice faces.
It's because of people like them that made him, him.
No way in heck he was going to be fooled by no cop, no matter how 'sincere' he looked or sounded!
He kept on running, and didn't let up on the guy. The guy tried not to collapse from exaustion and forced himself to keep up.
But, like all great chases of the past, his legs finally gave out and he fell face first on the road. He slowly lifted his head to see, just before he blanked out, the kid running down the road.
Then, it all went black.
When the men got up with him, 2 hours later, he told him what happened. They thought he was down the road, which was half true, but they also knew that the road and where it led to was off limits, the others heard that bad things happen in that particular end of road.
They decided to go back to the station and tell the chief, his caretakers, and the orphanage head honchos that the kid was gone. It was off limits to them anyways.
This is the event that changes the kid's life forever!
Speaking of which, the kid himself is currently casually strolling down the road. He was so tired from the countless runs he did today. He needed a rest, but where? In a bush, no, under a rock, not at all, up a tree, tempting but no...Oh where will he hide?
Then out of the blue, he found that at the end of the road, was a tunnel in the center where the wooden fence fuses. In the entrance was the usual 'keep out' signs.
That's it! Maybe he can hide in there. It would be good wherever it led, because it would be out of the cops jurisiction. And he knew that this place would scare them, because of the stories about this road, the fear would keep them away for a while.
It was perfect!
He was about to walk into it, when he got a good look at the tunnel. The tunnel itself was ominous and dark looking. He didn't know what to expect from it, and what was on the other side.
The negative thoughts started to roll around his head like empty bottles on a swaying boat, but he shook it off and marched in like a man.
When he entered the tunnel, it was dark, so much darker than outside. And as he moved further and further into the tunnel, it seemed even more darkness encapsulated him. Then, suddenly, a tiny light flickered at what seemed to be the end of the tunnel. He slowly moved towards it.
He reached the end of the endless tunnel and arrived at a country side. The bright stars and luminous moon were out. Odd, they seemed different than before. Maybe his exhaustion was causing him to hallucinate or he just hadn't noticed before. Besides, he didn't see many stars in the city, like here.
He walked through this quaint little country side with white picket fences and glowing green grass. Everything was so different here. Or maybe he had just ignored it before. Well, regardless of the reason, he knew it was interesting. This place almost seemed like a cartoon. As though it was a hand drawn animation with exaggeratedly bubbly surroundings. He then saw a city, no, it was too small to be a city. It was a town. A town that may be a good place to stay, and that can offer him a clean slate. And no records of his measly existence.
He walked into the entrance of the town, the place looked as if it was brand-spanking new. Definitely not something he was used to. This town smelled like fresh laundry-warm, clean and beautiful. This was in contrast to his old home was dirty, dingy, and smelled like heaps of blazing hot motor oil. He brushed it off, because all he wanted right now was a place to sleep. He walked for a while on the sidewalk, taking the local scenery in. His eyes eagerly looked over the dim lights of the street lamps, neon signs, and etc. He then came to, as luck would have it, an alley!
Sure why not? He lived in an alley before, lots of times even. He was used to it by now. When he entered, it was considerably wider on the inside. And cleaner, too. Compared to the dirty, smelly alleys he'd to endured in his old city, this was paradise.
He walked until he found a good place to rest, a wall with a trash can leaning against it. OK, it wasn't the most comfortable place in the universe, but it would do.
He sat and got an old weathered looking newspaper and covered himself with it. He then readied himself for sleep. He listened intently to the peaceful sounds of the town, the click of the flickering lights, the wind howling at the moon, and the cars swooshing by as they drive past. It was both foreign and relatable to him, mulling this thought over, he looked up at the stars in the sky.
When he was at the orphanage they had old books and fairy tales that the caretakers have the children read aloud. The stories were always about the hero saving the princess, or about a poor girl with a bad life but somehow some fairy god mother snaps her fingers and makes it better. Or (get this!) it was about a wooden boy who would become a real kid for his loving father! Seriously, he thought those stories were full of bunk, he meant that those things would never actually happen in real life! Life didn't hand him a fairy god mother to fix his problems or have a wish on a star to help him have a home, unfortunately, things in life didn't work like that. The tough and mean are king where as the little good guys are dumped into the trash of life.
He watched the shimmering stars for a while and the way they twinkled sadly in the sky. Then he had a crazy thought. Why not wish on a star for his life to be better?
He slapped his head. Stupid! That stuff didn't work in real life! But, life did have a funny way of surprising him, bad surprises so far, but surprises all the same.
So maybe, just maybe for once, he would wish upon a star. Who knows, maybe something good would come out of it. Or maybe, he would make a total fool of himself by hoping for the impossible like a little kid. Either way it was still something to do, ya know before collapsing from exhaustion.
Okay, here it goes.
"OK. Hi star bright or whatever you're called." he said in a gravelly, hoarse voice.
Hey, he's 13 what do expect from a prepubescent voice! I mean give 'em a break. Sheesh. Yes, he is 13 years old.
He continued drearily, "Look, I don't think this wishing on a star crud is even real. Why am I even doing this? It's not going to do anything! UGHHH! Okay let me start over."
He took a deep breath, then said "Okay here it goes. Again."
He closed his eyes, and muttered "I wish for a better life." Then he let his senses and consciousness slip away from him. They were whisked away by the wind and he fell into a deep dreamless slumber.
He sunggled with the newspaper pulling it around himself like a warm blanket. The wind blew smoothly through the alley, like a promise of a new day.
That wish he made would come true, for he will have experiences that he would never forget. An adventure he was destined to experience. The stars, moon and sun aligned together. Somehow, someway this was going to work for him. But, the real question is, will it be the life he wanted or will it be something better? I hope he's ready. He's going to have a rude awakening in the morning.
I wished for a better life, you'd be surprised at what I got.
A/N:
Hiya readers, hope ya still there after all that. My name is cartoonman and I'm the author of this fic. (No, duh :p)Pluh-ease save an 'n' all hissin', booin', and throwing of all blunt objects for the end of the note.
So,what do ya think so far? Do ya like? (you know you do!)hate? (Buzz off then. You're all dead to me! ;) )Or what? (Get some opinions! Sheesh.)Let me know in your reviews! But remember, have mercy to a first timer*sniff sniff**sob sob* PLEASE! (that oughta' get their sympathy, suckers he-heh!). Please no negative stuff, just say what you think the story needs work on and I may consider fixing it, okay?
This story is made in honor of some of the greats on fanfiction. Here are just a few I had in mind,the illustrious crackpot, a. scribber, kisa cookie, lollieroxster, metion99, frostforge44, and littlebabyturtlelover. Those authors made the most awesome stories imaginable, if you didn't look at their sites, ya stupid. Crackpot's fanfic "Who needs Roger Rabbit?" inspired me to make this fic, ironic isn't it? Hope you like my fanfic!
Last but not least, I should thank my great editor, my beautiful sis! You're not getting a name, ya pervs!
All rights of this story, characters, settings
and etc belong to Cartoonman (that's me!).