My attempt at a "Trevor Redmetion" styled story. Hope you enjoy. Should be two more chapters after this.
He held the letter in his hand tightly, afraid that if he let go, the wind might blow it away.
Trevor was standing at the entrance of one of his favorite parks. It was nice and quiet here, and not many people came often to play on the decaying playground a few steps away from him. His eyes scanned the area, seeing a few sparrow scout members help clean up the park a bit, and a few kids sitting quietly by themselves doing whatever they came here to do. It was quite warm out, so there were more people today than there usually were, but that was a good thing.
He was there looking for a girl, Hilda to be exact.
The first time he saw her a few days before she actually moved, inspecting the school that he went to. He was in the courtyard playing with his friends when he caught glimpse of her bright blue hair moving through the crowd. She stood out so much to every other kid and didn't seem to understand what was going on at the school.
The bell rung before he could work up the nerve to talk to her and introduce himself.
Trevor couldn't stop thinking about the girl though, he waited the next day in the courtyard with all the other kids to see if she would check things out again, but no bright blue haired girl ever appeared. He was a bit disappointed, but after a few days, Trevor quickly forgot about the encounter and just when back to his normal life. He was still curious about who she was, but he decided that it didn't matter whether or not he met him.
Soon, the day of the bird parade arrived, an event Trevor was not very interested in partaking in. Everything seemed normal at first on that day, as he and his group of friends were all talking about their daily plans they would be doing.
On that day though, Trevor saw Hilda again.
She introduced herself as the new girl, freshly dropped off from the wilderness and exploring the city for the first time, and she came up to the group asking if they could friends. Of course, a part of him was very excited to see her once again, but he decided to play it cool as they hung out together with his friends. He wanted to make a good first impression on her.
Only things didn't work out the way he had planned.
Most of the things they did she seemed to not understand, and whenever they practice their old tricks, she simply couldn't seem to get the hang of it.
Trevor remembered his friends asking him to leave her behind, insisting she was being a drag on their plans for that day. He declined, however, still determined to impress her and let her join their group.
So when she brought up the topic of rocks and showed him a small smooth stone, he couldn't resist but to throw it into the trees where the bird was perched. He had thought by showing her his throwing skills, she would be amazed at him.
Then, when he hit that raven, he instantly knew the complete opposite was true.
He can still remember Hilda's face as she ran over to the raven in worry. She was so angry at them, so disgusted at what they did. What he did. Trevor couldn't help but feel guilt twist up inside him as he watched her trying to take care of it.
And then everything else happened. He thought he heard the bird speak, but then Hilda wouldn't let him see it and ran away. His friends teased him throughout the entire afternoon about "Scaring the new girl". He felt so embarrassed and angry, that he felt the need to take the raven and put him into a birdcage to try and get him to talk to his friends to prove to them he wasn't lying.
He was attacked by a small invisible force the next second, causing his friends to laugh at him and the bird to almost escape. In his rash anger, he took the raven to the river, where he then thought he heard a voice, and accidentally dropped the bird into the water.
Hilda came once again, jumping into the water, and didn't come back up for a few moments. Trevor wanted to jump in to help, but he stood back as the raven burst out of the river, so much bigger than he already was.
Trevor watched in horror as the realization dawned to him that he just kidnapped the Great Raven.
For the next few days after the incident, Trevor walked around drowning in guilt and shame. He couldn't help but blame himself over and over again for everything that happened that day. No matter what he did, his thoughts always drifted back to Hilda and how angry she was at him.
He knew what he had to do, but he was so afraid to go and do it himself in fear of Hilda's reaction. What if she rejected him? What if she hated his guts so much that she wouldn't want to even talk to him? He couldn't stop worrying about all these things, so he quickly decided to just keep his head down and try to forget the encounter with Hilda and the raven.
As expected, it was kind of hard to. Every day and night, Trevor kept seeing flashes of what happened that day, making the poor boy feel even more guilt for what he did. Sometimes, he had terrifying nightmares of ravens pecking his eyes out as his friends looked at him in amusement. Even when he wasn't asleep and fully active, the memories of that day were enough to make Trevor feel like he was in a nightmare constantly.
He didn't tell his mother, or his friends about the silent suffering he went through each day, as he knew they would react with great concern and guilt for not noticing his pain. Trevor didn't want anyone else feeling what he was feeling, so he just quietly kept it to himself. Better to just keep his head down then get anyone else hurt anymore.
A few weeks went by after that, and Trevor never got over the encounter. Nightmares became more frequent, his attitude towards people became more noticeable. People tried to help, but he just pushed them away. It seemed like the torment of guilt would never end for Trevor.
Then one day something extraordinary happened.
He was in history class, writing notes about some old dude who once was alive. Trevor was pretty much zoning out that day and just wrote down information about the lesson to study for later. He wasn't really awake until he actually stopped to read what he wrote. Most of the things he wrote down were pretty simple, but then he came across one word that made his heart stop.
Atone…
He didn't remember writing it down, but somehow the word struck him with such intensity he couldn't keep his eyes off it. The word, atone, repeated in his mind over and over again, like a broken record that wouldn't stop repeating. It bounced around in his head, replaying, reversing, many times over until it was burned into his brain.
The day of the Bird Parade replayed in his mind as Trevor kept thinking of the word. He could remember every detail of that day still, like a painting, but something was different. Every time he thought about it, the word played in his mind as each thought unraveled.
And after a few moments of this, thinking about that day, he finally knew what he had to do.
He started with a card, making sure it sounded genuine and sincere enough. It took a day to get it just right, but eventually, Trevor finished it. Next, he had to get a gift, which wasn't very easy. He didn't know if Hilda liked chocolate like him, or appreciated good wood carving. It took a while like the card, but he eventually found a couple of flowers that would hopefully make it work.
Then there was the hardest part, actually tracking down Hilda in order to apologies. There weren't many places he knew where she most visited, and he didn't like the idea of doing his apology in school where everyone would watch him.
He started at the statue where he found the bird that day calling for the girl. Pain struck his heart as memories flooded back, but he forced himself to wait and see if she would come there. She didn't however, and he was forced to keep looking.
The next place he went to was the playground where they met Hilda, which also turned up empty. This left one final place he knew, which was the city square, as he hoped that Hilda's mom had taken her there for the day. Of course, that also turned up with no appearance from the girl, which left Trevor stumped more than ever on where to find her.
School started the next day, and Trevor continued to find out where she would go when out of the tip of his ear he slightly overheard a conversation between a couple of sparrow scouts members talking about there trip to clean up the park. Almost everyone in school knew Hilda had joined as a member of the sparrow scouts, including Trevor, who prepared to meet her there.
Which was where he was now, at the park, watching members of the sparrow scouts pick up loads of trash. He searched throughout the now crowded place, looking for Hilda. Even with the crowd, Trevor knew she would be easy to spot with her bright blue hair. So, his searched hastened, as he quickly scanned the park filled with people.
Luckily for Trevor, his search didn't take long, as he soon spots the familiar bright blue hair of Hilda currently working at the corner of the park. She was with two other kids who he remembered being in his class but didn't really know their names.
They didn't matter though, Hilda did. Trevor reminded himself of this and quietly approached them, clutching his card and flowers. Memories raced through his mind and his heart rate sped, but he walked until he was right behind her. She sensed his presence, however, and quickly turned around.
They were now finally meeting eye to eye.
It took so much energy and determination, but Trevor finally managed to get the words out he dreaded ever since their last encounter.
"Um… Hi Hilda… been a while huh?"
Will be continued next chapter!