OKAY, SO...

This is some story I wrote, and I don't think it's actually a fanfiction. But I'm posting it anyways because people tend to like the things I write, so, yeah.

I was drowning in blackness. It was everywhere. I couldn't see, I couldn't move, I couldn't

breathe. I could hear, though. I could hear the screams that echoed around me and screwed

with my depth perception. Nothing changed but the eerie wails, which moved in pitch and

volume every few minutes. It was torture, unbearable. And yet there was nothing I could do.

Just sit there and endure it. And then... Something out of the blackness was reaching towards

me, closer and closer...

Chase woke up, drenched in sweat. He had been having this dream every night for the

past ten years. He always got out of it just before the thing got him. He named this place the

Shadowland, because that was all that it was. He knew it was real, because every morning he

would have chafed, bleeding wrists from being suspended by invisible iron chains. He walked

silently the bathroom and covered his wrists in fresh gauze. His parents thought it was a fashion

choice, but they would freak if they realized why he really wore them. Sometimes he wished

he didn't wake up at 3 in the morning drenched in sweat and bleeding, but that was out of his

hands. Even at age seven he understood people would think he was crazy if he told them about

the Shadowland.

As he turned to go to his room, he realized that it was his first day at Churchill high school.

He would be a junior. At least nobody would know him here, but he knew what they would think

of him before they knew themselves. They would instantly single him out as weird and he would

end up ignoring everyone. That's what always happened. He looked at himself in the mirror. He

always seemed to stand out, even though he looked and acted like everyone else. He had short

black hair and blue eyes. He didn't have any unusual traits, except that he didn't play sports. He

had never really liked sports. He hung his head and went back to his room.

He decided to try something he hadn't done in a long time. He sat down on his bed and

held out his hands like he was holding a ball. He imagined a ball of light, felt the heat, and

imagined it in his hands. When a he opened his eyes, a soft glowing sphere was floating gently

in his palms. He thought of it moving to one wall, it floated over there, bobbing and weaving. It

hovered in one place while he read Edgar Allen Poe, and when it was time to get ready he had to

only think about it dissipating and it did. He liked the Light Orb. He called him Dave, Dave the

Orb. He smiled. It was funny to him. He picked out a red and grey striped shirt and some black

jeans and pulled them on while he practiced what he called Manifesting. He popped Dave in and

out of existence, and he did anything Chase wanted him to.

Finally, he went downstairs and got a bowl of Frosted Flakes and sat down. His aunt Lainey

didn't get up until it was almost time for him to leave. When she came downstairs in a blue tee

shirt and white jeans, she spared him barely a glance as she made some toast. He used to live in

New York City. His parents were on vacation, so he lives with his aunt in Oregon. He finished his

cereal and hopped into his black Impala, and drove to school.

Since he was an hour early, he decided to head to the library. The only problem – he didn't

know where it was. There was nobody around to ask. He walked forwards until he was in a

courtyard. There were benches and a vending machine and a big cement square for sitting on. In

the middle of the square there was a huge rock, easily ten feet tall. It was blue and painted on it

in silver was a knight riding on a horse. That explained the team name: the Lancers.

He sat with his back up against the rock for a long time, watching the people swarm in and

walk around. At no time did anyone notice him; at no time did anyone question the presence of

a new kid who wasn't an obvious freshman. He closed his eyes and sat for what seemed like an

eternity, waiting for the bell. But it hadn't been five minutes when he sensed someone sit down

beside him. They made no noise, but he knew they were there. He refused to acknowledge the

person sitting beside him, and they remained motionless until the bell rang.

As soon as it rang, the kid was gone. Chase made his way to his first class merely on instinct:

Chem lab. It didn't actually matter, though. This was just getting to know the classes. He sat

through an hour each of what we're going to be doing in Chem, History, and Art 2D. He sat at

the rock, not eating and motionless for an hour and a half at lunch. There was nobody near him

the entire time. He sat through another two hours of Japanese and Drama. That one actually

was fun. They didn't have to do anything, they just got sent to the library to work on computers.

He disabled the SafeSearch feature in about three seconds and just surfed.

At the end of the day, he had successfully not talked to a single person, including the teachers.

It felt good. Tomorrow he was going to put gauze on his arms and wear a T-shirt. When he got

home, he slipped on his glasses and became a totally different person. On , he was

ByteMe, a quirky nerd who spent all day correcting Wikipedia. He was friends with JayHale,

WTFIsThat, OhGodWhy, and QwertyDork.

Their conversation was particularly intriguing before he joined in:

QwertyDork: I just don't know, Jay. Byte hasn't been much recently.

JayHale: I told you! He must be having girl trouble!

WTFIsThat: Totally, Jay.

OhGodWhy: What are we talking about here?

QwertyDork: Theories on what's going on with ByteMe lately.

WTFIsThat: Maybe something horrible happened!

QwertyDork: Your theories always tell us what not to expect, WTF.

JayHale: Leave the guy alone. He's crazy.

OhGodWhy: I see. Perhaps he feels lonely?

WTFIsThat: Maybe he's gay.

OhGodWhy: That explains a lot. Being around us guys must be making him uncomfortable.

JayHale: He'd better not 'come out of the closet' on us.

QwertyDork: Ha. I bet he's gonna choose you, Jay.

This had gone too far. He had to stop this.

ByteMe: Hey, guys. What's up?

QwertyDork: Ohhhhh snap.

WTFIsThat: JAY! YOU SAID HE WOULD BE ELSEWHERE TODAY!

JayHale: I THOUGHT HE WOULD! HE NEVER GETS ON MONDAYS!

ByteMe: What are you guys talking about D:

JayHale: Nothing. Get back in the closet!

WTFIsThat: LAWL JAY

OhGodWhy: Sorry, Byte. They were curious about you and I tried to stop them...

Chase laughed.

ByteMe: What...?

JayHale: *Shoves Byte back in the closet*

WTFIsThat: *Starts laughing* Hahahaha lol Jay

OhGodWhy: Ummmm... *runs away*

ByteMe: What did you tell them, OhGod? WHAT DO THEY THINK OF ME!?

QwertyDork: They think you're coming out of the closet on us. Please don't.

Chase paused for a moment, to rack up the suspense.

JayHale: Really, Qwerty? You just go out and tell him?!

WTFIsThat: HAHAHAHA

OhGodWhy: I knew it. I knew this would happen.

JayHale: Wait...

QwertyDork: What?

JayHale: Where'd he go?

WTFIsThat: Maybe he ragequat.

OhGodWhy: Ragequat?

WTFIsThat: Yeah. The past tense of ragequit.

JayHale: Guys, he's still gone.

No, I'm not. Chase thought.

ByteMe: *suddenly hugs Jay*

JayHale: *screams and runs away* AAAAH! AH! AH! AH! GET AWAY!

WTFIsThat: AHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAA LOL

QwertyDork: Haaaaaaa knew it.

OhGodWhy: *facepalm* He read what we were talking about. He's joshin' us.

ByteMe: *leaves* Bye, guys. Oh, and BTW, on Mondays I watch you guys talk.

Chase logged off before things got any weirder. He pulled out Dave the Orb and started reading

again. He was halfway through The Raven before he heard footsteps in the hallway. His bedroom was on

the end of the hallway, so he knew they were headed for him. He quickly put out Dave and shoved the

book under his bed, seconds before Lainey walked in.

"So how was your day?"

He grunted. "Muffinless."

She smirked. "Well, you can get your own. They're in the kitchen."

Chase grumbled a little before making his way downstairs to find a muffin. On the counter there was

a Maple Pecan muffin, his favorite. Suddenly an idea came to him. He all but lunged for it and ran to his

room. He set it down carefully and sat on his bed. He imagined the muffin, smelled its delicious caramel,

felt its cool wrapper, and almost instantly he had a second muffin in his hands. He bit into it and it was

delicious. He set it down before putting the first one back on the counter in the kitchen: he knew Lainey

liked them, too.

After that he experimented with creating different things – a pencil, a book (more Poe yay!), and

even a drawing he managed to think up. He wasn't sure how he managed that one, but it was pencil on

paper. Whatever. It worked. Chase attempted to create a small dragon, but after about ten seconds it

faded away. He was puzzled. Maybe he couldn't make living things. He looked up at his clock: midnight.

He was literally shocked that he had spent so much time on this. He instantly felt the tiredness and lay

down to sleep, eating his muffin from earlier.

It still tasted good.