The Chronicles of Always
Chapter 2
Upon clearing his first year alone, Tino considered it. He could drop the pills. Spill them down the drain. Flush them. Just throw them over the shoulder and out the window. He didn't know what they did. Why he needed them.
Summer at his disposal he took the bottle in hand and threw it in the back of his drawer.
Nothing happened.
For a week, he didn't notice a change. No one said anything. He felt fine.
Then what were the damn pills for? Other than the dancing stegosaurus in a tutu dream there was nothing different. Why would he be on a sugar pill, just a bunch of placebos for the last eight years? They didn't help him sleep, they just made it so he couldn't dream. Why did they bother?
Slowly, he dreamt.
The worn paths and stone crept like vines up a trellis, gaining what could hardly be called life in such a decrepit and foreboding .
He finds himself on vaguely familiar trails and fields each morning before waking.
After days of walking, he spotted a boy before waking. He was a little taller and a little younger than himself. The albino reached out to Tino and called his name before Tino was thrust into consciousness.
The next night Tino found himself wandering the nonsensical paths lined with rusted gothic fencing.
The second person he had seen in this place was perched in a tree, the airs of apathy and dignity tangible to him from the ground.
"You're here."
It wasn't a question, nor an obvious statement. Not surprise but aggravation tainted the words with a hint of accusation.
"You're late."
"Who-who are you?" Tino stuttered.
The cold eyes flashed with rage and hurt for a moment before growing cynical, superior.
"You don't remember."
"Remember what?" Tino pleaded.
The man laughed coldly.
"They call me Lukas."
The name struck a cord, a surge of memories bashed against a mental dam. He knew that name. He had to remember that name.
"I..."
"You what?" The man snapped.
"I don't remember... But I remember your name."
"You're late." Was all he said.
"Late for what? I don't know what's going on."
"Then leave." The mask began cracking. "W-we-we can get along without you... I only can because Emil said he saw you."
"Emil... He's the one I saw on the hill last night then."
"... Leave me." Lukas whispered, weighed down with the ambiguousness of his words.
"How?"
"How indeed." He sounded small and pained.
A howl broke the silence.
"You should run." Lukas offered, unmoving from his branch.
"Which way?"
"Pick one and run. Up. Down. Left. Right. All ways. No ways. It's all the same. Run or they'll catch you." He sounded bored then, guard returned.
The thundering against the path sent him sprinting the rest of the path, the broken Lukas watching from the tree.
...
Ha! I did say 'should' was the operative word. Chapters will wind up varying lengths.
Sorry about that.
Questions? Comments? Critiques? Concerns? Let me know.
-Waltz