Chapter 4- And So the Lights Are Dimmed

I couldn't believe it. I had been thrown out of my own house. To this day, thoughts about that event, hurts me. I was abandoned, that was the thought that was constantly swirling around my head, like a whirlpool, sucking up my logical thought. It was raining that day and to be honest, it kind of fitted the mood of this whole scene.

If I hadn't just been emotionally damaged by the events of that night, I would have thought that it was like a movie scene, where the lead character was upset and the rain was used as a sort of prop to enhance the emotions of the scene and to captivate the pity of the audience. But sadly, my life isn't a movie that can be watched and enjoyed, although I wish it was. Life would be much simpler if it was more like a movie.

I had tried for at least half an hour, well it definitely felt like it, banging on the front door of my house and yelling, trying to get the attention of my parents. But no matter how hard I tried and how much my hand felt like it was going to drop off afterwards, there was only silence in that house.

I eventually gave up trying to get my parents' attention as I realised that my dad truly didn't want me in the house and I eventually walked away into the blackness, rain hailing over my chestnut brown hair, gazing down woefully at the puddles on the dirty ground, wondering what will become of me? Will I die out here? It's only logical to think that, lots of people die, due to a lack of shelter, food or water.

I thought to go to the police station and report what had just happened to me but then I realised that my dad worked in the police force and his harsh words were enough to put me in a spiral of panic. Just what I needed on what I consider to be the worst night of my life.

The worst night of my life also felt like the slowest night of my life. It dragged on like the world's most boring play and every minute that ticked by, felt like a century. At least I think it was a minute. You see, I didn't have a watch with me or my phone, so my perception of time was only slight guesses that may or may not have been accurate.

There were no shops within a 5-mile radius, no one to help me. Although I lived in the Kanto region of Japan, one of the biggest and most crowded areas in the whole country, my housing estate was very secluded and so, if I wanted get anywhere like school for instance or if I wanted to go shopping, I had to take the bus or have my parents drive me there. Yeah, that's really helpful if I've been abandoned by my family and I have no money or bus cards with me.

The only thing I could do was walk. In fact, now that I think about it, I don't think that I would have been able to go to a shop for help anyway. They would have gone to the police and that would not have ended well for me, with my dad and everything. So, I continued walking, trying to find a suitable destination where I could ask for help.

I knew it was a bad idea to knock on someone's door and ask for help because they would call the police so that option was out of the cards. I must have been walking for 3 hours at least when the event that changed my life occurred.

It was cold, far too cold. My hands and feet felt like they were going to drop off my body, like icicles falling off a house roof on the coldest winters day. What's worse is that I'm fairly skinny, meaning that I don't have much fat to keep my body insulated in times like these. My clothes were drenched from the rain and god, I was exhausted, having been walking for ages in these conditions.

I decided to sit down on the pavement for a few minutes and try to let my legs recover. Plus, sitting down gave me the opportunity to try and rationalise my thoughts. As I sat down on the freezing cold pavement, out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a figure in the distance and it was then that I noticed that the figure was coming in my direction.

I found it really odd, how there was a person nearby. I was in the middle of nowhere. The place I was in, was somewhere where I'd never seen before on bus journeys or car journeys. Then again, I never used a map when I did my long walk that day and so I didn't actually know how to get to the busier section of the Kanto region.

I was just guessing and hoping that everything would end up okay, just like it does in the vast majority of stories that I've read. As the figure moved closer, I discovered some of its features. The figure was of a man, probably around my age, with a pale face, at least I think it was pale, a scruffy white long-sleeved shirt, baggy trousers and black scruffy hair.

Well, he was certainly very, um, unique. I think that's the best word to use. The weird thing was that this man wasn't wearing any shoes. He was completely barefoot which I found to be not only weird, but also crazy. I began to question the sanity of this man.

I mean, what kind of person walks around at night wearing no shoes, on a pavement of all places, where rocks could be digging into his feet? A disturbing thought suddenly then popped into my head. What if this guy was an escapee from the loony bin?

Well that would explain a lot. Like the messy hair and baggy clothes which made him look insane or a little nutty at the very least. It was at that moment that I noticed that this guy was walking towards me. I was a little confused but I still continued sitting on the pavement.

I was too exhausted to start my hike to nowhere again and besides, I wasn't afraid of the man, I just thought that he looked a little nuts. He came and sat down next to me, no not sat, crouched! The best way in which I can describe his crouch to you is that of a frog crouching on a lilypad.

Maybe this man was a germaphobe, that was the first thought that entered my head. The pavement was no doubt filled with bugs, insects and germs, ready to infect a person with a horrible disease, preparing to ruin a person's life, just as my dad did with mine.

I decided to overlook the crouching thing. I was too tired to ask questions. I didn't even need to ask questions though, because at that moment, the man asked me a question first.