Here I am with the next chapter. I'm sorry about the late update. I'll strive to continue this.
I hid in a group of trees. The beauty colourful foliage was lost on me. That's right, it was October. And it was Halloween soon too.
Not that I cared.
I sighed and walked on. Within a minute I had passed through the trees. On the other side was a building, built of brick and in ruins. I walked towards it and headed in.
The inside was a ruin. There were lockers on the floor, and missing floorboards. The walls were covered in graffiti, and there were several areas of mold. I walked on.
I came to a classroom, a large place with half-rotted desks spread around. The large window was shattered and there was a huge water stain covering most of one wall. There was a door leading to a smaller room with several shelves. I walked in, and found out what the room was used for. There was a pile of A3 sheets of paper, wrapped in plastic sheets, and several boxes of crayons, the tins having kept the crayons brilliantly. Well, I might as well do that. I thought. I took on of the boxes and opened the pack of paper, taking a couple of sheets. I then returned to the previous room and sat at the only whole desk, pulling out a crayon and starting to draw.
I put the crayon down. I finished the drawing I was set in Art. The drawing was my normal, sad. In the middle of the page was a mirror, circular. It was cracked. It the mirror, you could see the fractured reflection of a face. The eyes were a dull blue, and the skin white. The cheeks were sunken and the hair fell flat against his head, as if he had been caught out in the rain. There was also a red line across the face. The background was black. I sighed, then looked outside. The sun was starting to set. I had spent a lot of time on the drawing.
I returned all the things to the storeroom and walked out of the building. Then a thought struck me and I turned, walking back into the building. What did I have to go back to, after all? An unloving father, a step mother who I hated and three annoying brothers. I walked back into the the building and went to the upper floor, looking around until I found a room with tables instead of the desks that were in the others. I lay down on one of the tables and just stared at the ceiling in the uncomfortable position until morning came back round. I sat there until I figured school would be starting, then stood and walked out of the ruined building.
I emerged from the trees to see two boys lying on the grass nearby, both looking away from me. One, a ravenette, was lying with his head on the other boy's chest. The second boy, blonde, was running his left hand through the spiky, black hair. "So Roxas is still missing?" The ravenette asked.
"Yeah. Abbey's ready to call the police. I warned her you couldn't file a missing person until they'd been gone for forty eight hours, and now she's sitting by the phone, checking the clock about five times a minute."
"Really? Man, she must care for that kid. So what are you doing to help Isaac?" I blinked from surprise. I didn't recognize my brother. Something must be wrong.
"Well, I'm...Roxas?" Isaac had turned, as had the boy on top of him. They stood. "Where were you yesterday?" I shrugged and walked off towards the school. "Roxas! Wait!" I heard, but ignored him.
"Is there anybody he's friends with?" The ravenette asked.
"Not as far as I know Vani." Isaac replied.
"...He sure is antisocial..."
"Yep. Like you used to be. Only more violent."
"I still can be..."
"How can you? You're the uke, after all."
"Shh. Lets not let anybody in on that yet." He told Isaac. "By the way, what are you going to do about Bern?"
"I don't know yet. Just don't tell anybody about it. Especially Roxas. I don't want him to know what's happening..."
"Those cuts and bruises really don't suit you, you know."
"Shh. Don't let anybody hear. I'm only letting you know since it happened when you were at my house once."
"Yeah. Bern really did a number on you then..." I stopped.
"W-w-wha..." I coughed. "What?" I shouted.
"Roxas? Did you just talk?" Isaac asked. I nodded. "And did you hear everything we were saying?" I nodded again. He sighed. "Well, I might as well tell you everything."
We sat just inside the copse of trees. There was still, apparently, twenty minutes until school started. "Right." Isaac sighed. "I wasn't planning on telling any of you. As you probably heard, Vani here only found out by accident." He sighed again, and 'Vani' rested his hand on his shoulder. "Right. I know that Bern beats you, for a start. I've known for a while now, ever since Mum...you know. Anyway, after the move, Bern started on me. Beating me, that is. He did it last night as well. Here." He lifted up his t-shirt and turned around, revealing a collection of bruises.
I heard 'Vani' wince. "Ow." He said, obviously not having seen these before.
"Yeah. The worst was this one though." He said, turning and lifting his fringe to reveal a scar across his forehead. "It happened just after the move." He told me.
"We have to do something about Bern." 'Vani' said, slamming his fist into his palm.
"But what? We have no proof..." Isaac said.
"What about all of your scars and bruises?"
"They don't prove it was Bern." Isaac answered. "I'll think it over in class. It's nearly time for school to start." We headed off to our form rooms, me somewhat reluctant.
Sorry for the short chapter. But hey! It's a chapter, isn't it? Anyway, I hope you enjoyed. See you soon!