It didn't take long before _ _ _ _ found himself simply sleeping in trees or on the ground during the day, while everyone else got a nice warm bed and a safe, cozy house.
As time rolled on, once the adults lost interest in him, the kids found out about his living arrangements.
You can't live in a tree! They told him. That's not a home!
But where else can I live?
All the houses around here are completely full.
…
About half a second later, he was being dragged through the forest, towards a building he vaguely remembered as a place his friends had, multiple times, been warned not to go near by their parents.
Apparently, the place was haunted, and…that…..actually seemed to be about it, really.
The Creepy Steeple, as the children affectionately referred to it, was rumored to be full of ghosts. Nothing more, nothing less.
As far as he was concerned, nobody had ever checked the place out to make sure the rumors were true or not.
…Though, now, that last statement was technically wrong.
Still, he cautiously shuffled in, worried something might pop out and try to eat him.
He was fairly certain he was far from tasty, but he didn't feel like risking it.
However, the children assured him all was fine. They visited this place periodically as a sort of test of courage, though they hadn't been able to bring him to it before because he attracted too much attention.
Nothing had ever attacked when they were here. Not once.
It's probably because you're all in a group.
Of course, they didn't listen.
Rather, they insisted on him living here now, though they had never gotten past the first floor, and had no idea if this place was even livable beyond that.
Sighing, his will against such a thing eventually faltered, evidenced by him floating up to the second floor to scope things out.
The most interesting thing, so far, was the giant window, which looked like it had been formed to have stained glass.
Unfortunately, said glass was completely clean, devoid of any color aside from what filtered in from the world beyond.
…Perhaps he'd fix that later.
Trudging into another room, he headed upstairs to get a little looksee.
To his surprise, the room he had found was a bit more…homey than the rest of the place.
It was pretty well furnished for what was mostly an abandoned, barren building. There was no bed, but he could certainly make do without one.
Upon investigating deeper, however, he noticed everything was covered in a thick layer of dust, and there was completely rotted food in the fridge.
Even for one that hardly ate, finding out that last lovely fact made him want to puke.
Not finding anything else of interest in his look-over, he headed back down to inform the others of the place's condition.
They promptly left after that, telling him to wait where he was. And, though it aggravated him, he did as he was told.
Hopefully, they weren't trying to abandon him here…
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
…Lo and behold, about two hours later (he had counted the minutes by drawing lines in the dirt), his friends returned, cleaning supplies in hand.
What took you guys so long?
It was hard to explain to our parents why we needed these.
Eventually, they gave up.
He sighed.
Guess that was that, then…though he wasn't too sure about this.
After all, they hadn't convinced their parents of anything, had they? What was stopping those adults from following their kids?
Once inside, the children revealed their plan—to clean the top room!
However, that required him to carry them up to the next floor, as they couldn't get there themselves...
…And, as should have been expected, the very moment he finally agreed to that, adults stormed into the steeple.
His friends' parents to be precise.
That was far enough, and how dare they disobey their parents.
They were in a lot of trouble now.
His friends tried desperately to explain they had only come in because they needed to get him a home, but that merely made the situation worse.
Their words were misinterpreted, and, suddenly, it was his fault they had gone against the rules.
Before _ _ _ _ knew what was happening, he was "a bad influence" and "suspicious from the very start".
The kids "should have never been allowed around" him.
…Nor would they ever be again.
He was left alone, with parting words forbidding him from ever seeing his friends again…