No More Lonely Days, Second Edition
By RaviFennec
PROLOGUE
It was early. It must've been about seven or eight o'clock in the morning. The light of the rising sun came in through my window, bathing the wall with a stunning shade of orange while the imposing black silhouettes of the trees and the light poles outside projected themselves upon it. I yawned and lazily scratched the back of my head. For some unexplainable reason, I had no recollection of the events that had happened the previous day. It almost felt as if my memory had been wiped clean. However, I decided to ignore that feeling as I pulled the bed sheets aside so that I could start my day. Interestingly enough, something unusual caught my attention. There, on my bedside table, sat a metallic silver box. I reached for it carefully, wondering what was in the box but the most important thing I wanted to find out was how that thing had gotten there. When I finally got my hands on it, I carried it and set it on the desk I used to do my homework. Even though it looked heavy, it felt just as if I were carrying a pillow. I stood in front of the brown desk observing the lid of the box. It didn't seem to have any sort of lock, so I slowly lifted it. After removing said lid, I pulled up a chair that was in one of my bedroom's corners and sat on it, right in front of the desk so that I could take a look at the stuff inside in a more comfortable position.
Then I began pulling things out of the shiny box. I found common-looking items such as several pieces of clothing which were made of some dark-colored fabric. Moving on to the next item, I found some sort of remote that had a couple buttons on it, which reminded me of a car key. I also found a strange-looking handgun, and something that I assumed was a letter. I looked at the little envelope for a minute or two before ripping it open with my shaky hands. I read the name of the person who had written it and suddenly, I remembered…
You must be asking yourselves who I am. My name is Eric Gallow Martínez, and this is my story. I live in Fairport, a city out on the east coast. It has a rather small urban area with tall skyscrapers and colorful neon lights, but it's largely surrounded by multiple peaceful suburban areas where fancy houses are built here and there. I'm 18 years old, and I'm a high school senior… Or I used to be.
No, I've never been involved in a romantic relationship with a girl (or a guy, for that matter) although I've hung out with a handful of people from time to time. When I'm at school I usually spend my lunch breaks with my friends. Their names are Nick and Laura. We've known each other for a few years now and we're always happy when we're together.
This might seem like a chill and easy life, but everything has a bit of a dark side to it. You see, I'm always picked on at school. I am forced to endure the daily mocking and the insults from people who don't really seem interested in getting to know me, especially from Calvin Garrett and his gang. I like to think I'm a good guy, but I guess some people get their kicks out of making others miserable. You can bet your ass that messing with me is their favorite hobby.
I try not to think much about it, but there are times when they get physical, and I can only do so much about it. I'm not strong; maybe a little athletic, but I can't fight for shit. I'm a bit of a cycling enthusiast, so my stamina isn't precisely terrible. Enduring punches is a different story altogether though.
Outside of my academic life, well… There's not much to say, really. My parents are usually pretty absent. It's not that they're lousy with family; in fact, they're probably better than other kids' parents. They just work really hard. A lot of travel is involved in their profession so, more often than not, I end up living by myself. When I was younger, however, my uncle Leo used to come over to babysit whenever my parents couldn't look after me. He was a really cool guy and, honestly, I feel like he was a bit of a good secondary dad. He doesn't come over that often now, but we keep in touch through social media.
I have an older brother too, his name is Daniel. He isn't around much either. As a 25-year old, he's found himself a stable job as an industrial engineer out in Texas. Good for him if I'm honest.
I've been living in this town for 18 years; I yearn for a change in direction.
Speaking about change though…
I must admit that the last few months have been pretty rough and unforgiving but still, the change that I went through on a rainy evening turned me into a better version of myself, both on the inside and the outside. I can assure you that what I lived through is something that you will only get to see in a movie or in your craziest dreams. I don't care if that change threatened to end my life. I'm just thankful it helped me discover what I'm capable of and what my true purpose in this universe is.
I am Eric Gallow Martinez and this, is my adventure.
Hi, RaviFennec here. I had already submitted a story with the same name but it was pretty bad so I decided to completely rewrite it . I hope you guys will enjoy the rest. Don't forget to leave your review! See ya!
Updated on 10/05/2016: Minor fixes
Updated on 03/28/2021: Ended up changing Eric's backstory a little bit, I felt like his description of his life didn't age well at all. Gotta consider that I was an angry 15-year old when I wrote the first version of this prologue. One of the changes include making him a little less edgy, giving him a proper family (the last version had him living alone due to his parents and brother disappearing inexplicably.)
In fact, this story was originally conceived in 2009 and first-written in 2010, so many of the ideas I had back then certainly seem ridiculous now. Now that I'm out of college, I thought I might have another go at writing while also breathing fresh air into this fanfic.
See you soon!