it unfolds -- larry/reader - sal/reader

snow

        Another long day...

        I slowly blink my eyes open only to be attacked by the light peering in through my thin curtains. "Shhhh" I whisper to my bedroom hoping it will let me sleep more. Knowing my antics will fail I stiffen my body and release, gaining me a few pops from different bones across my body.

        I sit up from previously straddling my body pillow and toss my legs off of the right side of my bed(the only side not touching the wall). I wince as my alarm goes off from my vintage leather clock I picked up a few weeks ago from the side of the road. It was a nice steal but I wish the alarm was quieter.

        I turn off the alarm and hum to myself, wondering why I woke up before my alarm went off. I get up and feel my loose band shirt slip off my shoulder a little.. the cold hits me like a truck. I feel the goosebumps rise across my entire body and anxiously attempt to find the source of cold air wisping around my room. Oddly enough I find nothing... out of cautiousness I lock my windows and close my curtains as much as I could, and quickly open up my closet to put on a large black hoodie and thick socks.

        I'm not that freaked out by the cold.. I mean we are in the middle of a Nockfell winter. But considering almost every building in Nockfell had a hard core heating system the crisp air was a bit off-putting. Hell, even the the dingy apartment building I live next to doesn't get this cold.

        Now warming up a bit, I turn to press my tinted pink hand against my frosted window, watching the snow encase Addison apartments, and the trees surrounding it.

        However what caught my eye were two boys, seemingly on the younger side, practically skipping behind the back of the building, slowly making their way to the tallest tree. Then climbing up a dingy make-shift ladder I had never noticed before. At this point I'm almost completely pressed up against my window trying to get glimpses of what they are climbing up into, however the edge of my window cuts off my field of view from then on.

---

        It's been 2 weeks since I started living alone here.. I originally was supposed to live in this house with my aunt but that's not the case anymore. And I would have chosen to live with my friends back in New Jersey but according to Child Protective Services I'm better off with my "family", even though my Aunt had some screws loose. She was always nice, but her mind always seemed somewhere else and anytime we would try to converse with one another she would somewhat.. buffer. However she was my only family and the only person I knew in Nockfell so I chose to be nice with her even though if I were to describe myself as anything it would be introverted, and maybe driven by things that others would frown upon.

        And yet, now I'm living in this dusty blue painted one-story house, without any legal guardians, much less any parental figures, keeping secrets from the world. I know I will be found out one day but it's not like I really did anything. I just need to wait out the 1 year till i'm 18 and lead a new life.

        I walk out of my room and walk to the kitchen, attempting my "little game" of avoiding the floor boards that creak. Once I arrive to the kitchen I admire the lavender and white tiled floor and turn on the kettle, getting out a tea bag and preparing a mug.

---

        Finally ready to experience this dull day I go on a whim, put on my converse and nearest jeans I could find and leave through the back door. I still want to know what my window was resisting me from discovering.

        I don't live too far, nor too close to Addison Apartments but I still struggle to see the top of the tree I so eagerly wanted to see from under my back porches roof. Im resistant to fully step out into the below freezing weather and get flash mobbed by the white flurries but decide otherwise. I step out, and like I predicted I get completely clouded by the quick moving snow. At this point I start trudging through my back yard, making my way slowly to the back of the apartments.

        There were no fences at neither my house, nor the apartments so at least I didn't have to attempt to trespass but it was still a bit odd making my way to the other property. As I get closer I finally start to see a brown cube-like shape erupting from the near top of the large tree. I look to my right at the apartments and see a few dumpsters, what I assume is the back door, and a slight blinking light. "S-security camera's?" manages to escape from my lips, I panic a little and wonder if I'm actually trespassing, but choose to ignore it.

        Seeing that I've lived here for a little over 4 weeks and have yet to see any cop cars, despite have seeing people walk through the back of the apartments on several occasions I think I'll be fine.

        I start walking more towards the tree house finally making it to the bottom of the tree.. It really is massive, I don't see how these people weren't afraid to go up that high into a.. not so sturdy looking tree-house. However, since I had already gotten to the tree and the only real thing I could do after this was go back to my house and play on my gameboy all day(like every other day), I put my hands on my freezing cold, pink, and almost frost-bitten face and breathe out..

        "OKAY! Let's climb up!!" I slightly scoff at my own sudden confidence as I start to put my right foot and left arm onto the slightly un-sturdy scattered planks of wood traveling up the tree, but was stopped by a sudden bright green light projecting out of the cracks on the bottom of the tree-house and the makeshift windows. Lighting up the branches and snow surrounding it.

        I immediately stop climbing and jump down from the 3 foot mark I had already reached and flinch as I see a small trinket abruptly fall into the snow right next to me. I hear a small voice from the tree house.. "Ah shit! I dropped the walkie talkie.. sorry man I didn't expect my super game-boy to react like that.."

        I clearly heard the first part of the boy's reaction but the rest of it was muffled, either because of the wind whirring around me or just the distance between me and the boys in the tree-house.

        Realizing what I was doing, not only attempting to interrupt these two kids from next door when they seem to have some weird supernatural looking shit to take care of for themselves, I was also possibly trespassing..

         Knowing that I should probably run away in case the boys came down to collect the item they had dropped, not wanting to face them and have to explain what I was doing and who I was. I quickly turned around and prepared to make a run for it, luckily the wind direction was on my side.

---

        Though I was glad I had made the decision to leave the house that day, I somewhat regret not at least seeing who the two boys were. Well... I'm sure I'll see them again.