The Boy With The Firefly Crown

Chapter One

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On his way to school, right about four fifty-two on a Thursday morning, Shiloh had seen a dead rat on the sidewalk. There was dried blood gushed out of its ear and anus. Shiloh cocked his head to the side. It looked like the rat had been stepped on or crushed. Right next to it was an almost dead flower that grew out from the broken pavement along with a small patch of grass. Its petals were dry and translucent as if every sip of life had seeped out of it.

I will mourn you. He thought. Shiloh kept walking.

Right about five steps later, he looked to his left, and on the other side of the street, there were four men in an alleyway. One of them was on the floor next to the garbage tray receiving harsh punches from a dark-haired man. The two other men were dressed in all black and one of them was pointing a gun at the man getting beaten. They were older than Shiloh but the man punching the guy seemed younger.

Shiloh was frozen in his spot as he heard the grunts, whines, and screams of the man being tortured. He had a sticky face due to the mix of sweat, saliva, mucus, and blood. Shiloh flinched when he saw the man receive a hard kick in the face, probably knocking some teeth out. That helpless man was getting beaten to death. That was for sure because it looked like those men didn't have mercy. As much as he wanted to move, the muscles in his body didn't want to comply. That's when an intense pair of light brown almond eyes met him. Shiloh did not have any reaction at all and just kept on looking at him. He noticed now that his hair was brown, his eyes were like honey and that...he recognized this young man.

Shiloh glanced at his bloody hands and that somehow snapped him out of this trance. Shiloh kept walking faster as he held his breath. He knew better than to stay and cause more problems for himself. Today he had seen a dead rat next to a flower reaching its end, and a man getting beaten with a gun pointed at him.

That's when he decided that today he would think about death. Shiloh didn't want to die. Nor was he afraid of death. Though he was of the physical and emotional pain that came with it. He had not yet cried for his mother, after all these years. But he sure felt a vast emptiness. Something he knew he couldn't get back. It was something that he could just not stop thinking about as inevitable as it was when he saw...life? Humanity?

Shiloh flinched as heard a loud pop behind him about four minutes later. He kept walking at the same pace and chose a longer route to his school. He was scared they would follow him since they could've seen his uniform so it was safer for now if he did so.

He noticed how the closer people got to death, the more alive and present they felt. It was when someone was told they had a terminal pancreatic disease that they suddenly wanted to do everything on their bucket list and wanted to actually live. Or they just decided to be miserable, have no hope, or simply wait until they died. He has no idea what lies on the other side of physical death and they somehow taught him that it is a negative part of life. The end. There's so much we do to build a life that we create an ego. And we're afraid to let it all go. Most of us don't want to die. We're afraid to let the river flow. And we shouldn't at all. But there's so much aliveness that's building in someone that you just can't help but think there is some connection between that and the movement towards physical death. So many people try to avoid the fact that we're all going to die.  That our loved ones are going to die. And it hurts. And it's supposed to hurt. It's a heartbreak. And we cry and it's okay. What most of us do not understand is that you're already committed to it.

Shiloh closed his eyes with his head against the locker for a few seconds. They stung due to the restless night he'd had. Today, Shiloh had gotten out of bed as early as he could, put on his uniform, grabbed a granola bar, and arrived at his school right before sunrise when they were about to open the entrances. He sneaked into the cafeteria and stole a bag of roasted potato chips, one red apple, a cup of cereal, and a cup of greek yogurt. Despite his exhaustion, he still went to work out at the school's gym and took advantage of the showers.