Sentiment of a Witness: I Ain't Ever Seen Two Pretty Best Friends

𝙰 𝚁𝚞𝚍𝚎 𝙰𝚠𝚊𝚔𝚎𝚗𝚒𝚗𝚐

I walked around the corner of a familiar-feeling corridor. To my left was a series of doors; on my right were windows with wooden planks of wood barring them off, and ahead of me was a staircase leading upwards, identical to the ones behind me. I walked forwards, the rickety wooden floorboards felt cold under my bare feet. I looked at the doors as I passed.

They were numbered.

30, 31, 32, 33, 34 and 35.

As if being pulled by a supernatural force, I pushed open the door to room 32 and stepped inside. I felt my eyes widen in shock, and my heart leap to my throat. Trembling in the far-left corner stood... me. Well, a younger me. And standing in front of him... uh, me, was a sheep brandishing a belt.

With a gasp, I realised that this wasn't a sheep at all – it was a sheepwun. A familiar one at that.

In their nasally voice, they spoke, "you broke a rule, boy. You know what this means."

It wasn't a question, but rather a statement. I watched in horror as my younger self pushed himself further into the corner. I felt just as scared.

I felt a pang of guilt when he looked over at me, eyes pleading for help. But I couldn't. Even if I tried, I doubted I would be able to do anything – this was my past after all, wasn't it? No one could change the past without altering the future one way or another.

I squeezed my eyes shot as Trollis raised the hoof holding the whip, bracing myself for the sound of it hitting the skin of my ten-year-old self's thigh and the scream that was sure to follow, but it never came. Instead, when I opened my eyes, I found myself in a dark room that also felt all-to-familiar.

A vertical bar of light appeared accompanied by a small creak of a hinge. I crept towards the light, curious as to where I was. Confident that no one was outside the room, I poked my head out, feeling my heart nearly stop beating.

The carpet, the pictures of the walls, the lights. It was all too much. I walked back into the room and reached for where I knew the light would be. Turning it on, I found myself exactly where I thought I was – my old room in my family house back in the Forest of Someher.

"John."

I froze at the use of my first name. I had forgotten that it was my name – I was so used to being called 'Jack' now.

I turned around to see who said my name, though I was already pretty certain who it would be.

"Father."

The man rose from the armchair on the other side of my room, "you ran away."

I gulped.

"A punishable decision, don't you think?"

Uh oh.

He stepped closer to me, and I stepped away.

"Don't run, John. You know you deserve this, you ungrateful brat," he spat, the venom in his voice striking right through me.

Before I knew it, he had a hand around my neck, pinning me against the wall. His eyes gleamed harshly, and his malevolent grin told me that I shouldn't fight this or it would get much worse.

Tears poured down my face, and my head felt dizzy from the lack of oxygen. I wasn't sure how much longer I would last.

"Just give up, boy. You deserve this, remember?"

~

I gasped, sitting up as I looked around at my surrounding, hoping to find comfort in the familiarity of my room at the Hotel Deucalion.

But my bed wasn't where I had remembered it to be, and the room was far more extensive than it used to be. Surely my room hadn't changed that much in one night – it usually shifted around a little bit at a time, as if not to startle me when I awoke.

I could hear low, breathy snores coming from my right and squinted across the room, through the little threads of Gossamer to find another boy sleeping in another bed.

Aha.

Graysmark School for Bright Young Men.

How could I have forgotten? I was at my new school, in my dorm with my dormmates. There were four of us in that room together until the end of our schooling, and oh, what a long five years they ended up being. Full of laughter, tears, late-night studying, pranks, and so much more.

I checked the clock beside my bed and inwardly groaned. 5:30am. Of course, I had to wake up to a stupid nightmare too early to usually be awake, but too late to go back to sleep without the anxiety of being late for the first real day of school.

Yesterday had been full of tours, meeting a few teachers and the Welcome assembly. It had been a generally okay day. And awkward – particularly when we met our dormmates. I was unsure what to do, so I just followed the instructions given, and tried not to interact with my dormmates.

At the time, I probably wouldn't have admitted to the underlying fear of my life repeating itself – allowing myself to get close to people, them finding out about my knack and turning on me, and then me being left alone again with even more emotional baggage than before.

I knew Jupiter had told me that most people don't really mind Witnesses these days, but I still couldn't shake the feeling of what would happen if he was wrong.

I got out of bed and crept to the bathroom to take a quick shower before the others woke up and then got ready for the school day. And oh boy, was it going to be long.

Written:  4 December 2021

Published: 1 January 2021

Here we goooooooo!!! Right back into it! Happy New Year!