TownCreek

Chapter 1: Welcome Back

  
    The sun was now rising making the cold breeze hide away, Mike could feel the warmth of the sun gracing his skin like a warm hug. The birds were singing their tune and at this time people were opening up their shops to welcome in customers, Mike stopped at one of the stores thinking that his mother would need some food and medicine. When that was all said and done he caught a boss on J street, that houses over there were pretty big and was mostly the reason people bought them, the area mostly had families living there and had a few nearby schools as well. Overall it was a pretty good area to live but the same can't be said about Rogue street.
The last stop was near a school he got off and walked the rest of the way. He was thinking to himself how much TownCreek had changed. He didn't feel like it had, he hadn't been away from home that long, right? He finally made it to his mother's home and knocked hoping she would answer him, somebody did open the door but it wasn't who he was expecting. His entire mood changed when he saw him, he still didn't know how he had the guts to show his face around here.  With no exchange of words he walked right past him and into the kitchen where his mother was. It didn't matter in what condition that woman was in you best believe she would be occupying herself with something. "Mom, you shouldn't be up, I'll take care of this." Mike said to her, she turned to him with a look of pure joy seeing him again, she hugged him tightly as if she hadn't done it before, he hugged her back. She messed up his hair and spoke loudly on how much he had grown. "Okay, okay, enough with the hair. Now sit down, you need to rest." He helped her sit and he finished preparing the food she had been working on earlier. "Why didn't you tell me you were coming? I'm so glad to see you of course! Would you like me to make you something?" She said to him, he came back with her food and sat next to him, then he came over but he ignored him. She could tell the tension had already begun and she wanted to try and ease it. "So what brought you back? I hope it wasn't just because of my leg." She looked at her leg as if it was something of a burden to Mike, "Uhh no-I mean yeah but not entirely. I decided to go to college. there's a lot of good colleges here. I got accepted and so I'm here." He said she congratulated him and was very happy for him, he was also proud of him but just like many times before Mike had ignored him. "It's nice to see you here as well. Will, I know you're busy and all but it's really nice to see you again." She said trying to settle the tension but it didn't seem to work. "Don't really know why he bothers, we would be better off without him." Mike said bitterly, he glared at him, it might seem petty but Mike had every right to feel angry at him.

Connie: Please don't fight boys, I'm really happy to see you both.
Will: *awkwardly* Me too.
Mike: Uh huh.
Connie: How about we all have dinner tonight?
Will: I can't, I have to leave soon.
Mike: *walking to kitchen* Not surprised!
Connie: It's totally fine, be safe okay?
Will: I will, don't push yourself okay? Love you. *kisses her cheek*
Connie: Love you too.
Connie: You know "hello" or "how have you been Will?" would've been nice.
Mike: *scoffs*
Connie: It's fine, I won't force it but please don't argue in my house.
Mike: Yeah, sorry...
Connie: It's fine, now come here and tell me what you've been up to so far?
Mike: Finished high school as you know, now I'm here for college and also to make sure you're okay. I also started applying for jobs.
Connie: You have grown so much I'm proud of you!
Mike: Thanks...
Connie: He's proud of you too, I know he is.
Mike: I know that.
Connie: *laughs*

Night came fast, probably because of the incoming winter and the time change or perhaps losing track of time. "You can stay the night, I'm sure it won't be a problem. Or do you need to go back?" Connie, Mike's mother, had asked he could just go home and sleep there but he wanted to make sure his mother would be okay and so he stayed the night with her. An hour passed and the two had been watching movies all night and didn't pay attention to the time. "Okay, that's enough for today, time for you to rest." Mike turned off the TV and helped Connie to her room. Once there he said goodnight to her and he went to sleep on the couch since it was the closest part of the house to his mother's bedroom just in case she needed anything from him.
He looked up at the ceiling for hours not being able to get sleep, be it nerves, his mother's injury or the guy at the train station he just couldn't sleep, "well it's going to be a long night for sure." He muttered to himself, it was 1:00 in the morning when he was finally able to go to sleep. It went like this, it always went like this: a dark room and a window. He was in the middle of the room exactly like when he was just a kid, the nightmare never left him. He felt like he remembered everything but at the same time he didn't yet there he was in the center of it all.
He walked around for a bit and then climbed through the window. On the other side was his bedroom, it had posters of his favorite heroes, and all kinds of toys. He saw his younger self sleeping in bed tightly hugging his stuffed bear. He knew what came next, the sound of something crashing into the living room and his mother's scream jumped him right out of bed. And he would never forget what he saw, he walked to the door and as he opened it a bright light blinded him and woke up to hear himself screaming. "Mike? Mike?! Mickey! It's okay, it's not real! It's just a dream." She was holding him down worrying about him getting hurt. When he finally calmed down she spoke to him again. "It's not real, it didn't happen, you're okay." She hugged holding back tears, he was breathing fast but it was slowly coming down, his heart thumping like crazy like it would burst out of his chest at any moment. He knew it wasn't real but everytime he was faced with that door it all just felt so real. It's like at the moment he couldn't tell what was fake and what was real. He could hear his mother yet she sounded so far away from him.
He finally snapped back to reality; he slowly raised his arms and comforted her. "It's fine, I'm okay now." He said weakly, he felt bad for worrying her that much. The first night back to TownCreek was not that good for him but he wouldn't let it deter him from what he came to do.