Replay

Chapter one - Long Walk Forward

It was cloudy, the air was still damp, the sidewalk was still very moist and water was seeping into Caden's shoes as they hit the wet ground. He could hear the audible sound of other's footsteps slowly combining with his. He sighed, knowing what was likely about to happen. In middle school, he would have been walking and laughing with them over some dumb joke, now they were nothing but trouble for him. Caden knew them as Avery, Wiat, and Zach. A sense of dread washed over him just thinking about it. 

Could you not talk as if I'm not right here? I- what how do you-? What kind of question is that? Obviously, I hear someone when they are very loudly narrating almost every part of my life. It's pretty weird if you ask me. Well, you're not supposed to you cant- there is no way this is possible! Okay then- Wait- how long have you been able to hear me? Since you started narrating my life, tried to ignore it thinking you were just a voice in my head or something- guess not ughh. Excuse me I am far from a voice in your head! Yeah.. okay. Anyways, have you even introduced me to your “readers” that you talk so much about yet? …Not officially yet, no. Okay, I guess I will. I am Caden Adler, I have a useless father and a younger brother. Be nice or you will scare them away! Listen, I don't care what you do just don't bother me. I have schoolwork to do and I don't need people thinking I'm insane. 

I- I’m sorry about that, back to what I was previously doing. Caden speeds his walking either to get away from the others behind him, despite how much he may have attempted to speed up they were faster than him, he could hear their voices, now louder and quickly approaching him. And by the sounds of it, they had noticed him too. The first to say something to Caden was Zach. “Oh, look at that” Zach had said back to his friends “Hello Caden.” He sneered. Caden didn't even look back at them, only continuing to walk, he couldn't get out of the situation that easily though. Avery and Wiat had moved in front of Caden, blocking his walkway so he couldn't walk any further.

“Aww where are you going Cadenn? Arnt, you going to talk to your old pals~” Zach had teased, looking back at the others for approval of his sentence. He had always been so desperate to please them, it was honestly pathetic to look at. he sought this approval so much that he destroyed the friendship he and Caden had since childhood. Now being surrounded by the others Caden had no choice but to reply to them, only the will they maybe let him go easily. “What do you want.” His voice was cold and harsh, Zach flinched at the tone of his voice alone, not that the others would have noticed. “What was that?” Avery had said back, anger showing in his voice, he didn't like being talked to the way Caden had. “I said, What. Do. You. Want.” By the time Caden had realised the mistake he made it was too late. 

Within a moment, Caden was on the ground, his nose now bleeding. He can feel the blood pouring from his nose and he is still in a sense of shock. He could barely hear the others around him as they began to argue, their voices just coming out as muffled noises to him. “Avery this wasn't the plan, you just said we were going to mess with him a bit!” Zach not so quietly yelled. “I- H-he is right Avery. We could get into a lot of trouble for this.” Wiat finally spoke. “Shut up! Shut up both of you! Nobody is going to find out. Nobody is going to find out because nobody is going to snitch. Right, Caden?” Avery threatened. “You can't just-” Zach tried to argue back only to get shut up again by Avery. They all had begun arguing about the whole event and Caden used this time to regain his composure and run out of this situation. Caden had run off into the nearby woodlands to the side of the sidewalk and by the time they noticed Caden was too far to catch up with, this didn't stop Avery from chasing him while he still could though. Avery knew if he had stopped running, especially now there was a huge chance of him ending up in a hospital with a few “mysterious” injuries, so instead he kept running.

Caden ran until he couldn't hear Avery’s voice anymore and continued running for a while even after, adriniline was the only thing keeping him able to run at this point, as soon as he stopped he fell to his knees onto the wet grass beneath him, his legs sore from all the running. He only just then noticed the blood on his hands from his nose, lucky for him it had stopped by now. He looked around only to find himself surrounded by dense woods and despite it being exceedingly beautiful he was completely lost. He got up from his spot on the grass, leaving an imprint on his knees with it. His jeans were now damp and stained with red and green, he sighed. These were his favorite jeans. He looks around and starts trying to look for a trail, a view back to the sidewalk, anything but there is nothing to be found. Just as he was about to give up, from the corner of his eye he saw light coming from a patch of trees. For some reason, he was drawn to this light like a moth to fire. As he approaches the light he finds that it leads to a clearing of trees.