Universal Inconstants: The 10 Years DLC

PART 8

INTERMISSION - Fifteen Years Ago

Wyatt was young. He was only eleven at the time. He'd never thought life would get hard. He was just happy, unsuspecting of what was in store for him and how he would be affected by it.

It was an ordinary morning in January. He was walking home from school, although he'd planned to make a stop on the way. His best friend hadn't been in school that day and there was no indication as to why, so logically the boy wanted to stop by and make sure he was alright, even if his house was farther off than he'd prefer to walk just after he got out of school for the day.

But he stopped at a distance when all he could see surrounding the house were police cars, their lights skimming over their surroundings. There was sudden blatant fear in his chest as he ran forward, pushing through the crowd that surrounded the area and standing right in front of the temporary barriers that'd been put up to block civilians from entering. He stayed there the entire time, his eyes wide as he tried to figure out what was happening. He only hoped his best friend at the time was okay.

He found out the very next day what had happened. The school counselor had called him into her office, quietly asking him to take a seat without giving any reason why. She broke the news gently to him, but it hit him harder than a brick. He just sat there and stared in shock with wide eyes, breath halted. The counselor quickly moved to the other side of the desk and bent down slightly, rubbing his back as he began to shake and tears began to fall.

He didn't go to school for the next week. His mother stayed with him at first, but she had to get back to work after a few days. Wyatt just stayed home and stared most of the day. He'd gotten the note Colton had written to him at the end of that week.

"Wyatt," it had said. "I can't put into words how much you've done for me."

"But I can't help but feel so damn alone. My parents are always gone. I always come home to an empty house, and it hurts so much every time."

"I don't want to be here if I don't even deserve attention from my own parents."

He read the note over and over that day. He read it the next day, too, staring at it in silence as the words echoed in his mind.

In truth, he blamed himself for not noticing. He felt like he could've stopped this, and Colton would still be there. The boy was only twelve. He would've had his entire life ahead of him.

But now he was gone, and thoughts swirled in Wyatt's head, telling him he could have stopped this. His self blame spiraled into a persistent depression.

Even after he found himself back in school, he was just quiet. He kept to his own, and unlike the social person he used to be, he talked to no one. The others avoided talking to him, for reasons he didn't know or understand. He hadn't felt happy in what seemed like forever, and sometimes he wondered if he ever would. He felt so alone.

His mother was quick to bring him to therapy. It would help, talking everything over, but then he'd just fall back into the same loop of thought again and again. He was prescribed antidepressants in order to help him return to his normal self, and for a while he felt they were working. He wasn't anywhere near back to normal, but he felt like he was on the way.

But then, after taking the medication for four months, he realized he just felt numb. It only lasted two days the first time, but those two days were slower than he'd ever thought they could possibly last. After that, there were days where he just felt nothing every once in a while.

He was dead tired every day. He had trouble sleeping. Sure, sometimes there were nightmares that caused the issues, but often he could never fall asleep in the first place, staring at the ceiling with nothing to do.