Beauty in the Breakdown

Chapter 1 ~ "Stay in my Memory"

I have no regrets.

I've chosen this way in life.

To believe.

To fall in love.

To let go.

So why have regrets?

It only took 4 words to make me willing to choose.

I always knew bad things would happen to me. It's my luck I guess. As a little kid, mom would let me play in the forest all day. But as every good parent, mom would always tell me to get inside the house before witch hour. For a kid like me, witch hour sounded very cool, and I tried my best to stay out until I saw a witch.

One night I believed I saw a witch in the dark forest, outside my home. In the middle of dark forest was a red glowing light that blew out gray smoke. I wanted to go check it out. So I sneaked past my parents and ran into the forest with a flashlight in hand.

By the time I reach the middle, I could see a dark blue figure walking around the burning fire. It didn't look like a witch but more like a dark blue hedgehog. It had his back turn to me and didn't seem to notice that I was there. I hid my body in the tall grass, so it wouldn't see me and watch this weird, but mysterious hedgehog.

This blue hedgehog kept going back and forward, looking at the fire. For a minute, he put his left hand right into the fire. I wanted to scream, but I kept my mouth close and thought to myself, 'He's crazy! Didn't his mom ever tell him not to play with fire?'

Suddenly the flames started turning into a small ball of fire in the hedgehog's hand. Soon he closed his hand to make the fire vanished. When he reopened his hand, it didn't look burnt at all. Like there was no fire at all.

I was curious about this hedgehog and what he could do. As I tried to get a better look at this hedgehog, I tripped on a tree branch and fell down outside the tall green grass that was covering me up. Thanks to my falling, the royal blue hedgehog turned very quickly to look at me. I finally got a good look at his face.

Not the kind of face I was expecting. This hedgehog has red glowing eyes with black round them. The kind that makes you feel like you're seeing head lights for the first time and it's coming after you. Blood was coming down the hedgehog's face from his eyes. His hands were more like claws and teeth sharp as knives.

The site of him was scary. Like a nightmare just became real. My conscience was telling me to run. But I couldn't find the courage to leave.

My heart was telling me to stay...

Instead, he walked over to me. His eyes glaring down right at my mine like he was trying to hypnotizing me. He knelt down in front of me. I was afraid of him. I guess he could tell that I'm shaking too much.

He moved his right hand from the back of his body, then pulled it to the front. I had a feeling that he was going to grab me and take me way to a nightmare place. But, he didn't. In his right hand was a deep redder rose. It was beautiful and a sight to behold.

I took it from his hand and held it. I couldn't help but smile at it. It's like the darkness just wash way and brought out the light...

"What brings you out here in this cold night?" he said as I came back from my dreamland. I looked up to his glowing red eyes.

"Actually I'm lost and I should be home by now," I said, sounding a little bit shy. I feel bad for lying because I do know where we are and home isn't that far away from here but... I wish I didn't say I was lost.