The Wild Hunt

The Life Of The Forest

The next five days, after a whole night out with the Hunters, find Dominick in a better mood than ever in his life. A new dark red coat draped around his shoulders that no one knows where he got, but that they don't plan on questioning either.

That would require talking to him.

It would require acknowledging his existence.

But Dominick doesn't think in that, he doesn't even notice.

He doesn't notice how his parents jump more often because he no longer sneaks nor shrinks, he's not scared of walking around the house in plain sight.

He doesn't notice how the rumors begin to travel, how they say he's high, say he's drunk, say he has lost his mind.

He doesn't notice how the adults seem even more disapproving and his classmates more amused, how the teachers stroke their egos convinced it was them who changed him.

No, Dominick is too busy to notice any of those things, he's too entertained feeling happy.

Because that day, when he came back with Arlequin's coat on his back and the eye of a Moon on his hands, Dominick lay down on his bed, and truly, really, thought.

He thought about what he had -stuffed animals, bones, eyes, all of it hidden from parents that hated him, a town that rejected him, a life he didn't like.- he thought about what he could get -a job? A family? A place where he, maybe, could feel contented, who knows when? Who knows where? Or would he just resign? Would he live a grey and empty life for more and more years?-.

He thought carefully, thought about every detail, about every possibility.

And he realized that there was nothing there for him.

There has never been.

And that realization filled him with relief.

There was nothing to tie him down in a life he was never part of. No one that would care or miss him if he disappeared.

He could just up and leave.

Because chances are, no one would notice.

He could leave with Arlequin, and there would be no consequences at all.

And glowing as he was, happy and impatient, waiting for the seven days to pass so he could see the rider and the wolves once again, so he could leave and never come back. Dominick didn't notice anything on the people around him.

He didn't notice his mother get more and more irritated with his presence in the house.

He didn't notice the disapproving face of his father every time he caught him humming and whistling.

Because it was easy to just not love him, to avert their eyes and pretend, to simply ignore, when he was making an effort to not be seen, to not make a noise.

And happy as he was, Dominick never saw it coming.

It never really crossed his mind to lock his door because no one but him ever opened it. His mother had never gone in, never even knocked on the door.

But that day, the sixth day, while Dominick was still in school, his mother opened his door.

She opened his door only to find the skin of animals on the walls, covering the furniture. To find rabbits, squirrels and birds in poses, some with missing parts, some with clothes on.

To find jars full of eyes and skulls on display.

To find boxes full of teeth.

To find something that looked like a kid, with glass eyes and a grotesque purple heart in its cotton filled innards.