The Fading Oddities of Nate Smith (A NateWantsToBattle Fanfiction) --COMPLETE--

Chapter Seventeen

It physically hurt me to watch Los Angeles disappear behind the horizon.

Honestly, I didn't know how I'd find happiness running away like this, but I knew that I needed to get out of that city. I couldn't handle being there anymore...not after all that happened.

I sighed and turned my head away from the window as the last lights of LA blinked out over the horizon. The train had been moving for about half an hour now, but even that short amount of time felt like an eternity to me.

Not knowing what else to do, I dug into my pocket and took out my phone, unlocking the screen and scrolling aimlessly through different apps to kill the time. Most were games I almost never used, but in a stale time like this, they made the ride much easier to bear.

A couple of the things in my phone caused me to hesitate, especially my contacts. At first, I was just scrolling casually through each name to see who exactly I had registered in my cell, but two names in particular made my heart skip a beat, both in regret and guilt.

"Hunter" - immediately deleted. His name haunted me now.

"Morgan" - deleted as well. She...

I cut myself off before things became too emotional. Immediately closing out of the app, I tried to do something else to take my mind off of the subject. My thumb paged through the apps, and eventually they were hovering over the YouTube app.

My mind was conflicted. Should I open it...?

I guess it wouldn't hurt to take a peek...

My thumb tapped on the app and quickly opened up to my channel. My last video seemed to have a lot of views, so I curiously tapped on it to see why there was such a big view difference.

Likes and dislikes were normal, but what really bothered me was the amount of comments there were. A bit scared to see what would come up, I hesitantly tapped on the comments section and opened up the hundreds of conversations going on.

It was a total disaster.

Almost every single one of the comments were something along the lines of asking when I'd be back, what happened to me, and so on. I bit the inside of my cheek as I read through each one.

Eventually, I forced myself to stop. This was too much...the community was so worried about me; I couldn't handle seeing what they had to say about me. I locked my phone and shoved it back into my pocket with slightly clenched teeth, and when I relaxed my shoulders I realized just how tense seeing the comments made me.

I looked off to my left to gaze out the window again. Now, the train was passing under a bridge, which was dimly lit by old ceiling lights lining the upper parts of the walls. As we picked up speed, a small black blur whizzed by my window. Furrowing my brow, I scooted forward in my seat and craned my neck to see what had passed by the glass.

There, sitting on the sidewalk next to the tracks, was a golden-eyed black cat.

---

Chasseur is the only one to greet me as I open my eyes again.

The sunlight is pouring through the window, and I glance up at the clock to see it's already a quarter till noon. My groggy eyes drag back towards the cat, who meows softly in reply.

"Good morning, fuzzball," I sneer, placing my elbows behind me to push me to a sitting position. Chas bounds away to perch himself on the windowsill, staring out the window as his tail swishes back and forth.

As I reach to a standing position, I noticed that Olive and Tess are both gone, most likely in class. It's almost Lunch Break, though, so they should be returning soon. I look down to see Chasseur rubbing his face against my leg. Furrowing my brow in disgust, I almost shake him off, but I see something that stops me from doing so.

"What's this...?" I mumble to myself, kneeling down to retrieve something in Chasseur's mouth. It appears to be a note, written in black ink on a purple sticky not. "EVERYTHING WILL BE CLEAR SOON" is scrawled messily across the paper, and at the bottom is a small doodle of the planet Saturn, with a fancy "O" standing for the planet itself...a signature, maybe? But whose is it?

"Chas, where did you find this?" I ask, glancing uneasily down at the cat. Chasseur turns his head away from me and meows at the windowsill, almost as though he's telling me that that's where he found it. When he turns to look back at me, he meows again, but this time more gently and quietly. A sort of sad look is glinting on his eyes, which are darting back and forth to get a good look at me. Something in that look gives me an unsettling feeling...is this thing really trying to communicate with me somehow?

I shrug it off and sigh in defeat, rubbing the top of Chas' head before standing up again. "So many mysteries surrounding you..." I grumble at him. My eyes waver down at the note, and my lip twitches a bit nervously, "...and everything that's happened lately..."

---

Hey! Sorry for the long chapter, but I needed to use this as a BIG announcement.

THE FINALE FOR THIS BOOK IS COMING VERY, VERY SOON!

Soon as in, I dunno, three to four chapters?

Yes, that's right, everybody, Fading Oddities is finally coming to a close! After well over a year of writing, we're almost to the finish :D

I guess I should use this time to ask y'all a couple questions. Who was your favorite character? Least favorite? Do you guys have any theories or predictions for what's gonna happen? Anything you liked or didn't like about the story? Let me know! I'd love ot hear what you guys have to say <3

Alright, just a couple more chapters! Hang in there, Lovelies!

With Love,
SkippyTheMudkip