The Art of Drowning | TYLER HERNANDEZ |

chapter i.

"A dog that weeps after it kills is no better than the dog that doesn't. No guilt will ever purify you."

Maybe those lunatics sitting on the side of the road, holding signs over their heads reading 'the end of times is here' weren't such lunatics-at least not with the last few months of experience. None of the hexad knew how it happened, but they'd woken up in a world overrun with the monsters they had had to face for months on their own. The savanna trip was now left on the west coast of this timeline; it was now half way up to the east coast.

Of course none of the teenagers had known exactly what would happen if the phantoms caught them-truly, they had assumed it would be death. Logan had made small hypotheses about what would happen, if it weren't death, and one of the less feasible ones had been; the victim would be turned into some sort of zombie, a shell of a phantom if one may, that would spread the 'disease' around through marking up a persons body and eventually biting them.

Lo and behold, that one would be the one proved right. Murmurs had run through the group-including a snide remark on account of Tyler along the lines of 'Of course, even in chaos, he managed to be a nerd.' which had in return earned a smack on the arm from Taylor. The rest of the hexad had been particularly impressed by the assumption being correct-infact they found it a little bit insane.

Now they grouped themselves around a fire, it wasn't a huge fire-most definitely not bon fire sized, but it was decent as it gave off warmth and light; that was enough. Ashlyn rested her head softly against Aiden, closing her eyes as her arms fell limp on her lap. No words were exchanged throughout, any loud crackle of the fire would have a few of them looking over their shoulders or behind them. Life the last two months was a hell, everything flipped that night they woke up.

Somehow, they'd managed to stick together-perhaps it was due to the six months they'd spent in the phantom realm by themselves. Tyler had even grown his soft spot to include Aiden-who he didn't really have a liking to in the first place. Though now they were connected, just like those lunches during school when they didn't really know one another; it was just more comfortable silence now.

It was insane how a group of totally different people could get on so well; or maybe it wasn't with such things as The Breakfast Club or One Of Us Is Lying, however both of those where loaded with stereotypes to portray the characters. Of course there was a jock (Tyler), a scapegoat (Aiden), a nerd (Logan), a princess (Taylor) and two outsiders (Ashlyn and Ben).

𓍼ོ

      Noah held her dagger between her teeth, letting bark dig into her skin as she fixed her foot onto a branch. There was a little hideout she'd formed into the fork just high up enough those...things couldn't reach her. A bag of food hung on a higher branch, swinging softly with the wind. The world was so quiet, so oddly peaceful and she couldn't stand it.

      It was like the Quiet Place, except those monsters didn't find themselves chasing after every little noise. Of course she had to have had experimented with the idea, also made sure to study the creatures enough to understand that they were not like The Walking Dead or The Last Of Us.

      By now, Noah had formed a stupid little journal based upon the one from that book series she read when she was younger-though she could quite remember the name of it. There were rough sketches and chicken screamed notes to conform to each of the creatures, she constantly was adding to each of the soft sketches.

      Finally, she was able to settle herself into the crowded little space, tucking her knees to her chest as she moved to grab the notebook from the back pocket of the bag-swinging back and forth like that corpse she'd seen earlier in the woods. There was a small sketch based on the sight tucked in the front of the journal where it had once been for school. There were a few notes she still revisited since it had been her actual jornal in english where they had to write about their weekends.

      Sometimes, Noah found herself crafting little stories about the monsters and sights she came across; even the animals that really resembled cryptic tales.

The Man In The Woods ________________________________________

___________________________________________________________
• corpse entwined in branches____________________________________
• hung like jesus was on the cross_________________________________
• rotted out to the skeleton______________________________________
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____The man in the woods, perched on that tree resembling the exact cross of which Jesus had been nailed. His wrist bleed, perfect bounty's of______ crimson pouring out like rivers; the red river. Of course, the red river is a metaphor for the wars that continued to bleed over the land. He stays, legs swaying back and forth with soft gusts of wind; from the west coast to the east, kicking up dirt. He never stoped to think, what the world would___  mean without his heartbeat. It was perfect and soft, the grass greener now yet life standing still like nothing. ________________________________
___________________________________________________________

      Noah pursed her lips as she scanned over the short little passage. This was most definitely not the best of her works, though nor was it the worst. She could remember the inspiration that came from somewhere other than the man who'd hung himself like Jesus on that tree. The handiwork of the knots where of his own, could be told by the markings still imprinted on his hands, the tethering of the rope from teeth-no animal would ever be able to reach that level and tug at the rope.

      Stabbing the dagger into the tree, she flipped it back closed and clasped her hands over the front cover and closed her eyes. Sleep overtook her far too quickly nowadays.

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Thank you so so much for reading, I appreciate all of you and sincerely apologize for the late upload of this chapter as it is now night and not noon. Thank you again for reading and I'll get to work on chapter 2 shortly
- Ray