Earthbound: Right at Home [Complete]

Chapter 1: Stranger Danger

All you could remember was a flash of silvery white light, then the rest of your memories faded into a deep dark abyss. 

Nothing but darkness surrounded you, but you could still somehow feel. The air was cold and chilly, and the ground underneath you felt soft and squishy, could be mud. You could feel the small amounts of sunshine beating down on you, but thick ugly gray clouds blocked it, making your body shiver instinctively. 

Slowly, the rest of your senses come into play, you wiggle your fingers and toes, feel your chest rise and fall with each breath you took. You then open your eyes, seeing mostly gray, with hints of green here and there. Rain pellets hitting your skin, bright bolts of lightning stripping through the clouds, forcing the ground to rumble like a tiny earthquake. 

You sighed deeply, feeling a pain pound in your head. You were bruised, deeply, cuts and wounds decorated your body and your clothing was torn, as if it were scorched with fire. You looked as if you were struck by lightning, in fact, you could smell it all around you. 

You reached the back of your head, mostly searching for any injuries. 

Nothing... good. 

You tried sitting up, struggling to get your body off the ground, but you eventually succeed. You look around your surroundings, and nothing seems familiar to you.

At all. 

You knew you were in a forest and it was about to rain. Nothing seemed familiar in the slightest. Your heart skipped a beat.... you were lost, lost in a strange world. 

On top of that, you were hungry beyond belief. Just hearing the sound of your stomach grumble made you feel sick. You needed a way to get food... and fast. 

But that was the least of your worries. 

You stood up in the ditch you found yourself in. It wasn't too large of a ditch, but the steepness made it difficult for you to climb out of. You gripped the sides of the wall and pulled with all of your might, using whatever energy you had and pulled yourself over the edge. 

That's when it began to rain. 

You were tired and exhausted, rested your back against a tree. You slid down and sat in the mud, burying your head in your knees. You wanted to fall asleep right there... maybe that was your best bet. 

On the corner of your eye, you saw someone emerge from the forest. They were pretty far away from you, and you really couldn't pick out any details, but it appeared to be the figure of a young boy, alone in the rain. 

You thought about calling for help, but you also thought twice about doing so. You were defenseless, week, and barely had any energy to fight back if it was needed. They did defiantly look like a kid, around your age, if not older. They didn't look threatening, in fact, they looked about average. 

Were they trustworthy? 

As if this strange kid read your mind, they looked toward your direction, staring at you for a couple of moments. You notice that they held the same amount of curiosity as if they were watching your every move before deciding what to do. 

They began to approach you. 

Instinctively, your body gave a kick. Adrenaline pumping through your vanes as you suddenly stood up, ready to bolt down a path to know where. They stopped walking, nearly freezing in his place. 

It was a boy... looked to be around your age.

After a couple minutes of staring, he turned around and began to take his leave.

"Wait!" You called out.

He stopped and turned to you, and walked closer to get a better look. You could get a better look at him.

You were no less than ten feet away so.

You caught glimmers of yellow, blue and red, nearly drenched in the rain. Squinting, you could tell that It was a boy. An average looking kid with short, raven black, messy hair. He had a brown backpack on his back with a cracked wooden bat tucked inside. 

You wondered why he was out in the rain. Was he from here?

"Do you... need help?" He asked curiously, relieving the awkward tension in the air.

"I..." you mumbled, avoiding eye contact and keeping your head down, focusing on the muddy grass below you. He was a complete stranger, could you even trust him?

"You don't look like you're from around here... Did you just come from Twoson?"

"What?" You question. "What's a... what's Twoson?"

You could tell he was trying hard not to laugh at the really stupid sounding question, and you found it hard not to giggle yourself. Though, your slight laughter was interrupted by the sudden growl in your stomach.

"Well that answers my question," he said casually. "Follow me, let's get you uh... cleaned up. You look like you've been through hell and back."

You nodded. "You... you might be... right."

The strange boy took the lead and you had no choice to follow him. He led you through a small town, walking on the wet pavement your shoes were squishy and wet. It was a town that wasn't very lively, well not in the rain at least.

You finally come across a large building made mostly out of white tiles with a large sign that said Hospital, written in large black letters. You received a sudden chill down your spine, the reason why you couldn't explain. Though, you were in no condition to reject the help that you were receiving. You needed it, probably as much as some food.

Again, food could wait.

The bright lights of the hospital along with the clear white tiles made you shield your eyes with your arm. It smelled like chemicals and you could hear the beeping of machines not too far away. It wasn't really busy, but it was enough to make you feel a bit uneasy.

You sat down on one of the chairs, wincing a little. In fact, it was really uncomfortable to sit down all together, so you decided to stand. The visit wasn't going to be very long anyway. You watched as the boy talked to a nurse at the front counter.

He was kinda cute...

Shut it. You thought to yourself.

He was through talking to the nurse and took a seat, not speaking to you for the rest of the wait. There was a line of seats on the other side of the hallway, so that's where you sat.

A nurse peeped their head out and called your name. You got up and walked right past him. Feeling something... really strange the moment you did.