for jade1799 Contest One.
It was a normal Sunday in Auburn. Was.
***
I was waiting at the downtown bus stop after visiting my best friend. It was hot with midsummer heat and sweat was dripping down my temples. Wiping it off with my forearm, I looked down the street, hoping to see the bus chugging up the hill. Instead, I noticed a boy across the street looking around as he entered the alley between two shops.
After looking down the street for the bus again and checking my watch, I quickly crossed and walked into the alley. It wasn't wide and had a wall at one end, to high for a normal person to jump. I hesitantly took a couple more steps inside and noticed something on the ground: a note.
It was a folded sheet of lined, yellow note paper. I thought that was strange, that the boy had disappeared, seemingly into thin air. I looked around the alleyway again, the note being the only clue to his disappearance. I picked it up.
Take my hand.
What?
I scowled. Whatever trick that boy was playing at, it wasn't funny. Looking up, I crumpled the note and stuffed it in my pocket. As I turned and took a few steps down the alleyway back to the street, I heard a soft thwip, thwip noise.
The heat was really just unbearable and my mood was getting worse. "Where are you?" I snapped irritably, whipping around to the back of the alleyway again.
"Up here."
The voice came from above me. I looked up and, sitting precariously on the rail of one of the fire escapes, was the same boy. I stared at him for a moment, looking at his curly black hair, brown eyes, and somewhat mismatched clothes. There was something strange about them, but I couldn't put my finger on it. The longer I looked at him the more I noticed he seemed to be balancing impossibly: he had his legs crossed and he leaned an elbow on one of them. But though he seemed to be seated on the rail, it was in such a way his bum was barely touching it.
He was silent the whole time I examined him, his eyes not leaving mine. He had a little bit of a smile on his face, like he knew what I was thinking. "Why did you want me to take your hand?"
He uncrossed his legs and leaned forward. "Why don't you take it and see?" he asked, stretching out one of his thin, veiny hands.
I hesitated 0.2 seconds before taking it.
