A Strange Town (Pinescone) (Title prone to change)

Chapter 1 ~ Leaving the Past Behind

"Do you have everything, Greg?" Wirt looks over to his brother as he plops down into the passenger seat of the small rust colored car. Greg gives him a smile and a thumbs up, signaling that he does.

"Yep, sure do."

"Are you sure? Because we're not coming back anytime soon," Wirt warns him. 

Greg furrows his brow in thought, trying to remember anything that he could have missed. His face lights up in realization as he yells, "The rock old lady Daniels gave me!" Undoing his seat belt, he jumps up and runs back toward the front door of the house.

"Greg, don't bring that!" Wirt calls after him. "It's like a.. a bad omen!"

"But we need it if we want to have an adventure!" he tells him over his shoulder, and before Wirt can say anything else, he's already disappeared into the house.

Wirt sighs to himself, and leans back into the worn leather of the car seat. Looking through the window to his right, he catches a glimpse of fiery colored leaves falling though air, sailing to the ground covered in dead grass below.

"Colorful leaves drop out of cold, naked branches, jumping to their deaths," he cites under his breath as he watches them fall. Autumn had always been his favorite season, until... and now, he can't stand it. It reminds him of what happened years ago, something he would most gladly forget, back can never seem to, no matter how hard he tries.

Everyone had thought he was crazy as he relayed all that had happened that Halloween night. Even his own mother didn't believe him, sending him off to a psychiatrist instead, who gave him only medicine, and not the understanding he so sorely needed. Even his best friend Sara wrote him off as delusional, and slowly stopped talking to him. Only Greg believed him, but  that's because he was there.

As he looks back over to the house, Wirt sees Greg jogging back to the car, rock in hand. Grinning, he holds it up for his older brother to see. Its painted face has chipped off in some spots, and faded in others. Wirt lets his gaze drift to it briefly, but looks away quickly. Wirt had gotten rid of anything and everything he could that jarred any kind of memory, but for reasons unbeknownst to Wirt, Greg still keeps it. 

"Okay good, now get in the car," Wirt tells him. He turns the key in the ignition, and the motor coughs and sputters a few moments before starting.

Saluting him playfully, Greg clicks his seat belt buckle into place and sets the rock on the dash. "Could you put in a tape?" Wirt asks as he pulls out of the driveway and onto the road. "They're in the box behind your seat."

Reaching behind him, Greg grabs the small cardboard box and opens it. "Which one?" he asks as he rummages through them.

Giving him a small smile, Wirt tells him, "Why don't you pick?"

"Woah, really?!" his brother asks him excitedly. He goes back to looking through them, trying to find the right one. He holds up multiple tapes, and scrutinizes them closely, only to throw them back in the box and look for another. After a moment, he holds up one. "Found it!" he declares proudly.

"Which one is it?" Wirt asks as Greg slides it into the tape player built into the car.

"That one that has that really sleepy song first," he informs him.

"Oh, you mean Yellow Light?" Wirt offers as he glances from the road over to his brother, who is fiddling with the buttons of the player.

"Yeah, that one," Greg agrees. "Okay, I think I got it right," he says as the car fills with the first few guitar notes and Nanna Hilmarsdóttir's soft voice.

As Wirt turns onto the desolate highway, Greg asks him, "So where are we going, Wirt?"

Passing the cemetery where it all started, Wirt answers quietly, "I- I don't know, but it's gonna be somewhere far from here."

A/N Hello and welcome to the first chapter of this fic! I am absolute trash for this ship, I can't help it >~< But anyways, thanks so much for giving it a read, it's appreciated! Also, the linked song up top is the one mentioned ^-^