Chapter 2 : Reality.
Sitting in a classroom Isaac's mind drifted back to his few months in the dark forest, but with a practised hand he returned his attention back to the book in front of him, Isaac shifted in his chair listening attentively to the teachers voice. He read and reread words on the page he was studying trying to keep within the confines of reality.
As the bell rang out Isaac wandered out of the room with the crowd of students, avoiding eye contact and conversation Isaac meandered through to the courtyard.
Since his return he had distanced himself from his old friends, his traumatic experience had left his mind wounded, he no longer cared for the things that they found interesting, games and films held interest for him. Books helped him stay grounded but even then he found it difficult to focus.
The nights instilled fear in Isaac, fear that his dreams might take him back to the dark place that he knew was inside himself. The forest hadn't vanished from his mind nor his soul, everyday it pulled at him whispering for him to return, to be a beast.
"hey Isaac!" a pretty voice called to Isaac from the door of the classroom.
Isaac stopped and turned, taking a deep breath before putting on a smile. He knew the girl calling him and liked her, in fact he had a crush on her for a year but isaac groaned inwardly at being caught.
"hey Sera's." isaac said as she pushed past someone in the hall to get to him.
"you leaving? I thought you might stay for the schools newspaper group. I know your only an occasional writer for it but still you haven't come by for ages." she said smiling sweetly, her long brown hair obscured her left eye as it swept down across her face. Her thick black eyelashes fluttered as she spoke.
"oh, yeah, no I'm just gonna go home I think. Got to catch up with school work and all, you know." Isaac lied.
"yeah, yeah I mean I guess it must be hard since you miss all that time, I mean it must have been horrible waking up to find so much time had passed." Sera said pulling her bag strap up as she had several times already.
"it's just I barely see you around any more, I mean none of us have, you alright Isaac I mean really allright.?" Sera's hand touched Isaac's shoulder.
Flinching Isaac tried to keep his smile in place, he cursed himself for flinching as he saw the hurt look in Sera's eyes.
"I'm sure, I'm just a bit behind on school work, I'll hang out with you all once I've caught up with it." Isaac said waving her goodbye.
Hurrying home Isaac closed the door and lent against it, he breathed heavily and tried hard to focus on reality, the whispers had grown louder throughout the day. They were practically yelling at him,it was simply noise to Isaac, he couldn't make any sense of them and so tried hard to block them out.
Eventually they quietened to a dull roar, still there and the edge of his mind waiting to erupt int a yelling frenzy again.
Isaac took a step onto the stairs, looking across the hall to the living room isaac saw a over turned chair. Back tracking Isaac peered further into the room and caught sight of three figures standing in a semi-circle around something on the floor.
