Lonely

Chapter 12, Sadie

thanks for reading!! I'm trying to keep adding on for those of you who are reading and actually enjoying. Comment of you want- Lydia

I looked at the direction Hangers voice had come from. He had said he would miss me. I thought of what it would be like if he had grown up as my neighbor or something. Probably not much different from the kid who was my neighbor. For some reason, they had hated me since I toilet papered the little snots rooms. The thing that made Hanger who he was, was the castle, and the dark. He didn’t know anything about the world. He didn’t know how greedy people could be, or how cruel, or how kind. It was like a child, a very smart, calm child who never spilt stuff. Right now, he was asleep. The only reason I knew was because his breathing had suddenly become very low and even. You could hear everything in that castle. A pin could have dropped a mile away and I would hear it. I reached my hand down and stroked the beaded, leathery skin of Rex. He sounded adorable. I had never had a pet. My dad would kill me if I brought a stray home. The thought of his fury made me smile. Rex made a high pitched, rolling sound, sort of like a purr, and I felt him rumble under my hand. I leaned into Hangers side, enjoying the warmth. Rex continued his rhythmic purring noise as I tried not to fall asleep.

Half an hour later, Hanger twitched. I sat up. I don’t think I was sleeping, but if I was I couldn’t tell. It was always dark, so I could barely tell when I shut my eyes, except the feeling. He moved, stretching his hands out in front of him, and groaned.

“You wanna sleep some?” he asked me, still a little groggy. “You’ve only been asleep for like, half an hour. You can sleep longer.” I said. He had been much more tired than me. “No, it’s alright. I always only sleep a little at a time.” He said. I heard him move position on the floor. I raised an eye brow.

“Every other teenage boy I know sleeps for over half the day. Why do you sleep in small increments?” I asked, puzzled. I heard him cough a little. “Well, first off, I’m not like the, er, normal teen age boys. I sleep for short amounts of time so I can live a longer amount of time.” He explained. I shook my head in the dark. “Alright, well let’s keep going then, I’m not tired.” I said, standing up. I heard Hanger stand up and I felt for his arm, then we continued on our black path. I heard Rex grumbling an growling behind us as he followed, still half asleep. “How much further do you think we have to go?” I asked. “Not long. We are very close. Closer than we should be.” He said nervously. I didn’t like the sound of that. Suddenly  as if it knew we were talking about it there was a low, deep growl, right next to us. Rex started snarling about as menacingly as a small monster can. Hanger froze, and I heard his breath catch in his throat.

“Run, and don’t stop, no matter what.” He said quietly. I didn’t argue. I let go of his arm and took off, hearing him right behind me. He suddenly grabbed my wrist and jerked me to the right, apparently down a hall or something. I heard heavy, rhythmic foot steps behind us. Some big, standing on only two legs. I thought back to the lizard thing we had seen earlier. Suddenly, We came to an abrupt halt. “This is it! Climb!” Hanger cried. I felt the wall and felt a metal ladder. Flecks of rust came out. The creature was getting closer, and now it sounded like there was more than one. Three, maybe. I had only gone a couple steps up. I couldn’t leave Hanger there, he’d die.

“Come on!” I screamed. “I cant. You have to go, now!” he shouted back. They were so close I could hear there hissing breaths. A rancid smell filled my nose. Oh no, he wasn’t getting away that easily. I grabbed his shirt and yanked. “You don’t understand! If I leave, they’re never going to leave me alone, or you! You’ll be on the run forever!” he said, panicked. I didn’t think twice. I yanked harder. “We can deal with that later!” I said and began climbing again, still holding his shirt. I felt him start to follow. I think the whole climbing thing may have thrown the monster, because it paused at the bottom, and I hear it put an experimental mitt on the ladder, then it started to follow. I bumped my head, hard, on the metal opening above me, leading me back out into the world of the light. “Close your eyes!” I shouted to Hanger, then pounded desperately on the metal above me. It gave away, and light seared my eyes. Free again.

I jumped out and dragged Hanger out, not looking at him as I focused on trying to be able to see again. Right now, all I could see was bright yellow and orange burning through my eye lids and giving me one hell of a head ache. As soon as I pulled Hanger out, I slammed the lid back on something’s head. It gave a pitiful wail and there was silence for minute before a loud thud came. I opened my eyes a bit, ignoring the pain, and dragged a massive boulder a few feet away over and put it on top of the lid, then skittered back into the tree line, taking Hanger with me. I collapsed on my back in the dry leaves, slowly opening my eyes, cursing the dark.

After a couple moments, I had my eyes all the way open. The light seemed much brighter, more beautiful than anything. I felt the dry leaves under me, leaves and branches above me. I smiled and sat up, wincing a little. I didn’t know if I had ever been happier. Clean air filled my nose, and I would have liked to sit for an hour, taking in everything that had happened to me, but there were other things to do. I stood up slowly. Sitting on the ground was someone I had never seen before, but knew better than any of my friends I’d had for years, because I’d spent three days with him, my life in his hands.

A boy, about my age, sat on the ground. Black, shaggy hair glinting almost blue in the sunlight, a black t-shirt, and black jeans, the white tips of black converse sticking out at the bottom. My eyes widened and he stood up. I only came to his chest. This kid was massive! Six feet, six inches probably. Scars ran down his arm, on his hands, now just white lines. One small scar curved above his eye brow, but those weren’t even the most striking feature on him.

It was the eyes. He had black eyes. Wider than usual, but not so much you would notice, unless you looked for it. The strange thing was, there was very little white in his eyes. Just in the very corners there was a little white, but the black filled all of it pretty much. His eyes narrowed and darted around, and I could only imagine what it felt like to be seeing the light, after never seeing it.