meet me in the woods ☾grayson dolan au

t w e n t y t w o

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\\ TRIGGER WARNING //
PLEASE DO NOT READ IF YOU ARE SENSITIVE TO TOPICS CONCERNING DEATH. I DO NOT WANT TO MAKE ANYONE UNCOMFORTABLE OR FEEL UNSAFE IN ANY WAY. THIS IS YOUR WARNING.

It was dark when he arrived at the woods, stepping over brush and twigs as leaves crunched under his feet. In the distance, sirens wailed and ran looking for the boy who had murdered a nurse. They were coming.

"Ethan!" He yelled into the trees. "What am I supposed to do now?"

He stopped, turning in the area that was so familiar to him through nightmares. The huge tree that hung over the path stared down at him and for a second he stared back.

"Ethan! Please!" He listened some more. "I fucked up this time..." The later statement was quieter, as if he was embarrassed of himself. He ran a sweaty hand over his face and called out again.

"Ethan!"

There was no response except the wind that picked up in the trees. Red and brown leaves rained down and mixed in with the irregular carpet that covered the ground. He looked up into the eyes of the tree, the same one that had killed his brother, and began to see the flashbacks of his young self catching the sight. He saw Ethan, swinging slightly in the light breeze. The rope was tied so intricately around his tiny neck, and his younger body was too light to release him from it. Grayson shook the memories away.

"Ethan, please," he moaned to the leaves. "I've gone too far this time. Can't you hear the sirens? They're coming for me." The pattern of a fading police siren screamed from a mile away and Grayson shuddered at what could happen if they found him.

"They're fucking coming for me!" He yelled into the darkness of the woods. He paused. "You were right. Everything you said was right. I'm a coward and I'm terrified, Ethan. I don't know what to do."

He waited. Nothing changed around him.

"I can't run," he said. "I've run too long from what's real that it's finally catching up to me and I'm terrified. I don't know what the hell is wrong with me, but I know that you were right and I never listened to you. I'm here now and all I ask is that you give me something. Anything, please! I'm so lost and caught between reality and my own head- I don't know what to do!"

He stopped, and when nothing happened, he fell to his knees and began to cry into his palms. They were ugly sobs that wracked his body and made his chest heave. He felt lost, and he looked it too.