Together We Go

1

Crunch.

The snow was crisp, fresh on the ground.

Crunch.

Tyler kept walking.

Crunch.

Tyler likes the sound of snow. He like the way it screams when he compresses the fallen flakes into shoe prints of ice.

Crunch.

Tyler was running now.

Crunch.

Running away.

Crunch.

It was all he seemed to know how to do.

Crunch.

He had never gone this far into the forest before. You couldn't hear the cars driving to their family's houses from here. You couldn't hear the yelling of happy children as they made snowmen with their friends. You couldn't hear the scratching of pencils writing out Christmas lists from here.

Good.

Tyler hated all of those things.

Tyler's parents say he lates a lot of things.

Tyler hates that they're right.

Tyler hates they way his breath fogged the air around him as he walked. It reminded him that he was alive.

Tyler didn't like living.

Tyler likes the forest. The eyes here don't judge him when he twitches. The eyes here don't point and whisper when he cries.

But Tyler didn't know this part of the forest. He had walked further than he had ever gotten to before, but he just kept walking. The eyes seemed to get even nicer the deeper he went.

Tyler noticed an abandoned lodge-type building. Something about it was more welcoming than eerie- the worn down wood and yellowed glass was charming, and the floorboards creaked when he walked inside.

"Hello?" He'd croak. It'd been a while since he had talked.

Only his own voice echoed, and he took a good look around. The one-story house was overused. Trashed with beer bottles and cigarette butts from what Tyler presumed were drunken wanderers.

Tyler opened the door to a room covered in sheets. He decided to pull off the tallest sheet first. It was a bookcase. But, everything was odd. Tyler took a book off of the shelf, dust flying as he flipped open to a random page.

Music?

He'd close the book and put it back, taking the sheet off of another piece, this one lumpy and odd. As he flicked it off and tossed the sheet aside, he revealed a drum set.

So a musician lived here?

Tyler would flick off another sheet to reveal a piano.

Maybe even two?

He had always been fond of pianos- they sounded nice, and he liked how it felt when you pressed down the keys. Tyler found himself playing random harmonies on the piano, playing around to find what sounded good.

Tyler didn't like this piano. It followed to many rules, and it required you to follow them too. It was complicated and made you think.

Tyler continued, eventually pulling out a book and trying to play what was written. He barely got anywhere when suddenly-

"I don't think I've ever heard someone play that piano in years." A voice would come from the doorway.