Chase

Prologue

Maximilian Roberts was engraved on the stone, it's smooth surface shadowed by the golden-leafed tree towering above from the side. That's my name. My name on a gravestone and I'm not even dead, but that's not what everybody else thinks. I'm quite dead to the world. I visit my grave quite a lot, just to see who's there or what's left by it. I guess one of the saddest things is that not many people actually visit, I'd seen my best friend at the funeral drop by, but he never came back. That can be said with mostly everyone who came to my funeral, besides one person. My mum. She comes regularly, so I see her quite a bit, she's normally crying which I think is the worst part. Not being able to tell my own mother the truth, it hurts. Watching her going by her daily life thinking I'm dead, hurts. It's wrong and deceiving but it's the way it has to be because I've changed. Changed for the worse. Responsibility hangs over me, I had to grow up and so I did, which meant sacrificing the things closest to me. If I could change it, I would, but I can't and so I must live with it. It's the way it has to be. My mother turns away from the grave, for a second our eyes meet. Her grieving eyes from where my supposed body lies to my desperate eyes, several metres away. I brush my hand on the bark of a tree as I quickly turn away in a sort of shock. Pulling my grey hood down to cover my eyes, I hide my hands in my hoodie's pockets and I walk away.