Memory Lane

Chapter 1: Introduction

The support group was nothing more than a dull soundproof room with chairs in a circle and a grand piano sitting uselessly in the background. There were portraits, pictures scattered across the four corners of the room of people. Most of them had inscriptions, all bold and noble-sounding.

But what only mattered were the two numbers between the dash in all the pictures. It did not take a genius to know that those two numbers were years of births and years of deaths, respectively. And most people stared at the pics and zoomed in on the number of years between those two numbers.

The lesser, the more pitiful it was.

Rex's gaze was often on quite a few, particularly one that seemed to be new on the collection. A youngish looking girl, no older than 15? Blonde, but had thick eyeglasses.

"Walls of the dead," a girl said, sitting next to him, "showing those who were once part of the support group."

"That's... a lot," Rex said awkwardly.

"She died a day after I joined. God bless her soul. She was one of the brightest students I've ever met. Accelerated course of study, but never made it there," the girl continued, looking wistful.

"You sound... close."

"If you can change your entire world in a day, you could with her. Ball of sunshine, she was. Her death was the most shocking," the girl sighed, shifting in her black hoodie.

"And..."

"Buddy, not everyone who dies joining this support group makes it on that wall," the girl chuckled, shrugging her shoulders nonchalantly.

"Oh. I hope the group's nice..." Rex turned his head towards the people coming into the room. All of them carried the same expression she and he had, the one thing that seemed to bind them all together as their different clothings betrayed which path of life they had walked from.

At this the girl gave out a low chuckle, one warmer sounding than the one she had given earlier when talking about the wall, and stuck out her hand for him to shake.

"Trust me, they're not all bad. The name's Falcon Lowell Kendrick. I've been here since I was 12, so I'm one of the most experienced people here. I'm 17. You?"

Rex gratefully took her hand to shake, giving her a small, shy smile.

"I'm Rex Indigo Pendragon. As you can probably tell, I'm new here... and I'm 16," Rex added on as an afterthought.

"Rex, huh? Why are you in this support group? Came to support someone else? You sure don't look like one of us..." Falcon peered at his face as if it would give her answers.

"Oh, no... no... I was, um, diagnosed with major depressive disorder and GAD, which stands for..."

Falcon cut him off with raising her left hand, from which hung a black fidget cube that swung freely.

"I get what it means. I've been round the block myself, Rex. Anyways, time to introduce you to the rest of the cast... hey, Jared!"

The person in question looked up and he shuffled over, hair mussed as if someone tousled it. He placed himself in the chair beside Falcon, looking over Rex warily. Then he smiled at Falcon.