Onision Self Insert (Reaper's Creek)

Chapter 1: Welcome to the Creek

I was home... finally. My father had taken me so many places when I was in Ohio. He bought me so many things, but maybe that was just to make up for the missing child support payments. Everyone seems so worried about what their ex would do with their money as if they are a completely different person than who they originally fell in love with. What made you trust them in the first place? And why did your trust suddenly go away just because my mom left you?

I couldn't hear much of anything over the furnace blasting in my ears. The tiny window at the base of my bed my step dad built me allowed a subtle glow of light to peer in. I crawled over to the window to see my sister Joanna playing outside with our geese. She was happy to be home as well.

Summer this year was strange... there was a girl there, when I looked at her, it felt like she was staring right through me. She had curly brown hair, her parents were both from latin America. She was so cute. She was my favorite part of Church every Sunday, and the entire state of Ohio itself. At this point she is my main reason to return next summer, as I have no idea what to do with my father. Joanna just says "Ditto" whenever she talks to my dad on the phone after he says he loves her. I wonder if he has caught on to the fact that she says this because of the things my mom told her about her biological father, things I think might be true.

I climbed down my bed, hanging by chains over my water heater, washer & dryer. That's right, I live in an 8 x 6 box, it sits by the kitchen in my 900 square foot home. But it's paradise here. When I'm at my dad's house, I feel like I'm in some kind of cookie cutter Christian bubble cult. Everyone is smiles, everyone is doing something... going somewhere. But how can they ignore how corrupt they are? I see past them showing off their pearly ivory teeth every time they see me. They are hiding from themselves, they are still breaking may of the fragile people they encounter, and smiling just the same.

Walking outside, my step dad is working on making another bed with his bare hands. Just like the bed he made me, the bed that somehow allowed me to exist with my own space in such an unlikely place. Where would I be going to bed without the contraption he made me? In the bathroom? Or maybe we'd just put hang a blanket from the ceiling in our little wooden front room.

"Hi Papa" I said as my step dad chipped away, he looked up with his big goofy mustache bending into a smile. "Hey there Greg! I'm making this bed for your cousin Rod!" I smiled and replied "Oh, cool!" and thought about what he was getting out of it. My step dad had so much time on his hands... maybe he was putting food on the table, or maybe he was just trying to be everyone's friend. The problem with friends is they aren't bound to you by blood, there is no promise they will never go away. Sometimes I feel like my real friends are the woods that surround my house, the creek that runs by it... they don't leave me, they don't lie to me, they tell me who they are, and they never change.

"Hey dork!" belted my sister, who was no longer playing with the geese. "Oh hi, Joanna, what are you doing?" I said with a smirk. She replied "None of your business loser!" This was typical, Joanna being irrational. Why did she say hi to me if she did not want to talk? Oh right, to call me a dork and move on.

I wanted to go up the trail to swing alone, but I felt a familiar wet dew on my feet, of course, I wasn't wearing any socks or shoes yet. "Hey Daniel! Want to help me out ever here?" my step dad was trying to insert a section of bed into a supporting pole, but the teeth of the headboard kept wobbling around making it a two man job.

My step dad was a tall man, maybe 6 foot 1 inches, he had a haircut like he was in the Beatles band, but the caterpillar above his lip threw the look off. I always admired how healthy he looked because most everyone else his age looked like they were well on their way to getting diabetes.

"What are you waiting for kid?" my step dad asked. I replied "Sorry Papa, I gotta go grab shoes, one second!" he replied with a dad-like frustrated, but friendly voice "Alright then."

Slipping on some shoes inside, I ran back out and pushed the teeth of the headboard in the associated slots so he could firmly put the side of the headboard into the supporting beam. My step dad said "Thanks Buddy, I'll let you know if I need more help. The base board should be no problem as it's shorter through." I laughed and hugged him. "I'm going up the hill Papa." I said, he replied "Ok kid!"

Running up the hill I got hit by a lot of stickers. Those are plants that basically get stuck to your clothes by hooking them with their sharp prongs or by otherwise having a natural adhesive on them.

I didn't really worry about the stickers at this point however, it was the nettles I was afraid of. Those push little needles in your skin, and cause pretty significant pain. Oddly enough, if you boil them, apparently they make a decent soup, but make no mistake, they are basically the jelly fish of plants.

Getting past all the stickers I was finally to it, the tree, the massive beautiful tree with a rope hanging down, just at the right length so you could swing on it, without smacking your body onto any nearby trees.

Climbing up to the black and yellow twisted rope, I grabbed on and began to swing around. "Woohoo!" I screamed almost every time. I was so happy to finally be at the place where I belonged, it didn't matter I was wearing my pajamas still, it didn't matter that I was wearing a T-shirt supporting a non-Christian TV show, I wasn't at my biological Dad's anymore. I was alone, in the woods, I was free.

Suddenly I saw the face of my bully show up in front of my eyes. It was Phillip and immediately after, everything went black.

I felt a small amount of blood dripping down my stomach, my eyes were closed. Without opening my eyes, I rolled backwards onto my back. I opened my eyes and saw only trees above me, I was still outside, in the woods alone. The birds were chirping, the sun rays were peaking through the leaves and pine. The air was so beautiful smelling & I could hear little insects crawling around me, minding their own business. Everything was right where it should be, except for me. What happened?

Looking down I could see the white T-shirt I was wearing now had a hole in it and a blood spot. I had fallen off the rope swing after I fainted. Why did I see Phillip's face?

Walking down the hill and into the yard Joanna said with her basic brown teenager haircut and her clothes that were too tight for her plump body type "Oh my God dork, are you gonna die or something?" I replied "Yes Joanna, I'm going to die. Don't come to my funeral, you would somehow make it suck even more." Joanna yelled back a fake laugh as I walked into the house, she had nothing else to say.

Stepping across the wood floor my mom painted white as a result of our pets peeing on our former carpet till it was unbearable to have around, I walked into the bathroom, now putting pressure on my wound. I took off my shirt and threw it in the tiny trash bin. Looking into the bathroom mirror I gazed at my own face, same Daniel as always. Sharp jaw line, acne on my face, bushy eyebrows & abnormally tall for an 11 year old. My brown hair was so boring, I thought about dyeing it all the time, but my mom said I was too young.

Looking down I could see my wound, it was actually incredibly superficial. Maybe the sharp stick I had fallen on when I blacked out had hit a rib, I imagine if I was hit somewhere else, it would have at least dug deeper.

Time for my favorite part, pouring hydrogen peroxide on my wound and watching the science project explode in front of me.

It felt like I had enough outdoors for that day, it was time to retire to my bedroom and play video games the rest of the day. My game of choice, Metal Gear Solid, a game that had been unwittingly programming my world view, causing me to prematurely judge and reflect on aspects of our world I would have not considered till I was at least an adult without it.

Mom gets home at 5 o'clock.