Craving Normality - A Wilbur Soot Angst

Chapter 20

Wilbur found himself at a train station. He had no money, no phone, no way of buying a ticket, and as he stared apprehensively at the train schedule on the grimy wall of the station, he began to feel scared.

He'd never been so alone before.

He decided the best thing to do would be to board the train and hide in the loos when the ticket inspector came around. If he was caught, it was over. But Wilbur didn't really care anymore. After all, he had nothing to lose.

Wilbur decided to board the next train that arrived at the station, which happened to be one going direct to London. As planned, he hid in the loo as soon as he saw the man walking down the aisle of the train checking tickets, breathing a sigh of relief when he left and saw that the man was gone.

He had gotten away with it.

• • •

It was dark by the time the train arrived in London. Wilbur had been hoping to get some sleep during the journey, but unsurprisingly had remained wide awake for the duration, unable to calm his pounding heart.

As he walked out of the train station and stepped onto the busy streets of London for the first time, Wilbur realised the enormity of what he had done. He had run away. There was no way Phil would ever let him back now; not that he would want to go back, he had influenced Tommy to hurt himself. Everyone would be better off with him gone. He took a deep breath and began to stride down the street, keeping his head down to avoid eye contact with anyone, and keeping an eye out for anywhere he would be able to spend the night. Wilbur eventually passed by the doorway of a shop that was boarded up; it was cold and dark, so he didn't really have time to look for anything better. It would have to do. He lay down, shivering, trying and failing to find a comfortable position. He didn't even have a coat and began wishing that he had planned this slightly more rather than sprinting out of the house in a panic. Yet again, he'd managed to fuck up.

• • •

'They think he's gone to London.' Techno announced, feeling sick to his stomach.

'London?!' Phil sat up straight, a panic-stricken look on his face. 'Does he know anyone in London?'

Techno shook his head. 'It's November, Phil. He's going to be sleeping outside, he'll be freezing. I just pray he's not desperate enough to go off with a stranger.' He felt ill at even the thought of this.

• • •

The night finally ended, and Wilbur began to regret his decision even more. He knew that he should be sitting on the streets and 'begging', but he was scared of people, and didn't want to talk to anyone, especially strangers. Wilbur found himself wandering around aimlessly, eventually walking into a small sandwich shop. He gathered together his courage, and walked over to the counter, where an old lady was standing.

'H-hi, I was w-wondering if I could d-do some kind of j-job so I could earn money to b-buy a sandwich?'

She peered at him over the top of her glasses. 'How old are you?'

'F-fifteen.'

'I don't hire kids. Sorry.'

'N-no, please, I'm desperate. Please, I'll do anything, p-please-'

'Leave.'

And so Wilbur left, defeated, and without any food.

He returned to the shop door for the next night, having been unable to find anything better. He was cold, depressed, and faint from hunger.

How could it get any worse than this?

• • •

'You alright, mate?'

Wilbur jumped, flinching away from the voice that seemed to have come out of nowhere. He squinted his eyes and managed to make out the face of a man who looked to be in his early 40s.

'I... I'm fine.'

'Nah, you look freezing. November, eh?'

Wilbur was still pressed against the shop door, as far away from the man as he could possibly get, remembering all the talks he had been given when he was younger about stranger danger.

'Come on, I can't leave you out here, you'll freeze to death.'

'N-no, I'm f-f-fine.' Wilbur could barely formulate a sentence he was shivering so hard.

'You sure?'

Fuck it.

What was the worst that could happen? Wilbur didn't care about his life anymore. Nothing mattered to him; he might as well take up this man's offer, rather than lying here in the cold. He was probably right anyway; he would at least get very ill if he stayed out in this weather for much longer.

'I... o-okay.'

'Come with me, then. I'm meeting some friends at the pub, and then you can get a good night's sleep, eh?'

Wilbur nodded, his heart racing as he stood up, shakily following this strange man.

All of his instincts were telling him not to, but he kept repeating to himself that he didn't care.

The worst that could happen was that he would die, and why would that matter?

Nobody would miss him anyway.

A/N: Hope everyone is doing well :) 

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