Fallen Petals

Chapter One: Useful Discovery

The sound of trees rustling in the wind, twigs snapping underneath the wheels of his bike as Michael rode deep into the forest. The stars plastered along the night sky shined down on him, the iridescents of the stars lighting up the sensors of Michael's bike. He saw a creek up ahead and stepped on the breaks, the bike slowly stopping until it was right at the brink of the creek. Michael got off his bike and leaned it against a tree, he walked back over to the creek, the luminous moon reflecting on the creek's rippling water. "Stupid ma...and all her stupid rules and her stupid...stupidness." Michael mumbled to himself, his thick Italian accent clear and visible. He would pick up a decent sized rock and toss it into the creek, watching the rock sink into the water. "She can't control me forever, I don't care if this is our home now, I hate it here!" He exclaimed, now picking up a slightly bigger rock, no longer tossing it but now over hand throwing it into the creek with a grunt. Micheal breathed heavily, his fists clenched. "They won't listen, not ma..not dad.." Micheal said, taking a seat near the creek, feeling the wood chips underneath his legs. He took out his phone and read the time on his lockscreen, 10:45 PM. Michael sighed and put his phone away. He looked up at the sky, grabbing his cross necklace and doing the sign of the cross. "Oh lord up there, if you're listening..I need ya' help." Michael began, tightening his grip. "My mom won't listen, neither will my dad. I really need someone to understand what I'm going through, God." He continued, running his hand through his thick, curly black hair. "If you could send someone, literally anyone, that understands me my way, I'd appreciate it. Amen." He concluded. He looked up at the moon for a few seconds, his expression saddening as he reflected on why he was in the forest in the first place. He remembered the way his mother shouted at him like she never shouted before, but deep down, Michael had a feeling that his mother knew he was right. "You chose to live with me, Mike! This is your life now!" "Well clearly I made a mistake, didn't I?" Those words echoed through Michael's mind, that argument had lasted a whole two hours earlier. He stood up and brushed his pants from any dirt or wood chips sticking to his clothes. Michael walked over to his bike and began walking with it to get out of the forest. He didn't know what to expect once he arrived home, would they just pretend that their whole argument didn't happen? Would his mother even forgive him for expressing such "attitude" and "disrespect"? Michael shook his head, instead focusing on his surroundings. The spruce trees rustled in the calm breeze, the cracking of the pinecones as Michael stepped on them or led his bike on them. The ground was covered in twigs and leaves, he thought it was a bit odd that there were leaves despite this being a spruce forest. The sudden occurrence of thunder, wait what?

CRACK!

Michael flinched at the sound of thunder, he felt the air around him getting colder, so cold that he could see his breath. Michael ignored the sudden weather change and pushed his bike forward, but something else caught his attention. All the leaves on the ground began blowing in the wind, normally he would ignore this. But the leaves all blew to the exact same spot in the air, and what's more, is that they stayed there. Michael dropped his bike and stepped towards the floating leaves. Michael could've sworn there was a small blue ball of energy that just appeared for a split second. Before he could even question it, he was knocked to the ground by a large gust of wind. The small blue ball of energy became a big bright light. Michael shielded his eyes, his lips quivering. And just as it happened, it was over. Michael removed his hand from his eyes, making eye contact with something he never expected.

What stood about thirty centimetres away from Michael could very well be taken out of a horror movie. He saw two figures with vibrant green skin, their ears elongated and pointy as they flick to every noise being heard around the forest at that moment, leaves hitting the sides of trees, miniature bolts shooting out of the light that cleanly snapped twigs. The figures each had a fluid, spaded tail that whipped around in every direction. Michael couldn't see any other details due to the bright energy near the figures. But that light slowly became smaller, and smaller, until it was no more. Michael got to his feet and stepped closer to the figures, only a bit, and he got a better look at them. Both figures had shaggy, somewhat long brown hair, though one figure had much darker brown hair than the other. Both figures had a small collection of freckles under their eyes, but Michael focused more on the eyes themselves. Both figures had black hole-like eyes, with no soul or life visible just by looking at them. The sclera of both figure's eyes were a pale yellow, not to mention that there were no pupils in the eyes of the figures, but rather a glowing ring, somewhat acting as the pupil. One figure had orange rings in their eyes, while the other had green rings, with the figure with green rings wearing a pair of glasses with black round frames. Both figures were dressed in dirty, ripped white and gold clothing and shoes, and both figures were carrying a large satchel. In contrast to Michael's black t-shirt with white stripes on it and tan jeans.