A Little Insane: Building A Monster

Chapter Eleven - There's A New Boss

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    Riley ventured into the forest surrounding the house, crossing the vegetable garden and picking a fresh green apple from one of the trees. He bit the apple and chewed the sour fruit, swallowing the juice that tickled his taste buds. He reluctantly kept moving, passing by more trees and finding himself in a dead zone. He called it the dead zone because everything had died. The trees looked like they had burned in a fire, the ground was impeccably black and even the air had this deathly look to it.

He enjoyed being out here; away from everything. Ever since Hart gave him the freedom, he spent a lot of time outside just watching the forest.

He had always been recluse, and that was a reason why he was in Bellumstone in the first place. Riley and his sister separated for a year while they studied in different colleges, but his friends and teachers informed her of his little problem; which wasn't a problem, and it made him angry just thinking about it. People worried, he understood that. But it wasn't anyone's business what he did or didn't do.

His parent's died a very long time ago, so his sister was the one that got the phone call about possible suicidal behavior coming from her only sibling. He wasn't doing very well in school, but it wasn't because he was suicidal. School just wasn't important to him. Yeah, he was one of those people. Honestly, he would have probably dropped out anyway. Some people just weren't meant for school and that was okay.

But his obvious shaky confidence and self-esteem left him incredibly vulnerable to suspicion and judgment. His sister cried and begged him to come home, except they didn't have a home. They shared an apartment before they went off to college, but not a home like when they were children and had parents. He didn't even remember what their voices sounded like.

In the end she managed to convince him to move back to Bellumstone, where they were both born, because it might do him some good. He never really understood what she meant, and he never asked. He was just glad that he didn't have to go to that school anymore, he never really fit in, even within his group of friends.

And that was why he liked being out here. It was so quiet sometimes that he swore he could hear magic. Magic as in animals wandering, sniffing curiously while they stepped on fallen branches, reacting to the sound of the snap when it broke in two. Or new flowers blooming and a single drop of rain falling on its pedals. Everything out here was better than anything over there.

And that was what made him and Hart so damn good for each other.

Speaking of Hart, he had been following Riley for the past thirty minutes. Did he think he wouldn't catch on? He wasn't stupid.

“Do you know what happened here?” Riley asked loudly, hiding a smug smile as he heard the crunching of leaves.

Hart moved next to him, locking his eyes on the dead trees in front of them.

“Forest fire?” he guessed.

Riley smiled, sliding his hands around the man.

“Even though everything's dead, it's still beautiful,” Riley said.

“I agree, it's all very beautiful. Death shouldn't be feared, you know? It should be embraced. Death . . . it's not an end, but the end of a journey and the beginning of a new one.”

“Strange journey I'm in,” Riley said.

Hart smirked, and yeah, he could actually have emotions like normal people. He wasn't just some weirdo who was incapable of showing his feelings, he just chose not to. Why? No one knew, but Riley had noticed a long time ago. It was only when he felt comfortable that Hart really showed who he was, and not the killer side, the human side.