Where the Fox Runs

The Rotten Youth - The Documentation of Recluse and Dule

 "Let's start a war." Recluse said with his typical grin slapped on his face. He fiddled with a long string, knotting it in various shapes then undoing it. One knot here another there, his fingers moving fast and somehow elegantly. He seemed to make no mistake as his fingers entwined with the old string. He paid no attention to the skill he was showing, doing it like it was casual like someone tapping their foot.

"Yeah? A war on what?" I spoke as my eyes followed his fingers as they kept fondling with the string. Recluse responded to my question with a shrug which he then objected by saying, "A war on society. I want to change the way people think." His fingers stopped, tossing the string onto the floor. With his now free hands he used one of them to brush through his dirty ginger hair.

We sat in the abandoned small house as our small conversation of war went on. The house could've been pretty if it wasn't torn apart. The water heater was destroyed in the back room while the kitchen floor was covered in all kinds of rubbish and bug feces. The bathroom tiles were destroyed from someone throwing a brick at it. Altogether it was rotten and falling apart. And so it was the perfect home for us, the rotten youth, rotten like the fruits spoiled on the ground. Our name was splattered on the graffitied walls that no one really paid attention to. The rotten youth was here and yet our rebellious attitude seemed to do nothing anymore. The sweet and bitter society of our today has become immune to us.

"I mean I really don't care if I die tomorrow. I just want to die and have my name live on. I want Recluse to be the name of a martyr or a revolutionist, something. I want kids to read about me, about us, in the history books. The rotten youth, the leaders of the strongest war every commenced, a war on society and on the stigma." He went about. Recluse gave this speech often, how he wanted his name to live on, not caring if it was in infamy or praise. As for me I didn't mind as much as he did. The only requirement for my death was that I wouldn't die alone. I couldn't. I had to and I would die next to someone, holding their hand or them holding my crumpling body. Whether it was Recluse or another rotten youth I didn't care. I just do not want to leave this world by myself.

A little spider in the corner walked about on the wall. We had many spiders infest the home along with wasps and other pests. One of the stories to Recluse's name was that he once caught three of the brown recluse spiders and has a scar from where one apparently bit him. But he has lots of stories to how his name came about. Once I think he said his mother called him that because giving birth to him was much worse than being bitten by a hundred recluse spiders. As for me I think it's just a self given name, not that I think less of him for it, if anything it makes me proud. Like myself and most of the rotten youth we all have self given names, what we want ourselves called and not what others thrust upon us. That was part of our thing, we make ourselves, no one makes us anything.

I was curious as to how exactly Recluse planned to start this war of his. "And how are we going to spark this war?" The idea of a war was flattering to me as it probably was to most rotten youth. The idea of revolting, actually fighting for the change we want. This was when Recluse cleared his throat announcing he was going to go into detail on how his war was going to start. He also cracked his knuckles like he was getting ready to start a fight. His back leaned against the back of the torn down chair placed in the torn down house.

"I've been busy on my own, Dule." Recluse's tone changed and I could tell in that moment this was no more a joke. He was ready to break the straw, cause such an uproar that a war is declared. "I was able to gather documents and more. Exposing the truth this ridiculous government has been hiding. With this in their faces the public cannot deny any longer the torture and hate acts this government is doing against us. It's barely even a government anymore, it's a monarchy. The majority, the 'normals' as king, royalty. And we are the peasants with no rights."