Bound Together

Chapter One

Dilan's POV

Thirteen years had passed since that fateful night, a night that had completely changed my life. I wasn't the only one who had been affected that night. In fact, almost everyone lost either a family or a friend. But I was the one who had been hit the most. I had lost my parents and I was left orphaned. I was also left with nightmares of that night that completely changed me. I had once been a cheerful young boy, always happy and social. After that night, I had become the quiet kid who had no parents. The kid that was a loner, always mourning for his parents. In fact, the people I could talk to were not more than my fingers in my hand. That was how much my life had changed.

Since I had no parents, I had to move in with my aunt and her daughter. My aunt was a nurse who had made a teenager's mistake and had become pregnant with my cousin, Claire. She had however not dated again or if she did, she never told us. My aunt cared for me and she was somehow protective over me. Once, I had been bullied and she had thrown a tantrum in the principal's office. Even if it did nothing much, it felt good having someone to hold my hand.

Claire was a few months older than me but she acted worse than my aunt. She behaved as if it was her duty to protect me from everything. She had a temper that made her scary but even with her temper, she was the nicest person I knew. She was beautiful and a cheerleader. She was one of the popular kids in school but in a good way. She was loved by all including I and I can't deny the fact that she was my best and only friend. My list of people I talked to ended there.

I was seated at the two tombstones of my parents. I had my bag hanged on my father's tombstone as I leaned on my mother's, a novel in my hand. It had become my habit to always visit my parents' graves every morning. I had to wake up an hour earlier and head for the graves. It always gave me peace sitting beside their graves, it was as if their presence was there for me. It gave me strength to face the world, even though I was always in a hoody with my head bowed down.

I was reading a novel when I felt a presence. I knew it couldn't be the graveyard caretaker as he had already gone. Also, I chose the early morning as nobody visited the graveyard at that time. I raised my head from my novel and looked around. The graveyard was silent and I could see nobody. That is weird, I thought to myself as I swore I could feel someone's presence. I resumed to my novel.

After I had finished one page, the feeling returned. I could feel someone watching me. I ignored it as I didn't want to get disappointed by not seeing someone. But the feeling didn't go. In fact, it grew stronger that I couldn't resist the urge to raise my head and look back. When I did, I locked my eyes with someone. The person was pretty far, at the edge of the graveyard hidden by a tree. But I could make out a feminine feature. I continued looking at her but she didn't drop her gaze at me. I wanted to rise and run towards her and ask her why was she gazing at me. I was the loner of the town, the antisocial that was nothing worth looking at. It felt weird, as if it reminded me of something but I couldn't remember what.

I blinked and when I opened my eyes, she wasn't there. I blinked again thinking it was an illusion of my mind but she had gone, as if she had teleported away. I decided to go to school as I felt weird remaining in the graveyard. I rose and kept the novel into my backpack. I then slung my backpack at my back and squatted at the two tombstones.

"Bye mum, dad..." I said not bringing myself to say anything more than that.

I then walked to my bike and rode to school, a place I hated. First of, I was a nerd. This was because I found solitude in books. Whatever I knew, I knew it from books. Still, I hated high school. I had mastered the art of laying low as I didn't want attention but even then, I still attracted bullies. I got bullied almost everyday and Claire's efforts of stopping them only made them bully me the more. So I had asked her to not try and fight for me which she had reluctantly agreed. I hated the whispers and gossip that were always there wherever I walked. There goes the pathetic orphan... There were worse than that but I had grown to ignore them with music. But I couldn't completely ignore them. That's why I hated school.