Daniel's existence has always been an odd one that much is blatantly obvious. He is odd and everyone treats him oddly. He is like a dream that no one can seem to remember properly. Like some wisp of a person that isn't quite here. Daniel has no purpose in life because it seems that living in the real world is impossible for a person like himself. So it seems.
"Hello, Jan...hi, Tom...nice day we're having miss." Daniel didn't have a clue who he was talking to as he made his way down the street. He simply said hello and goodbye to pass the time as if pretending he had a relationship with the countless people he passed each day. Sometimes if he spoke loud enough a person would turn towards him. Only if he was lucky though.
Daniel ever since he was six stopped attending school and decided to live on his own in the wild city of Coelfern. Living for a person such as himself has never been easy, but neither has it been hard. Acquiring food or a place to sleep has never been a problem for Dan even when he was little. Ever since he abandoned his particularly chivalrous ways Dan simply takes what he wants when he wants. Looking back on himself now Daniel almost scoffed at his past self.
With no reservations, Dan swung open the doors to the local GameStoop and walked in like some sort of mafia boss.
"Put the money in the bag!" He said while pointing his finger gun at the cashier imitating a movie he saw on tv just last night. The only reaction he got was a small twitch in the clerks face. Putting his finger gun down Dan made his way in and went over to the latest console. He got the stool the clerks usually use to grab things from the top shelf with and used it to grab the zBox s.
Not bothering to get in the checkout line like everyone else. He made sure to grab all the gift cards he could before shoving every new game he could find in a large plastic bag and leaving.
Boredom is commonplace in Dan's life but today is just one of those days that even getting new stuff doesn't make it better. By all means, today is a great sunny day, with the perfect breeze, a nice warm temperature, and yet he has no one to spend it with. Everyone in this bustling city seems to have something or dare say someone to do.
After some walking, Dan made his way into the supermarket grabbing a large cart on the way. Saying hi to the elderly lady welcoming everyone at the entrance. With trained movements, Dan made his way to the bread aisle and started tossing in all the bread he could. Then he went to the non-perishable aisle full of canned goods and tossed in a lot of those too. And lastly, he went back to the front and grabbed three packages of with and some pocklemon cards.
Dan threw his GameStoop bag on top of his food cart he made his way back to the sidewalk and continued on his journey. Walking long distances has always been apart of his life so as a fifteen-year-old now Dan could be said to be an athlete of a sort. And there is some truth that when in solitude confinement one finds ways to release pent up energy. Dan often goes to the gym for these very reasons.
"Makin' my way downtown walkin' fast..." Daniel sang as he pushed his cart down a, particularly steep hill. Being shy is kinda hard when no one bothers to listen to you in the first place. Dan is forced every day to take the long way to where ever he wants to go because believe it or not cars never seem to stop for him. Right on red roads have to be the scariest for him, but even normal stop sign only roads are enough to do him in. People seem to believe that just because they live in a big ass city the road laws don't apply to them.
When Dan had finished walking through the normal discrete alleyways and shortcuts he took he walked up to a great big brick building. Four spires marked the corners of this building with a great pyramid of glass in the middle. From the middle of that pyramid extended a great flag pole with a flag containing the places insignia on it. Some sort of baby angel thing with a lute. At the front of the building, stairs seemed to extend outwards to meet the tips of Daniel's feet. Welcoming him to a home he never had. This place just so happens to be one of Coelfern's local orphanages and boarding schools. Little Pond Academy.
Daniel does not actually attend or live in the orphanage like one might think, he just wishes to help the people inside. Although the school is great in size it is greater in cost, and unfortunately for the people running the joint, the rate of orphans being born has decreased significantly. That would be due to the not so recent war with the Eastern Front being won twenty years ago. No more parents are being drafted and no more kids are being left without parents. It's a dismal thought but there is barely even a reason to supply a place like Little Pond Academy. Coelfern's economy is booming; there are a lot more parents willing to take on an orphaned child, so even if a kid is sent to an orphanage it is not uncommon for them to be swept up immediately.
Imagine how that feels for the kids left behind.
Leisurely going pushing the cart up the now wheel-chair accessible stairs Dan started enjoying himself. If he couldn't enjoy life then he supposed he might as well help the others struggling too. Humming to himself Dan pushed the great doors open with a little effort and walked into the halls. The center of the entrance room is very ornate and beautiful weathered down by dust bunnies and cobwebs that have been failed to be cleaned up. The whole place reminisced of a "better time".
Not being one to dilly dally Dan proceeded to enter the boy's bathroom and left all the stuff in the usual spot. The new keeper had her own bathroom so she never bothered to clean or use the ones in the main room. Truthfully speaking the new keeper never seemed to have anything to do with the main section of the orphanage. She mainly stayed in the boarding school wing in her office pretending to work. Dan couldn't even recall a time where he even saw Mrs. Gants face. He only knew her name from the other kid's conversations.
Truthfully speaking Dan would rather place the food and accessories elsewhere but as life would have it hauling a big ass cart up a flight of stairs is a no go.
"They're used to finding the stuff here so it's best not to change the location," Dan affirmed himself before promptly leaving. Or rather he would have left if he wasn't encumbered by the sudden urge to piss his brains out. Wasting no time he flashed over to the stall and unzipped his pants just in time. Being conditioned to piss in a bathroom whenever he enters one is not so weird. He hoped.
"Hello is someone in there? You should be in class right now yah know. Mrs. G will catch yah she always does." A foreign voice rang through the bathroom and Dan's heart started pounding. It's not often he gets a chance to communicate with someone else.
"H-hi~." Dan's voice came out weaker than he expected. He didn't really care though he just held his breath waiting for a response.
"that's weird I could have sworn someone was in there." The voice said faintly heard by Dan through the bathroom walls. 'No! I'm here.'
"Hi~. C'mon Dan. Hello! There is somebody in the bathroom!" One could not describe how intensely Dan's heart started pounding. Breathing soon became hard to do and manual and sweat poured down from his forehead like a fountain.
This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.
"Oh, so there is someone in there. That's odd I don't remember ever hearing your voice around here before." The sound of her steps grew louder each time she came closer to the door. Dan's heart could be said to be reaching maximum capacity.
"Yeah..."
"What was that?"
"Yeah, you probably wouldn't-"
"Your voice is so hard to concentrate on can you speak up."
"Yeah, you wouldn't!"
"You know what I can't hear you from out here so I'm just going to come on in." She said as if determined to find something. Thoughts raced through Dan's head like 'She can't come in here this is the boy's bathroom' and 'Holy shit it's a fucking girl', so many thoughts and so little time. Before he knew it the door started creaking open and a girl entered the boy's bathroom.
Instantly instead of noticing Dan, she noticed the food and GameStoop merchandise and dashed over to the cart. Almost completely forgetting the reason she came in the bathroom in the first place. Dan did not forget and unabashedly stared at her with wide eyes. The invasive girl had hair such a deep black it seemed dyed, eyes so gold they seemed like contacts, skin so perfect it seemed plastic, and face so angelic it seemed ungodly. The most perfect girl Dan had ever seen was now drooling while eating an entire pack of raw cookie dough.
Dan just stared at her. What else was he supposed to do? Talk to her? The thought barely even crossed his mind. Social anxiety stuck to him like dog hair and loads of glue. Dan was simply content staring at her from his hiding spot in the stall. Maybe.
The girl totally engorged herself to the maximum until her face sported an extremely satisfied smile. One Dan wished he'd never forget. Somehow though the behemoth of a lass did not seem to be done with her feast and reached for another package of plain bread. 'Who eats this much plain bread!' Half of the bread was gone and Dan was more concerned about where the food went now. How can a stomach that small fit that many loaves of bread? Before he could trouble himself some more he heard something more concerning.
"Dearest Clarice wherever could you be! Fret not I will find you oh ho ho *Cough cough cough* Fuck that voice is hard to do. Clarice, come out and accept your punishment you know the rules and implications of skipping class time." A high pitched nasally voice totally unlike the girl's- no, Clarice's voice rang very faintly through the boy's bathroom. Clarice apparently had not even noticed as she was completely engrossed in stuffing her face.
Dan's mind raced at the thought of the girl getting caught because of himself. On one hand, if she did it would affect him in no way what so ever. On the other hand, if she was caught he would never have the chance to talk to the girl again. Talking to people has never been
Dan's forte but he supposed it was about time he got some practice.
"Hey." Dan's voice came out softly.
"Hey." This time his voice came out louder.
"Hey!" He was almost shouting at this point. Feeling irritated at this point Dan briskly walked out of his little hiding spot right over to Clarice. He extended his hand outwards to her to touch her should but caught himself halfway. 'What am I doing?' he couldn't help but think. Touching and physical contact with other people has always been taboo for Dan. His hand floated in the air as he was indecisive as to what he should do.
"...What's even the point." Dan shut his eyes as hard as he could do block the tears from coming. However, his emotions seemed to have other plans so instead, he raised his other hand to cover his face. The weight of Dan's feelings pressed down on him like a new form of gravity and his hand started to lower.
"Why are you crying?" Clarice's clear soft voice asked Dan sympathetically. Slowly taking his hand away from his eye's Dan looked down at his other one. His eye's widened and instinctively he tried to rip his hands away from the girl's grip.
"No!" She yelped as she gripped tighter onto Dan's hand.
"No?" Dan said confusedly; thoughts ran wild throughout his head and all he knew was that he didn't want to be here right now. 'Maybe this time...'
"No." She sighed, "It's so hard to focus on you for some reason. Like I subconsciously knew you were in here it's just...I don't know." Clarice seemed distant as she took a second to think things over.
"You are easier to focus on when I touch you." She stated as a matter of fact.
"Why?" Dan said quietly.
"What?" She asked.
"Why even bother noticing me?" Dan felt a whole new wave of tears well up in his eyes but he fought them back. Dan was not about to look bad in front of the first girl he's held a conversation in years with.
"That, that is a stupid question. Of course, it is because...well I...I don't exactly know, but I figure you're something odd." She sputtered out while reaching to grab another piece of bread.
"I am not odd." Dan retorted feeling oddly defensive.
"You sure about that? I'm at least ninety percent sure that you were hiding in that stall watching me eat for a good amount of time." She accused Dan playfully while taking a bite out of the bread slice she picked up.
"I...I didn't know how to," Words came out of Dan's mouth sporadically and quickly.
"To what? Talk to me?" She asked, Dan only lowered his head and blushed in response.
"You could have just yah know, said something."
"I did." Tears started flowing freely from Dan's eyes, so he started wiping them away. Another hand reached out and grabbed his other hand and pulled it down to his other one.
"No need to be ashamed of crying. I am a great listener you know? So it comes as a great shock to hear I missed something someone else said. Sorry about that." Her face displayed a certain type of sympathy that almost bordered empathy. Something about her voice and body language is cathartic to Dan.
"It's not your fault it's mine-"
"You really are odd if you think you're in the wro-"
"No!" He shouted for real this time. Clarice almost pulled her hands away this time, but now it was Dan's time to hold strong.
"People can't focus on me." Dan sputtered out.
"Can't focus on you?" Clarice's brows creased and her face contorted into something along the lines of 'you're crazy'.
"That's right! No one can hear me, no one can see me, and no one can fucking bother to remember me!" His words vented his deep-seated repressed desperation for, well, someone to talk to.
"That's insane!" Clarice elevated her tone to match Dan's.
"You don't believe me?!" Dan's hand clenched Clarice's tightly.
"No now let go!" She tried to rip her hand away. She succeeded in getting one but Dan did not release the other one and he was pulled forward. Dan fell to the ground pulling Clarice with him with her landing on top of him.
"No! I can't let go!" He clung onto his last lifeline.
"You're scaring me, mister. I only talked to you because I thought you were the one who brought all this food. I guess I was wrong." She said belligerently, "Now let go of me." Once again she tried ripping her hand away but Dan gripped even tighter this time. A manic glint appeared in both their eyes as they both sensed some sort of danger to their livelihood.
"I just-, I just want to talk okay!" His voice wavered as he realized what he was doing, but Dan really did not want to let go.
"Well, I don't! Now let go!" She screamed while kneeing Dan full force in the groin from the position she had on top of him. Dan cried out in pain and tried to push Clarice of his body. When he did Clarice pulled her hand away once more.
"Stop!" Full force this time he clamped down on her arm. A resounding crack echoed through the boy's bathroom as he did. Instantly Dan retracted his hand away from Clarice's. 'Oh my God.' Clarice started screaming on the ground flailing her body around in pure agony. Tears streamed down her florid cheeks and all Dan could do was hideaway in the corner of his stall. Dread encompassed Dan's heart, and this time he could only rock back and forth drowning in regret and guilt.
He stared downwards for a period of time nowhere in particular; just wide-eyed in shock. But at one point he looked up at Clarice who was sobbing loudly on the ground in the fetal position. She cradled her hurt arm on her body trying to keep still. 'You're a beast...' Samantha's mother's words now plagued His thoughts.
In a bout of pain, Clarice groaned loudly and shifted over to look directly in Dan's direction. She opened her clenched shut eyes and then they widened into saucers. Her mouth opened like she wanted to scream but nothing came. Her mouth opened and closed as she attempted to gasp for air but nothing came. Clearly terrified she shifted backward and pushed herself as far as possible up against the wall perpendicular to Dan. Even when she was pressed against the wall she pushed farther. As if she was too afraid to think properly.
Dan stared blankly dazed and in shock. 'I had just wanted to talk. I should have known I'm a fucking-' His thoughts coincided with the real world as he saw Clarice mouthing his very thoughts. Her voice did not follow through but the word still resonated deeply in Dan's mind.
"Monster."