Chapter 1: Ripples

Page 1

A speeding bike slashes through a puddle, violently splashing water onto a path nearby. Stripes of white paint faded and crumbled away on the road, cutting off with pot holes.

The puddle reflects beautiful colours of light from dim-lit lampposts, the shining full moon, and the night sky full of bright stars. Hues of soft pale oranges, blues, purples, and pinks on the surface as it slowly settles down, back to an undisturbed puddle.

A hand covered in plasters and cuts grips tightly to handle bars of a bike, pacing quickly down a street. Sweat and rainwater are dripping down from the boy's pale but dirty complexion, which is covered in old scratches and bruises. With his hair covering his eyes, only shades of dark blue can be seen at night.

Chaotic splash after splash from the same puddle only a few seconds after the first, a chase in an intense scene is taking place, the boy riding as fast as he can from approaching unknown people.

The boy's bike chain seamlessly tries to hang in there, by a brutal use it's being forced into. The bike chain pings off the gears' teeth, while the boy spins effortlessly in an attempt to carry on cycling, unaware of what happened.

The boy, confused as to why he isn't moving any more, grits his teeth in frustration and looks frightened. He freezes in place like an animal caught in headlights, unsure whether to flee or fight, before getting off the bike, pushing it to the side of the pavement. He heads towards a fence nearby that leads into a dark, overgrown forest, the fence looks rotten and torn apart, ageing endlessly in hope of repair.

Four bike tires line up one after another before stopping, they seem to have now caught up to him as they throw their bikes to the side of the road near the first boy's bike just moments before he does.

The boy tightly grips onto the wooden fence before being pulled aggressively by his shirt and legs, his fingers tightly locked onto the dark green wood. His finger tips red and green until he is pulled from the fence with a soundless click from his fingers clamping shut from the unexpected release.

Page 2

One of the attackers looks a similar age to the boy while they hold onto a piece of his ripped shirt in one hand. Another boy that looks older than himself pushes him over, he falls to the wet floor before being kicked and shouted at with insults. Two of them look younger but taller and have similar features, they could be brothers. They both start to kick his ribs and liver, he begins to notice the sounds and colours start to fade away and blur out.

A sudden splash from another bike, perhaps another attacker that hasn't caught up yet? This causes the group to look in the direction of what seems to be another boy riding fast towards them, they slowly walk onto the road away from the pavement where the boy now lays, with cuts and bruises all over his body, motionless.

The boy jumps off the bike while still holding onto the handlebars securely and stands firmly on the ground. He throws the bike with the momentum before falling over himself. The bike launches into the group of boys as he shouts at them.

The group now cowering in both confusion, fear, and pain from the bike hitting them, they mutter to themselves, "H-he is crazy." "L-let's get out of here, is he insane? Is he trying to kill us??" “We got him good anyway, let’s go." One of them limbs while another holds their arm up, they all hop onto their bikes. They all slowly and sluggishly drift off down the street and into the distance.

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The boy lays there, still, barely conscious and unable to process anything happening around him, while the other boy stumbles over and reaches out his hand in front of his eyes. A blur of something moving can only be seen, and muffled noises can only be heard.

"Hey! Hey! Are you alive!?" Before shaking him in a comedic way, the other boy reacts with, "Heyy! Don't shake me, it hurts!" as he drops him, splashing water up from underneath. "No worries, you don't have to thank me for saving your life, again, I might add," as the boy groans and rolls his eyes. "Come on, I handled that perfectly, what are you talking about?"

The two boys laugh together, completely ignoring the intense fight, which could have potentially killed the boy if they continued, or worse, they could have killed them both if the group decided to fight back or were insane enough to want that. He holds his arm over his shoulder to prop him up while he limps. The glistening moon lights up the sky’s pure black canvas with specks of dots scattered around to complete the painting before fading to nothing but darkness.

Page 3

Loud, sudden ringing from an alarm, "I'm late, aaaaaaa! hhhhh!" a boy shouts while his shirt is on backwards and trousers are being pulled up, “quick quick quick!”. A soft-spoken lady with blonde hair waves at the boy, "See you later then," while the boy with toast in his mouth and a blazer that is almost on muffles towards his mother, “oknbgg seeegn yuoguu!”.

The laughter of younger siblings can be heard in the background as the door shuts behind him—the sounds of a family just waking up in the morning. This boy runs down the street as he slows down and stares at a house that looks like it was robbed or still in the process of being built but left there, abandoned before it was built.

Another boy slowly walks out of the house as he stares at him. The boy is wearing an old or outdated uniform, similar to his. Patches all over the clothes, with a sweater too long for him, as he looks at the other boy with a glare through his round shining silver glasses.

A second of eye contact before he looks away and walks down to his gate, ignoring him completely. The other boy carries on down the street after they make awkward eye contact with a long silence.

The boy in the sweater thinks to himself, "Great, the morning just started, and there's already a weirdo waiting outside my house." while he tries to slow down just enough to stay away from the other boy that is now in front of him.

The boy in front keeps looking back at the other boy before slowing down to his pace and speaking in an almost forced friendly tone, "Hey, I'm new here, what school do you go to, the same as me, right?" as the other boy just ignores and looks away. Confused by the coldness of the boy, he carries on with his original pace as he steadily walks faster down the pathway.

The boy reaches school gates, tall and spiky with the colour purple all over it, wide enough for cars to fit through, it seems to be locked. Next to is a smaller gate in the shape of a door, this one is open as the boy walks through it towards the front entrance of the school.

He just stands there in the middle of a huge pavement that seems like miles away from the gate, taking in the overwhelming view for a moment. At both edges stand tall, perfectly shaped rectangular bushes, the greenest he has ever seen.

The front entrance is dwarfed by the oversized glass window that almost covers all of his view from left to right. Towering pillars like they are from Mount Olympus on both sides, keeping the roof up.