Loneliness and fear. At first glance they don’t seem like much. Emotions that everyone feels throughout their life but like most things they are not a constant. They fade and better times come.

At least, that’s the way Will has heard it’s supposed to be.

Will continues his walk home from school. The freezing rain soaking through his thin jacket; his shivering doing little to keep him warm.

His hair is plastered to his face and guides the water into his eyes. He’s too cold to make the effort of wiping the water out of his eyes worth it. His jeans, shirt and shoes have long since soaked through, and he knows wringing them out later and hanging them up to dry is going to be a pain. But it’s better than putting on wet clothes in the morning so he knows it’ll have to be done.

He absently thinks of what it must be like to own a dryer and feel warm clothes fresh out of it against his skin. Maybe one day.

At 15, Will has become used to the hour long walk to and from school. His father owns a car but he doesn’t drive it. His mother….well he’s sure she drives a car wherever she is. She left when Will was 5. He has no idea what happened and his father doesn’t talk about it. He rather spend his days and his disability check on his favorite past time.

Finally making it home, Will walks in to his small one story house to see his father passed out on the couch with some random show playing on the tv. A mountain of cans at his feet showing he spent the day partaking of his favorite hobby. Drinking and escaping reality.

He knows his father loves him, but losing his mother hit him hard and he never really recovered.

Will throws a blanket over him and heads down the hall to his room.

Fear and loneliness.

Will manages to make it into his room before the tears start.

“Why am I such a whimp!” He screams into his pillow.

Another day gone by. Another day of no friends, another day of no mother, another day of an absent father. Another day of the kids at school making his life one torture after another.

He stood up to them once. Just to get bruised ribs, a cut lip, a black eye, shattered pride and further isolation as a prize for his courage. Goes to show what trying to go against the grain, trying to stick up for himself gets him.

Fear and loneliness.

Those things aren’t supposed to last forever right? There’s supposed to be good times to break up the bad isn’t there? Surely no one can have this much bad luck, this much of a horrible life forever? The tears continue to fall uncontrolled as his questions go without an answer. Please…someone help. He think to himself as he curls into a ball and cry’s. The loneliness continues to crush him. It feels like he’s sinking beneath the sea and the pressure continues to build, crushing him further and further until there’s nothing left. He’s starved for a smile, a friendly nod, for someone to tell him they care. He feels like he’s trapped in a net of desperation that he can’t rip himself out of. The loneliness…it hurts. The pain that lances through him feels physical. How can being alone hurt this much. He didn’t know something could hurt so badly. He cry’s into his pillow hating the world. He cry’s because that’s all he can do. He cry’s himself to sleep.

Will walks to school the next morning feeling even worse than he did the night before. Something he wasn’t sure was possible. He had woken up in the middle of the night, after having fallen asleep in his soaked clothes, and wrung them out as best he could and hung them up to dry. They were still damp.

School goes as it always does. Loneliness and fear. Fear of the bullying, fear of how much longer this can really go on for. And as that fear grows, Will finds himself afraid of more and more things. The future, his father, his responsibilities. His major fear of being hurt and ridiculed feeding his fears of everything else. Even if the fear of other things doesn’t make sense. As bad as those fears are though, the loneliness is worse.

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Is it weird to have an imaginary friend at 15? Will thinks so, but he has to do SOMETHING to combat the loneliness. He knows it’s odd, and probably not the most healthy, but it helps..just a little.

He’s imagining his imaginary best friend walking beside him in the halls of his high school when disaster strikes. He pictures his friend weaving in and out and around other students while his friend laughs and talks about all the cool things they’ll get to see when they go to college one day. He hasn’t named his friend yet. He feels like if he did he would be crossing a line that he’s not sure he’s ready to. Almost like he would be fully giving in to being crazy.

It’s at this point, Will glad the day is almost over, that he looks up and see’s his bully. Brad Hizer. Red hair, tall for his age, fat, and wearing clothes only slightly less ratty than Will’s own.

They lock eyes right as Will looks up and he knows he’s in trouble. There’s anger in his eyes. An extra glint of cruelty that’s only there on the worst days. He must of had a bad day, which means Will’s torture is about to get much worse.

Luckily Will is walking next to a door to the outside of the school when he notices Brad. He takes advantage of it and bolts outside. He see’s out of the corner of his eye Brad hurrying to follow. Will runs for all he’s worth. As a sophomore in high school he should be taller, but apparently he’s a late bloomer. At 5’2 his legs aren’t long enough to carry him very fast and his stick thin frame doesn’t have the power to make up the difference.

He has a decent head start though, so he lets fear and adrenaline keep him going long after when he otherwise would have been forced to stop and catch his breath.

As Will runs he notices the school’s sports program supply shed was left open. Will bolts inside of it and quickly closes the door behind him. He waits, ears strained to the max, anxiety on over drive. The seconds pass, then the minutes. He isn’t willing to try his luck. He rather sit here all night than risk the beat down that’s waiting for him if Brad finds him. Hours go by. Probably excessive, but fear kept him locked in place. The only reason he was able to build up the courage to leave was bc he knew the coaches would be bringing back equipment pretty soon. He isn’t sure the time, but the sun isn’t far from setting and after school sports only go for so long.

Will tentatively peaks his head out of the shed. The coast seems to be clear. He bolts out and starts running again. He takes the long way home. Way out of the way in case Brad tries to lay in wait for him on his normal route. He’s done that a couple times.

An hour goes by. Then another. This is the right way right? He’s only taken this way a few times but he was sure this was the right road to walk down.

He continues walking. He’s at the end of a suburban street and is walking along a big stretch of woods. He’s pretty sure he recognizes this way. Builders haven’t gotten this far yet but there’s an old access road they’ve been slowly paving to expand the neighborhood. He’s pretty sure if he follows the access road a little and then cut through the woods he’ll come out near his home.

He makes his way down the road and he eventually cuts through the woods. He notices the sun finishing it’s decent and is soon walking in darkness.

15 minutes of walking goes by. Then 30. Slowly he’s getting more and more nervous. After an hour he starts running.

He’s still running in the same direction right? He’s pretty sure he’s been going the same way. By the time the moon starts to rise Will is bent over, hands on his knees and panting, trying to catch his breath. He looks up to try and get his barring and gasps. The moon is HUGE! And blue? And not just any blue, it’s a deep and rich blue. A shade he’s not sure he’s ever seen before.

He stares for a few more minutes. His eyes having trouble looking away.

Eventually he looks back around himself. He sighs. As bad as this is, it’s still better than dealing with Brad Hizer.

He takes a few deep breaths and tries to calm himself down. All the shows he’s ever watched have always said that being calm is the best way of getting out of a bad situation. It allows you to think straight and make less mistakes.

He’s pretty sure he saw on an online video that a good trick to finding your way out of the woods is to pick a tree moderately far away and walk to it and then repeat. It’s supposed to allow you to walk in a straight line and not end up going in circles.

So that’s exactly what he does. Another two hours goes by like this.

As much as he tries to fight it, panic starts to slowly set back in. Before he can stop himself he starts running again. The trees streak by in a blur and the only other thing his panicked mind takes in besides the need to find his way out is the massive blue moon shining down from above him, painting his surroundings in a shade so blue you would think he’s under water.

He sprints for all he’s worth. Going even faster than he did when running from Brad. Suddenly his foot gets caught on a branch and he goes down hard; his head smacking against the ground.

He groans and manages to turn over on his back. His vision swimming. He becomes confused as his vision starts to darken and the last thing he sees before he loses consciousness is a bright blue light that feels like it’s swallowing him whole.