1 Chapter 1: Rhys Harrison

YEAR 2020

Monday

RHYS'S P.O.V.

"All of a sudden, I heard wondrous singing. I ought to find the mellifluous voice and roamed around the darkness. I ended upon a small, curious cave along with curious statues on opposing sides. Getting more eager, I continue my steps. The singing abruptly stopped as soon as I set foot inside and laid my eyes on her. I saw a woman, deep in the cave, sitting on the ground as her feet reposed on dirty water. She looked up to me with a lenient expression. As she did, the water turned clearer and cleaner the longer we stared at each other and we were both just solid frozen." said Rose, my 8-year-old sister. She was reading aloud some sort of novel for the past half hour.

I wasn't paying attention, though. All the words my sister said were distorted. She was in the living room anyway, and I was in the dining room drawing an artwork of my girlfriend while unconsciously smiling.

Rose exclaimed loud enough that I could understand, "Woah! It's magic."

"Grumbly, there's no such thing as magic." I replied with a kiddy voice. I call my sister Grumbly because she always complains about being hungry. I guess that's something that runs in the family. The only lucky thing she does have is the ability to not lose or gain any weight at all. I think that's the only magic that exists.

"Yes, there is, Rhys!" She yelled. I rolled my eyes, not replying. No point in crushing a kid's dream, right? She jogs from the living room to hand me the journal, "Come on, please just read it for a bit?"

I smile at her puppy-eye looking face. Not wanting to refuse to my little sister, I give in, "Okay, fine." Even though, I probably won't read it, whatever this is, "Where'd you even get this anyway?"

"Remember when we cleaned the attic last week and came across the stack of books from Jacob which you said to throw away?"

"Yeah?"

"I kept all of them! And I'm so happy I did because these books are art, Rhys." She looks at me seriously, "They are art."

Gran suddenly spoke, "Oh, are you reading Jacob's journal again?" She is normally at the dining room around this hour, finishing up her breakfast. I join her most of the days because she's also usually quiet and reserves her strength. Being 80 years old is a tough age to beat after all.

Now that Rose entered the room, she feels necessary to be talkative.

"Yes, gramma! Great grandpa Jacob's stories are so cool!"

Oh right, that journal. Granny Prim's father wrote this journal full of entries about a magical cave or something. He called it 'The Cave No One Knew'. I never knew what the story really is about, and I didn't care. The story is known by a lot of people around me, so it's hard to ignore all my life, but I've doing well recently. People either said it was just a fantasy novel he made up or he was crazy. Considering my entire family line is insane, it's probably the latter. Again, I try not to think of it.

"They sure are delightful, deary. Now make sure you're all ready for school. You too, Rhys." Gran looks at me.

I nod without looking, "Yes, Gran." I close my sketchpad and put it inside my bag. I also take a good look at the cover of the journal, thinking it looked very strange, before putting it in my bag as well. As I do so, I suddenly hear the school bus's honk perfectly on time. "See you later, Gran." I give her a small hug her and walk near the door. "You too, Rose."

I look at Rose, "Also, I hid the Xbox on my room. See you later, Grumbly!"

Ignoring the fading groan from inside, I bolted out and walked to the bus. Our lawn is pretty big, so it gets tiring to go back and forth everywhere.

It's been a while since the flowers stayed in our lawn, but the stench is still strong. Granny has always admired nature and our house is swarming with plants and flowers since she's lived with us. I notice one purple flower I haven't seen before. This is weird. And it doesn't match the color schemes of the array too.

Ignoring it, I enter inside the bus and only about 3 people were there. Although my school is kind of far from my house, I bribed the driver if he could pick me up early so that I won't get as much attention as I already do. The others who already are in the bus are asleep (as always), so that's a bingo.

Sauntering through the end of the bus, I sit at the very back corner, where I usually am. I put my bag beside me to reserve it for my girlfriend. I grab on to the handle in front of me as the car went diagonal. I live on a hill, so this happens every single time. The part of town I lived in, called Winterville Interstate, is elevated, and basically also isolated from other houses. Our area is sort of separated to the other normal streets in Winterville—which is why I get late to school if I didn't feel like going in the first place.

I get my sketchpad and pencil again. I grab my phone and earphones and play some BØRNS songs. I always have 40 minutes to go before all the students are in the bus and we arrive to the school. As much as I can, I try to avoid any social interaction with anyone, and this was a decent coping mechanism.

~

candy

she's sweet like candy in my veins

baby

i'm dying for another taste

~

More and more people enter the bus, but I don't look up at all. By now, I already memorized the exact order of houses we stop by. After a few minutes, someone puts my bag down and I look up to see Jessica. "Ooh, who's that you're drawing? She looks cute." she says while kissing my cheek.

I smile at her, "Her name is Jessica McKenna. And she is the most adorable girl ever."

"Awh, babe! I can't, even." She smiles back, "What're you listening to?"

"You know," I hesitate, "music." I don't tell her much about these things because her music taste and I are different. She'd like party and pop songs. If she listens to this, she'll think it would be different and weird.

Honestly, almost all our interests are different from one another. But hey, opposites attract, right?

"Okay then." She purses her lips. Relaxing on her seat, she gets her phone out and all her attention is focused to it as always. She used to hate me, but let's just say something happened in a party one night and we got closer. Ever since that magical night, we've been dating for a few weeks now.

I finish some details on my drawing before putting the sketchpad back in my bag and look outside to just listen to the music.

~

and every night my mind is running around her

then it's getting louder and louder

baby, you're like lightning in a bottle

i can't let you go now that i got it

~

Nothing really goes on here in my old town, Winterville. Well, besides the ironic name of it considering we get rain a lot. Like, a lot. And it also comes with a bonus: lightning. The reports of people being struck by lightning mainly come from our town.

Sometimes, I wonder if lightning can actually resurrect the dead because of so much we get of it.

But since it's almost summer soon, we only get rain at least once a week. Yes, once a week. During summer.

~

all I need is to be struck

by your electric love

~

I think about that because of the lyrics, but all jokes aside, I know exactly why there's so much storm in our town.

I'm pretty sure the Gods are doing that because they're mad of the gossips from Winterville, AKA. Whisperville. As quiet as these streets can get, drama does happen a lot and word travels swiftly and quickly around town. It's a very small town, after all. Once you do something and even one person knows about it, you're screwed. All eyes on you.

You just have to survive it.

~

baby, you're electric love

electric love

~