2 Let Me Go

Wet stones lay broken upon a twisted path.

The trees burn with ash falling like frost on a winters morning.

One might think that the flames would engulf the entire forest, but no...

They just stay there, dancing with the cold leaves.

A shadowy hand calls through the foggy wind.

To follow. To find.

Nathan looks up for a moment.

The clouds cry in agony, giving birth to blood and dead crows which fall to the ground in a heap of rotting flesh.

He doesn't want to follow the shadowy hand, but he is alone.

His feet are compelled to follow.

He must follow.

With caution, Nathan walks over the broken stones and twisted roots which grow out of the dirt.

The path is one which you follow without a compass.

After walking through the thick air for a multitude of lost seconds, he finds himself standing where the hand had last appeared.

But the space is now empty, being filled only with cremated trees.

The shadow has receded to a place of untold existence.

It does not feel safe.

It is not the taste of death nor the stench of silence.

It is more likely the sickening sound of nothingness.

Even the dead crows would not dare to scream.

It is like they are there, but not really there.

And when certainties are taken away, that is when fear walks over your spine.

Nathan would feel better if he knew where the shadow of a hand had gone.

He trembles at the thoughts of what he does not know yet.

His knees grow weak.

Something in the ground feels as if it has been awakened.

The roots buried within the dirt shake violently, fighting with gravity to look above.

They untangle from each other, and recede to their host tree.

Like cotton ends, they begin to grow into the bark, causing the trees to almost vanish into the thin icy air.

Crows which sleep on the rotting flesh start to rise, almost as if falling in reverse. All but one is fed to the bleeding clouds.

The last limp crow, twitches on the empty ground.

It is slow at first.

But with a little more time, it is moving as if in constant shock.

Nathan steps forward trying to reach the crow, but the ground won't let him.

It keeps making him stay in the same spot, as if his steps were backwards.

Trying even harder, he starts running, but it is just on the same spot.

As fast as he might run and as quick as he might gasp for air, Nathan just can't get out of this loop.

His heart is racing and he barely has enough oxygen to breathe, but he doesn't stop...

He doesn't want to stop.

He trips onto his own legs, landing face first into the dirt.

The crow immediately stands still, just a few inches away from Nathan. It's series of epileptic like animations ceased to exist.

The crow's beak parts ways, with it's breath feeling Nathan's face.

"They didn't care.", squawked the crow.

"They don't care."

"...So you follow the master."

"EEEKK!", the crow shrieked a high pitched screech and fell to its side, melting into a pool of blood.

Nathan placed the palm of his hand into the blood, to feel...To feel for answers.

The ground around him was solid, yet his hand fell through the pool of blood. It was an empty space of unspoken horrors. Before he could even get up, his whole arm seemed to be engulfed within the hole. He was being ever so slowly swallowed alive.

Dirty pages with unknown words, flew past his face.

Reality was going blur, and there was little to hold onto.

As he was being dragged into the void, everything ceased to exist. It was like matter had folded in on itself.

Nathan landed hard on his knees. He checked his eyes to see if the darkness would go away, but no.

No, the darkness stays.

A silhouette of a tall thin man formed in the distance of the black area.

"Aren't you tired?", his voice echoed softly.

There was no answer.

"Aren't you tired?",the man asked again, now walking closer to Nathan.

Nathan tried to form the words to reply, but his lungs would not allow it to be spoken.

There was something taking away his air.

The man now walked closer, reaching into what appeared to be a leather coat or a jacket.

Nathan could feel the air freezing up against his skin.

Everytime the man stepped forward, he choked on the frozen air.

Nathan tossed over to his back, as he held his own throat gasping for air.

He saw a leather shoe sit next to him.

It was coming from the towering man who now stood over him.

The figure waved his hand over Nathan, and a wave of pages flooded him. He could no longer see past the pages.

"Let me... me go, le-let me....", Nathan heaved as the last of his air left his body.

He could do nothing as he suffocated to death....alone, and burdened.

"Wake up!"

"Nathan!"

"Nathan!"

"Wake up Nathan! It's time for school.", a woman yelled from what sounded like downstairs.

Nathan choked as he came back to a sense of reality.

His eyes peeled open from exhaustion, as he realized it was just his mother waking him up from sweet nightmares.

He couldn't remember the last time that he had a peaceful sleep.

At this point nightmares had become an induced normality of insomnia.

"You're going to be late for your first day of school! Get up honey.", she yelled again.

"Just think about all the great new friends you're going to make and all the amazing teachers you're going to meet."

I don't know, is it just me or does it seem like Mrs Marquette (Nathan's mom) is rather excited for Nathan's first day at his new school.

I don't know why mothers do this but, it's like they're excited to get rid of their children for the day.

Just think about it. They wake up so early, and get everything ready just to say goodbye to you.

I know if I were a mother I would be excited, however seeing that I am a male, I'd be a father and already gone to work....unless my wife works too, so then I'd have to leave the kid with a nanny and eventually he would learn to torture humans, because that is what I imagine a child likes doing with their nanny who wouldn't let them have all the cookies from the cookie jar. But we're getting way ahead of ourselves.

Back to the story.

So Nathan Marquette on the other hand sees his first day at a new school, not as an opportunity to meet new people or grow acedemically, but instead as his own inevitable new torture chamber of embarrassment and awkward questions with girls.

"I'm up!", Nathan yelled back, as he stumbled out of his bed.

He turned to his bedside clock only to see that it was already 7:15am. This meant that he had only 15 minutes left to get to school on time.

Nathan ran to the bathroom, almost knocking himself out with a concussion, when he so randomly tripped on his own pajama pants.

However our guy is still alive.

I know this, because of what happens next.

Running ever so thin on time, Nathan decided to have a shower and brush his teeth at the same time.

How do you do this you might ask? Well listen carefully.

PG WARNING: DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME.

Step 1 : Own a bathroom where the sink sits about 30cm - 40cm from the shower door.

Step 2 : Insert your lower body into the shower while the water is running.

Step 3 : Keep shower door open so that you may stick your upper body out of the shower and towards the sink.

Step 4 : Pray that not too much water escapes the shower while you brush your teeth with the water hitting your rear end.

Bonus Step : Pray that you do not slip and hit your head onto the sink where you will possibly bleed to death.

It might seem simple but, if you follow these steps, you will get in two doses of prayer time.

Now that you have that image of Nathan in your head, I feel that it is an appropriate time to formally introduce you to Nathan Marquette.

So who is Nathan Marquette?

Nathan Marquette is a 17 year old socially disabled (disabled as in incapable of socializing) American boy who is originally from Paris.

Before you question my logic, allow me to explain.

His father and biological mother were both American. They then moved to Paris where they had Nathan. However, Nathan's biological mother had passed away during a difficult pregnancy.

His father then took the infant back to America where he met Nathan's now stepmother.

(PSST ALLOW ME TO SHARE A SECRET WITH YOU.

COME CLOSER TO THE SCREEN....

nathan doesn't know that his stepmother isn't his real mother. since nathan was still young at the time, his father decided to spare him the grief and never mention it.

it might seem cold that I mention this in such an insignificant way, but it was either this or lying to you too, like nathan's father had done to him. Ps, I turned the caps lock off so that no one else will hear the secret. ^_^)

Now fast forward several years into the future and, here they are back in Paris. It was not much of a choice, it was just because Mr Marquette who worked under risk assessment management had gotten a job here during difficult times. If anything Mr Marquette would love to forget Paris, unfortunately that is not the case.

Now that you know that they are in Paris, all French words will be translated to English for you... my unfortunate readers.

Also you might be wondering, "if Nathan is American then how does he understand French?"

The answer is that he doesn't. He knows little to nothing of the French language.

Yes, there are many instances where he can not understand the other person, but to make it a bit easier to read, I have trimmed these interactions to a minimum. (It's not Lazy writing, it's just effective storytelling...That's just what I tell myself at night.)

"Nathan! Did you fall into the toilet again?", yelled Mrs Marquette from downstairs.

You SEE, moms find ways to embarrass their kids even in front of people reading about their lives.

"No! No, I'm here...I'm here.", Nathan came running down the stairs putting on his black hoodie while gasping for air.

“ My goodness…What happened to you? You look terrible, didn't you sleep last night? I know you're excited to be in Paris, but you could have atleast slept a little earlier.”, Mrs Marquette looked aghast at Nathan's tired and dreadful expressionless expression on his face.

He appeared as if he had been cramming a lot of work and already studying all night for the final exam which was at the end of the year.

Nathan ran the palm of his hand from his eyebrows to his chin, “I'm fine, I'm fine. I did sleep… I'm just a bit tired from all of the unpacking and all that…”

“Oh you poor thing. You're just like your father. You know he was just complaining about his back before he left for work this morning. Luckily Friday is just three days away. And you know what that means… ”

“Yes, I know. Family dinner with the neighbours.”, Nathan completed his mother's sentence as he dragged out his words to show the excruciating agony he felt for having to meet their new neighbours.

“Be nice Nathan, your father has already agreed to have Mr Morvan and his family over for dinner. Besides they seem like nice people. I even have Mrs Morvan as a friend on that one app… Uh-that one with the ‘f’ in it… What do you call it?”, Mrs Marquette struggled to remember the name of the application which she used to speak to Mrs Morvan.

Nathan frowned in horror, because the last thing he wanted was for his mother to become close friends with the neighbours. First it's just friends and then next thing you know, they're planning on how to get him married to the neighbour's daughter or something, of course that's assuming that they even have a daughter. Nathan had not seen the whole family yet, so he didn't know the exact number or gender of the offspring.

Nathan swallowed his anxious thoughts and replied, “You mean Facebook?”

Mrs Marquette smiled,

“Yes that's the one, the one all you teenagers use right?”

Nathan didn't respond. Instead there was a brief period of silence in which Nathan wished that his mother would stop trying to compare him to the general youth.

Mrs Marquette ended the silence,

"You have to get to school remember, come eat your breakfast quickly now."

She picked up a glass bowl of cereal which was lying on the white kitchen table and moved over to Nathan to hand the bowl to him.

However, Nathan quickly rejected the offer,

"Mom, I don't have time to eat, I'm already really late.", he complained.

"But you know what they say, breakfast is the most important...",

"Yes I know, the most important meal of the day.", Nathan cut off his mom before she could give him the old lecture about eating.

"But seriously I'm already late and can't stay any longer. I'll get something from the cafeteria.", Nathan pleaded.

"Okay fine, but you better eat. I'M TRUSTING you.", Mrs Marquette gave Nathan the old finger point and eyebrow stare.

Are you sure you don't want me to drive you to school though?", asked Mrs Marquette.

"Yesss mooomm. I'll walk, it's literally just a few blocks away.", said Nathan, getting his back pack onto his shoulders.

"You may want to do something with that though before you go out.", Mrs Marquette gestured at Nathan's messy hair.

She continued,

"I mean I don't know you and 'teens' style, but it is your first day of school. You don't want them to think you're apart of the common riff raff.",

To be fair Nathan has never had a hair style. It has always been just a black mass of matter sitting on his head, jutting out at all ends. It is also probably why he wore a hood for most of the time.

"Don't worry mom, I'll take care of it. Now bye I'll see you later.", Nathan was now visibly impatient.

"You better take care of it.

Now go enjoy your day and take care. Don't talk to too many girls. I love you."

"Urgh...bye mom.", Nathan grunted in frustration as he reached for the door handle.

"Hmhm...Nathan...", his mom called back before he left.

"Yes...?"

"Aren't you forgetting something?", Mrs Marquette folded her arms awaiting a reply.

"Mooom I'm old now...",whined Nathan.

"Just say it.", instructed Mrs Marquette.

"Mom, why won't you just let me go?"

"Because I am your mother young man.", said Mrs Marquette obviously using a "reverse Uno card".

"Fiiinnne....I....Lo..love...You...Too...", Nathan struggled to get the words out, but eventually somehow managed to do so.

"Okay now go and enjoy your day and don't forget to eat.", Mrs Marquette smiled as Nathan left closing the front door behind him.