Chapter Text
Somewhere, two souls walk the same path. Though it is unknown if their trails ever meet.
Chase wasn’t quite sure what had happened, or how it had happened, but he wasn’t where he was supposed to be. He first thought it was a dream… but was this a dream anymore? It all felt too real, too… too believable.
Tall, wispy willow tree shrouding a trail that had once flourish with many steps laid upon its hardened surface, now it lay in not. Where vines grew listlessly and tree roots sprouted haphazardly. Chase could tell the trail yearned to be walked again, he could feel it in his bones, in his very blood. The whispers of the trees told stories of the past, lost to the wind and world.
Chase stepped onto the trail, his destination unclear, but he knew he had to walk it. One foot after another. Step after step, he kept going. His mind felt fuzzy. His thoughts straying and wandering like the branches of the willow trees, never to be known as simply one branch, but many.
Chase’s footfalls were as soft as the breeze that shook the trees around him. Animals pranced past him as if he wasn’t there. Was he really there? He wasn’t sure.
The soft breeze had now picked up, causing the branches to rustle and shake.
A fawn paused in the center of the trail as its mother bounced on. Its tiny black eyes trained on where Chase was. Chase paused his journey as one of the fawn’s ears twitched. It seemed to see Chase, or sense his presence.
Pitter, patter…
The sound of rainfall interrupted the two souls’ eye contact. The fawn hopped away with its mother without any other actions. The rain drops continued, gaining in size. They pelted Chase’s hair and dampened his clothing. More raindrops fell, creating a cacophony. Some hitting the leaves that danced in the now harsh wind, and some fell to the ground and disappeared as the dirt lapped them up, hungry.
Hungry… thirsty… like a beast. Chase thought.
He started to walk again. He let his feet carry him wherever they should take him. However they please, he would go, and he would not complain.
The path seemed to be never ending. Like a revolving door that never stopped turning. Like the very Earth he stood on, always turning, never sleeping. The rain continued to beat at Chase. He was far too soaked to believe, but he didn’t feel cold. His wet hair plastered across his forehead as he trudged through the mud that was now the previously dry trail.
He felt almost lost. As if he was alone. His shoes muddied from the trail and the rain, he let entropy take reign. He didn’t know what was to come, but he knew that this trail had an ending, wherever it may lie. Up ahead, or an unreachable place, Chase knew he had to reach it. That was this story’s ending, to reach the end of the trail. It was unclear how he knew that, but he was certain that was how he would go back home.
His shirt and pants melded with his skin, making him feel as though his clothes were a part of him, shaping him in a way that he couldn’t control, and he let it happen.
The rain was like a warm sensation against his bare skin, as if the sun and rain had integrated into one, only to assail him as an unconventional whole.
That was the moment when he looked up, and his eyes fell upon a figure in the near distance, veiled by the unruly lashes of rain and wind. A mere silhouette of mystery, but no mystery to the blond. Chase knew who it was.
Buddy.
The other boy's hair was smeared across his face, unkept and soaked. He was just standing there, like he was awaiting something.
Or someone.
Thorns of thickle and rose clawed at Chase’s legs, they had not been there before. Buddy’s cold gaze was unwavering. Held strongly on Chase’s.
Another lash of rain attacked them, and Chase saw Buddy’s mouth move to form words, but no sound availed him. Chase watched Buddy’s perfectly shaped lips closely as they moved into words that he could only try to decipher.
The thorns were crawling up Chase’s legs, threatening to scratch and poke. Chase made out the words that Buddy was trying to say to him. The words he always said, but this time they seemed to have a different, deeper meaning.
“Go home, Chase.”