October
Middletown, Rhode Island. The small indiscriminate patch of land that lay between Portsmouth and Newport; hence the name, Middletown. Compared to the rest of the United States, Middletown received an average amount of rain, an average amount of snow, and an average amount of sun. Middletown consisted mainly of middle class people, and politically the population was split down the middle.
Not many people were aware Middletown even existed. It wasn't even the most well-known town called Middletown. However, there were still some notable aspects to it. The ocean was nearby, which brought a constant sea breeze across the municipality, along with the faint sound of dock bells ringing and the unmistakable stench of fish.
"I'm leaving," Alden called to his Uncle Peter, pulling his backpack strap over his shoulder as he turned the door knob.
"Mhm," his uncle replied, not looking up from the morning paper.
Alden shoved his key into the ignition, his old 1995 Buick Riviera making the usual loud stuttering sound as it tried to wake up. The car rolled its rickety wheels out of the dirt driveway and headed towards the shoreline.
Slamming the car door shut and clicking it locked, Alden strolled up to his school, keeping his head towards the ground so as to not make eye contact with the juniors and seniors that happened to arrive at the same time. Being a seventeen year-old Sophomore, Alden often avoided being noticed by those in his age group who were thinking about things like college and graduation.
However, despite dodging their gaze, he perked up his ears as their thoughts drifted toward him.
"Got that quiz first hour. Better buy a Coke if I want to stay awake."
"I wonder if Macey will talk to me again today. I wonder if she even knows my name."
"This outfit is awful. Damn it, why did I have to sleep in? I couldn't even do my hair."
Hearing people's thoughts wasn't something spectacular or powerful. Not to Alden, anyway. He didn't think of himself as some kind of superhero. It was something he could do since birth, so it just felt normal. Just another sense, like touch or sight. He didn't even find out he was the only one until he was six years old.
Alden had mixed feelings about his ability. If he could go back in time and take the ability away when he was born, he knew he'd do that in a second. But to do that now would be the equivalent of gouging his eyes out. He wouldn't know how to function without that additional insight. He suspected he'd find life painfully monotonous in comparison. The surface level mask that people presented to him was uninteresting. He needed the truth. How they really felt, what they'd really done, who they really cared about.
Things generally got the most interesting during lunch; the pinnacle of social interaction. With so many minds in one place, only the loudest thoughts came through.
"Dad is such a prick."
"I think I'm in love with her."
"I should just kill myself."
These types of thoughts sounded as if from a loudspeaker in the crowded cafeteria.
Every day, without fail, Alden would buy his lunch and take a seat on the floor, leaning against the soda machines. This was the headquarters from which he observed all of the students at Middletown High.
They were like puzzles to him. Entertainment. He would find out what was happening in their lives. Decode who they were and how they felt and why they felt that way. He'd write his thoughts down in his journal, adding new entries whenever he made a breakthrough in a puzzle. It was like a game. But talking to his puzzles; that was off limits. He kept them all behind a thick wall of glass. Alden could observe them, form theories about them, but never make contact. Occasionally, though, someone would try to break through the glass. They rarely got far.
September
In the first month of the school year, Kim Litchbomb had approached Alden with a bizarrely ecstatic look on her face.
There was already an entry in his journal for Kim.
Journal Entry
Puzzle 102 - Kim Litchbomb
Year: Senior
Important Details: Cheerleading Captain
9/12/2019
Starting to notice a pattern with her. She's been sleeping with her co-captain's boyfriend, but she feels incredibly guilty about it. Every time she sleeps with him, she finds something "nice" to do to make up for it. Helping out with the cultural fair, volunteering, helping her parents. Most recently, she's started talking to the other loners in the school, which she apparently considers to be a charitable act.
September
A few days leading up to this encounter, Alden had caught her thinking about him a couple times. She'd keep glancing over at him, thinking things like, "He looks lonely," or "I wonder if he has any friends."
Tap
"Hi there!" she squealed.
"Hi," Alden replied simply, not looking up from his journal.
"Are you waiting for someone?"
Alden knew her question was bull. She'd been thinking about how lonely he looked for three days; she knew he wasn't waiting for anyone.
"No."
Tap.
"Oh, then do you mind if I sit down?"
Alden shrugged, "Do what you want; I don't own the machine." He continued to write, or at least make it look like he was writing. He was too preoccupied with Kim's thoughts to focus on his current entry.
Kim took her seat, "He's so shy, he's probably not used to people just coming up to him like this. I don't blame him for feeling a little defensive."
Alden didn't know what she meant by "defensive."
Tap.
"What are you writing?"
Alden glanced at her, holding the book with its back to Kim. "Science homework."
She nodded, "That's cool."
After a moment of silence, he put the notebook down and looked up at her, "Why are you here, Kim?"
"He knows my name? That's unexpected. How do you know my—"
"I asked you a question first, Kim."
She chuckled nervously, "He's being pretty rude. Couldn't I have just come over to chat? Whatever, I'm sure he's just projecting. He's probably depressed or something—"
Alden groaned, starting to stuff his notebook into his bag. "I've got to go." He stood up and threw the backpack over his shoulder.
Kim just watched for a moment, unsure of what to say. She eventually spoke up as he began walking in the opposite direction, "What? But— I mean, did I say something?"
Alden glanced back, "Are you really going to push this?"
She looked confused, "Push what?"
"I tried," he held his backpack straps, and turned back to her, "You're obviously not here for me. You're here for you." He motioned around the cafeteria, "A hundred other empty spots and you choose to come and sit on the floor with someone you've never spoken to before. I'm sure your intentions are good, but I really don't need the help, alright? I'm not some lost puppy for you to come save. I'm sitting alone because I want to." He shifted his weight, "You, on the other hand--" he needed to make it seem as if he obtained his information through "normal" methods. "Look, I sit by this machine every day, and I've seen you around. Every single lunch break you've been talking to a different person, all of whom sitting by themselves."
She furrowed her eyebrows, "Have you been stalking me or something?"
He shrugged it off with a joke, "No, you see, we loners have this secret club where we all get together and talk about the rest of you." He stepped forward, "Don't try to turn this on me, we're talking about you. You do this every day, rather than talking to your actual friends, right? You're playing the savior, trying to make up for something you did. Likely recently, and likely to do with your friends in school, seeing as this is the primary place you've been doing this. Am I in the ballpark here?"
She stammered, "I-- um--"
"Sounds like a yes. My advice: If you spent half as much effort trying to make things right with your friends as you did playing the hero, you'd be over it by now. Stop projecting your problems onto us."
Alden knew that saying stuff like that was dangerous. But when someone he'd been observing insisted on interacting with him, he couldn't keep his mouth shut. He couldn't just ignore the things that he knew was going on.
Kim left furious, "I was wrong, he's just an asshole." That was often the end result when Alden interfered. He didn't mind though. It was actually for the best. It made sure they wouldn't talk to him again, while still managing to point them in the right direction. A win-win. If they were to thank him, or think he cared about them in the slightest, they could break the glass wall. Alden couldn't allow that.
It was the only thing that kept the Monster at bay.
Childhood
"Alden, over here!" Kaden called out to him.
Fourth grade Alden passed the ball to Kaden as instructed. He had never played foursquare before coming here; none of the schools he'd gone to before had played it. But, over the past couple weeks, he'd gotten pretty good at it.
His power was his main advantage. Things like cherry bombs and snake eyes only worked if the person wasn't expecting it. But Alden knew exactly when and where they would hit at any moment. Using this, he had managed to fight his way into the queen square. All he had to do was get Connor out and he would officially be crowned king.
He suddenly heard a snippet of thought from John, "Damn it, I have to get Alden out, or he could take over." John looked at Connor, preparing to pass the ball to him. But it was a fake-out, and Alden knew it.
At the last second, John catapulted the ball towards the back corner of Alden's square. But Alden was already there, ready. He caught the full force of the ball in his hands and then flung it back directly towards Connor. The ball zoomed around him as if it were a guided missile and bounced directly at the edge of his square. It hit the pavement with the strength of a meteor, squishing down before bouncing back.
Out of Connor's square.
The playground went silent.
"No!" John thought, "I can't let that twerp be king. I won't let it happen. I won't." John turned to Alden with a smirk on his face, "Sorry Alden, looks like you're out."
Alden glared, "What? How am I out?"
"You bounced it outside of his square."
"That's a lie and you know it!" Alden screamed, his face turning red.
"Am not. Everyone saw it, didn't you guys?"
Alden looked around at everyone who was watching, but they seemed unsure. He heard their thoughts poor in.
"I think it was on the line."
"I didn't really see, Connor was in the way."
"I trust John more than this new kid."
Connor's thoughts reached him, "My back was turned, so I can't really know for sure. But I doubt John's lying, and it's not like I want to get out. Alden, stop trying to cheat. Just be a good sport and go to the back of the line."
"Shut up! I am not out. I'm not. I'll die before I go to the back of the line." He turned to Kaden, "Kaden, come on, you saw it didn't you? You were right there, you must have seen it." Kaden was the one who had shown Alden foursquare in the first place. He was also the only one he could call his friend at that school. Kaden was so nice to him, when no one else was. But, as it turned out, Kaden was nice to everyone. He was what Alden would later call a "people pleaser." And the thing about people pleasers was: they didn't make allegiances. They didn't have "friends". Their only goal was to make the maximum amount of people happy, because that was the only way that they could be happy. They couldn't handle drama, or sadness, or anything that could be considered unpleasant.
He was about to learn what type of person Kaden really was. "I think I saw it bounce in Connor's square. But, if I say that, then it'll be Alden and I against John and Connor. That could get ugly really fast, especially considering Alden's anger issues. We'd probably lose that argument anyway." He frowned at Alden, "I'm sorry bro, I think you're out. Don't worry, the line isn't all that long, and—"
"Shut up."
"What?"
"You're no better than any of them."
"What are you—"
"I said SHUT UP!" Alden wasn't even listening anymore. He could feel all of his muscles begin to contract as blood rushed down his throat through his arms and down to his fingertips. He felt it rush around his chest and down his legs to his feet and back up as it pumped through his heart, which was starting to race at an unbearable pace. His blood was rushing everywhere throughout his body; everywhere except his head.
He clenched his fists, "You're all such liars." He breathed in and out heavily as he felt the adrenaline continue to build up without barrier. The Monster was reeling its head, snarling and pulling on its chains. It had only been a couple weeks since it was last released, and yet it was already starting to hunger again. And Alden was going to satisfy it.
"YOU'RE ALL FULL OF SHIT!" Alden screamed. His vision blurred as he allowed the Monster to take over his entire body. It consumed him, took advantage of him. It took what would have been a nice, happy memory of a game at recess and turned it into a nightmare.
"Alden, get off of him! ALDEN!"
As Mrs. Barnes pulled Alden away, he looked down at what had happened. Kaden lay on the pavement, bruised, bleeding, and beaten. He was crying loudly, covering his face. Kaden wasn't the one he would have wanted to hurt. He would have wanted to hurt John, if it had been up to him.
Young Alden looked up at everyone around him. They looked... scared.
"What kind of kid is he?"
"So the rumors are true."
"Poor Kaden."
"What a freak."
"Monster."
Kaden ended up in the hospital, so Alden knew he could stop caring about schoolwork. When someone went to the hospital, that was almost always the point where he was expelled.
He was expelled from so many schools that year that he ended up having to repeat the fourth grade. He had a similar problem in fifth grade, causing him to take 8 years and 7 elementary schools to make it into junior high. He was fourteen by the time he finally started seventh grade, and that was around the time the Event took place.
The Event.
The day Alden's life ended.
November
"That's when you locked me up." The Monster snarled, still taking the form of a little girl, "That 'Event,' as you like to call it. That's when you put me behind all these glass walls."
Alden stayed silent, glaring at her.
"But it didn't work, did it?" She motioned across the white void, and a shock wave reverberated from her, lapping across the ocean of white and shattering hundreds of glass pillars until it reached the edges. The white walls shattered into pieces all at once, dropping millions of shards on them. "I got out. You, on the other hand--"
Alden looked down to see himself, unconscious. "That's me, what--" Glass walls sprung up around the body. "No, those aren't walls, those are--"
"Windows?"
A short-haired girl appeared, banging on the windows, trying to get to Alden's limp body. She was screaming, but Alden couldn't hear her.
"Teri?"
"Looks like you'd better solve the puzzle quickly."
A force started to pull him away. "What, no--" He grasped at the air, but the girl kept getting further and further away. "Teri, TERI!"
October
Tap.
"Hi, I'm Teri. Can I sit here?"
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