Read Charmed :: 5 Figure | Tapas Community

....I....I can do this..... Alex stood only a few centimeters from the door, tightly clutching his backpack in one hand. His heartbeat was so loud, it nearly compared to the one he had yesterday while running for his life. He felt dryness in his mouth and it was difficult for him to swallow.

For a while, when he woke up around an hour ago, he forgot everything that happened and calmly started preparing to go to school. There was a moment of confusion when he looked at the barricaded windows, but he sleepily let it go.

The moment it all came back was when he went to reach the doorknob. The panic that squeezed his insides felt all too familiar.

....oh fuck.... The absolute want of staying inside for the rest of his life guided him to just stay where he is, and not go anywhere. But he could just be imagining all of it. It could've just been some lonely wolf that was long gone by the time he found the corpse yesterday, the bugs everywhere would've indicated it..........but it could be still lurking around......

Either way, he didn't want to take any chances.

Alex backed up from the door and stood in the hallway for a bit. But.....I don't have that much food in here....if I just keep myself here because I'm too scared, I'll eventually run out of food.....and then what?

He was torn.

Either way...... I'll have to go outside someday.... He clutched the cold steel door handle. He decided. He opened the door with a creak. Alex opened the door just a tiny bit, but it was still enough for him to be roughly met with the cold morning air. He shivered.

Yeah, thanks for that....

The trees surrounding his home when he went out looked so different compared to yesterday, he was actually considering if he teleported somewhere else. Their light green branches were moving in the light breeze as if greeting him good morning.

Alex looked around. He even saw birds chirping in the nearby puddle. Okay.....if there was some dangerous animal around, they wouldn't be so calm. He insisted after he saw the pair of blackbirds happily taking a bath in the water and thrashing around.

He began walking on the path. His steps still weren't the most confident, as he prepared for every possibility and was constantly looking around.

The sun was definitely shining more prominently today. A few steps later, he already saw the end of the path and the closest houses. The light was shining through the branches a lot.

Alex looked at the ground, and he recognized the place. It was the same place he found the deer. But the torn-up corpse, all the blood was just...gone. The place looked so regular compared to yesterday, it threw him off.

Did it....drag it away?? That was the only explanation Alex came up with. It definitely couldn't have decomposed that fast...

He circled around the spot he knew the corpse was at before and tightened the hold he had on his backpack. I need to get this out of my head. It's gone now. He knew this was gonna haunt him for a long time. That he'll wake up, in the middle of some nights, paranoid.

But.....there was nothing he could do about it.

Alex heard more and more noise as he moved further, meaning civilization was getting closer. He was mentally preparing for everything this day had to offer. It feels like I've lived through everything....

Alex looked up and saw the school building in the distance. He kicked a random rock with his shoe. I don't want to go there.......

But Alex knew he would be a lot more anxious in his own house than in the classroom. If it gets too hard, I'll just say I'm sick and go sit somewhere. Okay.

He was pretty satisfied with his decision. Just sitting at a random bench and doing nothing....sounded pretty great. Maybe I could just skip altogethe-

"Um....Alex?" He heard from his right. He turned around, and it was the leader girl from yesterday. She looked much different from then though. She had dark circles around her eyes and her uniform looked very.....unironed.

W-what does she want?

"Look....I want to apologize about yesterday." She looked at the ground and, and looked like a kid apologizing to her parents. "The guys were just rude and......I just wanted to get to know you because you seem cool and all......"

She began fidgeting with her fingers. "Can you.....please give me a chance? I'll tell the guys to quit it..."

"Uh......." Alex was speechless. He didn't know what to say. I seem cool....?? .........me?????

Until now, Alex was sure that other people just ignored his pitiful existence, but this? He couldn't have imagined this ever happening. "...yeah.....sure....." He was still in a daze while answering her.

"Okay!!! Thank you so much!!" Her mood did a 180 and suddenly she had a wide smile on her face. She began walking the route to school while looking at him. "Are you coming? What do you like to do? Oh, my name's Max if you forgot, hehe."

She looks so much happier now...

This interaction warmed Alex's heart. Maybe school won't be so bad now. He smiled back at her.

"Ah........so his name is Alex.......so pretty......." An unfamiliar figure stood under the trees. They were focusing and staring at Alex with all their might. Staring at him, smiling along with Max, jealousy stung them in the heart.

.....I......I want to be the one to make him smile like that...... But they knew this wasn't the right time to reveal themselves. I need to be patient.....

The figure backed up into the darkest part of the woods. "....patient...........patient....." They kept telling themselves like it was the most important thing in their life.