Runaway

Chapter 1-Only The Beginning

You'd lived in Cairnholm all your life. Well, as long as you could remember anyway. Your parents had abandoned you were young, no more than two, leaving you in the ferry to the island. A few townsfolk found you and from there it was a group effort to help raise you. Though two men, Martin and Kev, did the most to help you as you grew.

Once you were old enough to mostly take care of yourself, at the age of thirteen the town got together to build you a small house. There where only three rooms, a tiny bathroom, a bedroom (which could only fit a wardrobe, twin size bed, and desk) and the main room, that was made up of a kitchen, dinning room, and living room. You never minded not having much space. You didn't take up much anyways. You were thankful they trusted you enough to leave you alone in your own house at that age.

Though now you were eighteen, and had to pay for the thing yourself. You worked at the pub beside Kev all day as a way of making money. Today was your day off and you intended to spend it wisely and go exploring, a fun pastime of yours. You decided to look at more of the beach as you'd never searched it properly. After around half an hour of walking along it, you found a cave. You were always recklessly curious, so despite your head telling you 'hey, don't go in there, what if there's some wild animal there?' you entered the cave.

You walked in, using your phone as a flashlight. Though most people on the island had no electronics, you'd bought one for yourself while on a trip to the mainland a couple months ago. You soon reached to end of the cave, which was fine, the odd part was when the flashlight on your phone randomly cut off and your ears popped at the same time.

"What in the world?" You murmured to yourself, walking back to the entrance. It wasn't horribly dark and you could see alright, the main reason for using your phone had been to see if there was anything weird or out of place. Like markings on the walls or objects that didn't belong. You looked at your phone as you walked, opening it but finding nothing amiss.

You shrugged, putting it back in your pocket as you left the cave. It was a lot sunnier when you left. It wasn't completely strange for weather to change quickly on the island, though it was rarely sunny these days. You went back to the pub, stopping outside for a moment. You took some wired headphones out of one pocket, and your phone out of the other. But when you went to put on your usual work playlist it didn't work. Confused you instead tried some of the songs you downloaded, which worked fine.

You walked inside, planing to get some food before going out again. You paused when you realized you didn't know anyone in the room, not to mention their outdated clothes. A stranger stood behind the bar rather than Kev. You decided to leave the building rather than risk confrontation. You walked back to your house, pondering the weird things happening. You walked along the street, getting stared at by more strangers. When you reached your home you found that there was nothing there. It was like you were twelve again, when the home didn't exist.

At this point you were freaked out. You didn't know anyone, which was stupid because you grew up knowing everyone! Your house was nonexistent! You quickly figured out that most of the apps on your phone wouldn't work. And you thought you were going crazy. So you decided to leave the village, going to your safe place instead. You discovered the home as a child and had since used it as a sort of hideaway. None of the townsfolk ever actually went there, so it made for a good quiet place.

You made your way through the bog, knowing exactly where not to step as you'd done the route over a hundred times. Though this time your legs sunk into the mud multiple times, you'd ended up losing a shoe. Why on earth was the path so different? It's only been a couple days since you last visited the home. You were eager to get inside the decaying home when you stumbled out of the trees. Though you froze when you saw that it wasn't decaying at all. But rather standing, majestic and sturdy, clean of the debris and dirt that normally covered it.