Accidents Made Right 1: Pistanthrophobia

Chapter 7: Sneaking Out

I quickly and quietly put the pencil down and closed the journal. I then started thinking of an excuse if I got caught sneaking out.

Once I thought of a good excuse, I unzipped the tent as quietly as possible, stepped out of it, and slowly zipped it back up.

Ugh. The zipper's always the most stressful part, I thought.

Once the zipper was closed, I looked around to make sure that nobody was awake. Seeing no lamps were on, I started sneaking through the camp.

After a couple minutes of crouching, my thoughts started catching up with me.

Wait. Why am I doing this? I've never sneaked out before a few months ago. Why am I doing it now?

Sure, it could just be that I don't want to get me or Rowan in trouble, but that doesn't really feel too satisfying of an answer.

I had probably made it halfway through the camp by now. I had been doing this for about a while now, so I was also confused why I was only then thinking about why I was sneaking out.

Luckily, it was quite easy for me to plan my way through it. As long as there weren't any unexpected factors.

Seriously Steve. You've been loyal to your parents for so long. Why have you stopped now?

C'mon kid, get it together. You can't let your thoughts keep you from him, a voice in my head said.

Wait, what was tha-

Thud! Crash!

I tripped over a garbage bin, causing a loud crash, which could've been easily heard from halfway across the camp.

I quickly pulled a crude, white-striped technological disk out of my belt as I saw lamps being lighted.

I hope this works.

I pressed a large button in the middle of the disk, shooting out invisible longitudinal waves and rays which surrounded my body. The device then stopped after a moment, causing my stomach to twist.

Cmon! Cmon! Work you stupid piece of junk, I thought, shaking the device in frustration.

The disk suddenly started working again, causing my entire body to turn invisible. Though this would only be the case as long as the disk was in my hands.

Then, people started exiting their tents.

"Damn raccoons! False alarm everybody! Just some raccoons pilfering my trash!" I heard the man whose trash I knocked over yell.

"Should probably try and root them out in the morning," I heard a nearby woman responding.

Everybody went back into their tents and turned off their lamps to go back to sleep, so I breathed a sigh of relief.

I started sneaking my way through the camp again, and, also thanks to the disk, my footsteps had no sound.

Great job Steve, I thought proudly.

Eventually, I made my way to the end of the camp, right as the disk ran out of power.

I was both visible and hearable again, but thankfully I only had about a couple dozen yards till I got to the forest.

I hurried my pace slightly, hoping not to get caught by any lookouts.

Thankfully, I made it to the forest undetected, and once I was behind enough trees, I stopped to take another sigh of relief.

What was that earlier? It sounded like... a voice in my head?

...

You know what? I'll try to figure it out later. I need to go see Rowan. I've kept him waiting long enough.

10 minutes later.

I made it to where Rowan said to meet him, and it appeared to be an abandoned high school.

It was the stereotypical school that you'd expect. The front of the school had what appeared to be small pillars in front of the school, with the left one being cracked, and the other pillar missing it's top.

The statues that supposedly lay on top of the pillars were missing, though there were small chunks of marble that couldn't have been part of the pillars.

To the left of the school was a large clocktower, with a bell inside that had fallen off of where it used to hang.

For the school itself, it had two floors in total, but the majority of the windows were either cracked or completely shattered. The school was built mostly out of stone and wood.

Weird. The school seems to look like one from modern day, but the aging in all the building materials suggests it's centuries of years old.

"H-hey Steve! Over h-ere!" Rowan yelled, getting my attention.

I looked over at Rowan, who was sitting atop the other half of the broken pillar. His legs were cutely bouncing against the pillar with the happiest grin on his face. I was too far to hear, but I think he was humming as well.

"What's up?" I asked as I walked over to him.

"I'm G-good! W-wondering how I-I found this p-place?"

"Yeah, actually," I responded, making it to the column and sitting down next to him.

"W-well, y-you see... I may or m-may not have... r-ran away."

"Oh."

"Y-yeah. An argument c-came out between my p-parents, and after a f-few minutes, my f-father directed the b-blame towards me, a-and..."

"I understand. You don't have to tell me anymore."

...

"T-thanks."

"No problem! So... anyways, you wanna go explore," I asked as I got up from the column.

"S-sure." Rowan responded, hopping off the column as well.