I'm keeping "heh heh..." up. 62+ reads would be right out the window lmao.
*****
I can hear their voices now.
Poor (Y/N).
Poor, poor (Y/N).
I manage to slip out of the window, the backpack straps feeling like they're going to cut my arms off. I just keep going. Farther and farther. Until I can't see the house anymore.
Lonely (Y/N).
So, so lonely.
I can't remember where Dad lives now. He never told anyone. But he's got to still be in town! He wouldn't leave me here with Ms. Annie!
He said I'd be with him when we left.
Sad (Y/N).
Sad, sad (Y/N).
Can it stop?
Please?
I walk down another street. I can't read any of the names. Ms. Annie didn't have time to teach me, nor did she even try. She said it was something about "unschooling". I learn when I want to learn.
But she never listened to me.
How could I have learned anything?
I still had books. Yes, ones for five year olds mixed with some for ten-year-olds, but they're still books nonetheless. I learned a lot of words from them and a dictionary. I know almost the whole dictionary now.
I just can't wrap my head around math.
I know what it is. And it bothers me. If I know what math is, shouldn't it be easier to learn it?
Adding and subtracting? Multiplying and dividing? Why can't I figure it out?
After about an hour of walking, I find a tall building. It's not just one building, but about-one, two, three-four of them together. A fence surrounds the buildings, as if a monster would get out if the fence wasn't big enough to keep it in.
I get closer. The fence is thin enough so nothing can get in or out without climbing over it. The monster shouldn't be tall enough to step over it, but maybe it can't climb.
I keep my grip on the fence and carefully climb over it. I make sure to not get hurt by the spikes on the top, which was probably another measure to make sure the monster never leaves. Questions start taking over my thoughts.
Does the monster want friends?
How tall is the monster?
Is there a monster?
Is it scary?
I take a few steps into the parking lot. It's stunning, actually. The lights aren't on, but I can still see the buildings. There's an aviary, but it's locked, the playground is closed, and the building in the middle is the only one with the lights on. I enter the lit-up building.
There are many things my mom and dad never told me about, but they have both told me so much about an old studio that's all locked down then and now. The lights turn on in the middle of the night in any of the buildings, something stalks through the playground, and that I should never go there when I decide to sneak out. The name of the studio?
My Friendly Neighborhood.
And then Mom died from yellow fever and Dad became an alcoholic drug addict. Then I had to move in with Ms. Annie, my grandmother, who doesn't teach me a thing. I've always had to count on kids shows and books.
Yeah. Story of my life.
A bell is at the desk right in front of me. It's somehow shiny, as if someone's been keeping the studio polished up. Everything is in place. Nothing toppled over, and everything is in surprisingly good condition.
I don't ring the bell. Someone might be around; they could hear it. I don't even want to be here, but here I am, ready to be cat food for when I die. There're probably cats here. I don't know. I saw one lying next to the fence, probably starving to death.
Everything just seems dark for me. Ms. Annie couldn't care less if I died in my room. Dad has never talked to me since he left me there. Now I'm in this possibly abandoned studio that's probably going to be where I die by the morning. Am I even going to stay here for an hour? Is there any food?
My backpack is empty, other than my old stuffed animal, a tabby cat named Tortie. I couldn't sneak into the kitchen for food, not even a single can, so I don't really know where I'm going to get anything to eat. Unless I get desperate enough to eat Tortie.
I walk out of the lobby and find my way up to the office. It's still decorated, but it's so boring. The CEO could've put something fun in here-like arcade games or a TV. Anything fun. Then I get out of the office and search through a room full of cubicles. Nobody's here, as far as I can tell, and there's no evidence of... some people... being here.
I spot two doors into what the sign above says the theatre.
The studio had a theatre?
Before I could take another step, one of the doors open and someone steps out. A puppet. But he's life-sized.
Wait.
He's life-sized?
I'm staring at him now. And he's staring right back at me. He opens his mouth, but I turn around and get the heck away from there.
"Hey! Bud! Where are you going?"
I slam a door in his face, and he stops chasing me. I'm right back where I started, outside. In the parking lot. In the cold.
When did the sun set? How is it so dark already?
Something runs across the parking lot. It looks like a dog. I head away from where it's running to: the playground.
The gate into the playground is wide open now, and I walk through it. Is there more of them? The dog, I mean. If it was a dog. Did it have six legs, too?
But that thing is going to find me. There's probably more too.
I find a place to hide near the slides. It was hard to find, so hopefully whoever chased me won't find me long enough for me to figure out a way out.
Norman's POV (yey :D)
I hit my face on the door right when it closes. The new friend got away, and now my face hurts.
"What happened, Norman?" Ricky asks. He appeared in the pipe close to the door.
"She got away."
"Who?"
"I-I think the kid was a she, but-"
"A kid?"
"Yeah. I found her right outside the Theatre," I say.
"A kid is at the studio? Right now?"
"Yeah."
Ricky mutters something. I couldn't hear it, but I know he's upset.
"Do you know where she went?"
"No. She slammed the door on me."
Ricky sighs.
"I'll go look for her. Go tell the others and make sure they don't freak out."
Ricky disappears, and I walk back to the Theatre. He's always been really good at Hide and Seek. He might've found her right now!
*****
Word Count: no word count this fic but it's over 1000
i just needed more words lol. 1173.
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