Thursday, November 03, 2005

Adrian's Story?

Let's be honest, Adrian doesn't belong to me. He belongs to my niece, Nikki. But she seems insistant on NEVER giving him a background, no matter how much I beg. All I've pried from her is;

a) Adrian's personality and appearence
b) He was living at her school in Texas when she "adopted" him into her motley crew of characters
c) He once had a crush on another catboy, his best friend Hunter. He told Hunter and it freaked him out, so he acted all cool about it but really started finding excuses to stop seeing Adrian. Adrian took the hint and they slowly parted ways. It was sad. T_T

So I wrote him a background, and if Nikki doesn't like it she can put as much work as I did into making a new one. I know this sucks, but I wrote it a few months ago and let's be honest, I'm no author. I'll probably continue this and give it an actual point, and possibly bring Nikki into it as a fictional character. (won't that be interesting? I'm going to change her appearence and giving her some of my personality, though, because I'm just MEAN like that. x3 I'm creating a new character, really, so don't expect any accuracy)

...

Adrian had been running so long that the dull roar of the fire was becoming a sort of purring. It was a comforting noise, now that he thought about it. He knew on some level that he was just hallucinating, but he didn't want to think about that. He heard a soft whumph and realized that it had been him, falling to the floor. It was warm here, near the floor, and it didn't hurt his eyes so much.

That's because it's a fire, and the smoke is up there! I have to get out!

Adrian ignored this frantic part of his brain and sunk into his non-reality. His non-reality was more comfortable. But it was interupted by a sharp pain in his wrists. His eyes shot open and he looked for the source of the pain. "Uhn... Hunter...?"

The other neko that was trying to drag him out of the building by his wrists looked up at him sharply. His yellow eyes caught the light so fascinatingly, little dots in his eyes, like a fourth of July sparkler. Soot clung to his skin in patches, and Adrian giggled insanely, thinking that Hunter looked like a calico.

"Adrian! Get moving, you idiot! You're going to die!" Adrian's rescuer cried desperately. Adrian noticed the way the fire's glow picked out two bright streaks down Hunter's face. Tears? Adrian wasn't sure why Hunter was so upset, he was just trying to take a nap, but he couldn't make Hunter cry. After a few stumbling attempts he managed to rise to his feet.

He followed Hunter, one small step at a time. He watched the floor and admired the way the piles of soot billowed into the air when he kicked them. The walk seemed to be both a hundred years long and only a few seconds at the same time. Somehow they had gotten outside, and the cool air made Adrian's throat sting sharply for a moment. He coughed like a cat trying to dislodge a hairball.

The outside smelled like autumn, only twinged with the smell of burning wood because the breeze was blowing it the other way. Hunter led Adrian over to a group of spectators, all different species, most of whom he didn't know personally. Their faces all seemed torn between relief and concern, and worry began to tug at Adrian. He scanned the crowd, his eyes flying over the neigbors and firemen frantically. Where was his family?

He jerked around and started running back to the flames, only to be tackled by Hunter. Adrian shuddered uncontrolably, even in the stiffling heat. He began to cry, great heaving sobs nearly drowned out by the sounds of the fire. He gave up struggling and sunk to his knees. "They're in there! They're dead!"

Adrian waited for Hunter to say something to reassure him, but he said nothing, just held Adrian tightly. Adrian curled up into a shivering little ball of catboy and cryed. Hunter didn't let him go, and Adrian wondered whether it was because Hunter was trying to comfort him or if it was to prevent him from running back into the fire. What was Hunter doing here, anyways? Hunter was his best friend, but things had been different between them lately.

The thing is, as Adrian got older he started to notice that he was feeling something new for Hunter. He didn't understand it completely, but he knew that the love he had for Hunter wasn't regular old friend love anymore. He struggled with these feeling for months before he finaly told Hunter, who took it pretty well. At least, it had seemed like it at the time. Hunter had told him that it was okay, but he just didn't like Adrian that way. It seemed like they would still be friends, but then it was as if Hunter started avoiding him.

He didn't call Adrian anymore, or go to his house, and they rarely talked during school. It hurt Adrian, but what could he do? It was his own fault for having a crush on his best friend. He wished he never said anything. Right now, he dwelled on these thoughts to escape the reality of what was happening. These painfully memories were nearly soothing by comparison. He watched the flames dance without seeing them.

"Why are you here?" he asked the other neko finally.
There was a long stretch of silence. "I dunno. I guess I predicted it or something. But I don't believe in psycics and mind reading and stuff. I just wanted to say hi, so I came over. Your house was on fire and I tried to find you, and you were just laying there."

"You saved me. Thanks," said Adrian softly, trying not to cry.

"Duh! I couldn't just leave you there. That would be mean."

"I'm sorry I like you," Adrian sniffled, "Now you hate me." he felt tears sting his eyes and cursed himself for being so emotional.

"I don't hate you. You're my best friend," he paused for a second and continued, "It's just sort of hard to talk to you now, because... well, it's like I cant get it out of my head. I always know you like me and I can't just not think about it. But I'll try to forget about it. I still want to hang out with you, you know."

Adrian nodded. "It's a'right. You don't need to be my friend anymore if you don't want. Maybe just for a little while, because my family is dead." He didn't let those words register in his head. He couldn't, he knew that if he thought about it he would go insane. Hunter squeezed him tighter, in what was probably a hug. "I'll be your friend forever, okay? It'll get better. I promise."

Adrian let this console him. He was drowsy in the adrenaline backwash and he let unimportant thoughts drift across his mind lazily. They sat there like that for awhile until a firefighter approached them. Adrian looked up at the towering figure drowsily. It smelled like burned rubber.

A woman's voice wafted down to them, asking, "Which one of you kids is Adrian?"

"Me." Adrian replied weakly, straining to see the woman's face from his strange angle. The fire fighter reached down and helped him up. She was saying something to him. It was something about what was going to happen to him now, where he was going to live, all those important details. Adrian didn't listen to any of it, and stared at her blankly the entire time.

There was an ambulance waiting, just in case, but a quick inspection showed that Adrian was nearly completely unharmed. Thanks to his friend, of course. He wondered if Hunter was going to get a medal, and his picture in the newspaper. That would be so cool. They could show it off at school, and they would both be big heros. The thought made Adrian smile.

"Adrian, it's time to go," someone said, and Adrian turned towards them. It was a man holding open a car door for him. But where could they want him to go? He lived here. The smile faded from his face. He looked at the remains of his house, where several grim faced prospectors were tromping around and scanning the fallen beams. With a queasy feeling, Adrian realized that they were probably looking for his family's bodies.

He looked back at the car and made up his mind. With no warning and all he turned and bolted. He turned the corner of his street and kept moving without glancing back to see if anyone was chasing him. The sound of his widly beating heart sounded in his ears and the corners of his vision seemed a little darker. He was tired, and oxygen deprived, and he had to hide. He couldn't be taken away.

He ran towards his school.

...


"There's never any chicken in this soup," complained an an elf boy as he nudged the noodles around with his spork.

A catboy's ears perked up, "Yeah? Well, I heard that it's because Adrian eats all the chicken first."

"Who's Adrian?" the elf boy inquired.

"A ghost."

Twelve young faces leaned closer. They knew the makings of a good story, and chicken stealing ghosts were good story material. As a group, they began to coax the story out of the catboy, as if in some unspoken agreement. "How did he die, Jer?"

Jer basked in the attention, "Well, his house burned down one day, and his entire family died. They say that he actualy made it out, but he ran off when they tried to take him away from his house. They say they never found him, and he's probly dead by now. But everyone knows that he actually died in the fire, and he haunts the school to take revenge on everyone, 'cuz he was a geek and ev'ryone hated him."

"He's haunting us by stealing the chicken?" someone asked, elliciting several snickers and giggles from the kids.

"Laugh if you want, but it's true. Wierd stuff 's been happening ever since he died. Like, like, books in the library being found off the shelves and stuff, and food being missing from the cafateria. And the chicken."

There was a bout of whispering among the children. The story sounded a little farfetched but, and most of them were in agreement on this, it was hard to argue with the chicken. A human girl who had been silent so far looked up from her soup. He was a little older than the catboy telling the story. She said, "You mean Adrian Christianson? He was in my class a couple years back. Nobody paid much attention to him. I thought he had moved."

There was a long silence before someone tentatively ventured, "So... he's real?"

Another catboy spoke up. This one was about the same age as the girl. He had shaggy blond hair, the kind that was dishevelled, but in a cool way. "Yeah. He was my best friend. And he's not a ghost, he's alive. Maybe he lives here, I dunno. I haven't talked to him since his house burned. But he's not dead. I can just... tell."

The others looked at him in awe. Not many people were the actual best friend of a ghost, or a hobo, or whatever Adrian was. Anyways, it didn't matter because whatever else Adrian was, he was a good story. Maybe even a legend. The children where in awe. "Why don't you talk to him?"

Hunter shrugged and went back to poking at his chicken noodle soup. He wondered hazily if anyone ever got past prodding the stuff and actually ate it. "I don' know where he is, and he never talked to me. What could I do?"

That was the end of the conversation for the time, but kids came up to Hunter often in the next week with suggestions on how to contact Adrian. Write him a letter and leave it in the library("What if the librarian finds it first?"), threaten to jump off a roof unless Adrian appears and talks to him("Do I really have to jump off if he doesn't?"), my uncle has an ouiji board("I told you already, he ain't dead."). Hunter never tried any of them. He knew that if Adrian wanted to talk to him, he would just talk to him.

Although sometimes when he thought he was alone he would feel someone watching him, but when he looked around, there was nobody there. He wondered if he ought to be worried, but it wasn't really a bad feeling. It was kind of like having a gaurdian angel.

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

This is awesome, Carmen! I especially liked the second part, with the school kids. The first part needs some work. I mean, his family is DEAD. I really don't think he would even be thinking about his "crush" at such a critical moment. You could always work that in later. IMHO, anyway. Love you!

2:46 PM  
Blogger Vienna said...

-spazfoam- You're right, but then I would never have any fun. Which is fine, because none of my stories are any fun. Zeda has funner stories with nagis and kitsunes and parrot-people! -spazfoamoenvy-

6:48 PM  

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