Longer Version
Okay guys, here's the longer version of "He." Enjoy! If you want an explanation, just ask.
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He.
Prologue
The summer day was bright and full of life. Children were running around the park while their tired parents watched them. But one child stood out from the rest. Her name was Amy, and she was 14 years old. She sat on a park bench, watching the cheerful children race around with each other. Amy had no friends, she was seen as a freak by some and others just didn't want to know her.
Every night she slept, she saw the boy. She saw him in her bedroom, sitting on the end of her bed, watching her. He had brown, scruffy hair, and looked about the same age as her. His eyes were cold, like he wasn't alive. The only movement was his blinking.
Amy didn't understand this when she was younger, but soon did as she grew. The boy began talking to her, helping her with her problems. She began telling people about him, and this was the cause of the loss of her friends. They didn't want to know her, they began to ignore her and soon enough it was like she didn't exist to them anymore. This is how her relation with the boy came in. She understood his problem.
Chapter 1
He sat in a tree, far up in one of the branches. As he looked downwards, he could see the citizens of this town walking underneath him. One of them caught his eye, a young lady of about 20 years. He recognised her face. He hopped down to the cold street below, the breeze blew his hair and he began following the woman. The citizens of the busy street below passed through his body and didn't notice him. This is because he didn't exist.
He wasn't invisible, he wasn't a ghost. He didn't exist. As he followed the woman along the street, he remembered her from the night before. He remembered her... holding the gun... her husband's screams...
He was standing in front of her now, staring at her. Whatever he did, it would not affect her or anyone around her. Whatever he did would not scar reality in any way. What could he do to this murdering woman?
He retreated back to his tree and continued to watch the people walk by. Every day he woke up from his slumber he hoped he was human, like them. Every day he was disappointed.
Chapter 2
Amy came running up the path to her house, while racing behind her, in a small group, were big children, laughing and taunting her. As Amy ran, tears flew from her eyes. She finally reached her house. She slammed the door behind her, locking out the bullying children. Her eyes, still streaming with tears, looked tired and restless.
This happened to Amy every day. Every day she would be exhausted and frightened. Every day she had to slam the door shut from the bullying children outside, dancing around and taunting her. Every day her eyes filled with tears. Her mother couldn't help her. Well it was actually the fact that she wouldn't help her. She was always out on business trips, leaving Amy on her own for a few days. She was vulnerable to the bullies when this happened. And it was this particular night that her mother was out on a business trip again.
Amy went to bed early that night. She didn't bother to stay awake to wait for the boy to come to her bedroom. This was the reason why the boy didn't come the next night. Or the next night.
Finally, Amy forgot about the boy. It was like he was wiped from her memory. He sat in his tree and tried to piece together what he knew to come to the conclusion he needed.
Chapter 3
The boy sat in a tree outside Amy's house, waiting for her to return home. Finally, up the path, he spotted her. She wasn't running. She was walking and talking to what looked like friends. He jumped down to the ground below, and stood in front of her. She walked closer to him, not noticing him, and finally passed through his body, still talking to his friends.
It wasn't the fact that Amy had just passed through his body that had given him pain, it was the fact that he'd just lost a friend. His only friend. The only friend he'd ever have.
The boy sat up in his tree and decided: he wasn't going to take this life he had been given. He was going to discover his origins, where he had come from, and why he didn't exist to anyone. He started at the earliest place he remembered from his life.
Chapter 4
The boy walked up to a small house. This was the earliest place he remembered. He didn't know why he remembered this place so vividly. As he walked up the path to the house, the pedestrians walked through him, not noticing him.
The living room brought so many memories back to the boy's mind. He remembered a bald-headed man watching the television. He remembered a small boy, looking up and smiling at him, as he looked at the kitchen. A woman, with long red hair, came into his mind as he looked out into the garden. The boy became angered by these memories. He tried to wreck the room in anger, but his body just passed through the objects. In the end he fell to his knees, exhausted, with tears running down his cheeks.
He was human. He did once exist. He was on his knees, crying, as he remembered this. Suddenly, the front door flung open and in came a small family. The father, a short, bald-headed man, slumped down onto the sofa, and began watching the television. The young boy of the family was smiling as he ran into the kitchen. And finally, the wife of the family, with long red hair, walked out into the garden.
It was exactly as he remembered it. These people were his family. These people were his father, his mother and his brother. Seeing his family once again made him forget his current state. He ran towards his father, hoping for a loving greeting, but instead he fell through the sofa and his father sitting on it.
Chapter 5
The boy continued to live with his family. They couldn't see him, hear him or feel him, but he felt happy and safe living with them. Over the years of living with his family, he watched his mother's affair, his father's murder, his brother's growing up. All this time the boy never aged. He remained 14 years old.
After 40 years, his mother had died at the age of 72 and his brother was 48 years old and owned a global-scale business. His brother had moved out of the house a few weeks before, but the boy stayed there to relive his memories once more. He decided it was time to move on. He walked out of the house onto a white carpet of snow.
Children were running around, throwing snow balls at each other. The snow slowly fell silently from the sky above. The boy tried to copy the other children and catch the snow on his tongue, but it just passed through it. A snow ball passed through his head and lunged itself at a child standing behind him.
The world had changed through the 40 years he'd been living with his family. Cars flew overhead. Buildings looked much different and much bigger. People wore different clothes. It was a much different world to the one he'd left behind 40 years ago.
The boy began his journey to his brother's house. He thought it was the key to finding out where he had come from.
Chapter 6
The boy passed through the front door to his brother's house. Inside, his brother was speaking to a man who looked like his assistant. He listened to their quiet conversation.
The conversation wasn't anything of great interest. And at last, the boy conceived, he would never know what happened to him. He would never know why he didn't exist. He would never know why Amy forgot about him. And finally, he would never know who he truly was. He was alone in the universe.
Epilogue
The boy was back in his tree. He looked at the bright sun as the birds flew through his body. He spotted Amy walking along the street with her friends, laughing and smiling. The boy decided it was best for Amy to have forgotten him. Her life was much happier.
The boy walked up the long stairs to the roof of a tall skyscraper. As he slowly walked to the ledge of the roof, tears ran down his cheek. He stood on the ledge and slowly leaned his body forward. Then he fell.
People crowded round his dead body. The boy slowly opened his eyes, a blurred image of people looking at him came into focus. All he wanted was people to notice him, to pay attention to him. And this is what had finally happened. The boy smiled, and as he closed his eyes he saw Amy looking at him. The boy laughed with joy as he died. He stopped laughing and lay silent. A stream of blood ran from his mouth down the side of his face.
The boy awoke in what looked like his bedroom. He sat up and touched his alarm clock. He existed again. He was human again. He ran to the window and looked outside. He remembered the neighbourhood from 40 years ago. Snow was fluttering down and the floor was covered with it. Suddenly, he swivelled round to find his family standing in the doorway to his room, smiling.
The questions he had were still unanswered. But he smiled back to them. This was his family. His real family.
Last edited by Martian; 12-24-2004 at 05:08 AM..
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And poor Amy having all of those children picking on her all of the time!