Lost

1: Normal

    Rys was normal. Or, so he hoped. But, what seemed to be the case at his high school, no one played outside. Rys liked playing in the endless, tall forest, yet, he seemed to be the only one. The kids all stared at him like he was crazy, Rys never seemed to go home, he only ever seemed to walk to the forest. 

    “Rys! Get up, you’ll be late!” Rys could tell his mother was annoyed by her tone of voice, so he pushed himself up from bed, leaving the warm covers behind him. 

    The air outside was cold, Rys wasn’t even hungry enough for his toast, but it was warm. Upon finishing his tost, he pulled his scarf tighter over himself. He wasn’t one for cold weather, and every winter seemed more dead, and more unmotivating. There was always winter break at the end of it all, or what Rys liked to call “the break of eternal suffering” since his mom said it was too cold to go outside most of the time. Rys learned quickly why no one likes to go out, and he understood after he played video games for the first time with his friend, Vincent. Vincent had since moved away, taking his swearing, and happy attitude with him. Rys’ mom never really liked him anyways, but Rys did, and that’s all that counts… right?

    He walked down the sidewalk towards the entrance, Vincent always called it the “walk of shame” because all the popular kids would stare at you when you went by. Lucky for him, he was late. Maybe not so lucky, since his history teacher would be so on him about it. He hated history. Who needed to learn it? Rys wondered as he walked down the hallway, nearly tripping down the steps while waving back to the lady in the office he often helped out during lunch hour, because he couldn’t stand the horrible school food smell. She seemed to agree. The bell rang, a horrible sound, really, and he rolled his eyes, and joined the flood of students running through the halls. 

    The school day went by slowly. Rys couldn’t tell if it was him, or if the slow snowflakes falling outside seemed to make the day go by slowly. By the end of the day, it was a full on blizzard. Snow bit his face when he walked outside, and he felt someone throw a snowball at his back. It was cold, and some of the snow seeped through his sweatshirt, he didn’t have any of the plastic waterproof ones like everyone else, since his mom wouldn’t buy them.

    “I’m going to the forest.” He decided out loud. Despite it being cold, he couldn’t care less anymore. 

    He needed a break. But not from school, just people in general. His spot in the forest looked like a wonderland. He didn’t even know how to describe how wonderful it looked in the winter. He knew with the coming blizzard, he should not be here, it could get nearly impossible to get home with the cold winds. He closed his eyes, sighed, and let the ice pelt his face. There was a sudden screech. Not a screech, some horrible, terrible, ear bleed worthy noise. Rys covered his ears and dropped into the snow, hoping it would drown out the horrible noise. And then it stopped. Almost as sudden as it started. It just completely cut out. The wind, the noise, everything. It was absolutely silent. Rys slowly opened his eyes, and brought his face out of the snow icy flakes stuck to his hair, and sweatshirt, as he stood up. He brushed himself off, and in the center of his clearing, stood a portal. It was made of purple stone, white swirls acted as a veil between worlds. Rys was in shock. He slowly made his way to the portal, tracing the rock.snow had already settled on top of it, making it look like it’d been there for hundreds of years. Rys was curious, but worry took him over. He edged away from the portal, before feeling hands on his back.

    “Go on Rys. It’s safe.” He whirled around, coming face to face with a girl with red hair, gold armor, and a black sweatshirt.

    “Who are you?!” Rys couldn’t help but yell. 

    “Not important.” she shrugged, and shoved him back towards the portal.

    “I don’t want to!” Rys yelled.

    “You don’t?”

    “I… don’t know.”

    “You can come back,”

    “I can?”

    “Yes.”

    “I guess it’s worth a try.” he decided

    “Good.” she smiled, and pushed him through the portal.