Tears of Silence

[polski]

I had previously written a chapter of another story related to this but I lost interest so I re-wrote it. That story is set to be deleted.

CHAPTER 1:

There were no emotions, there were no thoughts. I felt a white noise as I stepped out of the house and walked onto the sidewalk. My hands and face were stained by the blood and blood was still trickling down my legs. There was no pain from all the bruises and cuts that covered and marked my body. I was not sure what I was doing, I just kept on walking into the direction of the moon light and stumbled into the middle of the road. I suddenly felt a blinding light in front of me. All I could see was the light, and then darkness.

**************​

The school bell rang as I stepped out of the car. The snow was falling very lightly and I picked up my bag-pack, strapped it onto my shoulder and walked into the building. There were new faces everywhere yet I did not make eye contact with them. I wondered to myself whether they knew, or if they were looking at me with pity or sympathy. I just made my way through the crowd and into the school office. The Principal’s secretary handed me a folder full of documents and signaled me to go into the Principal’s cabin.

“You must be Daniel,” he said with a smile and raised his hand for me to shake.

I nodded and sat down on the chair in front of his desk as he retracted his arm after I ignored his greeting. He was a relatively older guy, grey hair but his face seemed quite younger, like that of a middle aged man. I did not see his eyes, I don’t know why but I just did not focus into them at all. I had not paid attention to a word he said but when he seemed to have stopped, I nodded along yet again, picked up my things and went out the door.

The hallway was empty now, and I took out the timetable from the folder handed to me previously. I had AP Physics in Room 224 and luckily for me there was a tiny map with all the rooms printed on it. My class was on the second floor and the fourth room in the second corridor. I opened the door to see the Professor, a woman wearing a pencil skirt, her hair in a bun and spectacles looking at me as if I was a rat in her kitchen.

“Well are you going to take a seat or not?” the whole class giggled as she said that.

Without saying a word I scanned for some empty seats, there were a few empty in the second row but I decided to sit in the last row of seats. I quickly sat down and then realized the entire class staring at me. With a blank expression I scanned all of them, they ranged from fat to skinny girls, all of them unattractive. A few guys who were mostly nerdy looking and not worth any attention. I opened up a notebook and started noting down whatever was written on the board and worked on being as invisible as I could.

The bell rang before I even realized it, how long had I dozed off into my thoughts! I was walking out the door when the professor announced my name and signaled me to sit down on a seat in the front row.
“I suppose this would be the first and last time you are late to my class Mr. Marcoux. I do not expect anyone to sit down in the last row and stay quiet on the first day of school. So you better not let your act deteriorate any further,” she commanded.

“Okay, I’m sorry,” I sounded unapologetic.

I got up and without looking back at her just walked out the door and hoped this day would end earlier than it had to. It was the same boring and monotonous classes that I had to drag myself to during the entire day. What did leave me confused was whether these private school children were utter snobs that they did not talk to me once or did they know about me and were considerate enough to leave me alone.

Walking out the school building I let the cold wind hit me in the face and I just fitted into the crowd entering the parking lot and carefully walking over the snow I tried to find my car. Looking around as the snow subsided I realized that half the cars were snowed in. I was amazed at how much it had snowed in the last few hours and that my Escalade was sitting in a small pile of it. I carefully opened the door and was getting in when I heard a voice.

 

[polski]

CHAPTER 2:

“Hey, wait!” the voice came from behind me.

I looked around and saw a girl wearing the school uniform, about 5 inches shorter than me with brown hair standing in front of me. She wore a large brown bag that seemed to be filled with her books. Her clothes were neat although her skirt seemed to need ironing. Her eyes seemed to be hazel, I didn’t look directly into them; just relied on my peripheral vision.

“Yeah what happened?” I inquired.

“You are Daniel Marcoux right?” she asked.

“Yeah, what is this about?” I said in a stern manner.

“I am on the welcoming committee, I am sorry we couldn’t meet up with you in the morning, you seemed to be a bit late for your first day. Anyway my name is Elena.” she smirked and extended her arm for a handshake but later retracted as I just stared at it with disinterest.

I did not even flinch a bit at her statement and turned around to get into my car. I was starting the engine when she knocked at the window and signaled me to roll it down.

“Hey this might seem weird, but can you give me a ride? My brother has gone with his friends since the car is snowed in and left me stranded here,” she politely asked.

I was not in the mood to talk to her so I just nodded and opened the door for her and hoped that she won’t bug me in the entire ride. She smiled, got in and fastened her seatbelt. I drove the car out of the school and carefully tread around over the snow.

“Where do you live?”

“Near Malen Avenue, you know where it is?” she replied.

I nodded and kept on driving. Her presence made me a bit uncomfortable, it was not that I was attracted to her, I just did not need anyone near me. I suppose she felt it too as she looked a bit tensed which I perceived to be the cold so I turned up the heater. She looked at me peculiarly and I knew what was coming next.
“You are Daniel Marcoux, the one whose…” she said astonished as I cut her off.

“Yeah, can you please not talk to me about that,” I told her.

After a few minutes I turned to her, “Can you please not tell anyone else? I just don’t want the attention.” I pleaded.

“Okay Daniel. I won’t tell anyone, though I must say I’m very sorry about everything that happened,” she sympathized.

“Sorry? You weren’t there, so don’t apologize!” I snapped and felt her turn her face away from me.

“Okay I am sorry, I just don’t want to talk about it. Can you just understand that?” I apologized.

She gave me a weak smile as I turned into the street of her house. She pointed at her house and I stopped in front of the driveway. It was a medium sized house, there was a compact SUV parked outside and it was surrounded by snow. She opened the car door and while getting out sat back in.

“Listen I know how hard it must be, and why you must have changed schools. Here is my number, just call me when you want to talk or hang out or whatever you want to.” She handed me a small piece of paper, shut the door and walked towards her house.

I started driving again with the piece of paper clenched in my hand. It was only when I had reached my empty house that I opened it up and saw her number and a “” written in front of it. Gathering my things from the car I realized she had dropped a book in front of her seat. “Great,” I thought to myself, she pulled the oldest trick in the book, literally, to get me to call her.



CHAPTER 3:


“You were supposed to call me,” Elena smirked at me.

I took out her book and put it on the desk in front of me and nodded. She picked it up and put it in her bag after she had carefully inspected the cover.

“How did you find this?” She asked.

I raised an eyebrow, indicating that I was onto her trick, after a spur of embarrassment on her part, she made an excuse that she had to go meet her Calculus teacher and left.

I felt disgusted for a while. I needed solitude, I needed to be alone. My mind did not ponder over anything I had witnessed that day. It was as if it was trying its best to block it out and not recall anything it could of that moment. I was feeling overwhelmed, I tried to push out of my bubble but I just couldn’t. I ran to my car as fast as I could, the entire atmosphere of people around me, cheering for no apparent reason and mindlessly blabbering just irritated me. As I reached for my keys in my pocket I noticed a figure approaching me in the window.

I was startled to see that it was my Physics Professor, Ms. Carla.

“Going anywhere special?” she asked.

I was silent, I didn’t need to talk or tell anyone about what was happening.

“Follow me Mr. Marcoux,” she commanded.

I had no choice but to follow her, she walked back into the school building and kept on walking till the end of the corridor.

“I believe it is time for gym right now on your timetable Mr. Marcoux,” she said in a strict tone and instructed me to enter the gym and walked away as soon as I was in.

I had no intention of going into any physical stress, I just wanted to sit somewhere alone, a peaceful place where no one would find me to pity or even see me. Where I could be invisible.

To my dismay, I had my gym clothes with me and I walked to the empty locker rooms. I quickly changed and shoved my things into the locker and proceeded to enter the gym. The basketball tryouts were going on at the time and everyone was standing in a line in front of the coach and his assistant. My entry was something unspectacular, yet everyone’s eyes fixated on me the moment I took my first step in.

“You boy, what is your excuse?” The coach furiously questioned.

“I got lost,” I summoned up the courage to say at least a sentence even if it was false.

“Get in line you idiot,” he commanded.

My late entry had assured the coach that I was not interested in the team so after the first tests he instructed me to hit the showers and come back to sit on the bleachers. The showers were very steamy by the time I walked in, since there was no one in there I assumed someone had been dismissed before me. I had a towel wrapped around me, I had it high enough to hide one of the scars on the left side of my abdomen. I took it off and hung it on the racks outside and proceeded to take the shower.

It dawned on me too late the reason for all of this. Why I was dismissed so early and why the showers were already running. I decided to escape from the showers but I was stopped by three boys blocking the entrance.

“Well well look at what we have here,” one of them with dark blonde hair said.

“Fresh meat,” said another one.

“Look at all these scars, you a cutter Emo bitch?” the first one questioned.

“Let's haze him,” the third one said.

I stopped thinking. I just backed up towards one of the walls as they all came in still wearing their gym kits.

 

[Craiger]

Welcome, Polski. Quite an intriguing beginning. Lots of mystery, which I love, and an opening with a very ominous plot.

I was very curious of the first draft you did and read it. I am not sure if the story plot will remain the same, but it was also extremely interesting. I look forward in following "Tears of Silence" as you continue.

Craiger

 

[polski]

Thank you Craiger, I am flattered to hear your comments. I am working on a new part right now which I am really eager about. Thanks again to everyone who has read this story!

 

[Autolycus]

Great story so far! Looking forward to reading more.

 

[polski]

CHAPTER 4:

I was still blinded by the bright light, my mind disoriented and my knees aching with pain. I put my hands up in front of my eyes to block the light. The lights dimmed down as I heard a door open. The white noise was no more as a person thudded down from inside the car onto the rugged pavement. As the lights shut down completely, I could only feel darkness. There was a sense of weightlessness surrounding me, the pain I was feeling diminished and I felt like going into a deep slumber.
********
There was a faint light that made my vision all red from my closed eyes. My head felt heavy and a buzzing sound ringed in my ears. It caused me discomfort to open my left eye but even with slightly blurry vision I quickly contemplated my surroundings. I was wearing a grey shirt and red boxers that all felt completely unfamiliar.
I was in a bed with a red bed sheet messily skewed on top. It was a moderately sized room, with beige walls and a large window on one side. The sun had recently set and left a streak of red in the sky. I pulled my legs down from the bed and felt a cringing weakness in my stature. Gathering up as much strength as I could, I decided to stand on my two feet, though as quickly as I was up I was stamping through to find my balance like I was on a drunk binge. I walked towards the door and opened it revealing a long corridor with doors on one side.
A light faintly shone from one end and using the wall as a support I carefully stepped towards there. My feet felt itchy on the rough carpet that lined that corridor. I heard some voices as I reached the end, a staircase was before me and I was taking my first step down that I saw a girl looking at me from the bottom of the stairs.
“Daniel stay there, you can barely walk!”
She flicked a switch and a chandelier over the stairs illuminated the entire region of the room. Out of the darkness, I let my eyes adjust to the conditions and saw a girl with brown hair walking up the stairs. Her face left me astonished and confused. Where was I, what was I doing there?

CHAPTER 5:
“Elena?”
“How do you feel?”
“I don’t know, I… where am I?”
“My house, lets go back to my brother’s room; He put you down in there in the afternoon.”
“Your brother? What happened to me?”
“Well it is a long story, and I don’t really know much. Just that he told me to keep an eye on you when he carried you in.” she sounded a bit confused herself.
“How is your eye?” She asked me as I sat down on the bed in her brother’s room again.
“I don’t know, I don’t remember. I was in the gym after which I just don’t remember anything.”
“You have a massive black eye on your left eye, I think you fell down somewhere in the showers. You were dripping wet when he came back with you. Here look into the mirror. You have a few scars on your waist…” she stopped talking after realizing where her words were going.
Her sentence reached down into a part of me and exposed what I was desperately trying to hide within myself. I felt anxiety envelope me and make my discomfort apparent on my face.
“I have to go,” I said as I got up
“Where? Daniel you are too weak to go anywhere!”
“I just have to,” I pleaded as I grabbed my bag in front of the door. “Where is my car?”
“It is still at school. You can’t leave like this, atleast wait for my brother.”
“I will walk!”
“Daniel just wait!”
I was about to leave the room when someone appeared into the room. He held my arm and turned me around.
“Hey dude, just chill! You are in no shape to be going anywhere.”
“I can’t stay here.”
“Why not? Have you looked at yourself? You look like you got mugged.”
“I just need to be alone.”
“Okay fine, if you want to be. Elena come downstairs, I brought dinner.”
They shut the door on their way out and I found myself lying on the bed again. There was a mirror to my left, and looking at it I realized my injuries really were somewhat significant. My dark blonde hair were a mess. My lips were bruised and seemed much redder than before and a black eye was on my left eye which was barely open. My knee was slightly bruised as well and caused me to feel some discomfort walking. All in all my 6 foot 2 stature was slightly distorted by it.
There was a knock on the door, and after a while that guy walked in with a tray filled with two slices of pizza, a drink and some ketchup.
“Dinner time.” He said
“Thanks,” I said in a faint tone.
He set the tray in front of me on the bed and sat down beside me.
“How do you feel now?”
“Better. I just needed some time alone.”
“Who are you?” I asked again.
“I am Elena’s brother, Alex.”
“What happened to me today?”
“I found you passed out in the showers today.”
“How? What were you doing there?”
“I had gone to meet with Coach today. I used to study at your school last year and I was there talking about volunteering as a basketball coach assistant.”
“How did you know I was in the shower?”
“Well on the way out I saw a group of students running away, so I just went in to the showers what it was all about. And well I guess I saved your ass,” he giggled.
“How is the eye?”
He moved closer to me. I had not had anyone even touch me for many days till he had held my arm when he came into the room earlier. I moved away from him when he got too close.
“Dude what are you doing?” I inquisited.
“Shh, chill. I am checking your eye.”
“How do you know what to do?”
“I’m going to Med school.”
“What aren’t you like 20?”
“Haha 21, but I got in earlier.”
“Can you please not touch me?” I pleaded.
“Why, what is the matter?”
“I… I just don’t like it. I didn’t like it when you did it earlier.”
“Ohh, sorry about that. Well I guess you should know that I was the one who changed you into these clothes!” He chuckled and got up to leave.
“Thanks, for everything.”
“No problem.” He looked right at me. It hurt to look into his eyes, like a burst of sadness; but his sapphire blue eyes stared right into my soul. For a moment, I let go of my pain and moved to where he was. I didn’t break eye contact and stared into his blue iris.
“Hey how is everything going on in here,” Elena came in from the corridor.
“Nothing, he just gave me dinner,” I came back out of my trance.
“Okay, you should rest now Daniel. Alex can you help me now in the kitchen?”
“Yeah lets go down.”
Alex looked away and followed Elena out. Did he feel what I felt at that moment? I felt the weakness again and the pain from my eye return again. I lied down on the bed again and felt slumber take over me again.

 

[Craiger]

Another interesting chapter, polski. At least we know that Daniel is in good hand with Elena and Alex. The mystery still continues as to Daniel's desire for isolation. Yet, Alex seems to have broken through that barrier, even for just a brief moment. I hope to read more soon.

Craiger

 

[polski]

Thanks again Craiger! I really hope the next chapters are better representing of what I want the story to portray. I hope you all enjoy!

CHAPTER 6:
Solitude and isolation. It was my mind’s way of preserving itself. It was what I needed to keep myself from going insane from all the pain I had hidden away inside me, that was eating at me; yet I could never let it out. Whenever something is so unpleasant or painful for us to entertain, we reject it and erase it from our memory and so I had locked away all the pain I carried deep within myself into a place where I know it existed, just not what it was.

With a limping leg and a bruised eye, I got up from the bed in Alex’s room when the faint light of morning sunshine peered from the large window on the wall of the room and cast a golden glow on the beige walls. I collected my things, got into my own clothes and exit the room, passing through the corridor without making any noise and upon reaching the stairs gliding its railing down to the ground floor of the house. There was no sign of anyone and it was the perfect opportunity to leave. I felt like I had extended my welcome in Elena and Alex’s house, though I was sure they would beg to differ. Still I could not rely on anyone like this, it ached to let anyone be close to me for now.

But I was not going to be completely inconsiderate of Elena and Alex. Reaching for a notebook from my bag, I ripped out a small piece of paper and wrote “Gone Home, Thanks”. I reached for the kitchen and placed it under a refrigerator magnet and quietly walked out of the house.

The effects of winter were evident, the snow had stopped falling but it still cast a gloomy white shade over everything I could see. I remembered that my house was nearby and calculating my path, I set out for the next bus stop to get a ride home. I had some change in my pockets for bus money, but that was it.

Though I had considered it easy to make the walk to the bus stop, I had forgotten to factor in my limping leg and the overall effects of my weakness. I was probably walking for over 5 minutes when I suffered a blinding pain in my legs, my head swivelled out of control and I reached for a nearby light pole to keep myself upright.

The pain increased and my eyes started to blacken. My thoughts fell into confusion as I desperately attempted to make myself aware of what was happening as a bright light that enveloped my vision instantly. I had no idea where it was coming from, just that it was more vivid than anything I could have felt at that moment. I started to see a face emerging from within that illumination. The brown hair of whom were swept across his forehead. His lips were as red as a cherry and his eyes burning with an icy fire filled with blue. I felt his hand envelope me and caress my face. My worries went away and everything felt simple.

I was stuck in that moment of thoughtlessness until I saw another figure coming into my vision. His face covered with a black mask that invited threat into my imagination. His eyes were not comforting, a mixed shade of green and brown that seemed to look into me with evil. The comforting notions of the figure I saw before were gone, I desperately tried to look away and find the thing I wanted to see, but I could not. This new figure started to take away the light that had enveloped me, his face moving in closer and closer; his hands holding my face directly towards him. I tried to look away but I could not wish it all away. His eyes breathed terror into mine for the moments they locked onto mine. I shuddered with the pain of this vision. I wanted to see the beauty of those blue eyes again, but I just could not conjure up that image again. My mind was bound to see the darkness that shadowed me from those brown-green eyes. I lusted solitude before, just not now. I did not want to be alone when I felt this, I wanted the tender touch I felt when I was awake and in the room earlier, I wanted to be entrapped in the vision of his eyes, I wanted Alex. There was sudden blackness again. My thoughts, my emotions and my feelings felt dead.

 

[Craiger]

Wow! That was extremely intense. It's as though Daniel's consciousness has been split. The deep desire to see the positive, but the negative has such control that it overtakes him. There is still the mystery of why this negativity has become so powerful. What has caused this extreme condition to surface? What has he hidden that is so oppressive that he fears to even talk or think about? Only now does he realize the price he has to pay for his insistence of solitude and isolation. So many things are swirling in my head.....Good show, Polski.

Craiger

 

[polski]

Great to see you are enjoying this. I am polishing up my writing skills and I think the last chapter is much better than the ones before it. This story has semblance to my own life, in terms of Daniel's feeling. Though in my case my negative and positive consciousness existed simultaneously, and had a lot of negative effects on my life. I am writing this story in order to resolve some of my own issues in life and reflect on how far I have changed my life so far for the better. Again I thank you for your continuing interest!

 

[Craiger]

Writing, they say, can be a cathartic. I hope this works in that way for you. I think we all have things in our lives that need clearing and resolving. We can do that by analyzing them, however, too much over analyzation can also allow different elements to creep in when they should not. If we can look back and objectively see the changes that we have made for the better then we can count that as positive progression. By the way, I think your writing skills are excellent.

Craiger

 

[polski]

CHAPTER 7:
I was not a stranger to waking up in unknown places, but even though I had expected to be in an unfamiliar situation, I did not take time in realizing that I had been in this room before. The highly reflective white ceiling tiles illuminated each corner of the room using the light from the fluorescents that lined the entire room. The odour of detergent floor cleaners was rampant and irritated my nasal passages.

There was a large curtained window to my right and by the looks of it, it was dark outside. I lazily tried to sit upright, but my head felt too heavy to even move an inch. There was a sudden shrill of pain through my spine all the way to my brain and I shrieked a yelp of uncertainty and pain.

It wasn’t long before I saw a man wearing a white coat enter the room. I could not focus on his face, the pain was just too blinding. He injected something into my IV and I felt my eyes close slowly as I lost consciousness.

************************************


“You had a concussion, and I let you sleep. I should have known better,” Alex begged for forgiveness.

“But I am fine right now.”

“You just feel like that, we almost lost you. You shouldn’t have left like that, I had to save your life again you know!”

“Yeah thanks for that,” I mustered a weak smile.

“You should rest some more. By the way is there anyone we can call? You don’t seem to have an emergency contact.”

“I….I don’t have one.”

“Alex!” Elena was standing at the door.

“What happened?” Alex asked.

“Can I see you outside for a few minutes, It is important.” She remarked.

I knew what she was going to talk about. I knew she had heard all that we were talking about. Though I felt a little relieved; I didn’t have to utter those few sentences. Alex and Elena were standing in front of the doorway and I could see them. Through the noise of the hospital, I could faintly hear their conversation.

Alex’s facial expression changed suddenly. His piercing blue eyes felt a shudder of sadness and I could see his empathy drowning him in the pain.

“His parents were murdered - in front of him. He is Daniel Whitesburg actually, he is using his middle name Marcoux as his surname right now. No one here bothered to check who he really was.”

Alex opened his mouth to speak, but the noise of the background rose up and I could not make out what he had said to Elena. A short while later both of them returned and sat down by the bed once again.

“Umm Elena told me,” Alex uttered.

“I heard,” I replied.

“Are you okay?”

“I guess so. Don’t sweat it, I am fine”

“Are you sure?”

“Alex he is fine,” Elena stopped the conversation.

“You are gonna get discharged tomorrow,” Alex spoke again.

“Cool, How much school did I miss?”

“Just about 3 days. Don’t worry we can call in for you and get you an extended leave.”

“Thanks, I think I am gonna rest now. Thanks again both of you. You went through all this trouble.”

“Well somebody has got to help you out! Don’t worry I am always here for you,” Elena smiled.

 

[Craiger]

And the mystery is slowly unfolding. There truly are guardian angels and Alex sounds as if he happens to be Daniel's. He is lucky that Elena and Alex have become so intensely caring. I hope he realizes he needs these two people just to maintain his sanity, if not his life. Thanks, Polski. Another wonderful chapter.

Craiger

 

[polski]

Thankyou once again Craiger! Great to see you are still following the story. I apologize for the delay and short chapter. I have been under a lot of work these days

 

[Craiger]

No apology necessary. Personal life and work take precedence. I will watch for your next update.

Craiger

 

[polski]

Hey, Well it has been a while and I wanted to give this story another go.

***
CHAPTER 8:

I felt better, but still after getting discharged from the hospital, Elena made me stay with her and Alex. I honestly didn't have the energy to contest it so I agreed to let her pamper me for those few days.

"Where are you lost?" Elena nudged me.

"In your eyes," I smiled back.

"Cute," Alex started to laugh.

I looked at Alex. He was still laughing but it slowly faded away. He had almost the same eyes as Elena. They could make me feel so safe and secure, and just a glance could make me skip a heartbeat. But when I looked at Elena, hers made me want to protect her; as if she was a china doll who represented delicate beauty. I just wondered if Alex could feel the same way as I felt about him. As I became oblivious again, it was Alex's turn to nudge me,

"Are you lost in my eyes now pretty boy?"

"What makes you think that?"

"Well Elena and I have the same eyes," he winked.

"I think at this moment I am sure that both of you are lost in mine," I shot back the witty remark.

"Ohh you wish!" Elena snapped back.

"Maybe I do," I looked at Alex again.

Elena sensed the awkward tension in the air. She got up and threw my bag infront of me whilst taking out a few books.

"I think your vacation has lasted a bit too long. Here is all the work you have missed! Get to work 'pretty boy'" Elena poked me.

"Alright fine, MOM!" I snatched the books from her hands.

It took me a moment to realize what I had just said. Alex and Elena were both staring at me with blank faces. My wave of happiness ended with exactly that, and I looked with them apologetically.

"Sorry," Elena said.

"It isn't your fault. I should control my mouth. There is no point of me bringing any of it up if I am not ready to discuss it" I tried to reason.

"We understand, I guess we should all just leave you alone for a few," Alex signalled Elena to leave the room.

"You gonna be alright?" He asked me.

"Yeah, I just forgot." My voice sank deep.

"You know I'm always here for you, if you ever want to tell me.....anything?" He looked at me.

His eyes were so beautiful, especially when they showed they cared. The atmosphere around Alex was so mesmerizing, I couldn't think of anything else when he looked at me like that.

"And so is Elena."

 

[Craiger]

Good to have more of Daniel, Alex and Elena. Thanks, Polski. The bond between them has strengthened and Daniel seems to have finally accepted their caring. I look forward to more unraveling of "Tears of Silence."

Craiger

 

[accord98]

So glad you came back to this story! It was a nice update, keep them coming

 

[Autolycus]

Welcome back with a new chapter - good to have more to this story!

 

[lakesinclair]

Interesting story. I like the way you write. I look forward to more chapters.

lake