Eden's Reality

A small 14 year old boy plans on escaping his abusive father and the house where he grew up in by moving to a boarding school with his two best friends, but on the night before he leaves he stumbles across something that changes his life, and his body, forever

(All feedback is appreciated!)

Chapter 1

A plump koala stared blankly at me from the other side of the branch, slowly chewing on its eucalyptus leaf and scratching its filth-covered back. Every now and then it’d grunt with pleasure and stop chewing, its eyes misting over with what I could only assume was pleasure, but after a while it’d shake its head and go back to munching. Its white-grey fur was matted with dirt and there were bare patches around its back and stomach, making me suspect that it was either old or diseased.

‘Well, this was a gigantic waste of time.’ I muttered as I ran my hands through my blonde hair, dislodging a clump of bark that had gotten stuck in it. ‘I almost died climbing up here, you know. You could at least pretend to show some interest in me.’

The koala grunted with pleasure and its eyes glossed over so I sighed and looked down to where the ground was, some hundred meters away. I was in a gigantic eucalyptus tree deep in the woods bordering my parent’s farm, and all around me were similar trees brimming with fresh leaves blowing gently in the cool breeze. Normally I wouldn’t climb up this high because my small body wasn’t all that strong, but I’d heard the sounds of the koala grunting as I’d passed by and my imagination had gone wild. Could that sound be a cute possum with some adorable little baby possums? Or a large stray cat looking for a friend? Or maybe even a huge lizard that might let me pat it!

But, no. It was just an obese Koala with a skin infection. Great.

‘At least you’re happy, I guess.’ I said and smiling slightly. I ran my hands through my long hair again and pushed it behind my ears, enjoying not having to worry about how I looked. Usually I’d keep it down over my right side to hide the brown birth mark that streaked down my right cheek, but out here in the forest I didn’t have to worry about what people thought of how I looked. ‘To be honest though I was kinda hoping you were a possum. You’re…kinda cute in your own way I guess but possums are heaps cuter! They’re like the cats of the marsupial world. Mrrow! Meow!’

The koala continued to stare at me with its empty eyes, not caring in the slightest about anything I had to say, so I kept meowing at it. It was strangely cathartic and I didn’t exactly have anything better to do until my energy returned.

‘Eden?’ a voice called from the ground and I looked down to see Reece squinting up at me through the branches. He wasn’t hard to miss, being far taller than the average sixteen year-old and well on the way to adulthood. Today was our last day of freedom before we went to our new school so he’d joined me on my woodland adventure, along with my other best friend Alexis. We’d been hanging out by the creek but I’d wandered off and ended up here.

‘Reece!’ I called back down and smiled at him, although it was unlikely he saw it. ‘You found me!’

‘I did! What are you doing up there?’

‘I thought I saw something interesting.’ I called down and scowled at the koala, which was joyfully scratching its butt. ‘But I was wrong!’

‘Well get down! You shouldn’t be up that high!’ Reece said. ‘It’s not safe.’

‘Meow!’

‘W-what?’

‘Nothing. I’m coming down now.’ I sighed and slipped myself over to the side of the branch. While I wasn’t very tall or strong, I’d been climbing trees since I’d been able to walk on my own so I wasn’t too worried about getting down. It helped that I was wearing a pair of thick baggy jeans and a long-sleeved blue shirt too, which protect my skin from the trees jagged bark.

‘Reece?’ another voice said and Alexis walked next to him. She wasn’t as tall as Reece so I couldn’t make her out properly, but her spiky black hair was unmistakable. She’d had it cut and styled in the image of one of her favourite artists and it looked really good on her. ‘Where’s Eden?’

‘He’s up there.’ Reece pointed at me and Alexis gasped.

‘Oh god! Eden! Get down from there!’ she cried and I saw her pretty face crease in concern.

‘Meow! I’m fine!’

‘No you’re not! That’s the tree with the spiders in it, remember?’ she shouted and my stomach plummeted.

‘Oh my god!’ I gasped and stared at the thick layer of bark covering the tree. Bark that spiders loved to live under. Holy crap! I’d been so focused on seeing that stupid koala that I’d completely forgotten!

I pushed myself off the edge of the branch and onto the one below, wincing as bark crunched under my sneakers. No spiders revealed themselves though so I continued to make my way down the tree. It was large, thick and old, so I wasn’t too worried about any branches giving way under my slight weight. My panic gave me the energy I needed to be able to quickly scale down the tree.

I made it halfway before a spider appeared. I’d grabbed onto the trunk for more support getting down and it’d crumbled under my grip, revealing a thick circle of webbing and four dead huntsmen grouped together. There was a fifth one, larger than the dead ones and much darker with a reddish-black abdomen, and when it saw me it immediately raised its front legs. It seemed to be a huntsman but I didn’t exactly have the time to study it.

‘Shit!’ I screamed and jerked backwards. My feet slipped on the bark underneath me and I tumbled over the edge of the branch. For a horrifying moment I fell through the air and my heart froze, but I flailed out with my arms and managed to grab onto a smaller branch near me. Pain tore through my arm as my body’s descent was suddenly halted and I screamed, old scars on my wrist tearing open, but I somehow managed to hold on. The branch groaned under my weight and bark showered down onto me, but it somehow didn’t break. I looked down to try and find a place to drop but there wasn’t anything directly below, and while there was a decently-sized branch jutting out to the side I’d have to swing to get to it and my arm wasn’t in any shape to do so.

‘Shit! Are you okay?’ Alexis called up and I gave an affirmative growl of pain. I tried to swing my dangling arm up and onto the branch but I couldn’t muster the energy, having reached my limit.

‘Hold on! I’m coming up!’ Reece cried and I looked down to see him scaling the tree. I was still far too high up for comfort and I closed my eyes as my head swam.

‘Be careful!’ I said as I heard Reece’s feet cracking against the bark. ‘You’re heaps heavier than me, I don’t know if some of the branches can take your weight.’

‘It’ll be fine. Just keep an eye out for spiders.’

‘Okay!’ I did as he said, and froze as I saw the horrible spider from before crawling down the trunk towards me, its front legs still held high. What the hell! ‘Holy crap! You asshole!’

‘What?’ Alexis asked.

‘The spider’s chasing me!’ I cried as it crept closer, its dark eyes shining with hatred. ‘And it’s pissed!’

‘Can you get over here?’ Reece asked and I saw him standing on the branch diagonally beneath me, his arms outstretched.

‘I don’t know! My arm is really sore!’ I said and looked back to where the spider was. ‘Uhm! But I can try! Do you think I’ll die if I miss and fall from this height?’

Reece looked down and then shrugged. ‘Yeah, probably. But you’re not going to fall, I’m going to catch you.’

A strained whimper escaped my lips. ‘Are you sure?’

‘Yes! Now come on!’

‘I-dammit! Okay!’ I gasped, seeing the spider a few centimetres from my hand. ‘I’m coming now!’

I swung back and forth a couple of times to get some momentum and then let go, flying towards Reece at a faster pace than I expected. He didn’t waver though and easily caught me in his arms, absorbing the impact with his legs.

‘I got you!’ he said triumphantly, placing me down next to him and brushing his black hair clear from his eyes. His face was broad and handsome, with the beginnings of a light moustache lining his top lip and making him look rather more mature than he actually was. His eyes were youthful though, a dark hazel that shone kindly whenever he smiled.

‘You saved me!’ I cried and threw my arms around him. He was so tall though that I only managed to reach his shoulders. ‘You’re amazing!’

‘Yeah, I know.’ he grinned. ‘Always saving your ass, huh?’

‘Mm!’ I beamed. I’d first met Reece in year seven when he’d saved me from a psychotic plover that hadn’t liked my attempts to hug it, and we’d become friends a few days later when I’d gotten stuck on the gym roof trying to catch a dragonfly and he’d carried me down to safety. He’d proclaimed himself my bodyguard after that and had proceeded to do his best to keep me out of trouble, which hadn’t gone as well as he’d hoped.

‘Jesus!’ he whistled, looking past me. ‘That’s one huge huntsman.’

I spun around and saw the spider glaring down at us from the branch I’d just vacated, unable to get down to us.

‘Hah! Screw you!’ I made a rude gesture at it and grinned triumphantly. ‘You failed, you stupid jerk! No gross spider’s going to be killing me today!’

‘If that really is a huntsman then it wouldn’t have killed you.’ Alexis said from below us. ‘Their bites just hurt and give you a headache, remember? They’re not lethal.’

I deflated a bit. ‘W-well, that’s true but, it could crawl into my mouth and bite my stomach!’

‘It…could, yes…’ Alexis said slowly. ‘That’s pretty unlikely though.’

‘This one was planning to do it! I can see it in its eyes!’ I said and the spider raised its front legs again. ‘See!’

‘Wouldn’t it die in your stomach acid though?’ Reece asked.

‘It’s prepared to die to kill me!’

‘I don’t th-fuck!’ Reece cried, scooping me up in his arms and placing me on his back. I squeaked in surprise and tried to get down but he held me steady. ‘Don’t! The spider’s gonna jump!’

‘What! It can’t get over here!’ I said, grabbing him around the neck. ‘It’s a –holy crap!’

The spider squished itself down on the log and then rocketed off, flying towards us like some kind of tiny skeletal possum.

Reece jumped down to a lower branch and carefully lowered himself down to another, not at all hampered by my weight. The spider landed exactly where we’d been and then jumped again after a couple of seconds.

Reece got to the lowest branch and tapped my back, so I slipped off and landed safely onto the soft grassy undergrowth. He jumped down next to me and then spun around to look back at the branch he’d just vacated. The spider had just missed us, landing with an uncomfortably audible squish, and crawled to the edge of the branch to stare down at us. It didn’t make a move to jump again though and I relaxed, assuming that it had just wanted to scare me out of the tree.

‘Whoa! That’s not a huntsman!’ Alexis said, coming up next to us. She was half-Japanese and almost as tall as Reece but not as large. Her short, styled hair framed her round face and helped make her light blue eyes shine. She was similar clothes to me, thick jeans and a long-sleeved red shirt, but she also had a pair of silver studs in her large ears and a short gold chain around her neck.

‘What is it then?’ I asked and looked at her as she frowned in thought. Alexis knew far more about animals and insects than I did, despite her living in the city. She loved exploring the wilderness just as much as I did and sketching the many creatures we uncovered.

‘I don’t know. Is it some kind of tarantula?’ she scratched her head thoughtfully. ‘It kinda looks like a funnel-web but they don’t live in trees.’

‘Well, whatever it is, it’s going to die.’ Reece said, picking up a fallen branch from the undergrowth.

‘Wait!’ Alexis and I gasped at the same time.

Reece frowned at us. ‘What? Why? It chased us all the way down here!’

‘Yeah, but it doesn’t seem to care now that we’re out of the tree.’ I pointed out. ‘And it’s got every right to be angry with me, I did accidentally destroy its home. Murdering it after that would just be mean.’

‘It tried to kill you!’

‘Mm, but I’m not dead so it’s okay!’ I beamed.

‘It’s really cruel to kill spiders we find outside.’ Alexis said, grabbing hold of the stick Reece was brandishing. ‘It’d be like breaking into someone’s home and then shooting them in the face for being ugly.’

He grimaced for a moment and then relented, letting Alexis take the stick from him. ‘Fine. Let’s just get out of here then. It’s creeping me out, just sitting there staring at us.’

‘Good idea.’ Alexis said, taking out her iPhone. ‘I just want to take a photo so I can look it up later.’

‘Are you going to sketch it when we get home?’ I asked her and she nodded.

‘Yep! I think I left one of my sketch pads at your place last week?’

‘You did! The one with the drawings of those super cute baby ducks we saw at the creek.’ I smiled at the memory. ‘I wish they’d have been there today.’

‘They’ve probably all grown up by now.’ Reece said and I nodded sadly. Ducks just weren’t as cute as ducklings. ‘Anyway, come on. It’s starting to get dark and I don’t want to be anywhere near that spider at night.’

Alexis finished taking her photos and we began heading off, a cool breeze rustling the multitude of leaves around us. I stopped for a moment and smiled at the spider. ‘You were much more exciting than that koala! Thanks for not making my trip a giant waste of time.’

It stared at me for a moment and then raised its front legs in what almost looked like a gesture of goodbye. I grinned at it and waved back, then blinked as I realised there was blood on my hand. I pulled up my sleeve and saw that some of the old cuts on my wrist had indeed been torn open when I’d grabbed onto the branch, and blood was slowly leaking out of them. It…hurt…

Nobody will know if you’re dead. You can’t hurt anyone if you’re dead.

I flinched and angrily rubbed them against the back of my jeans, then slipped my sleeve back up and hurried after Reece and Alexis.

It’ll only hurt for a moment.

I caught up to my friends at an offshoot of the creek, one that cut through the woods and led to my house. The woods we were in were quite large and I’d never managed to make it out the other side and see what was there, although according to mum there was just a large highway and some factories. Nothing I was particularly interested in.

‘It feels so weird, knowing this was my last day here.’ I said as I jumped along a row of rocks next to the creek bank. ‘The holidays went by really fast.’

‘They did, but I’m so excited!’ Alexis said, walking a few paces behind me with Reece. ‘We finally get to go to Sanders after all this time!’

I shrugged and continued hopping from rock to rock. We’d all applied and been accepted into Sanders Grammar, a private boarding school that had the reputation of being one of the best in the country for aspiring athletes to attend. Reece had enrolled so he could join the basketball team and train under their coach but Alexis and I were more interested in the electives the school offered. While the school was primarily known for its sports it also had a large focus on the arts as well, offering some electives that few other schools in the area did. Alexis was interested in their biology and digital media classes, hoping to increase her knowledge about wildlife and improve her photography skills, whereas I was captivated by their cartooning course.

I’d loved visual storytelling ever since mum had read me storybooks at bedtime when I was a child, but my interest had truly blossomed when she’d bought me a massive Introduction to Comics compendium for my seventh birthday. It had showcased a huge variety of different graphic novel styles, from the superhero genre to the abstract, and I’d spent the next couple of years pouring over it and buying all books it suggested within.

I’d tried to create my own comics but my drawings skills were pretty bad and I wasn’t all that good at scriptwriting or planning ahead, so the chance to actually study was one of the most amazing things I could imagine.

Plus, it meant that I could finally escape from here, and I’d jump at that opportunity even if it didn’t come with a cartooning course.

‘I’m excited too.’ I said after a moment, jumping off the rocks to walk next to Reece. ‘I’m just not sure what to expect. I hope the person who teaches the cartooning class is nice, I wish I’d got to meet them when I was there.’

‘Same! I wish I’d gotten to see Leons when I was there.’ Reece said wistfully, referring to the basketball coach he was hoping to play under. ‘Did you know he makes individual training schedules for all of his players? How awesome is that?! It’s like what the pro coaches do to their players, in the NBA. It’s going to be so amazing! ’

‘You have to try out to get on the team though, don’t you? Do you think it’ll be hard?’ I asked, scratching my sore arm.

‘It’ll be hard, yeah, but I think it’ll be fine.’ Reece grinned. ‘You know how good I am.’

‘What happens if you don’t though?’ Alexis asked. ‘What’ll you do then?’

‘Ehh.’ he shrugged. ‘I’ll still have two more years after this one to join. Even just having him coach me for one year is enough to put me on the fast track to go pro.’

‘Have you been training then?’ Alexis asked and he blushed slightly.

‘Y-yeah…a little bit. I’ve been having these special protein shakes every morning and night, they’re supposed to help you put on weight that’ll turn into muscle mass or something.’ He scratched the back of his head. ‘I don’t know if they’re working to be honest, but I do feel stronger. I think.’

‘That’s your training?’ Alexis smirked. ‘Drinking two protein shakes a day?’

‘It’s better than nothing.’ Reece said defensively. ‘A-’

‘Can I try one?’ I cut in eagerly. ‘I want to join the basketball team too! Do you they’d make me bigger?’

‘Ah...’ Reece looked down at me, his expression softening. ‘I don’t know Eden…I don’t think they’d do much for you.’

‘Why not?’

‘Aren’t you supposed to stick to the meal plan your doctor gave you?’ Alexis asked. ‘You probably shouldn’t drink some weird protein shake just in case it messes with it.’

I grimaced and stopped walking, frustration starting to rise up in me. For a long time now, since I was six, my body had been struggling to develop properly. Due to various…events…in my childhood I had grown slower than most other kids my age. Mum had tried to take me to a doctor but dad had constantly refused, asserting that all I needed was to work hard on the farm and eat lots of meat.

Things got worse though and I ended up in hospital last year, where I finally got to see a doctor. After a lot of physical and mental inspections he suggested that I see a child psychologist, amongst other things.

Unsurprisingly…dad refused to let me see them! So instead the doctor created a meal plan for me in the hopes that eating healthily and regularly would kick-start my body’s development.

It had kind of worked in that I was able to concentrate more on schoolwork and I began to develop stronger muscles in my upper body, but I was still small and had trouble putting on weight. The doctor had said that when I eventually hit puberty I’d start growing, but I had no idea when that would be and neither did he.

The doctor had wanted to do follow-ups and take blood tests but dad had only let me see him once, so I hadn’t gotten the chance to learn what was going on with my body. As it was, right now I was fourteen but I looked like I was ten and as far as I knew I hadn’t started puberty yet.

‘Eden?’ Alexis asked and I jumped, realising that I’d fallen silent for a while.

‘Yes! Sorry!’ I said and hurried over to where they were waiting. ‘What were you saying?’

‘Your meal plan.’

‘Oh. Yeah.’ I shrugged. ‘I guess I probably shouldn’t add a weird protein shake into the mix.’

‘They’re not weird. They’re just healthy.’ Reece muttered. ‘Definitely nothing like that disgusting meaty casserole stew thing your dad used to make you eat.’

I shivered at the memory. ‘Oh god. Don’t remind me about that. I used to throw that up every time he made it for me.’

‘I threw it up too when he made me have some.’ Reece said, shivering as well. ‘He is seriously the worst.’

Alexis made a disgusted expression. ‘Ugh. Is he going to be home tonight?

‘No! He’s at some livestock festival and won’t be back until late. He won’t even be here for dinner!’ I beamed. ‘Are you still staying for it? Mum’s making us roast chicken!’

‘Ooh! I’m definitely staying for that.’ Alexis looked at Reece. ‘What about you?’

‘I can’t. My parents are throwing this going away barbecue for me tonight.’ he said with a smile. ‘Most of my family’s going to be there and we had a guy around to clean the pool last week so we can finally use it again.’

‘Wow. That’s pretty cool.’ Alexis said, sounding slightly jealous.

‘Yeah. Dad never misses a chance to celebrate.’ Reece grinned. ‘It’s going to be really fun.’

‘If my parents did something like that for me I’d make it much harder to leave them.’ Alexis said and he nodded.

‘It’s…yeah…leaving is actually a lot harder than I thought it would be.’ He admitted. ‘I think I’m going to get homesick pretty fast.’

‘You’ll be able to go home on weekends and term breaks.’ Alexis smiled.

‘And you’ll have me as your roommate!’ I said excitedly and pulled on his arm. ‘Remember what you said? We’re gonna play board games every night and eat heaps of chocolate and soft drink!’

‘That’s right!’ Reece said and patted me on the head. ‘It won’t be so bad with you around.’

‘I don’t think junk food is going to help with your meal plan, Eden.’ Alexis frowned.

‘The doctor said that it was okay in moderation, so long as it helps me put on weight.’

‘Every night isn’t moderation. You’ll get sick, Eden.’

‘I will?’ I asked worriedly and she nodded. ‘W-what about every second night then?’

‘Nu-uh! We’re going to have board-game and chocolate parties every night!’ Reece laughed and grinned at Alexis. ‘And you’ll be in the girls dorm so you can’t do anything about it.’

‘She can come and join us!’ I said but Reece shook his head.

‘No she can’t. Girls aren’t allowed in the boys dorm and vice versa.’

‘What? Why not?’

Reece raised an eyebrow. ‘Because the staff are worried about students fooling around, amongst other things.’

‘Fooling around?’

‘Se-’ Reece started saying but Alexis cut him off with a sharp gesture, making him jerk guiltily. ‘Oh! Shit! Sorry!’

‘What?’ I asked in confusion.

‘Don’t worry about it.’ Alexis said quickly. ‘It’s not really important.’

‘I don’t und-’

‘What do you want to do when we get back to your place?’ she asked over me. ‘I was thinking that after I sketch the spider we could do some drawings together? Maybe finish off that comic we were making about the lost kitten?’

I gasped. It was ridiculously obvious that she was deliberately changing the subject but there was no way I could resist her offer. We’d been working on the kitten comic for nearly a year and never got around to finishing it, and I wasn’t about to pass up the chance to finally get it done.

‘Yes! Yes!’ I said and impulsively hugged her. ‘You know what we should do? When we finish it we should get mum to make a copy for us and put them up in our dorm rooms!’

‘That’s a great idea!’ Alexis said, her eyes shining. ‘I want to colour it then! Do you think we’ll have enough time for that? I want to redo the first scene too, and add the kitten’s mum in so…’

Alexis and I lost ourselves in the beautiful world of comics and Reece walked alongside us, every now and then commenting on something we’d said but not really following the conversation.

 

Chapter 2

The woods eventually thinned out and led into a large grassy paddock where my dad kept most of his cows, large black angus that spent their lives wandering around and devouring grass. They were about as exciting as the koala had been and we didn’t pay much attention to them as we passed, nor they us, but I did glare at a particularly large one that almost bowled me over as it lumbered over to the water trough. I tried to angrily shove it away but ended up slipping over and splatting against its side, much to Reece and Alexis’s amusement. The cow hadn’t even noticed.

We reached my house just as the last strands of light started to fade. It was nestled between an old shearing shed and another paddock for the bulls, and had a small front yard that was pretty much just a square dirt patch. The house itself was a two-storey monstrosity that was over a hundred years old. My dad’s great-great-grandparents had built it when they’d begun breeding cattle and it’d been passed down through the West family ever since. It had originally been made out of red bricks and concrete but had been renovated and repaired so many times over the years that it was now a hodgepodge of random materials. Thick brown timber had been used to replace sections of the walls that had been weakened over the years and white clay was used to replace any single bricks that had crumbled or come loose. The majority of the right side of the house had had collapsed during a heavy storm and had been replaced with a limestone wall for some reason, and nobody had bothered to place windows in it.

‘Alright. I’m gonna head off.’ Reece said as he slammed the cows rusty paddock gate shut behind us. ‘I’ll catch the bus at the end of the road, th-.’

‘Oh! You don’t have to do that.’ I said and ran in front of him. ‘You should ask mum to drive you home, I’m sure she’d be happy to.’

‘Nah, it’s okay. I want to chill out with some music on the way home.’ he said and ruffled my hair, knocking a twig out of it. ‘I’ll see you tomorrow! We’re meeting outside the school at three, okay? Don’t be late!’

‘I won’t! Mum’s going to drive me down so everything’s going to be fine. We’re having lunch together and she’s going to buy me a soft toy possum to keep me company!’ I beamed. ‘But if I am late don’t decorate the room until I get there, you promised that we’d do it together!’

‘I know, I haven’t forgotten. Don’t stress.’ He smiled and looked at Alexis. ‘Do you know who your roommate is going to be yet?’

‘No.’ she said with a small grimace. ‘I have no idea who I’m going to be living with.’

‘Awh, well I’m sure it’ll be fine.’ he said. ‘I’ll see you tomorrow too, yeah? Or if not then definitely on Monday.’

‘Yep! Seeya then!’

‘Bye Reece!’ I said and hugged him. ‘I hope you enjoy your party.’

‘I always do.’ He grinned and then walked off; waving at us before disappearing behind a row of large hedges that lined the road.

‘Right!’ Alexis said and began walking to the front door. ‘Let’s get to work!’

‘Aye!’ I hurried after her. ‘I’ll have to wash myself first though, and I’m really hungry! Did you want something to eat? Mum bought me these amazing biscuits, the have marshmallow in the middle and sprinkles on top!’

‘That sounds good to me!’ she said and pulled open the rusting wire door.

The inside of the house was in stark contrast to the outside: the wooden floorboards were finely polished, the cream walls perfectly maintained and the ceiling only had a couple of cracks in it. Mum and I loved collecting old paintings and we’d lined most of the walls with our findings. The majority of them were of animals we both loved, such as lambs, kittens and crabs, but there were a few scenery paintings as well, depicting lush forests and beautiful oceans.

Most of the furniture was very old, probably as old as the house, and it gave the house a very archaic feeling. The only really recent purchases were the massive TV in the living room dad had bought to watch football on and all of the black couches in there. Dad liked to have friends over to watch sports and wanted the room to be as presentable as possible.

‘Eden? Is that you?’ mums voice called from the kitchen and I skipped past Alexis down to the end of the long entrance hallway.

‘Hi mum!’ I said as I bounced into the kitchen, where she was in the middle of cutting up some vegetables. There were two large windows on the opposite side of the room and the last of the sun’s rays were shining through, illuminating the white tiles and making the kitchen seem to almost glow.

‘Hey munchkin!’ she smiled, putting down the knife and coming over to me. She was tall, like everyone else in my family, and had flowing blonde hair similar to mine, just slightly lighter. Her face was soft and petite but had a hardness about it that was intensified whenever she got angry. We slightly resembled each other as I’d inherited her blue eyes and thin eyebrows, but my large nose and thin lips belonged to dad. ‘How was your last day?’

I considered telling her about the spider and how I’d almost fallen to my death, but decided that was a pretty bad idea so just smiled happily. ‘It was great! Nothing dangerous happened at all! I’m fine!’

‘That’s a suspicious way of putting it.’ Mum said, her eyes narrowing.

‘N-no it’s not!’ I said just as Alexis walked in. ‘Look! Alexis is here!’

‘I am! Hey Mrs West!’ she said, a bright smile lighting up her face. ‘How are you?’

‘I’m good thanks Alexis.’ Mum returned the smile, making Alexis’s cheeks redden slightly. ‘How are you?’

‘I-I’m good too!’ Alexis said, somewhat awkwardly. She’d been acting weird around mum for quite a while now and I wasn’t sure why. ‘You look really good today. Are those new clothes?’

‘They are! I’m surprised you noticed.’ Mum said and patted her sides. She was wearing a pair of black shorts and a likewise black tank top underneath her usual white cooking apron. Mum had a slim, curvy body so the clothes did make her look good but I hadn’t really noticed and was surprised Alexis had. ‘I bought them yesterday to replace the dress that someone cut up to get materials for a pair of gloves.’

I blushed as mum glared at me. ‘I said I was sorry! I thought it was a rag!’

‘I wore that dress all the time!’

‘I didn’t recognize it!’

‘How could you not recognize it?’

‘I don’t pay attention to what you wear!’

‘Why were you trying to make gloves?’ Alexis laughed.

‘Oh! I forgot to tell you!’ I said excitedly. ‘I found a bunch of super-cute little frogs in a muddy pond in the back paddock and I wanted to play with them, but I was scared I was going to get warts so I needed protection!’

‘Frogs don’t give you warts.’ Alexis said. ‘Who told you that?’

‘His father.’ Mum muttered darkly.

‘He was wrong though! I didn’t manage to make gloves so I just played with them bare-handed and my hands are fine, see?’ I held them up to show Alexis my wart-free hands.

‘So you ruined my dress for nothing.’ Mum sighed and I blushed again.

‘I’m really sorry! I wouldn’t have cut them up if I had of know it was yours.’

‘Next time ask me before you decided to cut something up, okay? I don’t want to lose any more of my favourite clothes.’

‘I will. I promise.’ I said solemnly and mum put a hand on the shoulder.

‘I hope you keep that promise.’ she said and her grip on my shoulder tightened, ‘Because if you cut another hole in one of my dresses then I’m going to cut a hole in you, understand?’

‘Y-yes.’ I swallowed. ‘I understand.’

‘Good boy!’ she smiled and released my shoulder. ‘Now, where’s Reece? Is he still outside?’

‘Oh, he had to go home so he went to the bus stop.’ Alexis answered.

‘He caught the bus? I’d have been happy to give him a ride home.’

‘I know! I said you would be!’ I said sadly. ‘He wanted to have alone time on the bus with his music though.’

‘Ah. That’s understandable. I imagine he won’t be getting much alone time in the coming months.’ Mum said and patted my cheeks. ‘He’s going to be sharing a room with you, after all.’

‘Yeah!’ I beamed. ‘We’re going to be together all the time!’

‘Are you going to stay for dinner?’ mum asked Alexis. ‘I’m making a whole chicken so there’s plenty to go around.’

‘I’d love to stay! My parents are going to pick me up around eight though…’

‘I should have dinner ready by then so that’s fine.’ Mum smiled. ‘Now, I picked up some muffins on the way home. Would you two like some?’

‘Yes please!’ Alexis said loudly. ‘I haven’t eaten since breakfast.’

‘What are they?’ I asked warily, scared that they might have something horrible in them like blueberries or raisins.

‘Chocolate banana.’ Mum said and looked me over as I clapped my hands in excitement. ‘You need to have a shower and change into some clean clothes before you eat though. You’re covered in dirt and grass and…other things.’

‘Do I have to?’ I asked and mum frowned at me. ‘Okay! Fine. I’ll be back in a minute!’

I hurried off towards the stairs that led up to the second floor. It was where my bedroom was, along with an office where I did my homework and my own personal bathroom. It pretty much belonged to me and was one of the few places in the house where I felt truly safe. That probably had something to do with the fact that my bedroom could be safely locked from the inside.

I walked into the bathroom and threw off my clothes, then looked in the mirror to check for any stray spiders. It wasn’t a good idea for me to stare at my naked body too long, especially my lower half, so I made sure to inspect myself as quickly as possible. I’d gotten relatively used to the cuts along my wrist but the ones on my waist and thighs still upset me if I caught sight of them, so I refused to look down there most of the time.

I shot a quick glance at my upper body and to my surprise actually found something that shouldn’t be there, the small red and black corpse of a ladybug.

‘Owh.’ I said sadly and gently picked it up. ‘Where’d you come from? I hope I didn’t kill you.’

I looked at its red, unmoving body for a moment in the hopes that it wasn’t dead, but I noticed a large hole in its back, probably caused by a spiders bite. It was weird that it wasn’t webbed though, but maybe it’d fallen out of one when I’d scrambled out of the tree.

‘Sorry little buddy.’ I put it in the sink and washed it away. ‘I hope your death wasn’t too painful.’

I watched it wash away, turned off the facet and then screamed as I saw someone standing behind me in the mirror’s reflection.

‘Oh god! What the hell!’

Jon was standing behind me!

‘What are you doing in here by yourself, little girl?’ he asked softly, a smile lighting up his messily unshaven face. He put a thick arm around my shoulders and leant down to kiss the side of my face, while his other hand rubbed my stomach and fell lower…and lower… ‘Were you waiting to see me?’

‘No!’ I threw myself backwards in an attempt to shove him off of me, but I instead just crashed into the ground. I cried out in confusion and crawled backwards against the wall as my head spun and dark lines streaked across my vision. ‘Don’t touch me!’

I could feel his cold hands, grabbing me, pulling me…going into my mouth, thickening as they went down and cut off my breathing. I clutched at my throat and started gasping for air, feeling like I was choking.

‘Struggling will only make it worse.’ Jon’s voice came from somewhere above me. ‘You should know that by now. Just let it in. It’ll make you feel real good one day. Just like a real girl.’

‘Get off me! Get off-’ I screamed and then my stomach erupted in pain as his fist rammed into it. I gagged and fell over, the contents of my stomach spewing out of my mouth and onto the clothes I’d just discarded. I pushed myself away from it, and then screamed again as Jon’s hands grabbed my shoulder. ‘No! No! GET OFF ME!’

‘Eden! It’s me!’ mum’s voice broke over my cries and she turned me around to face her. ‘Calm down! It’s okay! It’s okay. I’m not going to hurt you.’

‘Oh my god!’ Relief flooded through me and I dived into her. ‘Mum! Jon was here!’

‘No he wasn’t.’ she said and pushed me back a bit so she could look me in the eye.

‘Yes he was! He was right there!’ I cried and pointed to the sink. ‘He touched me! He…’

‘No one was here, Eden.’ Mum said calmly. ‘You’re seeing things again.’

‘I wasn’t! He was here, I felt him! His hands and…and him! I felt him!’ I shouted. ‘He was real! I’m not lying!’

‘I’m not saying you are, but there was nobody else in here.’ Mum pushed my hair behind my ears and smiled sadly. ‘This has happened before, sweetie. I know it felt real but it wasn’t, I saw you struggling just before you threw up. You were alone.’

‘I…but…’ I gestured weakly at the sink again.

‘It wasn’t real. You were imagining him again.’

Again? Again…

A-oh. Oh.

This had happened before. Like once a month since I’d gotten out of hospital last year. I should have remembered but…I’d gotten lost in the panic and had forgotten. Again. Just like what always happened.

Jon hadn’t been here. I’d imagined him.

Crap.

My face flushed as reality crashed down onto me. I was clutching to mum while naked and there was a pool of vomit behind me. The fear drained out of my body and was replaced with pure shame. Such a familiar feeling these days.

‘Oh…’ I pulled away from her and covered my lap with my arms. ‘I’m s-sorry.’

‘You don’t have to apologise.’ Mum said softly. ‘Have you calmed down now?’

‘Yeah. C-can you turn away for a moment?’ I asked and she thankfully did so, letting me grab a towel and cover myself up. I looked mournfully at my tainted clothes and grimaced. ‘I threw up…’

‘I’ll clean it up, don’t worry.’

‘I’m really sorry.’ I said miserably.

‘Don’t be.’ Mum turned around and looked as miserable as I did. ‘I know you can’t help it. You’re still hurting.’

‘I’m…’ I trailed off, not wanting to admit that I actually was hurting but feeling like it was pointless to deny it.

Mum smiled and put a hand to my cheek. ‘Do you remember me suggesting that you see one of the councillors at Sanders?’

I squirmed uncomfortably. ‘I do.’

‘Are you going to?’

‘W-well, I’m going to see one the doctors there like you said! I know that’s really important.’

‘So is seeing a councillor.’ Mum said patiently. ‘You need to be talking to someone about what happened, otherwise incidents like this will keep happening.’

‘I can’t talk to a stranger about… this stuff.’ I finished unevenly, the very thought making me uncomfortable.

‘You can’t talk to me about it either though.’ Mum said and the raised her hand as I began to speak. ‘And I understand why, don’t worry! God, if something like that happened to me the last person I’d want to speak to about it would be my mother. But you need to be speaking to someone, and the councillors at Sanders are supposed to be very good. Plus, everything is confidential so your father won’t find out, and even if he somehow does he won’t be able to do anything about it.’

Her voice hardened as she finished and I decided that it wouldn’t be a good idea to disagree with her, so I nodded. ‘Okay. I’ll…look into it.’

‘Thankyou.’ Mum smiled and hugged me. ‘I promise you Eden, it will help so much having someone to talk to, someone who you can trust but don’t see all the time. Like a friend that y-’

‘Ah! Alexis!’ I gasped, suddenly remembering that my friend was in the house. I looked past mum to see if she was watching from the doorway but it was empty. ‘Where is she?’

‘I told her to stay downstairs when we heard you cry out.’ Mum said gently. ‘Don’t worry, she understands.’

‘Ah…’ Alexis had seen me like this on more than a few occasions, much to my shame. It was so much more embarrassing to have her clam me down and comfort me than it was mum. Alexis was only two years older than me, I shouldn’t be burdening her with this kind of stuff. ‘I should go see her.’

‘Are you okay to have a shower now then?’ mum asked and I grimaced, hoping she’d let me off from having one. I really didn’t want to be alone in this room again.

‘Uhm…’

‘If something happens I’ll be right downstairs, okay?’ she said and hugged me tighter. ‘And I’ll send Alexis up with some muffins and a can of coke.’

‘Oh!’ I perked up a bit at that last part.

‘You’ll be okay by yourself?’

‘Yes!’ I squashed her tightly and then stood up. ‘I feel much better now.’

‘I’m glad.’ Mum smiled, getting a bag out of the sink cupboard and putting my clothes in it. ‘I’ll probably just throw these out, to be honest. You’ve got more than enough jeans and shirts like this.’

‘I’m fine with that.’ I said and she nodded. ‘Thankyou mum! I love you.’

‘I love you too sweetie.’ She smiled and kissed me on the forehead. ‘I’ll call you down to dinner in an hour.’

Once she was gone I ran to the shower and turned it on, but didn’t go in. There was no way I was getting naked in here again after what had just happened, but luckily I was well practiced in the art of faking a shower.

After the water had been running for a minute I shoved my head under the stream and massaged the water into it, then poked my legs in for good measure. When I pulled my head back out water streamed down my body and soaked into the towel, making it look like I’d just finished drying myself off. I shook my head as violently as possible to clear it of water and then bounced out of the room, satisfied that I’d at least cleaned some parts of my body.

My bedroom was far cleaner than it normally would have been due to mum and I having packed up everything that I needed for school a few days ago. Most of the things we’d stored away had been clothes and textbooks, but I’d packed up most of my graphic novels and video games to take with me as well. Two large wheeled suitcases lay next to my queen-sized bed and opposite that sat my now-empty bookshelf, looking lonely and forlorn.

I perused my wardrobe for some decent clothes that hadn’t been packed away and decided upon a pair of jeans similar to the ones I’d just been wearing and a long-sleeved green shirt with a stupid-looking white dog on the front. Mum had bought them when I was ten and they still fit me, much to my dismay. It’d been years since I’d grown enough to need new clothes.

Once I was dressed I went over to my desk, which was as messy as always. It was covered in half-finished drawings of various animals and buildings with markers littered all over the place. Recently I’d been trying to work on a story about a young girl who’d found a baby snake in the city and raised it up as her best friend, but I’d had trouble drawing the snake and so, like always, gave up on it. I was desperately hoping that the cartooning course at Sanders would help me with that. I’d abandoned so many stories over the years due to either becoming disheartened at my drawings or losing interest half-way through. I loved coming up with stories and writing down summaries and scripts but the moment it came to actually putting those ideas into pictures I faltered. A part of me was scared that I’d never be able to draw well and I’d end up having to partner up with another person to create comics. While I didn’t mind doing that with Alexis on little projects, my dream had always been to be able to write and draw my own series of graphic novels. The idea of holding a graphic novel in my hands that had been written and drawn by me, and was being bought and read by other people, made me unbelievably excited.

I was in the middle of trying to clean up the desk when there was a knock at the door, and after a moment Alexis came in with a plate bearing two muffins and some cans of coke.

‘Hey!’ she smiled warmly. ‘How are you feeling?’

‘I’m fine.’ I blushed.

‘Good!’ she sat down the bed and offered up the plate. ‘Want a muffin?’

‘Yes please.’ I sat onto the bed next to her and grabbed one of the muffins. It was twice the size of my hand, full of chocolate chips and deliciously moist.

‘We should have about an hour to finish our comic.’ Alexis said as she chomped on her muffin. ‘That might be enough time to get it done.’

I smiled up at her, immensely grateful that she wasn’t going to bring up what had happened to me in the shower. ‘Did you still want to sketch the spider?’

‘Nah, I can do that at home tomorrow.’

‘Okay! We should work in the office then, I w-’

‘Wait! You’re soaking!’ Alexis gasped and grabbed my hair, which made a squelching sound. ‘Did you even dry yourself?’

‘Yeah! I was in a hurry though so I mightn’t have done a very good job.’ I said casually.

‘You can’t draw while your hairs this wet, it’ll drip onto the paper and ruin it.’ She grabbed the towel off the ground and sat behind me. ‘Don’t move.’

‘I can dry it myself!’ I grumbled but didn’t resist as she ran the towel down my hair. It felt really nice.

‘Jeeze, there’s so many knots in here. When was the last time you brushed it?’

‘I don’t know. I think maybe when we got our last school portraits taken?’

‘That was almost a year ago!’ She cried and I laughed at the horror in her voice.

‘It’s fine! My hair doesn’t need to be brushed.’

‘Uh…yes it does.’ she said and ran her hand between two tangled locks, making me squeak in pain. ‘If you’re going to have your hair this long you need to take care of it.’

‘Reece says that it looks manlier if it’s messy and all over the place like this.’

‘Well, that’s kinda true…but it also makes you look like a crazy homeless kid’

‘Oww!’ I yelped as she tore apart another group of knots. ‘I’d rather look like a crazy homeless kid than be mistaken for a girl again.’

‘That still happens though, doesn’t it?’

‘Only when someone is looking at my back and hears me speaking. Once I turn and look at them they figure it out.’ I said with a satisfied smile, which immediately faded away. ‘Nobody ever believes that I’m fourteen though. Do you remember that fill-in teacher we had for maths last year, Mr Beech?’

‘The one who sent you to the principal’s office because he thought you were a year seven who’d infiltrated his classroom?’ Alexis said and to my annoyance I could her the amusement in her voice.

‘It’s not funny!’

‘Sorry!’ Alexis said, but I could tell that she was still smiling. ‘I know it annoys you, but sometimes it is funny. Remember when we went on a field trip to the natural museum and you got mixed in with that primary school and ended up spending the whole day with them?’

‘Oh.’ I did smile at that. ‘That was a really fun day! I got to watch that awesome movie about dinosaurs with them and even got a free lunch! And I helped cheer up this sad little boy who was being picked on for being overweight!’

‘Didn’t you only do that so he’d give you some of his chocolate biscuits?’

‘Wha-you ask too many questions!’ I said and tried to pull away from her, but she grabbed my shoulders and pulled me backwards.

‘Hold on, let me finish.’ she said and began drying my hair again.

‘Urgh! Aren’t you done yet?’

‘It’d be going a lot faster if you’d stop squirming about.’

‘It’s taking ages!’

‘It’s only been like two minutes…’

‘That’s nearly half of five minutes!’

‘That’s…true…’

‘I’m outta here!’ I gasped and jumped off the bed and out of her grip.

‘Oi! Stop!’ she jumped up and managed to grab me just before I’d escaped out the door, her legs far longer than mine. I squealed and struggled out of her grip and escaped into the hallway, but tripped over myself in my excitement and crashed onto the ground. Alexis laughed and sat down on me before I could recover, then proceeded to squeeze my sides.

‘Ah! No!’ I shrieked with laughter and chomped down on one of her hands. ‘Sopph if!’

‘Oww! You little ferret!’ she cried and promptly bit one of my hands.

I yelped and she pulled her hand free, then proceeded to tickle me even worse than before

We struggled around for a while, shouting and laughing at each out in a sugar-fuelled explosion of craziness. Alexis was far stronger than me and was careful not to injure me, but I had no such problems and play-attacked her with full force. It was a bit embarrassing how weak I was compared to her but that made it more fun, not having to worry about accidentally hurting her.

We finally stopped when I ran out of breath and collapsed on top of her with exhaustion. We were both red-faced, which reminded me of something.

‘Why were you acting weird with mum before?’

‘What?’ Alexis pushed herself up so I slipped down onto her legs. ‘What do you mean weird?’

‘Like, you were acting embarrassed for some reason. Or nervous?’ Alexis’s cheeks reddened slightly and I gasped. ‘Ah! Like that!’

‘You’re imagining things.’ she said, rubbing her cheeks.

‘No I’m not. You even noticed that she w-’

I froze as a horrifyingly familiar sound came from outside. The sound I’d dreaded hearing every single day of my life.

The sound of dads ute coming up the driveway.

Oh no.