[center][img]https://fontmeme.com/permalink/210315/143ae7936353782ace6ccdd46eeee404.png[/img]

[img]https://media1.tenor.com/images/9f5a8ec1efb8b79eb461ed909e2505b6/tenor.gif[/img][/center]

[hr]

Samantha Cox had a tough and fatiguing few years. The past several years had been a roller coaster of one disaster after another. In the space of almost three years, she had seen her business go from the talk of the town, to a ghost town, Her marriage fall apart, and her son get ostracisied from the community. It was a tragic twist of fate that had meant the resilient woman had to buckle down and fight harder for the simple, good life that she wanted her and her family to have. More than anything else, she felt sorry for her son more than anything. She couldn’t begin to think about the thoughts that went through and demons that occupied his mind. The guilt, pain and suffering. No doubt she thought that he blamed himself for the fire, and for the consequences that he wrought onto the family. His mind must have been trying to process so much information that his brain literally forgot how to make words. 

It was this predicament that hurt Samantha the most; not being able to communicate with her son. She didn’t care if the diner got trashed, or if people never came. That could be dealt with. And she knew that Aaron could have handled himself against the Serpents if he hadn’t got shot. But the one thing she wished she could do was bring back Aaron's voice. She had become quite a lonely mother now, with no husband by her side; having a son that you couldn’t hold a conversation with, just made matters worse. She couldn’t hold it against him though. It wasn’t Aaron’s fault. She knew that he didn’t do it. She knew it to be true. She knew her son would never go around and attempt to burn someone alive. Even if no one else believed her, No matter how much evidence they tried to fabricate, she would never believe. The rest of Edenridge might be bitter and callous, but not her. 

Still, as she stood behind the diner counter looking at her son, She didn’t know what to say. How do you communicate with someone who doesn’t talk back? The duo had developed rather crude and simple methods of communication over the past few years. Aaron would sometimes use text to speech on his phone if there was a point that he struggled to communicate through hand gestures. Asides from that, Aaron would use certain signals to help convey his emotions. Putting his little finger down the nose meant Aaron was stressed or tired. A swipe across the left cheek meant he was in pain, while a swipe from the right cheek meant Aaron was happy and feeling fine. Though Samantha didn’t get to see that one very often. She walked into the diners small back office, and returned several minutes later with an old laptop. She put it in front of Aaron to give himself something to do, a thankful, but dismayed smile came over Aaron’s face. If he was going to hide here for a bit, he might as well do something that occupied him.

Aaron spent the first hour in the diner browsing over social media. He didn’t exactly have any friends on his profiles and a fair few people in Edenridge had blocked him, so for the most part he stuck to using incognito mode to stalk the public profiles of those whom he wished he had some contact with. If only they would give him the time of day. It was this exercise that led him to Amanda’s facebook profile. He spent a good twenty minutes looking at the profile picture. His heart was a swell of different emotions: pain, anger, regret, to name just a few. He browsed through her timeline, looking at the statuses about meeting friends, spending time with family, and her road to recovery. There was little to no mention of Aaron, or if there was, it was in disdain. People commenting on the statuses were definitely more aggressive than Amanda’s. He could have swore one of the commenters was Mei. Would make sense, she liked to get her nose in anything involving Aaron.

He couldn’t stay on the profile forever, The feeling of pain was just too much. He would eventually find his way onto Jade’s profile. He didn’t really look at the statuses as such, Not that they were boring, but he spent his time looking at her photos and revelling in the imagery that he saw. Aaron might have been a recluse, but he had urges just like everyone else. While they might no longer be in highschool, Aaron still had a massive school crush on Jade, not that he could actually tell her if he wanted to. He couldn’t even go see her at work without a threat of being bashed by Rey Rey. It wasn’t worth smashing his cane against the fuckers side. Moving on, before things got out of control, Aaron began to look at Instagram and fell right onto Erin’s posts. It was nice seeing all the things she posted. Aaron had always enjoyed nature, and Erin was basically the master of photography in Edenridge. Aaron had attempted to get into photography after the fire, but his only camera was smashed by one of the Triple-S who wanted to get back into Rey Rey’s good books. So for now he simply lived his life through the eyes of Erin and her photography.

Several hours had now passed, and the diner was starting to get a couple of tired travellers who were simply passing through town and needed a pick me up of coffee or perhaps some light food before heading off. Aaron decided to take his leave. It was now 5.30pm and Aaron needed to decide what he wanted to do for the night. His mother wasn’t going to be home before midnight, so he had a lot of time to burn. He decided that the best thing he could do was go to his hiding spot. The trip took just under an hour with Aaron’s slow ass walk and the fact he took several alleys to avoid people who might want to cause trouble. Even going down the street was a tough task of crossing and dodging various people. Eventually he arrived at his destination: Edenridge High. Well, the old Edenridge High. The one that held all the bad memories. Aaron had ironically grown fond of it after the shutdown. People avoided it like the place was cursed, and as a result, Aaron could safely hide away without anyone disturbing his peace.

Aaron entered the building through the main entrance, which had the lock conveniently destroyed on it. Upon entering however, Aaron accidentally forgot to close it, leaving it open for the whole world to see. It was then he was greeted with the dark shadowy image of the corridors they used to inhabit. It always left a weird, but calming feeling coming back here. The place was so devoid of life, but all the memories he had of the place, was when the place was bustling. While the sensation had not been as bad as when he first snuck in, it still gave him an odd tingle on the back of his neck. When he was here he always made sure to avoid the corridor where he was shot. He wasn’t exactly in a rush to relive that trauma again. Aaron began to sleuth around the corridors, the sounds of his shoes and cane echoing along the hallowed walls. He decided he would go to his normal spot in the gym, there was little point in going for a tour, he knew exactly where he needed to be. Entering the gym through the large double doors, Aaron looked around. The windows along the top of the walls and roof allowed the moonlight to light the place up if the night sky conditions were just right. This was the best place for Aaron to relax, clear his mind and generally just let his muscles detense. Walking into the corner, Aaron sat himself down on some of the bleachers, pulling out a pillow he had bought once and left stuffed underneath one of the seats. With the pillow now laid down, Aaron lay down himself, head on pillow, and stared at the ceiling, watching the reflections of light as they hit the glass.

This was Aaron’s zen zone. He was in perfect harmony. He had begun to notice how nature was slowly beginning to reclaim the abandoned building: plants were overgrown and the outside air had crept its way inside. The building itself was silent. So silent that the only sounds that Aaron could hear was those made by his own body. Thankfully it wasn’t so quiet that he could hear his own heartbeat, but the silence allowed the male to drift into a trance like state, a state of true happiness and contentment. Even with the fire surrounding every single aspect of his life, this was his true happiness. He didn’t need drugs, or alcohol to survive the darkness that kept trying to envelope his mind, he just needed this. He stayed like this for a further hour. Not saying, or doing anything, his mind just listening out to the sounds of the building, the building and him, in sync.