Nero's Story Part 1 of ?

         I was never much into anything. Life seemed like more of a hindrance than anything else. Nonetheless I was forced day by day to do things I didn't figure were good for me. Like, clean the house, do the dishes, take the trash out, etc., Seriously? Who get's forced to do this kind of stuff? It's such a drag. I wish that once, just once. Life would turn into this huge action scene like from one of those movies I watch. I guess, I mean, watch is a bit of an understatement. I more worship those movies than anything else. I mean, I've seen Boondock Saints a million and a half times. Why can't I do that? Why couldn't I become Cloud Strife from Final Fantasy. Well, besides the obvious, he's animated. But, who's to say we aren't? Why can't we look at it as we're the animations being controlled by others. We're the products of some weird program and we're just being moved by a controller and a thumb occasionally hitting the "be more annoying" button. Obviously, this can't be true right? Whatever. I guess I should be introducing myself. Hi, I'm Nero, no not the Roman emperor, just...Nero. A normal, 17 year-old boy who makes a living tossing papers into peoples porches. It's nice to meet you all- er...you. It's nice to meet you.

         I suppose you're wondering why I'm here rambling on. Well, I don't really know either. I guess I should give you this story I've been wanting to share for quite some time. I don't know whether or not it's fact or fiction. Dream or reality. But I do know it felt real and goddammit if that's not reason enough for telling it, I don't know what is. Here goes...

         The easiest way to say this is with that whole cliché beginning "On a dark and stormy night" except. It wasn't particularly stormy. More, light breeze with occasional sprinkle of rain. So how about this. It was a dark and moderately unpleasant night. I was doing my normal night stuff, wandering around the house, opening the fridge to see if there's any food even though I know there's nothing new since the last 6 times I've checked. Occasionally speaking aloud to myself as if I were talking to a crowd about whatever was on my mind. But where it gets really interesting is when I went out for the final few hours. I opened the backdoor onto my patio, trees lightly shuffling some 20 feet away at about 4:12-4:15ish in the morning. From there I lept onto a little ledge about 4-5 feet from my 2nd story balcony. A question you could be asking is "Nero, why didn't you just climb the stairs onto the balcony?" That's a good question. Shut up, it's my story. So, from the balcony, I can see just above the line of trees, save the 2 that stand parallel to each other forming a sort of football post-esque type of scene with trees. It looks like a great place to watch the sun rise, and it would be. If, it wasn't facing the wrong direction. Damned linear sun pathing. Regardless I like the view this late at night, it's almost as if the moon is bidding us adieu, bye moon. After wishing the moon a nice night, or day, or whatever the moon experiences. I hopped up onto my roof, it was a short jump, I am fairly tall standing at 6'4" and 190 lbs. I'm not the strongest kid but at least I'm not just skin and bone. I walked gingerly across my roof as to not thump and wake somebody in the house up until I was at the other side, facing the direction in which the sun rose. There it was I sat, for around 2 hours until the sun rose. I've got to say, it's pretty peaceful watching the sun rise in the mornings. That's when I saw her. She wasn't your typical run of the mill girl walking around town at dawn, there was something different about her. For starters, she wasn't walking, she was running. Fast. Weirdly enough I saw what appeared to be blood trailing her. That couldn't have been a good sign. I probably should have just let her be, then I wouldn't be in this mess I'm in. But being the idiot I just so happen to be. I Hopped off my house, which by the way, is a horrible idea to do from the 2nd story. Damn near broke my left ankle landing; and I chased her. Well, chase is a strong word. I'd say I trailed her. I must've followed her for 2 miles, damn she had endurance. Before we came to a screeching halt. I swear I almost ran into her I wasn't expecting it. She never addressed me, not even a glance. She was searching for something. I could tell from her expression it was urgent so I didn't open my mouth. I thought she hadn't noticed me. It wasn't until later I found out I was dead wrong. Well, almost dead wrong. Had I not moved for 10 more seconds I would have quite literally been dead wrong. I moved because I heard footsteps approaching quickly. When I sidestepped and spun my head I was met with a sword glancing by a mere 2 inches from my body. "HOLY CRAP!!" Was the only response I could muster from that. Kind of seems silly now, such a loud scream for such a close miss. Wow, I must have sounded like a little girl. She didn't seem phased. Just, searching. For what was perplexing but I soon found out. The man who had swung the sword seemed baffled as to how he missed. It was at that point that I realized we were in that standoffish sort of scene you see in video games right before the huge fight. A bad guy and 2 good guys standing face to face. Eh, it was more face to face to back as she was still searching for whatever it was she was looking for. The man was the first to break the silence.
         "I've caught you, you need to come back with me."
         His voice was gruff, comparable to Clint Eastwood but with a bit more of a twang to the end of the words. The girl seemed un-phased still, it was almost impressive how expressionless she seemed. Just...searching.


This is the end of Part 1.