Rough Draft Coye Vol 3 Ch 1

I have already started. I'm trying to keep the rough drafts real simple this time, so I can drastically elaborate on them down the road.

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Alone in an unlit street, Coye walked without aim. In his mind, the words of his partner echoed both throughout his mind and somewhere in the far-off distance. ‘I’ll use my magic to rip your clothes off right here in front of the whole town,’ she said.

They made Coye shiver, now more than ever before. He felt like he was forgetting something but found only memories masked in fog.

More importantly, Coye didn’t know where he was. He walked among strange buildings and looked around as those words repeated themselves like whispers.

As he trespassed in this unwelcoming city of darkness, Coye watched the surroundings morph and grow taller. It wasn’t long before everything towered over him, and he realized the world wasn’t getting bigger but he was getting smaller.

He looked down into his hands which had shrunk, and his fear multiplied all the more.

“Shayla?” He called out to the continual whispers, hoping that one might answer him. “If this is some kind of prank, then it’s not funny!”

The sound of a window opening came from behind him. He looked, and although the window was empty, he felt himself being watched from inside it. Choosing to ignore it, he continues to tread down the road as more eyes fall upon him every which way.

His breathing grew ragged because of his smaller body, and he tried everything to escape the watchful eyes. Multiple twisting alleyways later and still they persisted on keeping him in their sights.

As he ran, Coye started to recognize places of the landscape here and there. A familiar sign, a landmark, a favorite store of his, not to mention the smell in the air. There was no doubt about it. He was in his childhood home of Roselake, taken back to his days as a sensitive child.

All around Coye the eyes took on a different feel- they did not belong to strangers. They were people he knew. Most of them were bullies.

It shouldn’t be like this anymore. Coye was strong now, he wasn’t a child, he left Roselake so he’d never have to deal with this ever again. In the end, he chose to seek shelter in the only place he knew was safe- his house, where his dad would be tending his prized garden.

Coye began running with all of his strength down the many streets of Roselake, yet none of them led where they were supposed to. He couldn’t take a turn at the old lady’s pie shop, because it led to a dead end, and where there used to be dead ends there now lay new paths.

Every moment of hesitation brought his pursuers closer, a thin layer of sweat starting to trickle down his brow. “Dad... where are you...?” He whined, hoping that anyone would speak up and help him.

Anyone but her.

“Coye?” A voice belonging to a young girl shot through the confusion and reached his ears. It then soured with malevolence as it giggled, saying, “There you are, you little twink.”

His heart stopped as he recognized the voice, a voice he hadn’t heard in so long. One he tried his hardest to forget during these past eight years since he’d last seen its owner. He had no intention of breaking that streak, and he ran like hell without acknowledging the voice.

“You can’t escape me,” the laughter continued to echo across the entire city. From the cracks in between buildings, hands crawled out and inched towards Coye. “You can try, but we both know it’s no use...”

“You’re not real!” Coye finally spoke, barking out in his younger voice. “This is a dream!”

“So what? Dream or not, I’m real enough.” the voice said, now close enough that Coye could hear it blowing in his ear. He shrieked, his ear sensitive. Coye turned to face her, but saw no one and heard only another whisper in the wind. “You coward.”

Coye slowed his running once the reality of the situation sunk in. Realizing he was in a dream gave him strength. He stood his ground to face the specter of his past, and as he did, the world grew brighter and the claustrophobic streets of Roselake widened and started to resemble things the way he remembered them.

“I’m not afraid of you anymore,” he spoke with conviction, as much as he could. “I... I haven’t been for a long time...!”

“Then why did you leave Roselake as soon as you were done with your training, huh?” Coye felt the scratch of a nail on his cheek, he turned, nothing. He held back his tongue from the accusation.

“That’s what I thought,” the mysterious voice cackled. “It doesn’t matter if you’ve gotten laid a couple of times, you’re still the same little crybaby girly-boy as you’ll always be.”

Coye closed his eyes and clenched his fists. This isn’t real, he reminded himself. I’m never going to see her again.

“Don’t believe me? Look what happened to you! Even after you left you still ended up finding a whole new group of girls who bully you in my place!”

Her words brought to mind visions of the girls in question- Britni, Tiphanie, Coco and Marlie. It was true, they did mess with him a whole lot and he tried to avoid it whenever it happened, but nothing Britni ever did came close to the things he suffered when he was in his tormentor’s hands.

“You have no idea what you’re talking about, they’re nowhere near as bad as you used to be!” Coye stomped his foot and clenched his fists at the disembodied voice.

There was an unnerving quiet before the voice answered again, “You’re talking back to me, huh? I’ll give you a little credit for that, but you’ll have to tell me if it was worth it...”

Darkness fell upon the dreamscape version of Roselake and the road Coye stood upon morphed into a raised platform one brick at a time. It reminded him of the gallows, and hundreds of watching eyes congregated beneath him. They were glaring at him, and soon, Coye heard footsteps approaching behind him coming from little heels clacking against the brick.

She was always much too young for shoes like those, but she wore them anyway. Coye could never forget that sound and he didn’t need to look behind him to see that she was there. He could feel it, and it was like he really was just a child again.

“I think you need to be reminded of just how bad I can be,” the tormentor hissed into his ear, and her hands reached around his waist like they did all those years ago.

Coye’s breath left him as her grip clasped around his belt buckle. His years of training meant nothing as he stood there, helpless and locked in psychological fear. He tried to shrug her off of him, but found he couldn’t move and that the hundreds of eyes staring at him sapped his strength.

It was going to happen again, and there was nothing he could do to stop it. Maybe she was right and it was true and he couldn’t ever change himself. The thought frightened him almost as much as the unnatural warmness of the girl’s hands on his skin as she rested them above his belt and fiddled with his buckle.

‘In front of the whole town,’

Click.

Coye startled awake, gasping into the night as he sat straight up and threw his sheets off. Sweat poured down the side of his face. His immediate thought was to look for Shayla, but he felt a weight and warmness in his breast pocket and knew she had wiggled her way in there sometime during the night. Having her so close by brought him great relief, but Coye wasn’t sure why he needed comforting in the first place as the memory of his night terror subsided as quickly as it came.

“Nn... hey... what’s the matter, baby?” Shayla mumbled to him, awakened by his sudden movement.

Coye took a moment to respond, weary and haggard as he was. He wiped some of the sweat with his sleeve and said, “I... I’m not sure... bad dream, I think...”

“Poor baby,” his sleepy pixie partner cooed, wanting to help but not yet being awake enough to tackle it. “Just... lay back down, it’ll be ok...”

“Alright...” Coye sighed and sleepily nodded his head. He relented and allowed himself to sink back into his mattress, but was embarrassed and discomforted to discover his pillow was covered in sweat. He flipped it over to rest his head onto the cool side.

Coye hesitated to close his eyes. He was tired still and it threatened to overtake him, but he felt apprehension over what might be waiting for him once he drifted off once more. Sleepiness won out in the end, and he returned to the embrace of a dreamless rest.