Chapter Text
The room. Silent.
The room, empty of people.
The room. It was neat and orderly.
There sat the boy.
The boy was calm. The boy was tired.
The quiet made him calm. The quiet kept him safe.
When it was loud, he was in danger.
But he didn't have to worry. The quiet kept him safe.
It began raining outside. It was nice.
Was it just a dream? The boy would think it was, but it wasn't important now.
The boy looked back to the chalkboard. There it stood.
It was a figure. A dark figure of void. The figure in the mask. The mask that resembled a goat.
The boy often saw him. The boy saw him as a friend. His only friend.
The horned void was often there when no one else was.
He was the one that kept the boy safe.
The boy then turned his head to see the children playing in the rain. They were all smiling and laughing.
The boy wished he could too.
But he couldn't.
The horned void then spoke,
They may not be fond of you now, little one. Your sun is setting, but it will soon rise.
__________________________________
Athen pushed his way through the crowded hallways, having to shove a few people to even progress. After what seemed like forever, he finally made it to his locker. He attempted to put in his combination two or three times, then finally got to open it. Athen began putting his supplies and locker accessories into it. He even put up a picture of his hyperfixations to really make his locker his.
The short boy then immediately got cut off and shoved into his locker, and trapped in it. It was unfortunate that he was small enough to even be able to fit in one.
“Oh shit. You ok?” The voice. It was the boy those ice cream hair gangsta wannabes were talking to.
“Yeah, I'm ok!” Athen Yelled.
“What's your combination?” He asked.
“Uh-! Lemme just give you my schedule!” Athen folded the paper enough to be able to slide it through the locker vents. The boy grabbed it and unfolded it. He began putting in the combination, then opened the locker. Athen began shimmying out of the locker, then fell flat on his face. He quickly got up and began brushing himself off.
“Hey, that's the bat wing hoodie,isn't it?” exclaimed the taller boy in a calm tone.
Athen immediately looked up at him, gasped, and began stimming. “You like Ghost too?”
“Yeah! I'm a bit of a newer fan. But I went to a concert of theirs during Re-Imperatour so that was sick.”
“Omigosh me too! I went to the August 5th Concert, and you?”
“Same!”
“Oh that's pretty cool. What seat were you in?”
“I was in general admission! What about you?”
“I was too!”
“Wait, I think I recognize you. You were the person who almost got knocked over by that one drunk guy when Amon Amarth was on stage. And the crowd let you go up to the front because of the girl that was with you!”
“Yeah! That was my sister. Back then I had my Nimona haircut, but now I'm just kind of emo now. Why did I say back then?” Athen giggled, then did in impersonation of an old man's voice. “Back in my day you youngins, uh something something youngins.”
The taller boy giggled, finding the bit amusing. “I'm Dain, by the way.”
“Athen. It's nice to meet you, and thank you for getting me out.”
“Yeah, aaand I'm sorry for somehow shoving you into the locker.” Dain chuckled nervously.
Athen giggled. “Honestly, I'm glad. I don’t have any in person friends that like Ghost, so it's kinda hard to rant about to friends who know nothing about it. But hey, I have friends that rant to me about their interests that I know nothing about.”
“Yeah, I have a couple friends that are like that. Personally I find it easier to talk to people in the community like in Discord servers about it than my friends.”
“I get that! I just like doing oc lore rants on this Ghost server. I'm actually writing a fic for my oc!”
“Oh nice! What's it gonna be about?”
“It's mostly just gonna be his lore. How he got into the human realm and stuff…”
The two ranted and chatted about various different topics, mostly revolving around Ghost. It seemed as if they were there for hours on end, but they were only about 25-30 minutes into their conversation. Suddenly, he felt his phone buzz in his pocket.
“Op- one second I think I got a text.” Athen pulled out his overly-large phone out of his pocket and checked his notifications. It was a Discord Dm from Emmanuel.
DecayDog[Em]:
Hey Raine and Nathan are in the lunchroom with me rn
Do you wanna come by and meet em?
We’re at the table in the back corner btw
InsaneClownPossum [Athen]:
Hol on
Athen then looked up at Dain. “Hey, my friend Emmanuel is in the lunchroom with a couple other guys I haven't met yet. Wanna come with?”
“I don’t see why not.” Replied the taller boy as he sort of shrugged.
“Mk!” Athen then unfolded the schedule and flipped to the side with the school map. Athen then clenched his small hand onto the sleeve of Dain’s bomber jacket and began leading him down the hallway as if he knew this place like the back of his hand. But he didn’t. Dain got startled by Athen grabbing his sleeve and dragging him through the crowd. Every now and then he would have to elbow people out of the way just to be able to get through.
Athen suddenly stopped. He then began making a U-turn and went back the direction they came from. Then they finally made it to the Cafeteria.
Through the disorienting crowd, the two were having trouble navigating the halls.
After pushing through the various crowds, the duo had gotten to the lunchroom. Athen scanned the room to try looking for his friend. Then he spotted a waving arm with multiple kandi bracelets on it. He ran over to the back corner where they were, almost making Dain trip over himself.
“Hi-Hi!” Athen waved to Em. He looked over at the other two taller people, a bit intimidated. A bit nervous even? One of them was a ginger that had a bit of facial hair and had a sort of shaggy mullet. He wore an orangish brown flannel, a Repugnant band tee, and black jeans with some dark red converse.
The other one was taller and they had shaggy light brown hair that ended at their shoulders, their face slightly resembled Ranboo’s. They wore a black beanie, a choker with a glass moon pendant on it, a crop top with a constellation pattern, baggy ripped jeans with fishnets under them, and muted purple converse.
“Athen, this is Nathan and Raine. Raine, Nathan, this is Athen. The little guy. The lil dude.”
“Hey there little man,” The ginger greeted. The taller pale person just waved.
“Hi hi! Uh… oh! This is Dain! I met him by getting shoved into a locker!” Athen chuckled kinda awkwardly.
“Hey.” Dain spoke in a neutral tone.
Then they just kinda stood there for a bit, looking at each other. Then Raine decided to break the silence.
“That’s a pretty sick Ghost hoodie-” Raine started before getting interrupted by Athen letting out a loud dramatic gasp of happiness. He began stimming and yapping a bunch of gibberish as he flapped his arms up and down.
“ANOTHER GHESTIE GHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHG”
“Another?” they tilted their heads.
“Yeah, I’m a Ghost fan too.” added Dain.
“RARARARAHRAHAH I FINALLY HAVE FRIENDS THAT ARE FANS OF GHOST RHRHJRHJHRJH” Then from there, Athen yapped about Ghost with Raine and Dain. The whole group was surprised that they could even keep up with his yapping. He was truly fluent in yap-anese.
He even stopped his yapping session to show them the video of Copia blowing a kiss to him at the end of the ritual that he found on Tik Tok! He had to let one of the others hold his phone because he couldn't keep the phone steady from all the stimming he’s been doing the entire time.
As he watched the video with them, he heard the familiar voice of his mother around the cafeteria somewhere. He looked around and spotted his mom talking to another lady, probably another parent.
“Oh there’s my kiddo!” Diane waved to Athen and he waved back.
“There’s my son Dain, the one in the bomber jacket” said the other woman.
Athen turned back around and tapped Dain’s shoulder to get his attention.
“Hm?”
“Our mom’s are over there,”
Dain looked over to where the two moms were. They excused themselves from the group and went over to Diane and Dain’s Mom.
“Hi Mom!” Athen greeted his mom.
“Hi. This is Rochelle! And I can see you have already met her son Dain!”
“Hi hi!” Athen greeted. “Your son shoved me into a locker!”
Rochelle chuckled. “Oh, did he now? And now you two are best buds?”
“It was an accident, Mom. plus it didn't help that he's very tiny in a crowded hall.” Dain sighed with slight playful annoyance.
The two mothers and sons all chattered about random subjects, getting to know one another. Before they knew it, it was getting late, and everyone was starting to leave. When everyone else left, Dain even decided to walk Athen to his mom’s car.
“Soooo… guess we're parting ways now.” Dain kicked a rock from the sidewalk as they were walking.
“Yeah. I'm pretty tired from being around people. ugh how am i gonna survive highschool?!” Athen groaned, dreading the idea that he was gonna have to experience that every 4 days a week.
Dain chucked at the frustrated shorter boy. “Relax, it won’t be that bad. I'm sure of it.”
“How would you know?”
“Because i'm gonna be here.” Athen looked up at the taller boy and smiled, the look in his eyes being a bit more positive. “I can help you with any homework you have, and if anyone tries to bother you ill just give ‘em a piece of my mind.”
“Thanks. I think I could handle them myself .But…. why are you willing to protect someone you just met?”
“I got a good feeling about you, man.”
Athen’s expression appeared skeptical, but he was just thinking. “Hmm.. do you think not meeting me would have a massive butterfly effect?”
“Yeah, most likely.”
Then Diane pulled up to Dain and Athen.
“Oh hai mum there you are!!” Athen gingerly waved to her as she rolled the window.
“Where have you been?”
“Looking for you!”
“Oh. ok! Well, ya ready kiddo?” she asked Athen.
“Yep! Oh wait-” Athen cut himself off to rush over to the car and quickly grabbed a pen and piece of paper. As Athen was jotting something down he began slowly walking back over to Dain. Then he handed the piece of paper to him.
“Here’s my Discord if you wanna talk to me later!” Athen reported to Dain.
“Yeah, I’ll add you when I get home.”, Dain replied with a laid back demeanor.
“Sweet! So talk to you later!”
“Yeah. see ya on the first day.”
Now that they had said their goodbyes, Athen got in the back with Fauna already being there.
“Hey! Where'd You go after you went to your locker?” Fauna questioned, cocking her head to the side.
“Oh i went to the cafeteria and met Emmanuel’s friends with Dain. sorry for disappearing on you.” Athen explained.
“Oh ok! And it's fine.” Fauna said.
“So, how are you two feeling about highschool so far?” Diane asked the two teens.
“I think I'll be good! The library is a lot bigger than the one at the middle school so I'm really excited! Since I'm the librarian’s aid I'll be able to have a whole class period to write!” Fauna was practically jumping in her seat as she raved about the library.
“That's good! What about you babe?” Diane turned to her son for a moment.
“I’ll be able to manage.”