"Do you think blonde will suit me?" I ask into the silence, trying to lift the heavy silence from between my brother and I. Since he was the only person around right now, he had to be the one to cut and bleach my hair, in case the security tapes of the psychiatric hospital somehow survived and caught me doing whatever the hell I did. Tram hasn't spoken to me since I woke up and the sharp silence was becoming deafening real quick. "Please talk to me."

He didn't reply, instead using his hands to brush stray bits of hair back from my face and stick the now short bob on top of my head, peeling his plastic gloves off and tossing them away into the bin without a word. Thankfully, Dad had been able to transfer over to this small town called Rosendale, where nothing ever happens. His boss found it a bit odd that he wanted to move so quickly, but he narrowed it down to the death of mum and knew that dad had recently been talking about a move anyway.

The downside, we had to leave at that moment, tossing all that we could fit into the boot of the car and taking off. We all left behind an equal amount of objects, but tram lost the most. Both dad and I had no one left to keep us to that town, but Tram did. He had his boyfriend, Rich, that he loved with all his heart, that he had to leave without saying goodbye.

The moving trucks would come to bring our furniture in a week or two, but they weren't bringing Rich.

"Tram!" I shout, jumping up from my chair to follow after him. It was a small house we lived in, but we didn't need a big one for only the three of us and two bags each worth of stuff. "I'm sorry, okay-"

"You're always fucking sorry!" He yelled, spinning around so fast he almost disappeared. His sudden outburst stopped me in my tracks and had my heart racing in my chest. He rarely yells at me, and hearing him with so much hurt and anger in his voice shocked me. "And every time, I forgive you because you're my little sister and people fuck up sometimes but this, this is not okay and it never will be!"

"What do you want me to say, Tram? I can't control whatever fucking fresh hell is happening to me!" I shout back, my instant response was to try and defend myself despite having nothing to back me up, I was skydiving without a parachute and I knew I'd hit the ground if I kept going.

"You killed people, Gracie! You murdered them without even touching them and dad still thinks the sun shines out of your ass," He whisper/yelled, careful not to alert the new neighbours. His stepped closer to me with every crack of his voice, eyes welling up with tears until the dam broke and flooded his face. "No matter what you do, you are always put first. You get everything while I lose the one thing I had to myself."

"I didn't ask to be like this! I hate it as much as you do, but there's nothing I can do!" I shout, using hand motions to exaggerate my point and calm me down. I had developed anxiety at a young age since I was so hyperactive and waving my hands around was the only way to calm me. "You can find someone else, Tram-"

"I don't want anybody else, I want Rich." He exclaimed, now quiet as his voice broke and tears started flowing down his face like a waterfall. "And I had him, then I lost him because apparently, you matter more than me."

"No one ever said that Tram," I whisper, looking down to my cotton covered feet, the plain black material almost causing me to do the splits on the wooden floors many times, but now I found comfort in them. Anything was better than having to look him in the eyes.

"Are you fucking blind? Look around, Gracie!" He explained, my eyes instantly flick upwards and towards him, watching as he flung his arms around wildly. "No one had to say it."

With that, he stomped towards the door, swinging it shut with a loud bang. I guide my hand up to my mouth, clamping it shut to stop the sound of crying from escaping my lips. He's the only person I have in this world that I trust and I've just lost him completely.

------

          The water was calming, it's slow running sounds steadying my heartbeat. The smell of wet autumn leaves and fresh air sending me a sort of nostalgic feeling. The wind blew easily, snatching a few stray leaves to bring with them on their endless journey to nowhere, sending the fallen tree part on its way only a few miles later. The grass was cold under my legs and butt, almost feeling wet despite there being so visible dark patches on my blue jeans. The lowering sun still shone off of the clear blue lake like tiny floating diamonds, shining right in my eye and blinding me more times than I could count. The sky was many colours mixed into one. A few splashes of orange around the horizon, moving upwards to a mesmerising purple before a beautiful pink overpowered the other colours, big slashes of white cotton slowly flowing through them with ease.

It was peaceful

I must have been here for hours because it was getting darker by the minute. I don't usually lose track of time like this considering I can never stay still, but something about that breathtaking sunset relaxed my nerves and stilled my muscles. Deciding to head back, I start packing my things into my bag, things like colouring books, headphones and my phone. I had an activity bag always packed since apparently, I'm still a child and not a seventeen-year-old who happens to have ADHD.

I thought I knew the way home, but after it became pitch black around me, and the moon started glowing like a giant flashlight, I realised that I was lost in a place I've never before been. I wasn't even aware Rosendale existed until now.

Lotte was strolling beside me, bare feet barely making a crunch on top of the leaves below her. She almost seemed to glow at this dark hour, her spotless white dress, clean skin and curly blonde locks, all a memory I wish stayed that way. The last time I saw her, she was buried in a pool of her own blood.

"Jesus Christ," I mumble with a sigh, grabbing the ends of my jacket to hug it close to myself, trying to keep the warmth in and the devilish cold out. "Good job, Gracie, you absolute dick." I curse myself out while kicking stray branches away from my slow path. Might as well start my own society here in the creepy woods-that is-if I live through the night. "What kind of lunatic wonders off in a town she's never been in before? This loser talking to herself right here."

"I thought you were talking to me this whole time," Lotte remarked with a hand on her still chest, proof that she wasn't standing beside me, that she didn't survive the shot to the heart and she didn't take the evening stroll with me.

"You're not really here though, are you Lotte?" I snap, spinning to face the empty spot where she once stood. Shame, I could have really used the imaginary glow stick right now.

While in the middle of mentally calling myself out for being as stupid as I have, I felt something big crash into me and send me tumbling down into a ditch, mud covering my clothes and something heavy weighing down on me. The thing begins to groan and move around slowly, causing my heart to race and eyes to squeeze shut in absolute terror.

"This day just can't get any better, can it," I grumble, trying to wiggle out from under him. He didn't seem dangerous, more like he wasn't looking where he was going and crashed into an innocent girl, almost breaking her arm in the process.

"Tell me about it." He replied, hand reaching up to grab his head where it looked to be split open. I have a hard forehead, but surely I didn't do that when we head bumped each other. It looks more like a slice than an accidental tear.

"Um, excuse me, but, you crashed into me," I exclaim, pressing my hands to the unknown boy's chest to try and toss him off of me, only to be met with his brown orbs connecting with mine in an instant. Freckles littered his face like little dark stars, his eyes twinkling for the dull spots. He was goddamn fine. "I'd always hoped I'd be pinned under a hot boy, I just never imagined this exact circumstance."

His brows furrowed for a second at my remark, before his shining eyes trailed downwards where his body was on top of mine. Almost instantly, they sprouted open quickly, a small gasp almost escaping his slender lips as a nervous laugh left mine. "Oh, shit. Sorry."

He jumped up as fast as lightning, barely giving me time to blink as he stuck his hand out, offering his help to lift me out of the mud that has surely, already stained my white shirt. My brown leather jacket just blends in now. "It's fine, I'm just glad you're not a sociopath with a butchers knife."

"Who says I'm not?" He replied, raising a messy black eyebrow in question. I rip my hand from him, giving him a 'what the actual fuck' look. Who says that after crashing into someone in a dark forest, if I had a weapon I'd stab I'm in the eye for being such a prick. "I'm sorry, that was stupid. I was just trying to be cool."

"I'm going to pepper spray you now," I announced, pulling a little can out of my pocket to start spraying it at his face. He jumps back, eyes widening out of shock of what I just did. I laugh at his reaction, amusement running through me like a child on a sugar high. "It's water. I don't have pepper spray, weirdo. This isn't a regular thing for me."

Instead of replying or doing anything to not be rude, his ears perk up and head spins around, searching for an invisible sound. "Calm down, Superman. No one besides our dumb selves would come here at night- wow." I was cut off once again when his hand clamped around my wrist, yanking me down to the ground so fast my arm almost popped out of place. This time I was lying down in the ditch beside him, his back facing me with one hand stretched out behind him, holding me to the ground as he looked out for something "I swear to god, if you interrupted me one more fucking time I'm going to punch your ballsack up into your brain so fast-"

"Shh." He shushed, his hand moving up to cover my mouth after he spun around, now facing me. He was so close that the little hairs on our noses would brush together every once in a while, causing my nose to begin itching as if millions of tiny ants were marching along it.

"Am I lost in the woods with a paranoid lunatic?" I whisper, removing his hand from around my mouth so I could speak. First, he was running through the woods and now he thinks the invisible man is after him.

Wait, isn't this the plot of slender man? He's just fictional, though. So are supersonic screams yet here I am. "Oh, fuck."

"You're not very good at listening are you?" He whisper/yelled, rolling over to slowly wiggle his way up the hill, looking over to try and see his invisible crusader. I sigh, falling flat on my back with my arms and legs flinging outwards until I resembled a washed-up starfish

"Listen, you're really hot and all, but the psycho part is a huge turn off for me. Not to be judgy or anything." I proclaim, rolling my head over so I could get a glimpse of his back just before his head swung to face me, blowing his messy brown hair out of his eyes while looking me up and down like a paranoid prison guard. His eyes left what felt like a trail of burns on my skin as his lost eyes roamed my form for an answer, scanning down from the edge of my forehead to the tips of my toes.

"Wow, you're confident. We just met and you've told me I'm good looking twice already." He observed, sliding down the steep hill to sit beside me as he continued to look over me.

"I actually have crippling anxiety but since you're a stranger and we'll never see each other again, I've decided to voice my opinion," I admit, rolling onto my stomach before scrawling so I was lying down beside him, upper body levitated by my elbows like legs to a chair.

"I have so much to learn from you." He joked with a shake of his head, giving me a look of somewhat envy over the fact that I have little to no self-respect at all.

"Get in line, weirdo."

"My name isn't weirdo."

I gasped in fake shock, lifting my right hand to my chest in mock hurt, eyes matching his as my mouth stayed hung open at his statement, "Really? I thought your parents just named you after your personality. I'm usually amazing at matching names to faces."

"Are you usually this sarcastic?" He grinned, letting a small gasp of laughter slip past the ends of his teeth when I began to rapidly nod.

"Are the chameleon bandits gone? Or are you still hiding from slender man's cousin?" I question, now switching my position once more to lie on my side, left hand supporting my hand like a sling while my vibrant blue eyes scanned across his mismatched colour toned face.

"Huh? Oh, yeah, they're gone." He replied as if almost forgetting the reason we were in this ditch and covered in rapidly drying mud.

I wonder how many freckles he has on his face. I could sit for hours and just connect the dots on his skin.

"Hello? Creeper? I asked if you needed directions," He exclaimed, waving a hand in front of my face to snap me out of my daze. Creeper? What kind of a stupid fucking nickname is that? "I heard you talking to yourself earlier about being lost."

"Oh, so you heard me speaking and knew I was close but you still pushed me down a hill anyway. I'm changing your nickname to bastard, you bastard." I fake snap, jumping up to my feet and attempting to wipe the sticky leaves from my mud-soaked ass but to no use, there was bits and pieces of the woods all over me to the point that I resembled one of the thousands of trees trapping us to this block of land. "I'm not going to be that stupid girl in horror movies who deserves to die for basically having tea and biscuits with her killer. I'll just wander aimlessly for a few hours until either a search party or the wolves get me. I'm not judgy."

With that being said, I begin climbing up the ditch with my head held high like there was a stack of books placed neatly on my head, attempting to be cool and mysterious to this attractive stranger before I never see him again.

But alas, that was not what the universe wanted.

"The way into town is to your left, crazy!"

"Thank you, bastard!"

----

so, how are you guys liking the rewrite so far! I'm really excited to hear your thoughts and get some feedback so hopefully, I can get better !

also, if you happen to see any spelling errors, please point them out nicely so I can fix them, that'd be appreciated

amazing opening credits that will begin each chapter by one of my favourites Empressotaku