People lurk in shadows as well. Not willingly, not because of spite, but because there is no room. They aren’t told this, that is the point, no one tells them.

Someone looked in my direction, and I thought I would cry, so I walked over to him. We sat in a dim lit room and chattered until it was time to go. And I was once again invisible.

It’d been years and Peter had always wondered where the ship had sailed. Years of traveling over open waters—chanting sea-shanties had all taken them to this. It was futile. The men he knew behaved as though they were gods. It seemed to Peter that they were the brawniest and the wittiest men who’d ever lived…all for this.

Peter had walked the plank hundreds of years ago. Every one of his crew mates jeering and taunting. They spat on him and sang of karma. They had all trusted him moments before. He was practically born on that ship, but they threw him off for the same reasons they kept him close.

Peter was enigmatic and knew his way around the mind. He knew how to sneak around without you noticing, or to hide, or to steal. For fun around the ship sometimes, he’d swindle men and call it a magic trick. They had good fun and all, wheezing with laughter in their drunken ecstasy. Everything was fine until the head pirate discovered his watch had been missing. His name was Timberly and the only two things each pirate knew for sure was that if you stole from Timberly, you’d be good as dead merely standing before him. His eyes were glassy, and unsettling. Succumbing to rumors of them being poisonous. So if you were to stare deep into their glassy blue, you’d be paralyzed right then and there.

Now Timberly loved his silver watch. Everyone knew their lane, and everyone knew never to touch it. But Peter had been accused of theft. He wondered why the watch was so important that he should drown. His crew mates often spoke of a certain treasure Timberly was searching for. They said it seemed like he’d been out on the ocean for centuries. “He’s traveled marvelous places with that watch.” rumored the men, “1776, 3024, 526BC.” They were drunk as usual. The men laughed and slapped each other like fools who hadn’t any control over their own bodies. Peter always had a good laugh at that.

Everyone on the ship knew of Peter’s ability to swindle. And for that same reason they kept him alive all those years ago. He remembered when the pirates captured the ship he was on. He’d been living as an orphan prior and had been given a job at thirteen to go out fishing with the men. It hadn’t yet been a week before those scrounging pirates took over the boat, capturing Peter and anything else they could find. They tied him up, and pulled a rope in his mouth. They almost shot him, but Timberly told them to “hold their fire.”

“Don’t you see the way he hid boys? This lad could be useful.” Then they’d knocked him out cold. The only thing he could remember next was awakening on their ship. Tied up with rope and shady men scowling. His lip was bloodied and his hair had been cut to the tip of his forehead. How horrendous it was. They made him look like a prisoner. They interrogated him as if he were a prisoner, and they left him in a cold room at the bottom of the ship. They fed him scraps of their fish. He remembered resenting every moment, plotting a means of escape, and was even more vexed when a pirate told him that he had been lucky. He hadn’t yet know the merciless nature of Captain Timberly.

Eventually, Peter was allowed up onto the ship where he worked as a servant boy for months. In those moments, analyzing the ways of the pirates and how they conned and fought and were fools. Whenever they overtook a ship he’d hide where he’d previously been captured. He became unkept, and his hair grew long, his eyes darker, his accent sharper, his ways smarter, his face unkind, and his soul lonelier. He wouldn’t know it himself, but he was hopeless.

And that day, in the times during his rise in status, was the last he’d ever seen of them. He knew he’d been set up, at least he’d claimed to be. The pirates didn’t believe a word he said, and Captain Timberly made him walk the plank with a sword held to his neck.

And the moment he fell into the ocean, he was met with the most memorable event of his life. He pulled the Captain’s watch out of his drenched pocket as the ship sailed away, feigning desolate screams.

(Not complete)

On Tuesday evenings I go to the chapel I stand and sing and I miss you I gaze upon the moon that seeps through the glass window- And ponder upon my existence.

Your tidal hair pulls back your lashes- but you are shadowed cornered by enigma.

I don’t know you- not really my thoughts tug you into the mystery of the night sitting you in the far pews of the chapel

I can’t see you- no, but time is non-existent somehow I think you have stolen it

This was meant to be me moving on Meeting new people- shaking hands and painting faces across my own

But I still see you I feel you

Ah, what a torment Why you? Why have you done this to me? Heart? Why have you betrayed me.

I stand here, on the stage perplexed as you seep into my thoughts Whilst I fade into the mystery of the night somehow becoming it—to myself

Death comes to grab us Sometimes unexpectedly

Or we call death ourselves when broken and lonely

And other times we know, when death is coming

So it’s another birthday for you You’re excited to grow old

What have you done? You’re growing No adventure has been stamped upon your soul You’re blinded by the norms of society— like most

I don’t want you to die, With an unlived life.

Anyway enjoy your eighteenth birthday sis, hope life treats you kindly

From, Stella

Dear Stella, You’re eleven, you shouldn’t be having these thoughts. Are you ok?

From, Julia

(This poem’s a little corny but, hey😂)

I didn’t believe. How in the world would we make it up there, to an infinite dimension. He told me to believe, that’s all I had to do. Deep breath in, deep breath out, believe. It was us, him and I, together as one. We had the power within us to fly. Two people of another kind. Inside of a field our foreheads touched, our eyes closed, our hearts began to beat as we took off.

Ready, 1, 2, 3, believe

I did, and I felt my feet begin to lift from the damp grass. I held him tighter as we began to fly. My eyes closed, now squeezed tighter with fear. The air grew more thin, the higher we lifted, flames around our bodies. Then, before I knew it, there was no longer sound. I just barely opened my eyes to peek, and I saw him, but behind him was the earth. Our earth, so vulnerable and light. I turned my head to gaze at the million stars around us, but then I looked down beneath me, and my belief faded away. Somehow I fell, the both of us did. We dropped down straight toward the earth. I was petrified, as I grasped my other half’s hand. Although, before we hit the ground, something pulled us up, and whispered “Believe”.

“Let’s try this again, shall we?” He said with determination in his eyes, and I agreed. All of a sudden, it was back up toward the stars we went.

I didn’t believe. How in the world would we make it up there, to an infinite dimension. He told to believe, that’s all I had to do. Deep breath in, deep breath out, believe. It was us, him and I, together as one. We had the power within us to fly. Two people of another kind. Inside of a field our foreheads touched, our eyes closed, our hearts began to beat as we took off.

Ready, 1, 2, 3, believe

I did, and I felt my feet begin lift from the damp grass. I held him tighter as we began to fly. My eyes closed, now squeezed tighter with fear. The air grew more thin, the higher we lifted, flames around our bodies. Then, before I knew it, there was no longer sound. I just barely opened my eyes to peek, and I saw him, but behind him was the earth. Our earth, so vulnerable and light. I turned my head to gaze at the million stars around us, but then I looked down beneath me, and my belief faded away. Somehow I fell, the both of us did. We dropped down straight toward the earth. I was petrified, as I grasped my other half’s hand. Although, before we hit the ground, something pulled us up, and whispered “Believe”.

“Let’s try this again, shall we?” He said with determination in his eyes, and I agreed. All of a sudden, it was back up toward the stars we went.

I didn’t believe. How in the world would we make it up there, to an infinite dimension. He told to believe, that’s all I had to do. Deep breath in, deep breath out, believe. It was us, him and I, together as one. We had the power within us to fly. Two people of another kind. Inside of a field our foreheads touched, our eyes closed, our hearts began to beat as we took off.

Ready, 1, 2, 3, believe

I did, and I felt my feet begin lift from the damp grass. I held him tighter as we began to fly. My eyes closed, now squeezed tighter with fear. The air grew more thin, the higher we lifted, flames around our bodies. Then, before I knew it, there was no longer sound. I just barely opened my eyes to peek, and I saw him, but behind him was the earth. Our earth, so vulnerable and light. I turned my head to gaze at the million stars around us, but then I looked down beneath me, and my belief faded away. Somehow I fell, the both of us did. We dropped down straight toward the earth. I was petrified, as I grasped my other half’s hand. Although, before we hit the ground, something pulled us up, and whispered “Believe”.

“Let’s try this again, shall we?” He said with determination in his eyes, and I agreed. All of a sudden, it was back up toward the stars we went.

No one looks at the rain like she does Every drop of water has a soul Every roar of thunder declares it’s power

To her the ocean is a brother— the wind is a friend If you look deep into her eyes, you won’t miss the beauty of nature

Everything indicated “small” she perceives as “everything” There is no In between

And she’s never fallen in love because her spirit is unlike any other Her brain’s grown wide— full of dreams No one can seem to comprehend her existence

But she hasn’t noticed me The boy whom always speaks She’s drawn away from words that don’t portray her worlds

And I want her— as my own So I hope And I pray, twelve times a day

Oh if wishes fell like r a i n

Then certainly, I am a STORM!

I am her S T O R M, and one day, just as the rain she’ll love my soul, as well

We were a paradox, connected and separated in one heart. Our love gleeful yet unsatisfying. We were together and alone. When I hated him, he loved me. When he hated me, I loved him. I’ve always wondered how we lasted so long in our maze. My friends would always say, “Opposites attract,” but we weren’t opposite. We were both merely similar in our differences. The two of us, walking self-contradictions crafted into the shells of two indecisive human beings. We got that about each other, but we never understood ourselves. Then we split, and I often wonder if we made the correct choice. Cause boy was that the most thrilling love a paradox could have!

It was exactly 5 o’clock when Lucas Daniels and I walked to the park. The stop was only a few blocks away from our school, by the kindergarten classes. It wasn’t our first time, everyday we’d venture to the giant willow tree to chew on snacks, jam to our own trashy music, write stories, and create dreams. We sucked at reality, so we created our own. Him and I were complete nerds who ran around in the rain and talked for hours about astronomy. Sometimes the kids walking past would stare at us the same way those mean girls and those jock boys did. We knew we were odd, so we embraced it. However, today was different.

  Lucas wasn’t the same. He’d just gotten punched in the eye by that jerk, Bryant Caraway during lunch. He told me he could barely see out of it, and it was bruised, bad. I ushered him to walk home, but he resisted because he knew his dad was drunk. His father drunk, was a hundred times worse than Bryant. There was always some sort of injury that Lucas had, and with each bruising his innocence faded, his dreams started to dissolve. The world was breaking him, slowly. I hated watching it, heck sometimes the thought of it made me cry at night. 
 
  Lucas wasn’t no ugly boy either. He was absolutely beautiful, the girls swooned at the sight of him. He made the guys at school jealous, and he never fought back because he didn’t ever wanna hurt anybody. Lucas always had a sweet soul, and I loved him for that, but sometimes they did him so horribly wrong, that even I offered to fight for him, and I’m not even tuff. I’m a stick of a girl who reads books in the back of the classroom. Bet one of those kids could snap me like a stick, but I would fight. I’d always fight for Lucas, because he was always there for me.

“You think there’s another dimension out there somewhere, Sandy?” Lucas inquired as I studied his watering eye, the other wide and curious, him but halfway. “Yeah sure, why?” I asked anticipating his mind-bending ideas, like always.

“I was wondering if there was some type of way we could travel to different worlds. Explore the secrets you know, all that we dream of!”

I paused at the thought, it excited yet concerned me. “Lucas, that’d be amazing, but don’t you go hurting yourself or nothin.” I warned.

“Look at me Sandy! There’s not much more I can do. My eye was just basically bashed into my brain a few hours ago, my back purple and black, I can’t even walk the way I used to because my dad broke my leg punchin me around. Nobody ever took me to the doctor. I just wanna go Sandy! This world ain’t for me.”

“Where do you wanna go?” I listened with undying curiosity.

Lucas turned to me with a smirk. “I don’t know, maybe like the one we created.” Lucas continued to watch me as my eyes lightened up with anticipation.

“THE ONE WITH GALAXIES AND FLYING TREES!!!”

“Yeah, I wanna go there, maybe there’s a dimension out there that exists like our world. I’d just have to find it.”

“Wow! I’d love to come, but what do you mean, find it?”Lucas paused, turned to me, and grabbed my hands with a gigantic smile.

“Run away with me Sandy! I’ll take you somewhere beyond your wildest dreams!”

“Hahaha Lucas I’d love to run around by our tree? We can pretend like we’ve gone to another dimension, run around and touch stars!”

“Yes yes, sure but it’s better!”

“Meaning?”

“Meaning that your just gonna have to meet me in three hours by the willow!”

And with that he got up and walked off, I watched in awe, what did he know that I didn’t?

To be continued....