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Chapter 1 - A WHIRLWIND OF THOUGHTS
Henry Creel shall not appear in the story until at least Chapter 4. There are reasons but you'll need to discover them in the first 3 chapters before the adventure begins!
If you haven't read what the story is about and would like to know, you can take a look here by clicking the link below!
https://www.tumblr.com/erwhisper/819264617097428992/and-no-one-knew?source=share
THEMES: mental health, loneliness, supernatural adventure, slow-burn feelings
TRIGGER WARNINGS: depression, s3lf-h@rm, sexism, mentions of violence, occasional political rants, Y/N also happens to be an imagined 80s American version of myself 😔
No explicit NSFW content will occur throughout any chapters. If there is any NSFW at all, it will be briefly mentioned that they ended up 'doing it' and how it felt while it happened. But that's about it, so I'll leave it up to your imagination. :p
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You woke up, not knowing what time it was. You were usually obsessed with checking the time even though it was usually a struggle to stick to.
You sighed, having woken up from a fun dream where you had ran away from your parents' home, then somehow randomly taking a car and onto a 100 mile an hour rollercoaster. After moving to the theme park, you found yourself hanging out with your friends who were all with their boyfriends, but the boy you liked became very jealous as he watched you talking to others from afar.
He was tall, dark-haired and had a beautiful jawline, which reflected his handsome features. You had met him at the theme park entrance, but didn't have time to talk since you wanted to enjoy the daily rides.
Yes, dreams are weird, you would hardly stay at a theme park and go on the same rides daily! In reality, that would just spoil the fun!
But knowing you had returned to the true reality, it was a real bummer for you. For the world you lived in, as many call Earth, was not the greatest of planets to stay on if you were an alien exploring outer space, let alone a human who happens to live there.
While all the young people were either working to the jot or partying with a bunch of friends, you were stuck at your home alone. This was both by coincidence and by choice.
To you, Earth was a horrific place to live, for survival meant everything.
Without food, you can't feed your family.
Without a family, you feel left behind.
Without a family, you are labelled as a "weirdo" or an "old maiden" as a 1950s joke by a bunch of silly teenage boys.
Without blending in, you have no friends.
Without friends, you become lonely.
Without all these things, it was practically impossible to survive or feel supported by the world around you.
This is why hou absolutely hated the mudane realities of this so-called "life". To you, it was all a trap, a prison in freedom's clothing. The name of freedom taken in vain. But as most people had told you, you either conform to what's expected of you, or you suffer.
In the end, you chose the path of suffering.
While you did have a tight-knit group of friends, you sometimes refused to meet up with them due to your depression and philosophical beliefs about humanity.
Depression wasn't entirely understood by many either, and your father had once suggested that he takes you to the lab he works in. He was a medical scientist and engineer who worked on inventing new drugs to treat people and forming advanced technological machinery.
You also didn't like the behaviour of many people your age. Even at ages 23 and 24 (you are turning 24 in two days), it was little wonder as to why you had very few friends.
Most people were either being reckless or studying at school, working their socks off at work, getting married, having children and mucking around at the bar. All of this was detestable to you.
Yeah, it might not have been as bad as the shitty 1950s where you could even be killed for speaking up against governmental oppression, but times were still on the recovery of the toxic 'conservative' disease.
Thankfully, today was a Sunday and that meant you could spend the day to yourself.
You would typically be reading dark gothic books like The Woman In Black (1983) and Phantom of The Opera (1909). You also enjoyed a British book called 'The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde' (1886), about a man who formed a bridge in between the concepts of good and evil, science and religion, through his transformative scientific inventions. He transitioned consistently from being a well-respected doctor who cared for people to an ugly ape-like figure who murdered innocents.
The book really inspired you as you loved exploring themes such as the philosophies of science and religion and especially given that your father was a scientist too.
Your father, Gus, worked on inventing jabs that would transform human biology into something different and this was something you wanted to do because you wanted to stop your body from ageing.
But feeling lazy, you tried drifting back to sleep despite your sudden outburst of story ideas inspired by 'The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde'. Left lost in your racing thoughts about what you could write about next, you drifted to back sleep, just about hearing the outrageous roars from outside.
But you were too sleepy to even notice it unlike your parents who had been awoken by the unusual sound. A sound which seemed like a deep, twisted one of a lawn mower with a slightly monstrous tone.
It repeated itself about five times, and it terrified your parents, especially your mother.
"What is that?" She gasped.
Gus didn't answer. He just sat still, making his own investigations in silence.
"Gus, you have any idea?" Your mother panicked again.
"I don't know Beth, I'm investigating."
Beth quietened a little, then became more critical in tone.
"It's so early! It's 5:40 in the morning! Who has the lawn mower on at this time? How selfish!"
"Beth, it's not a lawn mower." Gus replied calmly.
"Well, it certainly sounds like some machine has been damaged, let's just hope and pray it's not dangerous."
Gus didn't reply, they stayed silent for about a couple of minutes. The noise occurred four more times during those two minutes. Even Gus started getting concerned.
"I'd better check outside." Beth suggested.
"No Beth, you stay here, you could get hurt if it is anything dangerous, like a new weapon of some sort. I'll investigate."
"Okay, but can't I help you? What about Y/N? She might-"
But then she cut herself out by the noise which was getting louder.
Gus walked out of their bedroom with a long gun in his arms then walked through the hallway and opened the front door. When he opened it, he lifted his gun and looked around. It seemed to be coming from quite a distance, a strange noise from nowhere.
Beth joined him, concerned for his safety and her daughter's. Their only child.
They waited for a few minutes, but the noise had completely gone.
Nothing came. Nothing perked over them. Nothing was attacking them.
Beth started being critical again, this time, of the young neighbours across the road who often awoke them really early in the morning by playing loud music or mowing the grass!
"Gus, you do remember Hannah and Taylor saying they'd be buying a new lawn mower. But why start it at this time? We woke up this early, all for nothing! As they often do!"
"Beth, we don't know where the noise comes from, nor do we know what had caused it. You don't just suddenly blame people for unusual situations like this! That noise was definitely not a lawn mower!"
"Then what could it have been?"
"I don't know. I'll talk to my work colleagues about it. They've been working on some pretty strange experiments recently and I don't fully understand it. They might know something about it, but I doubt they'll know the whole truth."
"Strange experiments? What strange experiments? I know you said you cannot fully understand it, but if they are causing trouble to the public, then they need some serious confrontation."
"Beth, I keep saying, not to jump into conclusions. Although they are not trustworthy at all, we still don't know the noise, which is why I said I'll ask them."
Beth paused for a second, then her attention shifted to you.
"What about Y/N's appointment? Weren't you planning on taking her to the lab sometime next week so the doctor could recommend some drugs for her mental health?"
"I had a conversation with my boss yesterday, he agreed that we could take her in next Friday. He will be testing how her mind works then may provide a professional diagnosis for what she could have."
"I think she has depression." Beth weeped a little.
"I do too, and it is affecting her deeply."
"As we've noticed. She never goes out anywhere even when her friends send her invitations to go shopping or to the cinema for example. She's always stuck in her room either listening to music or reading these ghastly books I cannot stand! She never comes to dinner when we prepare it for her."
She paused for a second, trying to catch her breath.
"She goes into work and works much longer than she should. She's not got a partner. She's not earning much. She's going to really suffer, I can see that!"
Beth tried to hold her tears, but failed miserably. Gus didn't answer straight away but quietly acknowledged her, much calmer than his wife.
"I know. This is why the meeting with the doctor must go as planned. I often try explaining to her why work is important and the same thing applies to social interactions. But she never listens. She is incredibly rude by not even bothering to answer her friends' letters, let alone helping her around the house."
This time, he started becoming more emotional, but he was more angry and confused than his wife who was both worried and very sad about your current situation.
"I'm honestly surprised that she hasn't come to realise that there are patterns in this world to conform to. We've advised her so much, but she chooses not to listen and this is where she ends up!"
He was clearly very upset about it underneath, though he didn't like being emotionally vulnerable. But Beth, while she agreed with what he said, was not amused by his criticisms.
"Gus, Y/N has something more than we realise. I know, it is selfish to ignore her friends and not help around the house at all, but you know it. She's deeply unhappy and is suppressing her emotions to the point where she completely shuts down."
She inhaled another breath, for she also suffered from Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD).
"Scientists like yourself are still researching into depression and I am almost certain she has it. Depression is believed to be more common than many realise, it's mainly the fact that it's unrecognised."
While pridefully stubborn, Gus silently agreed, then discussed the situation as they walked back into the house. Neither could fall back to sleep and they both spent their time worrying about you, making plans for you to see a therapist and possibly a psychiatrist.
Something you would definitely not have wanted against your will. For them, it was just as well you were fast asleep and didn't hear them.
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A/N: Hi everyone! Thank you so much for reading! I'm sorry if it's not the best of chapters to begin with as I haven't been properly writing fanfics in years. Any criticisms or advice you wanna give me, feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section below!
Thank you so much again and chapter 2 will be out soon! :D
