People call me Jake. I’m 16 years old. I typically wear a dark blue zip up hoodie, torn light blue jeans, and black and white Vanz. I have semi-long black hair, long enough that if I wanted “bangs” to cover my eyes it could. I guess you could say I’m pretty pale, tall, and skinny. Not a bad skinny, the type of skinny that makes me resemble an anime character. I always have my headphones on. I listen to music non-stop. It helps me out quite a bit in this weird world we live in. Without music, the world is quiet.

Music has always been apart of my life. I remember when I was a kid how much I loved music. My mother would always push me to do anything music related. I remember one Saturday morning, my mother woke me up to tell me we’re having a, “mother and son day.” I instantly jumped out of my bed and rushed to get ready. I hurried and got my blue jacket on and mom had filled my backpack with toys and snacks. I didn’t know where we were going, but I didn’t care because I was with her.

We would always walk in the city. Never took a cab or the subway. While we’re walking I’m looking around curious as to where we are going. She wouldn’t tell me and kept saying, “it’s a surprise.” We finally get to this small music shop. I was stoked seeing it and couldn’t wait to go inside. We’re introduced to this rocker looking guy and I’m told, “he’s teaching you all about music, he’s your instructor.” My mom struggled with money but somehow she managed to do this for me. I gave her the biggest hug and started to walk with the instructor when the world took a turn.

“Mom?” “Mother?!” “Hello!?”

All I could see was her arm sticking out from underneath all the rumble. Part of the building had fallen on top of her, and she was gone. For the longest time, I just sat there, next to her, telling myself “she’s still alive.” Waiting for her to be like a superhero and just make her way from under the rumble. It never happened, and eventually I parted ways.

Typically, I’m off to myself. Others look at me and talk, because I’m not scared to go out into the night. What can I say? The night calls to me and I dive into it. I can hear what people say about me even though I always have my headphones on. I can also just read their lips and know what they are saying about me. “He’s crazy for going out this late,” “he seems depressed,” “why does he dress like that?” And so on. I’m not crazy, I’m just not afraid of what’s going out there in the night, and like I said, it calls to me.

In the night I run, jump, climb, and swing. With nature taking over within the city it’s easy to do all of that. It’s like parkour, what I do can be dangerous, but I’m not afraid. It’s how I can easily get around and not many will see me. It’s also how I found the tentacles in the city. I was running and jumping throughout this building and I saw it in the corner of my eye. It was at a window, it looked like it was searching for something? Or maybe it was waiting around for something to show up? It didn’t notice me watching it. I didn’t stick around for very long to find out if it would notice me either.

I hurried getting out of there. That was the first time I had ever seen something like that in my city. ‘Had it always been there?” “Was it here the day the world went to complete and utter shit?” “Is it something bad?” All these questions popped into my head. I want to know more, and I will find out more.