Prologue
The sun shines down on the green leaves of the trees at the edge of the forest, enveloping the air in a white light that makes the world look like a dream, blinding your eyes and bringing a sort of haze to the edge of your vision.
Seven pairs of feet walked along the edge of the woods, an invisible wall keeping them from entering. A silent line none of them were willing to cross, so they kept to wandering along the edge, a mere few feet keeping them apart from the bushes and branches. They kept walking with no clear goal other than to let time slip past them.
The world was quiet except for the quiet melody that seemed to echo from the forest, a soft whistle of the wind slipping through the leaves and branches. It was all quiet until they heard a cry. A cry and then a barely audible sniffle, drowned out by the melody of the forest. They all stopped walking.
Looking around, the boy with jet black hair spotted the bush the noise came from. The group of seven made their way over to the bush that was pointed out, the boy with tired eyes tripping over his feet when he tried and leaving the boy in the red hoodie to catch him when he fell.
Stepping closer to the bush, they crossed the line that divided them from the forest and they could hear more blank sniffles. The light bouncing around the forest got brighter.
The girl with lopsided hair glanced around like she was waiting for something but didn’t move, and for another moment none of them moved either. Then the boy with braids in his hair stepped forward, grabbing onto one of the branches of the bush and pulling it back.
A boy sat in the small clearing between two bushes just a few feet away with his knees pulled up to his chest, facing away from them. They tried to take in his appearance but the light got brighter and it was hard to see at all.
“Why are you crying?” the girl with a rip in her skirt asked.
The boy jumped a bit in shock at the voice before turning to look at them with a bright smile. “What do you mean? I wasn’t crying,” he laughed with another smile. His eyes were wide and bright, not at all red-rimmed or wet, and his voice was clear and happy, not the wet nasally voice that came after crying.
Had he been crying? His cheeks looked wet.
“Hello! My name’s H-” his voice sounded muffled now like it was coming from really far away. “-ry” what was his name again? It was so hard to hear, he repeated it again. Henry.
The girl with stars on her jacket looked like she wanted to say something but she couldn’t, so she stayed quiet, staring on blankly.
