Trying to read

[color=333333]Max had been waiting the whole day for a chance.

A chance to slip away from all the paperwork everyone else had to fill out over him, a chance to forget about all the warnings about not going near the cliffs and taking his classes like a good boy...
A chance to forget the past six months.

He pushed a branch out of the way violently, glancing back over his shoulder every few minutes to check for anyone following him, trying to bring him back to the stuffy office he'd been sitting in for the past few hours, or perhaps to the even stuffier van they used to transport him to the Academy.

He'd tried to tell them, tried to explain how it felt knowing that someone died in the very place you were standing, tried to make them understand what it was like to have them surrounding you, reaching out their arms like you're their last hope when you're just a kid who doesn't understand what happened any more then them. It didn't work, no, they put him in the room where the girl had saved her pills up and used them all at once, they drove him to the school in the van where the boy had gotten loose and knocked his head against the wall... And they didn't listen when he tried to explain he wanted another room, another van.

A clearing lay ahead, sunlight still beaming down through the trees even though it gave off no warmth. There. They wouldn't follow him, now. They were probably finished with him anyway, come to think of it. He dropped down to the ground, flipping open the only book he owned and starting to read.

A head bobbled past, slowly bouncing less and less until it rolled to a stop a few feet away from him. Max stifled a scream, glancing over and seeing a sword wet with blood in one hand of a tall boy standing nearby. A murder? At a school? He jumped up, stumbling off towards the trees until he was far enough away that the image faded from mind and the headless ghost that had been pursuing him crumpled into dust. He took a deep breath, slightly shaken, and sat back down against a tree stump. They said he'd be safe here... He knew the only reason he trusted them was because he wanted them to be right so badly. He took a shaky breath, rubbing his forehead and opening his book once again.

ooc: Open.[/color]

[color=333333]Max jumped up at the loud snapping of branches, and had already backed behind a large, half rotten tree when the boy finally sat down on the same stump he'd occupied. He was close enough to the clearing that the faint image of the headless boy appeared again, whispering quiet threats as it hovered around him.

He attempted to shoo it away, focusing on the boy on the stump and silently circling around until the image disappeared. He was hurt, and badly. Max started to walk towards him, suddenly ducking back out of sight and cursing himself. How did he know that it wasn't just a trick, to try and get him to come out? They had lots of tricks, he knew. Sometimes they stab you with needles, to make you fall asleep and when you wake up your arms are tied up so you can't move them. That's what happened to the boy in the van, he remembered. Straight jacket, it was called, to keep you from hurting yourself.

Max looked back out, eyes widening as he saw his book resting by the stump and cursing himself again. His only book, the only one they'd allowed him to take with him... He wasn't going to just leave it there. He'd risk capture for it, he knew.

He slowly started towards the stump, flickering a glance towards the boy and grabbing his book. He stared a few more minutes, finally deciding that if it was a trap he'd have already sprung it and squatting down next to him so he was at eye level. "You've hurt yaself bad, haven't ye?" He questioned, soft accent lilting his speech. "You need more bandages?" He didn't like the shirt he had on anyway, the stark white straight jacket they'd given him before he got in the van for lack of normal clothes. [/color]

[color=333333]Skittish, isn't he? Max sat down on a large boulder a few feet away from the boy, surveying the torn cloth curiously. "you'll get a nasty infection, dirty bandages like that." He shivered, image suddenly appearing of a homeless ghost he'd sensed back home. Didn't have enough money to clean her wounds, stitch them up like they needed to be.

He dispelled the thought from his mind, turning his attention back to the boy. He wasn't going to ask what happened, no. No one had died, that he could feel, and he didn't much care beyond that. "Me name's Max." He offered out of the blue, rolling up the sleeves on his jacket that'd come undone when he'd been running. [/color]

[color=333333]"Pleasure." He considered shaking hands, quickly favoring against it as the other boy's arm didn't exactly seem up to it.

He grinned, noticing Stephen staring at his slightly odd attire but not offering up any information. "I suppose you'd be the judge of that." Max nodded, motioning towards the boys arm with a wave of one hand.
"You're a student at the Academy, I presume? Seems most everyone around here is." Max shook his head, glancing around at the trees curiously. Of course, this forest seemed to be on school grounds, so he couldn't really be surprised... [/color]

[color=333333]"No, I'm a student." He shook his head again, silently observing the boy.
"It's just.. You have to admit there's a lot of you. Us, I should say."

((short as well >_>))[/color]