part 1?

I always set up my work in a novel(?) format because I can’t visualize anything if it’s just point form notes. This way I can modify what I’ve written, but have a clear idea if I don’t want to. So don’t laugh at my atrocious writing haha, here is the first part of the story for anyone who is bored:

Orpheus was a shy kid, a bit meek and a huge pushover. But boy could he play the guitar, it was his saving grace really and what made him so popular at his high school. Now, his high school wasn’t a hard place to make it for a confused teenager, so Orpheus was pretty lucky in that aspect also. All the girls liked him, romanticized a bit by his guitar. The guys mostly left him alone, a sort of unspoken respect for being so popular with the ladies. They suspected he might swing the other way though, it was their only logical conclusion. This was because Orpheus never had a girlfriend.

It was the beginning of he school year, Orpheus was running late and his friend Apollo was close behind him, trying to make it before the first bell rang and they were stuck in the halls for morning announcements. One quick fact, Apollo thought of himself as a lady killer, but killed or wooed very few ladies, most of them disgusted at how strong he came on, but that never really stopped him. Now, as the two neared the entrance Apollo stopped and grabbed Orpheus by the back of his bag. He didn’t say anything but just stared across at the parking lot. Orpheus was a bit slow to catch on but after scanning to see what Apollo was staring at his spotted her.

She was wearing a white dress and a denim button down top. Her hair was dark brown, with a slight curl. Her eyes where bright blue and the morning light caught her in the face. She was beautiful. And then there was Apollo obstructing her from Orpheus’ sight, what a bastard. He walked her up to the front of the building and told him that this beautiful angelic girl was a new student, just moved into the area. She gave a small smile and said hello, she had the most beautiful voice. Orpheus wanted to tell her a million things all at once, that this neighborhood was actually really nice, that if she got lost he would help her find her way home, that the cafeteria food was really terrible, but the school backed onto a river so you cold just eat there and that it made everything taste better. All he managed to get out was an echo of her though, a very quiet hello.

They were late. Apollo ran off to his class and Orpheus started heading towards his. All of a sudden a voice came up behind him with a slight tap on the shoulder. It was her, and she asked him where her homeroom was. Orpheus looked at her time schedule and behold! She shared homeroom with him, this was the best day of his short life. He walked with her to the classroom and as they sat down at the back, he realized that Apollo hadn’t give him her name. She told him it was Eurydice and that she was very happy to have met him.

A few weeks went by and Orpheus and Eurydice were inseparable. They were the sweetheart couple that every couple wished they were and that everyone wished to find. Apollo took full credit for their meeting of course. Everyday after school you could hear the sound of the most melodic and beautiful guitar, being strummed. Orpheus and Eurydice would get out of class early and go down to the little stream and sit there under the trees before they parted ways and went home. It was bordering saccharine levels of sweetness but nobody could argue that they weren’t perfect for each other. The only jealous looks were from girls who couldn’t have what they had and a few groupies of the popular cult rocker at the school (self-proclaimed of course), who swore on their tomes that he was a better guitar player ten-fold compared to Orpheus and much better looking. Nobody gave them much thought though, they were a bit strange.

Weeks became months and the trees lost their leaves and the air became cold. Orpheus and Apollo were walking home and Apollo was once again unloading his romancing problems onto Orpheus who wasn’t paying much attention, he was more preoccupied with the fact that Eurydice hadn’t met him after school for the past few days.
“Ok, listen Orpheus, he was just transferred to this school, it’s like the lowest of the low, on the worst side of town, he won’t last a day there and I feel really torn up about it cause we left on such a sour note, I told him he was a terrible frisbee player and I threw the frisbee so hard at him he had no time to catch it and it hit him square in the face”
“Mhm” Orpheus really wasn’t paying any attention, but Apollo kept on talking.
“And man listen, don’t judge me here but I think I had some fee-“
“I’ll see you Apollo”
“Wait what? You don’t even live here”
“I need to go buy a new guitar pick”
“That’s a terrible lie”

Apollo looked a bit distraught and Orpheus felt bad at cutting him off, it sounded like he might have had something important to say. He wasn’t going to go buy anything though, he actually wanted to walk a different route that went past Eurydices house. She lived in a huge mansion, and he had always been kind of scared to visit, her father sounded like a terrifying man and Eurydice was always joking about how he would kill Orpheus the moment he found out she was dating him, because he was so over-protective. Orpheus didn’t really believe it was a joke though. He also didn’t want to come off as one of those boyfriends who had to always know what their other was doing, he wasn’t going to be that kind of guy… but Eurydices behaviour was just so not her, she had been quiet and a bit stand offish the whole week.

He stood at the gate of their house and squinted through the bars up their long driveway. He was debating heavily with himself whether he should buzz in, until he heard a truck rumble up the street. He looked behind him and watched it pull up to the front of the house. He was speechless, on the side of the truck in huge red letters it said TITAN MOVING SERVICES. She was moving? Why didn’t she tell him, did she not love him anymore, she hadn’t even mentioned it, did she have another boyfriend in a different town? Orpheus was besides himself but couldn’t conjure up the courage to buzz the house. He stood there for a few minutes hoping that the truck was either going to figure out they were at the wrong house or that Eurydice would come out of her house right then and tell him exactly what was going on. Neither happened and he slowly turned around and walked home.

The next day during lunch Orpheus spotted Eurydice in the cafeteria. They made eye contact and she quickly darted away through the crowds looking a bit ashamed. Orpheus called her name and hurriedly got up pushing his way through the crowded cafeteria. Eurydice was making her way out the doors when he finally caught her. He grabbed a hold of her arm.
“Wait, wait Eurydice please just tell me what’s going on. I saw the moving truck at your house, and you’ve been avoiding me for a week!”
“Orpheus, I’m sorry I knew you were going to take this so hard, I didn’t want to tell you. My dad is moving back to the city and I’m going to have to move schools”
“But, that isn’t a problem, I’ll visit you! I’ll get there somehow”
“No, Orpheus, I’m moving back to Tenarian. It’s not going to work”
“Wha-“
“I’m sorry, but this is goodbye”

And just like that she was gone, he had no time to even say bye, she dashed through the crowd and the last thing he was was her dark hair. He was heart broken, the kind of broken that would never be fully fixed. Orpheus didn’t wait to walk home with anyone he trudged solemnly by himself and locked himself in his room.

The next day Eurydice wasn’t at school, he still couldn’t believe that she had just left, did those few months mean nothing? Apollo looked concerned when he saw Orpheus walk into the cafeteria. Orpheus sat down heavily across from Apollo and stared at his knees.
“I heard what happened”
“…”
“Man, I’m really sorry. I don’t get how she could do that to you. She didn’t even give an explanation?”
Orpheus shook his head.
“Where did she say she was even moving to?”
“Tenarian something”
“Woah! Seriously? Orpheus you know the reputation that place has?”
“No?”
“Are you serious, remember I was telling you about that guy who moved away? And how the place he moved to was horrible?” he paused “Eurydice isn’t going to last a day there!”
Orpheus looked up “What? I’ve never even heard of this area, I just know it’s in the city”
“It’s on the other side of it, and it’s full of the most vile people you will ever meet. The police hardly patrol it because it’s so dangerous. The city put in all this money trying to clean it up and it only got worse.”

As Apollo kept talking Orpheus grew paler and paler, his stomach knotted up, he couldn’t just abandon her. Sure she had left him, but it didn’t change the fact that he still loved her! He had to warn her? Confront her father and force him to move back? He would even kidnap her against her will and bring her back to safety.

“-some really weird stuff too, body trading, underground cults, the streets are full of glass and needles-“
“Apollo! I’m going there”
“Whu-Where? Excuse me?”
“I’m going to go to get Eurydice back, I can’t live with myself if I know she is suffering there and I can’t be there to support her”
“Orpheus, I’m going to be a really good honest friend, how exactly are you going to do this? Did you not just hear what I was saying?
“It doesn’t matter!  I’m not just going to sit around writing sad break-up songs”
“But Orpheus-“
“You can come if you want, you were pretty good friends with her also weren’t you?”
“Yeah but…”
“Ugh, whatever,I’ll talk to you later”

Later that evening Orpheus sat in his room sadly playing his guitar, with his two pets sitting near him. He had some bus schedules laying beside him. He hadn’t realized just how far away Tenarian was, and all the bus schedules were weird and made no sense, like someone purposely didn’t want others to get there. He sighed, he was upset that Apollo wasn’t as worried as him, but he couldn’t think about that, he had a mission to accomplish. He really hoped it wasn’t a bad idea.

The next morning Orpheus was up early, he threw some clothes into a bag along with some change and threw his guitar over his shoulder. He never left the house without it. Good thing it was March break, because he would be missing school if it wasn’t, he wondered if the school in Tenarian had the same March break? He said bye to his parents and told them he was going camping with Apollo and his family, they bought it pretty easily. First he had to take a bus to the city terminal. It was an uneventful ride. Why didn’t Eurydice have a cellphone? This would have been easier. He didn’t even know where she lived, only her last name, her fathers name and the company he used to work with. Maybe he should have thought things through before leaving. The bus stopped at the city Terminal and Orpheus hopped off. The terminal bordered the quiet suburb area and the dull gray industrial part of the city with sat between Tenarian and his house. He reached into his bag to find the paper where he had written down all the bus numbers and transfers he would have to make. Apparently no trains ran directly into the city, it was such a pain. He dug around for a bit, getting increasingly more panicked because he couldn’t find his paper. He must have left them at home. He looked desperately around to see if there was a bus driver he could ask directions from, there weren’t. Instead a solemn looking boy was standing at the curb. Orpheus hesitantly approached him.

“Uh, excuse me?” the boy didn’t look at him.
“Er, what bus goes towards Tenarian Centre?”
“Number 81, right here”
“O-oh, thanks…”
“That will be 5 dollars please and thanks” the boy turned around looking smugly at Orpheus.
“Huh?”
“Did you not hear me?”
“Why do I need to give you five dollars”
“Whatever, suit yourself”
“Uhm…” Orpheus was perplexed, he looked up at the flickering sign, the next bus was due anytime, he was thankful because he didn’t want to stand near this kid anymore. The bus pulled up, it looked kind of shabby compared to the rest, but Orpheus thought that would be normal considering it ran on this line. The solemn looking boy boarded first and said something to the driver who grinned, showing his pointy and really dirty teeth. Orpheus stepped onto the bus and asked how much the fare was.

“You need a special transfer”
“A what?”
“You need a special transfer to take this line, cough it up or get off” Orpheus was starting to get frustrated, when the boy leaned in from where he was standing.
“I’ll do you a favour, five dollars and I’ll give you my transfer, it’s 7 dollars to buy a ticket anyway”
“Fine!” Orpheus dug into his pocket and gave him the five dollars. The kid handed him a gray pass and stepped off the bus. As the doors closed he smirked and shouted something back.
“You just got played by Charon, haha, sucker”

The bus driver got a good chuckle out of this, and put his foot hard on the gas which sent Orpheus flying into a seat. He was furious, who was his punk, he was going to report him, he knew his name, what an idiot shouting it out like that. But as the bus pulled away Orpheus forgot about the incident and was once again preoccupied with thoughts of Eurydice, if he was having it rough, just imagine her! The bus ride was long, really long. It didn’t look this far when he had checked it on the map. The scenery outside went from dull and gray to more clustered buildings and run down stores, to even shadier looking groceries stores and apartments with windows knocked out like missing teeth. The people walking along the streets looked unpleasant and Orpheus was glad that nobody boarded the bus, it was just him the whole way there. Finally after what felt like hours the bus pulled into the terminal, Orpheus stepped off and took a look around. There were taller apartments on one side and it looked like a railway ran below them. The terminal had a convenience store and a coffee shop. He went into the shop , crossing his fingers that he could pick up a wifi signal or something, to start looking up names and addresses. He didn’t know the ride was going to take so long, and it was pretty late in the afternoon. He had thought he’d be able to track down Eurydice in one day, but as he picked up an open wifi signal and got down to searching that hope slowly vanished.

It was getting dark and street lights were starting to come on, Orpheus was still sitting in the coffee shop, and he was starting to regret being so hasty. Just as he was looking up bus schedules that ran in the evening he heard chimes as the door opened.

“Charon, did you deliver the stuff?
“Yes, that shit was heavy, I should have charged you more”
“Have a coffee on me”
“Your coffee tastes like piss”

Seriously? What were the chances that Orpheus was going to run into this guy again. He bowed his head and kept looking at his mobile. Charon stood around the counter for a bit, he seemed interested in the wide array of stale donuts that were leftover from the day. He took the coffee the owner gave him and kept looking around.

“Where is the sugar, god this place is a piece of misery”
“It’s on that table” the owner pointed to where Orpheus was sitting.

Charon sauntered over. “‘Scuse me” he reached over Orpheus’ head grabbed the sugar and looked down.

“Oh man! It’s you! The fish from the bus top haha, what a coincidence!” To Orpheus’ surprise the kid sat down across from him. “From out of town I see. You can’t be so damn gullible, people will run you out of all your possessions.” He paused and looked down at Orpheus who was still too scared to look back up at him. FInally he looked up, feeling a bit defiant he spoke up.

“What’s with the advice, are you going to give me my money back or something, lesson learned?”
“Woah, what a smartass, I wasn’t expecting that, and no, those five dollars are a thank you for the excellent advice I just gave you” he paused again took a sip of the coffee and spit it back out. “Ugh, so why are you here, nobody comes to Tenarian for a spring trip.”
Orpheus was full of apprehension but it was now dark outside and this was the only opportunity he was going to get to ask someone about Eurydice. It was a total long shot, what were the chances he went to her school, what were the chances he was still in school? He looked sort of old.

“I’m… looking for someone”
“Oh? I’m interested.”
“The name is Eurydice Violet, she moved here recently”
“Really?”
“Yes? Do you know her?”
“Maybe”
“Uh…”
“What do you think I’m going to spit out such important information for free? Listen, here is your second lesson uh…”
“My name is Orpheus”
“Whatever I didn’t ask. The second lesson is that nothing comes free, especially in this city.” He leaned back in the chair. Orpheus was tired and annoyed and really wanted to just leave, but it seemed that this guy, Charon, actually knew something.
“Ok sure, what’s the price, just tell me what you know”
“Haha, I swindled you enough today, but I’ll take an IOU on some good coffee, not this crap” He raised his voice and was met with a resounding fuck you from the back of the shop. “Ok, so Eurydice huh? Sweet girl she just moved here and you’d be happy to know she goes to my school hah.” He looked proud about this. Orpheus’ eyes lit up instantly.

“What school? Where is it?
“Belial Secondary, it’s like a 20 minute walk from here. So what’s the deal? Does she owe you money, is she an accomplice? No, no she’s too sweet to be an accomplice…” Charon stared off a bit.
“She’s my girlfriend! Or.. uh was…Anyway thanks Charon? I appreciate it, but I have nowhere  to stay and it’s too late to go back the last bus just left. You wouldn’t know where she lived would you?”
“No, what do I look like a friggin’ private investigator?”
“Sorry”

Charon looked at him. What a pitifully sorry bastard he was. He felt bad for travelers, he also felt bad leaving such an idiot like him here in a place he didn’t know, which was a strange feeling, usually he took peoples money and left them.

“Listen, there is a party on my apartments floor tonight, but you have to bring something. I’m obviously bringing my charm and.. well I’m the only one old enough to buy alcohol at the party… You can just crash there, everyone else is. So?”
Orpheus didn’t know what he was getting himself into but he couldn’t call his parents on the count of being caught lying and there was no bus back, so this seemed like a perfectly reasonable option.
“I can play the guitar?”
“Perfect, let’s get out of this shit hole”