casey colfnaught

You are wandering through a forest in the middle of the afternoon. You know you're looking for something, but exactly what currently slips your mind. In the distance you hear music, the song sounds very similar. It's... [[I Don't Like Mondays by The Boomtown Rats]] [[Money by Pink Floyd]]

Right, this song was playing when you ducked into a shady diner to get out of the rain. How long ago was that? God, it has to have been four or five months now. You remember that diner vividly, it smelt so strongly of coffee and cigarettes you thought you were going to suffocate. There was someone else in the diner that night, wasn't there? [[Yes.]] [[No.]]

Yes! A boy, he looked your age. You actually recognized him from school. Yeah, he was a football player, total stereotypical jock. He worked at the diner and greeted you when you entered, you two really hit it off. His name, however, seems to escape you right now. You suppose you will remember it when the time is right. The calmness of the forest is making your brain feel all fuzzy, this must be why you keep forgetting things. You can't recall a time before this where your memory was terrible, but perhaps that further proves your terrible memory. It's just that the light filtering through the leaves is making everything look green and the mixture of gentle bird coos, wind rustling plants and that song playing in this distance makes you feel extraordinarily sleepy. [[You resist the urge to take a nap]]

No, of course not. At least not anyone of note. There were a few other customers and waitresses mulling about, but besides that, the diner was surely empty. You had taken a seat at one of the booths and a waitress took your order. Or maybe it was actually a waiter? You swear that it was a waitress, but the mental image of a young-looking guy serving you keeps ghosting across your eyes. The details of this ordeal, that happened almost five months ago, really isn't that important to you at the moment. The calmness of the forest is making your brain feel all fuzzy, this must be why you keep forgetting things. You can't recall a time before this where your memory was terrible, but perhaps that further proves your terrible memory. It's just that the light filtering through the leaves is making everything look green and the mixture of gentle bird coos, wind rustling plants and that song playing in this distance makes you feel extraordinarily sleepy. [[You resist the urge to take a nap]]

A particularly comfortable looking pile of leaves tempts you, but you ignore the temptation and start walking in the direction that the music was coming from. In the distance you can see a clearing, it looks like someone has tied and a sheet between three skinny trees and created some kind of hang out spot. You are hit with a violent wave of nostalgia, or perhaps deja vu. In between two branches of one of the trees someone has wedged an old iPod Touch, you guess that’s where the music is coming from. You can also see someone's varsity jacket from where you are standing. Maybe someone is here? [[Take the iPod]] [[Do not take the iPod]]

You reach out and take the iPod, it takes a little bit of effort since it's wedged in there good. You turn it on and notice that the background is nothing personalized, it's just one of the default ones that come with all iPods. The battery is low, and you note that there’s no passcode on it. Not that you're about to go snooping on someone else's IPod, even though there’s no other sane reason to just take it like that. You pause the music that’s playing. You look over at the jacket again and, from your new vantage point, you see that there is a tuff of strawberry blond hair attached to it. [[Approch the body...?]]

You give that IPod a very soulful and longing glace, but you suppress the urge to reach out and take it. That's not your IPod, dude. The song that's playing from it seems to be coming to an end anyways, you briefly wonder if it’s going to switch from another song or not. You look over at the jacket again and, from your new vantage point, you see that there is a tuff of strawberry blond hair attached to it. [[Approch the body...?]]

You take a step forward and the entire body comes into view. A teenager, probably around your age, wearing a creme and red varsity jacket and blue jeans. He has strawberry blond hair that is growing into a bit of a mullet and freckles dust across his cheeks. His eyes are closed. Sleeping, you assume. Before your eyes trail lower and you notice the dark stain right near his lower ribs on his left side. Familiarity washes over you. [[From the diner...]] [[He's bad news]]

Yes, the boy from the diner you befriended all those months ago, it is coming back to you now. He's your friend, he *was* your best friend. [[He's Casey Colfnaught.]]

He looks exactly like the kind of asshole that Lydia would tell you to stay away from. He had managed to wrench a swiss army knife so deep into his gut that it killed him. He bled out on the forest floor in the middle of the afternoon. He definitely looks familiar, but you can't put your finger on it. Maybe he was in one of your classes, or you just happened to pass him in the hallways sometimes? Despite something in you screaming "no!" you can't help but be intrigued by this mystery boy, you think that perhaps he would've made a pretty okay friend. It's too late for that now, of course. [[Walk away]]

Casey was a saint, Casey was a god among men. Casey was the one person you felt comfortable with. You knew he was broken, you knew he came from a bad childhood and that only drew you closer to him. It's dumb, but you wanted to be his saviour. You wanted to be able to scoop him up and take him away from this bad place, you wanted to protect him. You admired him, you might've loved him. The memories of him are so vivid in your mind, you can't believe that you forgot him. You can feel his breath on your face, you picture the many kisses you had behind closed doors. Both of you loved to ignore the fact that you had a girlfriend. This place, this hideout in the forest, was your shared home. This was your safe space. Casey and you use to talk for hours out here, sometimes you would even fall asleep when it got too dark to walk home. You'd listen to that song, that song that you also shared. The same song that he listened to as he took his own life. [[He's dead]]

You snap back to reality. Casey's body is lying at your feet, unmoving. In his side is his dad's swiss army knife, the one he stole just to piss him off. For a brief moment, you ponder the fact that he managed to kill himself with a blade so small. The real severity of everything doesn't seem to hit you yet. Ring the bells, Casey Colfnaught is dead. You have been wondering where he's been, why he isn't returning your calls. You think about the future he promised for the two of you. He was always saying that as soon as you both graduated you we're going to get into his car and he was going to drive far away as possible. You talked about space travel, he talked about exploring the oceans. He wanted to rule the world and he was kind enough to let you rule beside him because you thought he was wonderful and that fueled his ego. I guess none of that matters now. [[Walk away]]

You don't call his body in, he left no note, you can only assume that he wanted to go quietly and in the night. Perhaps that wasn't a smart or good idea, but in the moment it certainly felt right to you. Casey Colfnaught's body was found three days later after his father reported him missing and the police searched the forest. He got no funeral, no headstone. The school tried to do something, but kids kept defacing the memorial or making jokes about it. You decided to set up a crude cross out of two pieces of driftwood and stuck it in the ground where his body was, you pinned one of his missing posters to the front. One week later the police opened the investigation again after receiving an anonymous tip that Casey's home life wasn't the best. You were the first person they interviewed. [[Who killed Casey Colfnaught?]]

[[I did]]

''END''