Art Swing (1x1 remade. Spartan x minus)

[minus infinity]

Fiona was silent too when she noticed that Nicholas suddenly didn't care about school (well, at least tommorow wasn't a school day) until suddenly there was a sound, breaking through the silence like thunder. Oh, Nicholas was ripping out a sketch from his book ... wait, what?
What are you doing? Even though she was surprised, Fiona's voice still came out as soft and very confused. What exactly was this boy doing? She shook her head. She needed to go after them! So why were her legs suddenly jelly?
They must have fallen asleep ... already?
Before she could convince her legs to wake up from their slumber a sudden noise jolted her, making her flinch. A car honking.
Fiona gasped. Her first thought was of ... that day ... had the car honked, had there been any warning whatsoever?
Was Nicholas' mother buried here?
Just once, show me that you're here with me. Are you here?

 

[spartan309]

Nicholas heard the car honk as well, and saw how Fiona reacted. "There was no warning... It just.... happened..." Nicholas uttered, it just loud enough to reach Fiona's ears. The memory of seeing his mother die so easily made him shake a little, the shaking making the chains of the swing squeak and rattle.  

[minus infinity]

A horrible squeal. A flash of fear. Death was coming. A car coming closer. Closer. Closer now. She was going to die. Going to die. Going to --
Fiona closed her eyes and flinched when Nicholas told her that his mother had been given no warning before her death. Maybe one last thought of her young son, her husband, and then ...
The car honked again, and Fiona looked over towards the curb. She almost expected to see some monster of a driver behind the wheel of a car squealing up the sidewalk and towards the swings, towards them, but she only saw her father in his Buick.
Oh ... yeah. She had forgotten she had to come straight home after school today too. Her eyes watered as the last remnants of fear faded from her being
(Was Nicholas' mother buried here?)
and she touched a gentle hand to Nicholas' shoulder before slowly walking over to her father's car, to go home.

 

[spartan309]

(No. She was buried in a graveyard. Yea I know that it would make the story more interesting, but it was still a public park and there would be no way they would allow someone to be buried there.)

Nicholas watched her leave, actually not wanting her to leave at all. He gave a nod to her when she put a hand to his shoulder and then left. He then watched the car drive away, leaving Nicholas alone with his emotions. He would stay there all evening and leave at the dark time of midnight, the cold unbearable for he was only human. The drawings that he scrapped, he actually did retrieve them and put them in his bag, not wanting to throw away any art he made, whether he thought it was bad or not.  

[minus infinity]

(Nah, that'd be pretty icky, I know. It was just a space-filler I came up with and I rolled with it. xD

I'll post in character a little later.)

 

[minus infinity]

"So when is renovation starting?"
Monday.
"That soon? It's supposed to snow on Monday."

This was the conversation Fiona and her parents covered at the dinner table, but Fiona could barely eat. She couldn't - she didn't think she would be able to without vomiting it up later. So she stirred around the food with melancholy, listening as her parents discussed just what a 'business district' was as though they didn't care about the fate of Dead Park. Why didn't they care?

 

[spartan309]

(Time skip to the next day!)

It was currently eight in the morning, the sun shining on the new day. As always, Nicholas was on the swing at Dead Park, already having been then for four hours just drawing something that wasn't even half way completed. For some reason, he was going slower than usual. It's not that he didn't know what to draw, his hand was just moving slower. His eyes more hazier than usual and his skin was also looking pretty pale. Nevertheless, he was still slowly at work, his breath getting harder as he worked, wanting to spend every last moment at Dead Park before it was forever gone.  

[minus infinity]

The sun's bright yellow rays seemed to demand Fiona's attention as she woke up Saturday morning and looked out the window. For now there was no snow, but the overcast clouds stayed right where they were even despite the sun's efforts to banish them. Still in her pajamas, Fiona trotted downstairs towards the kitchen where she had heard the muffled sounds of her parents distantly conversing.
"What are we going to do when this all happens?"
"I think the best thing to do is distract them. You know, find a way to take their mind off. We can invite him over, go on a random vacation, whatever - but we can't let them go near that park."
Fiona had already known her parents would probably be talking about the imminent death of Dead Park, but as their words actually confirmed her thoughts she felt her heart twisting and her stomach dropping. Her parents had betrayed her. She could only vaguely remember, but she did in fact remember that her parents had defended the park from the day Nicholas' mother died - from pushing the police to find and arrest the monster responsible and taking their young daughter to the old place almost daily to let her absorb what had happened. And now they were betraying all that had happened, like it had never even occured.
Leaning against a half wall opposite the kitchen, Fiona put her hand to her breaking heart and began to cry before running upstairs to get dressed and visit Dead Park.

 

[spartan309]

Drawing drawing drawing. It was silent at Dead Park except for the soft sounds of lead on paper. There may be no snow on the ground, but it was still cold enough to see your breath. Nicholas was starting to lose focus, his eyes steadily blurring the picture as he tried his best to draw. What was wrong with him? His breath was heavier than usual and his body felt weaker.  

[minus infinity]

In her hurry to get out of the house (her parents might try to bribe her out of visiting Dead Park these last few days it would still be here), Fiona's clothes suddenly didn't seem to fit. Her jeans ripped as she jumped into them, she got her gray and white turtleneck on backwards, and her snow boots were just plain a hassle to put on. Her tears had stopped, but by the time she had finished getting dressed she had become frustrated - both with herself and her parents. She needed Dead Park. Nicholas needed Dead Park. They needed Dead Park. Why couldn't her parents see?

Fiona was running towards Dead Park, running away from her thoughts and her parents before they would realize she had left. Of course, if they did realize she had left they knew that this was the place of all places to find her - but at least it gave her a couple of minutes for a head start, right?
Fiona nearly collapsed once she reached the slide and saw Nicholas on his favorite swing. Her hair was windblown, her face was flushed with the air whipping in her face from running and her eyes were flickering with a wild energy. Dead Park. She was at Dead Park. Her parents probably didn't want her here. But she needed Dead Park. Nicholas needed Dead Park ...
So why did no one see? Why didn't they see?

When her own breathing slowed down from running Fiona noticed Nicholas' own breath was much heavier than it usually was - usually it was almost completely silent to match his personality. She took a few cautious steps forward from where she stood by the slide. The slide that would be torn from the ground by brutal hands and thrown away into a cold, icy abyss.
Nicholas, are you okay?

 

[spartan309]

Fiona's voice was muffled by Nicholas' own ears, only barely able to hear her. He didn't answer though, only content on drawing and being at Dead Park as long as he could. His head soon started to feel like hammers were bashing his brain, making him move back and forth from consciousness. He struggled to keep his vision and still slowly drew as if nothing was happening.

Then... the pencil fell out of his hands, silently falling onto the floor. Soon after, Nicholas fell to the floor, his sketchbook scattered on the ground, his breaths hard and hoarse. His face was red, burning up with the flames of a high fever. The stress and shock of losing Dead Park, mixed in with his bottled emotions and subject to the cold temperatures staying out so late, subjected him to this sickness.  

[minus infinity]

Nicholas ... Nicholas. Nicholas. ... Nicholas. ... Nicholas!
And her parents wondered why she begged for a cell phone. She really could have used one right about now, to call ... anyone. Her friend looked unconscious, stop worrying about phones! Inwardly, Fiona panicked. Her heart pounded, her breath quickened, her eyes widened, her whole body shook. But her brain seemed to almost completely stop. She needed to do something! Why was she just standing there? She needed to move! She couldn't let Nicholas end up ... like his ... mother ...
So finally, dragged out of her silent stupor, Fiona ran as fast as she could to get her very much living parents.


"What happened?"
rrrrrrrrr, the old Red Regal said as it started up. Fiona's father was going to be driving to the park so that once they got Nicholas they could drive to the hospital; Fiona herself and her mother were running as fast as they could towards the park. They had been about to reprimand her for leaving when she had arrived, but as soon as they saw her panic striken expression they knew something as trivial as that was best saved for later. Heck, they were barely dressed - her mother was wearing her bathrobe over her pajamas and slippers and her father wore his pajamas too. What a scene they would make when they arrived at the hospital. And here at Dead Park. There was no one else there but the fallen Nicholas, but Fiona was sobbing so hard it was getting difficult to see as she ran. She couldn't lose Dead Park and Nicholas.

"He's limp," Fiona's father stated as he picked up the fallen Nicholas. "Fiona, what happened?"
He just ... suddenly ... fell ... Fiona's racking sobs prevented her from speaking without taking breaths between almost every word. Her mother put her tired hand on her daughter's shoulder as her father carried Nicholas to their car, and then they would be off to the hospital. Father in the driver's seat, Mother in the passenger seat to give directions, with a sobbing Fiona and an unconscious Nicholas in the backseat.

 

[spartan309]

(It may be cliche, but it works so well =w= )

As they drove Nicholas to the hospital, insanity was going on in Nicholas' head. Everything that has been plaguing him was attacking him at once. The loss of his mother, never seeing his father, the lost of his emotions, and the soon to be loss of Dead Park. The memories of these tragedies were ripping though his head like paper from his sketchbook, each picture given full detail. Then, a mumble... "S-sketch...book..." What happened to all of his drawings? Those were recent memories of the month and to him, losing his drawings is like cutting yourself, each lost sketch a new cut on your arm. He never even tossed his bad (self-claimed) drawings, keeping them all with him. The thousands of drawings he had in his room, his closet filled with hundreds of different sketchbooks.  

[minus infinity]

Momma, did you get the sketchbook?
"Oh, honey ... "
Nicholas' sketchbook was still at Dead Park.
Dead Park, where soon bulldozers would arrive with their angry growling and brutal smashing.
She had to get it.
Somewhere deep in the back of her mind, she almost regretted not being by Nicholas' side when he would be in a hospital bed, alone with the smell of disinfectants and brutally sharp needles. But at the same time she knew his sketchbook meant so much to him, and she had to reluctantly accept that it meant more to him than she did.

Papers were filled out with the stritch scratch of pens and of heads as Fiona's parents wondered where Nicholas' father was. Fiona had told them he worked long shifts, but for some reason they became even more perturbed by that. Fiona, meanwhile, was thinking about Dead Park and the sketchbook sitting abandoned by the swing. She could barely even think about it. She could barely think about Nicholas having some horrible illness like preunomia, she could barely think about how all that had happened over these past few days had landed her best friend here in a hospital. Would her parents finally see that they needed to save Dead Park ... for her best friend's life?

 

[spartan309]

Nicholas was sent away on a stretcher to see what was wrong and what was needed to treat him. It took a lot of hard work and patience, but his father was found and told that Nicholas was in the hospital. He said that he would get there as soon as possible, meaning in about three hours. Ever wondered why he was gone so early and back so late? Well, his job was in a completely different city when the business lays. He's tried to get a branch in the home town, but it was simply too small for a big business to branch off to.

The clouds began to roll in, signaling snowfall may be expected. If that was the case, the sketchbook would be soaked and in ruins.