Volume 2, Chapter 7 (part 1)

She found Daniel sitting alone in a dark corner of the dark room, hunched over a game of chess.  His dark hair was falling across his face in stringy clumps, his clothes were covered in dirt: there was no telling when he had showered last.  No one sat near him, but a few stared at him across the room: disgust kept them away, curiosity kept them from leaving.  He muttered to himself constantly as he alternated colors on the chess board.  He showed no sign of recognition as she moved closer.

"You fool, think I would fall for that?" his eyes stared through the wall.  There was no one sitting across from him. 

"If I'm a fool, what does that make you?" he growled as he moved the black bishop over to knock over a pawn; it clattered across the floor and rolled over to Milly's shoe - he did not seem to notice that it had fallen.

"Daniel, what are you doing?" Milly spoke softly as she slid into the chair across from him; she gingerly placed the pawn on the table next to the other defeated pieces.

"Can't you see?  I'm playing chess with myself."  He moved the pieces faster as he spoke, looking through her as if could hear but not see her.

"You look, um, really bad."  She looked at the dark bags under his eyes and the deathly pale hue on his gaunt cheeks.  "Have you been sleeping at all?"

"Sleep? I never sleep, I sleep all the time! I'm asleep right now, can't you see?!"  He moved the pieces furiously, using both hands.

"Ok...I didn't understand that at all.  What's gotten into you?  I've never seen you act this way before."

"You've never seen?  You've never looked!  Too busy running, running, running - from your family, from your feelings, from your friends.  Busy, busy: work to forget what you don't want to think about!  No!"  His right hand swatted his left away. "I want to take that move back!  TOO BAD!"

Milly stared in horror as he argued with himself over the game, but it was his words too her that struck her.  Never once had he complained about how busy she was until now...was he even talking about her?  She hadn't even admitted to herself that she might be avoiding him, much less questioned why; but what he said struck to the core: she had been running away.  Her parents fussed about him, her friends whispered about him, and she feared to even think about the feelings that had come unbidden.  Thinking about it only confused her more, so she just dove into her work and school: no time to worry.

"How did you know that?" she choked as the words came out, then she straightened up and spoke loudly: "Daniel, you're scaring me."

He put down the chess pieces and looked right at her.  For a moment, his face softened and sanity returned to his eyes.  "If it's any consolation, I'm terrified."  His eyes glazed again and he dove back into the chess game with renewed vigor, knocking pieces away left and right.  Suddenly he stood up in his chair and cursed "How the **** could you beat me, that doesn't even make sense!" He turned to her suddenly,  "And why do you care?!  You haven't even seen me in almost a year!  You've ignored me since we went to Walmart last month."

"Danny...Daniel, no.  We just hung out last week!"  She could feel tears welling up in her eyes against her will.

Daniel looked confused and just stood there in his chair, barefoot and disheveled.  The room had gone silent, other than the occasional sob from across the table.  He looked around wide eyed - at the wrecked chess table, the people staring at him, the chair he stood in - as if seeing it for the first time.  He got down from the chair and moved toward the nearest student, who suddenly became very interested in her book.

"Excuse me, but could you tell me today's date?"

"Umm...it's the fourth, I think"

"Thank you, and what month is it?" 

"Um, March?" 

He was too startled to respond. He turned back to the table and started to pick up the fallen pieces.

"Milly, please, forget what I said.  That wasn't me talking, ok?  I'm just...really stressed.  I need some fresh air."  He turned to the door. 

"Daniel, wait..."

"No Milly,"  he spoke without turning to face her, "I need to be by myself for a bit."

He strode through the door just as Jennifer entered the cafe, brushing by her without a word.

"Well, 'Hello' to you too! What's gotten into him today?" she muttered as she moved over to the table where Milly still sat.  "Milly?  What's wrong?"

"Oh, Jen, something's terribly wrong.  He...he was acting all crazy - I'd never heard him swear before - but then he'd suddenly say something that...Jen, he knew stuff.  Stuff that he shouldn't have known."  She started to tear up again.  "At first I thought he was crazy, but now I'm not so sure...I just don't know what's going on."

"Oh Milly, don't cry.  He's just really stressed and busy."  The word busy didn't really do much for Milly's tears. "I'll go talk to him, OK?"  Jennifer gave Milly a big hug before running out the door to find him.

Milly stared at the chess board; a very complicated checkmate was still left on the board.

***

(Hmm, too many spoilers in part II...better leave that off for now ~Darklight)

(P.S. If you're confused, you're feeling normal!  It's not your fault that I write so sporadically - I haven't even started writing any of the chapters in volume one, though I have the entire thing finished in my head.  Actually, this probably the most that I have on paper and not in my head, though I have about five books worth of story written in my mind.  Mataku, I need to do something about my form of writer's block.)