A song of piano and violin was echoing from the 6th year’s room.
“I am Ozymandias, King of Kings! Look upon my works, ye mighty, and despair!” Ozzy grinned, raising their (admittedly flimsy) sword hand up.
Elizabeth clapped and grinned. “There we go! I think you finally got this one, Oz.” She often stayed after school to practice with them, though drama club ended for the day an hour ago.
“Yes!” Ozymandias (iykyk, SAD-ist watchers), pumped their fist in the air, though they were a bit sad. They both finished, this would mean they had to go soon-
Someone rapped on the stagehand’s door. “Hey, anyone still here?” It opened, to reveal the custodian, Dan.
“Y’know, it’s pretty late...” He smiled softly at the two kids. “The club bus is coming in 10 minutes, you two should get to it.”
“Fiiiine.” Ozzy hopped off the stage, swinging their backpack over their shoulder. “C’mon, Lizzy! We’re gonna be late.” They flashed her a forced smile.
“I’m coming, one sec!” She gave him a real smile and jogged over to her friend at the door.
Ozymandias hated waiting.
Especially “for the bus” kind of waiting. Whether it was before school or after school- it didn’t matter, they could feel that tight little ball of anxiety in their chest.
They felt that anxiety before and after school. They didn’t want to go to school, but by the end of the day- they didn’t want to go home either.
The only place Ozymandias felt safe was in the stage-multipurpose room- but they can’t stay there forever, can they? After all, they would be lonely without Elizabeth and Apollo, and Dan still had to clean up after them.
They remembered when their younger brother would ride the bus with him. He was always so excited for Fridays.
“Yes! We can go home now!”
Just after hearing that, Ozzy flinched, looking up-
Never mind. It’s just Apollo and Lexie. Those two were always a bit annoying, but Elizabeth was able to stand them somehow.
Ozzy gave a tired smile. “I guess so. It’s Friday, right?”
“Mm-hmm!” Lexie grinned. The antsy 6th year still had her braces on, neon rubber bands and all. “Say, Ozymandias, you look rather anxious. Is everything alright?”
Ozymandias didn’t really like how she said their name like that, but they ignored it. “I’m alright, I guess. I’m just not ready to go home yet.”
“Is it about the play?” Apollo sighed. “Oh jeez, i’m nervous for that too. I’ve memorized most of my lines, but I am god-awful at singing.” He was decent at singing, but humble to a fault.
Apollo, Lexie’s twin, seemed ever the opposite of her. The quiet 6th year boy held a large, and admittedly well-loved journal in his hands, the pages yellowed and dog-eared.
Ozzy, not really wanting to keep the conversation on themself, changed the topic. “That journal...” They didn’t really know where to start with that sentence. “I-it looks pretty cool.”
“Oh, this?” Apollo grinned. “It was my grandpa’s. He recorded all the mysteries of the woods outside school and beyond in it, when he was my age!”
Apollo was very proud of his grandfather’s journal.
It seemed to remind Ozymandias of a show they had watched before.
“Ah, that’s cool. Like what?”
Apollo skimmed through the first 50 or so pages and stopped. This page had many doodles in the margins, and sticky notes plastered to it. It seemed that either Apollo or his grandpa was a doodler.
He turned the page towards Ozzy and Lexie.
“They say that there’s a door in the woods, it can lead you to the place of your dreams, your innermost thoughts...”
“Or your nightmares. Oooooo!“ Lexie poked Apollo in the head.
“Ow! Haha, stop it!”
He laughed, trying to dodge Lexie’s vigorous attacks, to no avail.
Ozymandias smiled. A real one, at that. The two reminded him so much of To-
A screech at the curb sounded off, alarming the three (now 4, as Elizabeth had finally jogged over to the bus, saying goodbye to her volleyball friends.)
The bus was here.
And Lexie, Apollo, Elizabeth, and Ozymandias boarded it.
Ozymandias sat in their usual seat, number 13. Elizabeth sat next to them, chatting up her friends in the next seat over.
“So how was the big game? Finals, right?”
“Oh god, yeah- that was a trainwreck! I swear, Silver Valley’s coach was the sanest one there, and that’s not by much.”
“The Redleaf Charter School’s coach just up and left-”
“No wey, really?!”
“Yeah! He got fired after, it turns out he was drunk on the job. It was a huge scandal!”
They all laughed, Ozzy letting out a slight chuckle- not because they didn’t find it funny, they were half zoned out. Staying up the night before reading and staying at school until campus closed wasn’t a good combo.
Ozzy grabbed their pocket radio and earbuds, popping them in.
“What time is it, even…” They checked their watch. 5:45. Wilbyr would definitely ask him at least a few things. . .
“Ugh. Maybe I can just hit the showers and go sleep...” They knew they would like that. After all, they were already nodding off on the bus.
Because of course, they passed out.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The dream was always the same. At this point Ozymandias always wondered why they had it instead of the fade-to-black skip to their alarm clock.
They got a breather. They could rest.
Maybe it’s okay to observe.
They walked through the hills, when were they there? It didn’t really matter in their own mind at the moment, when all they could hear was this.
It was fine for a moment.
“Ozymandias!”
They always loved how he said their name.
A boy walked up to them.
They didn’t want to say hi, every time that happened they woke up terrified.
But that was their brother, what else could they do?
“Hello, Tommy.”
“Let’s play!”
Tommy took Ozzy’s hand and started walking. But Ozzy wouldn’t budge.
“Hey… c’mon! Don’t you wanna play?”
Ozymandias couldn’t talk. It would only hurt them both, they could change nothing.
Tommy tried again. Still, it wouldn’t work.
“Okay... I’ll stay here and play with you then!”
Ozzy and Tommy sat down, the younger boy handing them a piece of paper and some crayons to share.
They colored their drawings.
Tommy’s was a sky, full of stars. Charcoal clouds and button noses, a family portrait.
He scribbled “HOME” in the margins.
“You really wanna go there, huh?” Ozzy smiled.
Tommy tilted his head, like a confused puppy. “What do you mean, we are there.”
It hurt the most for Ozymandias right now.
“Tommy- you’re here though. Right? With me? We’re coloring.”
And he just smiled.
“Tommy? Where are you then? Please tell me, I just wanna see you-”
Why didn’t you save me?
“I tried! He- I- they wouldn’t let me, believe me I tried-”
You left me alone.
“I didn’t want to!”
Nothing happened. Not even a whisper on the wind.
“Tommy?”
But no one was there.
“Please don’t go, I just got you back.”
Just a lonely boy and his crayons.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry-”
Ozymandias was shook awake.
(a/n: this scene was kind of inspired by this.)
“C’mon sleepyhead, our stop is next.” Liz smiled.
Ozzy blinked once or twice, rubbing the sleep-grit out of their eyes.
“Yeah, got it.” They pulled their backpack up to their knees.
Eventually, the bus stops at the foot of the large gray townhouse. The four who live there pile out of the stuffy vehicle, stepping out into the sun. It’s warm, the sun is in the sky, and most- most kids feel happy.
The ground beneath them was asphalt and warm. Ozymandias felt the sun hitting their face as they hiked up the large hill, silently hoping that they wouldn’t get their pant leg caught in the brambles as they had many times before.
(a/n: think of this playing in the background)
That left a scar on their heart and legs, they hated to cut out the poor vines. For some reason, Ozzy had an affinity for plants. Maybe it came from time with their mother, or the loneliness without her, but Ozymandias enjoyed holing up in the abandoned cottage in the woods, tending to the garden.
It was calm, and sometimes the crows and other various birds would visit- they didn’t mind, the flocks were adorable after all, and they seemed to be quite smart too, but as soon as they started pecking at the fruit Ozzy shooed them off.
Ozymandias silently hoped that they wouldn’t have to talk much as soon as they got into the house. I mean, it was a boring day after all! Ozzy just had their last track and field practice, and it was almost the end of the year.
No one in their family really liked being asked questions, Ozzy included. It just overwhelmed them, but so did the big move many months ago. Everyone was happy to leave, to get a “new normal”- but Ozymandias knew nothing would help. After all, their father had become a work-focused hermit, their oldest brother was going down the same bath with his studies, and Wilson was barely around anymore, out smoking with his friends in the flat above them.
Ozymandias wasn’t the best either, willingly avoiding them, having given up. They wasted their energy trying to communicate their worries to their family and had simply decided it just wasn’t worth it.
At least today they were all in the same place. Ozzy didn’t really know if they all were at the house, but a kid could dream, right?