‹ Prequel: Promise Me The Stars
Status: This story is on hold right now as i'm in the process of editing the prequel Promise Me The Stars. Check it out for better chapters!

Rocks Painted Gold

The past doesn't always haunt you.

“Forest...” Forest winced, drifting between sleep and reality.

“Forest wake up.” Forest groaned and turned over on his bed, feeling something poking his side.

“What do you want Shadow?” Forest mumbled, squinting at the sun shining in his face.

“Guess what! Okay so I went out, as myself, and bought this really awesome pizza…pocket thingy. And it was the awesomest food I’ve ever eaten. But then I found this guy…”

“Shadow what is the point of you waking me up?” Forest interrupted, covering his head with a pillow as the sun became too much to bear this early.

“Can you not be happy that I’m a real person that can go buy delicious pizza pockets?!” Shadow yelled, shoving Forest’s shoulder.

“You’re right, I shouldn’t be so inconsiderate.” Forest said sarcastically, his head still covered with a pillow making his voice come out muffled.

“You’re a douche bag. I’m going to find Kylie or something.” Shadow sulked. Forest glanced up from his spot on the bed and sighed.

“Fine, tell me your story.” Forest mumbled, rolling over to stare at the ceiling.

“Okay!” Shadow yelled, much like an excited five year old. He bounced down onto the mattress, making himself comfortable by Forest’s feet, and began his story.

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Half an hour later and Forest was filled in on every little detail of Shadow's real life.

"Shit man, you're going to make me late for work." Forest yelled, scrambling up off the bed and digging through his pile of clothes to find something clean to wear to work.

"There's a red shirt in the living room." Shadow said cocking his head to the side as he stared at a pair of shoes.

Forest forgot clothes for a moment and stopped to gaze at Shadow.

"You alright man?" Forest asked.

"Yeah! Why?" Shadow asked, smiling at him.

"You seem...freaky, almost Domino freaky. Cut the shit and be normal when I get home, yeah?" Forest said heading towards the living room.

"Whatever you say." he called.

Forest sighed and grabbed his things before booking it out of the house as fast as he could without being suspicious. Shadow was freaking him out and he didn't really want to be near him any longer.

"Forest!" He turned sharply and almost slipped on the sidewalk, it was no doubt he was becoming paranoid.

"Hey Kylie." He said, letting a small smile grace his seemingly forever down turned lips.

"How have you been? Hows...Shadow?" she asked, almost scared to say Shadow's name. That's when Forest noticed that she was in clean clothes, that her hair wasn't dirty, that she was actually wearing make up.

"Holy shit Kylie. What happened to you?" he asked.

"Well that's what every girl wants to hear." Kylie muttered, rolling her eyes.

"Sorry." Forest mumbled, a blush creeping up his neck.

"It's fine Forest. Anyway, yeah I got a job. Kinda went to the women's shelter and they gave me a place to stay."

"Wow..." Forest mumbled.

"But it's so good to see you again!" Kylie yelled, hugging him tightly, "I mean Shadow is great and all but it's good to see you, really you."

"Yeah, I don't seem to get out much." he stated, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Well i'm glad you are. We should catch up over ice cream or something, coffee even."

"Yeah that'd be good. I have something crazy to tell you but I have to get to work so it'll have to wait."

"It better be good Forest." Kylie yelled as Forest hurried down the street.

"It is! You're going to freak out!"

"Well that's reassuring!" Kylie yelled back to him as he skidded around the corner.

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"That's not possible Forest." Kylie stated before Forest scoffed.

"Why do I keep telling myself the same thing? It's not possible and yet there he is in my apartment talking to my roommate. He's REAL Kylie, I don't know why, I don't know how, but for some reason this world has something else planned for me that involves him." Forest stated, picking his cup of coffee up and taking a sip.

He glanced around the small diner that they were in. It wasn't too special, the food was cheap, the coffee didn't make you gag, and the patrons weren't ALL gangsters or drug dealers. Most of them were drunks coming out of their holes to chug back seven cups of coffee and get to work before their bosses saw their bloodshot eyes.

"More coffee?" the waitress asked. Forest glanced up and nodded before she filled his cup again.

"Thanks." he said, flashing a small smile to the older waitress. She grinned and walked away to take care of other customers.

"So, when do I get to meet this infamous Shadow for real?" Kylie asked, watching Forest pour sugar and cream into his black liquid.

"Whenever you want I guess. I don't control you, I don't control him." Forest paused as he stirred his coffee and looked up.

"What?" Kylie asked, looking down as her burger was placed in front of her.

"I'm not in control anymore. I mean, I controlled when Shadow came out, where he went, and now...I don't."

"Guess you're a bit shocked, seeing as you're stirring air at the moment." Kylie said, motioning to his coffee. Forest cursed and placed the spoon down on the table.

"Well a guy in your head doesn't just become real everyday."

"That's true. So, how are you holding up about it? I mean, it must make you feel insane." Kylie said, dissecting her burger to get the pickles off.

"I started feeling insane a long time ago Kylie, so it's not really that much of a difference." Forest shrugged and watched her eat, leaning over to steal a french fry.

"Ey! If you're hungry why didn't you order your own food?"

"Because i'm not hungry. I just wanted a taste besides coffee in my mouth." Forest shot back.

"Drinking coffee makes me want to brush my teeth right after I drink it." Kylie said pulling a face that clearly stated she was a tea drinker.

"Yeah well, I need it to live. I can bear with the taste."

"How was work today Forest?" Kylie asked, she had been jumping around on subjects ever since they had met up outside the park that sat between Forest's work and his apartment.

"It was work. Nothing too special." Forest shrugged and sighed.

"Something else is bothering you though...besides Shadow, and work, and anything else. I can tell by the way you won't look in my eyes." Forest glanced up at Kylie and knew it was time to fill her in on three years ago.

"I've told you all these secrets, can you handle one more?"

"You don't have another person in your head do you?" Kylie asked, worry crossing her face.

"No, I don't have anyone else dwelling in my dangerous mind. But I want to tell you, I think you should know...You remember when you met Shadow and he was chasing Mark?"

"Yes..." she trailed off.

"Well, he was chasing Mark because Mark was trying to turn me into my family. When I was sixteen my mother died of cancer. We didn't know about it, she was there one day and the next she was gone. That was when we found out about our father w-"

"Wait, sorry to interrupt, but we?" Kylie asked, Forest nodded at her question and scratched his chin.

"I have a sister, a twin sister. Now that you know that, we found out that we a had a father. A famous father. Does the name Zacky Baker ring a bell?" Kylie's eyes widened and she covered her mouth so she didn't scream and draw any attention.

"I knew you looked like him!" She whisper yelled. Forest laughed and made a face.

"You had no idea I looked like him."

"I just never told you I thought you looked like him." Kylie argued.

"Can I finish my story please?" Forest asked, leaning his chin on his hand.

"Fine, go ahead." Kylie said, sighing and sitting back as her argument was forgotten.

"Anyway, as I was saying, Zacky Baker is my dad, and that means that the rest of the guys are..I guess my uncles? I don't know. Back then I was taking pills to control Shadow, to keep him tucked away inside my brain. Zacky and everyone else didn't know about Shadow or the pills until I basically lost control. I nearly drowned myself in a bathtub of ice water to make Shadow leave me alone."

"Were you okay?!" Kylie asked. Forest stared at her.

"I'm sitting here aren't I?"

"Right..." she said, blushing like mad. Forest laughed and shook his head before stealing a french fry and going on.

"A bunch of other drama happened and I ended up going into a coma one night. I ended up in this twisted place called Byte City. It resembled Wonderland in the beginning, there was this insane...thing that called itself Domino," Forest visibly shuddered, "He tried to kill us, Shadow and I. Shadow ended up killing him after we got split up. It was so horrible there for awhile. But then we met this group of people. They were stuck there too somehow. I still don't know if it was just my subconsious mind creating a place for us to go and get away from the real world. Whatever it was, whoever did it, I thank them. Because there I could be myself without having to hide anything."

Forest trailed off after that and seemed to go off in his own little world.

"Do you wish you were still there Forest?" Kylie asked. Forest looked at her and smiled brightly.

"Everyday," He looked down, the smile still on his face as he played with his cold coffee, "Shall I go on then?"

"You probably should."

"Well I came out of the coma a year later. There was nothing wrong with me so I didn't know why I had been out for so long. A year without me did a lot to my sister. She changed so much, I didn't know who she was for a split second when she came into the hospital room. She did things she promised my mom she would never do. She did things she swore on her life that she would never do. She changed everything about herself to match the lifestyle of my father and them, and I hate her for that."

"Forest, you don't really hate your sister." Kylie said.

"No, I don't. I don't hate her, I hate the fake person she's trying to be. I wish all the time that we could go back to before my mom died. I wish we had, had enough money to treat my mother's cancer. I wish so many things that I know are useless to wish for because it's much too late for them to help anything. But I can't help but wish, that I was that had cancer and died instead of my mom. Then Hazel wouldn't be fake, she wouldn't live here and none of this would have happened."

"Oh Forest." Kylie said, moving over to sit next to him, "I'm glad you're not dead. If I hadn't met you I wouldn't have felt bad about being some homeless girl that you took care of. Because of you I went to that woman's shelter and got a job. You've impacted so many people's lives and you don't even know it." Kylie hugged him tightly and they sat there for a moment in silence.

"Want me to tell you the rest of the story now? Why i'm here and not there with them."

"You can tell me if you really want to."

Forest sighed and pushed the cup of coffee away as just the thought of it was annoying him in a way.

"Well when I went home, after I came out of the coma, Zacky wasn't being a father and Matt was Hazel's parent pretty much. They were so mean to Zack and I felt sorry for him when I was listening to them fighting. They said he could never be a parent to us, that he was just a drunk. I hated the guy but hell, to be told that by your best friends...I would have run away if I were him.

After that Matt came up and gave me this paper, splaying out my life in front of me like some toddler that couldn't make any decisions itself. I was going to have to go to a doctor, and take more medications, and see a therapist and I wasn't going to do that. I wasn't going to be held back from what I could or couldn't do. I didn't want to have to remember to take pills and rely on them to keep me going like I was. I just wanted to be me, and Shadow is part of me, well was."

Forest paused as the waitress came by and picked up the plate.

"More coffee for you?" she asked.

"No, I could use some water though."

"Right away." Kylie and Forest watched her walk away then Kylie turned back to Forest.

"Go on." she said.

"Yes Ma'em." Forest said, smiling slightly then went on with the story of his life, "After all that I wasn't going to deal with it anymore, so I packed up my stuff and left. I was at Zacky's house, Hazel was at Matt's since Zacky was 'unfit'. I called Hazel on a payphone after I left. Told her I wasn't going to be controlled by them, that I was leaving. She pleaded with me not to leave, said that everyone could work it out. But I knew we wouldn't be able to, just the thought of that day, that family, makes me mad. My biggest regret is when she told me what I promised her when we were fifteen. I promised if I ever ran away I would take her with me. And she brought that up that day, and you know what I told her? I told her that I also promised her the stars and then I hung up on her. I should have told her I loved her or something."

"You were upset." Kylie said quietly.

"But not upset enough to not tell her I loved her. She's my sister, I was all she had left of the past and I didn't tell her I loved her when I ran away. I'm her twin brother I should have said something besides that."

"I'm sorry Forest, but it's in the past now."

"No it's not, they found me. I went there for a barbecue and yelled at them again. I can't even talk to them without yelling. I was just so pissed that they were living this life that I could have had, but couldn't at the same time if I didn't give up all these things."

"Well it's over now, you're living your own life and you have friends and those friends are your family so you don't need them."

"You mean you're my family?" Forest asked laughing.

"Hell yes. Now, why don't we go home and see Shadow."

Forest sighed and nodded.

"Lets, i'm sick of all these people here." Forest stated, pulling money out of his pocket for the bill that had been set down along with Forest's cup of water. He grabbed the slip of paper and headed for the cash register.

"Does Shadow look funny?" Kylie asked, standing next to Forest as he paid.

"Well...I don't know, I guess. You'll probably think he looks way different then you imagined him. For one, he has blue hair."

"Blue hair?" Kylie asked with an incredulous look on her face.

"Yeah, we both dyed our hair when I ran. Shadow chose blue because he thought no one was going to be able to see it." Kylie laughed and followed him out into the sun.

"I cannot wait to see this." she stated.

"Me either." Forest smirked.
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Haha so I actually edited this before posting it and i'm pretty happy with it. Not that i'm not happy with any chapter I post I suppose. Some of them i'm not happy with but hey, you can't have greatness in every chapter.

So we finally get some more Forest action. It's nice to finally just have him being semi-normal and hanging out with Kylie. Taking a little break from all the drama.

And I got the best inspiration for the way i'm going to end this here story. And from who? My 12 year old sister while we were on our way to Country Buffet haha. So thanks Paulie, you're like a life saver I swear.

And now, onto the people that make me happy, the Mibbians who commented!

Spoiledxxbrat
sins-97
sweet like poison.


Only three but hey, they're pretty awesome people and I'm glad they like this story! :)

So i'm going to go on an editing spree and edit all the chapter in this story for mistakes. So it'll be niccerrr!