The sun is shining bright with the bold yet calm clear blue sky painted in the background. People wandering on the streets, dogs barking for no reason, the bells on the cycle ringing and the honking of the cars; all indicate a very busy street. For it is a rush hour, people are trying to go to places in time. Some were successful while some have to wait hours for they missed a bus by thirty seconds. The city life is indeed a busy one. It is easy to lose oneself in this chaos. After a day’s work one may forget why they even started this journey towards their goal. They get tired to even sit back, relax and enjoy a cup of tea. This rush takes a toll on everyone be it a child, a teen and of course adults. Adults may think kids have it easy, yes if they are infants. Nowadays, competitions begin from a very young age. Even kids are in a big rush of getting good grades which everyone eventually will forget. They have pressure from school, parents and society to do well that they forget to enjoy their childhood to the fullest. It is sad that we realize so late that our childhood was the only time for enjoying. But it is not entirely true. As adults, we must be able to find our escape place. Some find it in music, some find it in games, some find it in books, etc. But we all need to have an escape place, where we just enjoy and live life to the fullest. These escape places differ from person to person and it does have its own bane. Things go south when this escape place becomes venomous addictions like alcohol abuse, drug abuse, etc. It is important that we find a healthy escape place and not indulge in these heinous activities which not only destroy us but our near and dear ones too. Such was the story of a boy who was at wrong place at wrong time, who indulged in the wrong escape place. Without any further ado, let’s dive into the story of this misfortunate boy, Arden.

Arden is a nineteen year old boy with a laid back personality. He treats life as something of little value. Well, no one could blame him for his rather dull perception of life; his circumstances were something he could not trade off. Let’s go to the beginning of his life. He was born to an ordinary family with more than enough money for them to survive; it means they could afford some luxuries but not all. His parents had level education. They both were of background with moderate money neither too rich nor too poor. They both were earning. Well, maybe that was the reason that led to those ego clashes between his father, Erzith Liden and his mother, Sherlene Liden. Naturally, all these clashes affected the young boy, Arden Erzith. He had a little sister Irene Liden. She was nine years old. Her personality was kind of opposite of her brother Arden. He always tried to protect his sister. He made sure that none of the evil energy from these clashes reaches his little sister. He succeeded in his goal except he was absorbing all of them. He was diving deep into this pool of negativity. Unaware of his predicament he went on about his daily life.

In his class, he usually was among the toppers. He was very talented in multiple fields be it singing, dancing, drawing, writing, sports, etc. But he was not your typical all-rounder. Mentally he was unstable. He did not have a friendly personality because of which he had almost no friends except one. He had only one friend but not from his school. His friend, Leid Gripher, lived in his neighbourhood. Most of the time, Arden was in Leid’s house, playing cards, tag, etc. Sometimes he would bring his sister to play with them too. They had a lot of fun in Leid’s house as his parents were hardly home. Leid had a butler to take care of him in absence of his parents. Larry Frend, the butler, was very kind and he helped these kids in covering up their mischiefs. In his childhood, Arden found an escape place and that was his friend Leid. But this didn’t last long as Leid had to move away, that was when things went south real quick.

To be continued…

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