5/31/11

Working the live long day.

She's still gone. No surprise there. I'm still getting used to the fact that Layna's not in the house whenever I wake up, or when I come home. My mom's even the mistake of calling out her name from force of habit. She broke down crying every time she did it. Alan, on the other hand, just does his work at home. I don't even see him for most of the day. Only time I've seen him even move from there is when he goes outside to look at the forest. He'll shout sometimes. With other times he drinks some beers on the porch, which is a good time to not go near him.

Alan never hit Layna, but he had it in for me. I dealt with his bullshit before and after she was born. I was his child servant, doing all the work and chores around the house, and getting my ass beat if I didn't do them to his standards. I'd tell my mother that I got into a fight, but things stopped when I was around 12. When she came home from picking up my sister from preschool, she happened to stumble upon him punching me across the face for not raking the backyard. I told her about how he always hurt me, and she gave him an ultimatum. Either he stops or she leaves. You can see how that turned out.

Eh. It's 5AM. I should be sleeping. Ran out of Benadryl so I'm going to try to sleep naturally.

Here's to hoping I don't dream.

5/24/11

Sickness

I hate being sick. I've had to stay in this house for the last three days because Alan "wanted us to stay together in a time of need", and since the first day I got back I've been coughing like crazy and I've had nosebleeds as often as I use the restroom. The stress of things doesn't help my mood. I haven't gotten any restful sleep. My nightmares of old are reoccurring, and some new ones about Layna popped up in my subconscious. I'm tired, agitated, and afraid. Plus I've noticed some guy outside of my house at night by the gazebo, which isn't helping my mood. Looks like one of those FBI guys. I'll try to get a picture if I can, but for now I need to try and sleep this off and hopefully not have nightmares. Benadryl, take me now.

5/20/11

Never There

I'm barely home anymore. I try to go hang with friends as much as possible. I even stayed over at my friend Kelly's house, but I'd always wake up in a cold sweat and screaming. She understood because of what happened; where as I felt like a weirdo and didn't want to bother her with my mental instability. I've been taking Benadryl (AKA Diphenhydramine for any medical enthusiasts) to help with sleep, but I fucking hate doing it. I get the weirdest fucking dreams.

Shit, the other night when I was at Kelly's, I even had the same dream Layna told me about. The only difference was the location. All I remember was that I was in what appeared to be a dark room. There was a man in front of me as I was lying on the floor. Every fiber of my being told me to go to him. That would've happened till someone stopped me. I couldn't recognize the person, but they seemed familiar to me. Then everything felt warm and then I woke up. My pulse was racing, I was out of breath, I had chills. For some reason I felt terrified.

Right now I'm home. My mother called me and told me if I didn't come back every three days, she'd ground me till everything was back to normal. Like that will happen. They've already given up on her. On the rest. The FBI is searching elsewhere out of state on false leads and lies. Nothing's turned up. Whoever took her got away with it.

Honestly, I hope she had a quick end. I'd rather her not suffer anymore than she could. I don't want to think about the other possibilities...

I'm so sorry Layna. I really am.

5/14/11

At a prom... Ugh. How'd I get talked into this? I feel bad because I'm not dancing to the shit music with my "date" because of what happened. Long night ahead.

5/3/11

She's gone.

I almost forgot I had this again... There's just no words that can describe how terrible and hectic it's been lately. Especially Easter.

We had family and friends over for Easter and when they started the Easter egg hunt.. They thought some of the kids got lost in the woods around here and it's not like it's that big of an area. We looked around for the ones that were missing but we couldn't find any of them. Four of them are gone. Including Layna. My parents called the police after the search, but they were a bit short on manpower and only sent one cop out here. The officer asked a couple of questions, taking time with everyone individually before heading back to her squad car. She pulled me aside and asked if there had been any home problems with my parents, of if I knew anything about the others. Of course, I didn't really know anything about the other adults. I told her about some of the personal issues we've had lately and about how Layna had been acting strange before this happened. After that, she went back to her car for about an hour before some black vans pulled up. The FBI took over the investigation from that point.

Turns out that a mass of kids suddenly went missing around the same area of town on the same day. There's been a manhunt for kidnappers, child molesters, etc. It hurts every time I see Layna's name on the list of kids they show on the news or in the newspaper, wondering what might have happened to her. It's been almost two weeks. My mother and step-dad have been frantic and hysterical, getting into fights about him and if there was any problems with him and Layna. He had been questioned by the FBI and Police about the drawing she made, but so were the rest. From what I overheard from my mom one night, the kids who disappeared had been drawing similar pictures. The lawmen think that it's a drawing of whoever took them, but they're not really that detailed and there's not a definite face to go off of just from those. Otherwise, they don't have any current leads.

I've just stayed in my room, only going to work when necessary. Bought a new doorknob with a lock so they don't keep barging in my room with shit. I'm tired of it. I'm fully aware they have no hope for me. Layna was their good child that was going to do wonders. They weren't vocal about it, but you can tell. It's not like they don't care about her, it's that they care too much. I wonder what she must have felt being suffocated by them all the time.

I may have given the impression that me and her are close. Not really the case here. The age gap makes things awkward. She talks to me if she needs something, but we don't really talk often which was why I was surprised when she told me about that dream. I care though. I'm not an unfeeling bastard because she's only related to me by my mother.

I don't know what to think anymore. Things like this should never happen...

4/20/11

Nightmares

Of course, when your sister is screaming your name at 4AM, one would see what the fuck is going on. I headed to her room only to find that Alan was already in there comforting her. "Just another nightmare." He said to me, and asked "What did you run in here for?"

So I answered. "I thought I heard her shouting my name, so I came to check on her."

"Of course she didn't. Why the hell would you think that?"

I kept my mouth shut with that comment and went back to my room to avoid a confrontation. He shouted after me asking why I was up in the first place, but I just shut the door behind me. I don't like him. Never did. Family members of mine would say that I couldn't accept the change of having a new father, but that wasn't the case. He was just an ass to me.

Anyway, so about ten minutes after that I hear a knock on my door and it's my sister. As usual, she crawled onto my bed and began to sleep. That what she would've done anyway. Honestly I wasn't expecting this from my twelve year old half-sister.

Her: "Aiden, do you have nightmares?"
Me: "Yes I do, whenever I actually dream."
Her: "Why?"
Me: "Because I do? Not really sure why."
Her: "Do you ever have nightmares that come back again?"
Me: "All the time. How come?"
Her: "I keep having the same one."
Me: "Oh, I see. What's it about?"
Her: "It's about dad."

Layna told me about how she kept dreaming about her running through the neighborhood at night and something was chasing her. It was a tall man in a suit coming after her with a black whip in his hand. The way he moved was unnatural, like if he was just floating on air but not moving his legs. She couldn't see his face in the darkness, but heard the thrashing of the whip coming closer and closer even as she ran through the woods surrounding the area, till it hit her. She fell down on the ground and turned around, looking up at the man. She only saw that he was smiling, with his arms outstretched as if to hug her. She told me she felt like she couldn't resist, and she got up to do so. When she did, darkness enveloped her and then there was nothing. She felt dead and empty. That's when she woke up.

I hugged her while she cried even telling me the story. If anything, I could relate to her on the last bit. Aside from my other fears invading my dreamspace which I don't feel like going into again, I always had this one occurring dream where I was in this place. It was just pure white everywhere. I walked, yet I was floating. No one was around. It was empty, save for one thing. There was a line that appeared.

A single black line that was like a horizon in the empty realm. I tried walking toward it when the whiteness started pulling me into whatever it was. It was like quicksand, pulling you in no matter what you do. I tried running but it was like the place shifted to where I couldn't walk. I was falling towards the line. It only got slightly bigger as I got close. But then it started pulling my legs in like paper shredder, pulling them into the nothing that was the line till it got half-way up to my body. Every time I had that dream that would always happen. Not to mention it scared the shit out of me and it did it quite often when I was younger. I stopped having that dream around like thirteen or fourteen, so that's just one less thing to worry about.

I told her about it too in a hope to comfort her. Probably needed someone who understood how she felt right now. She seemed a bit better, and got in my bed again like she normally did and then said something to me that kind of made me a bit pissed off, but it made my day at the same time.

Her: "By the way... I was saying your name. Dad just told me to shut up when he walked in there."
Me: "Figures."

Even if she's my half-sister, she's better family than the rest of them. Fucking douchebag.

I should try to get back to sleep too- Oh right, my bed's taken up now. Herpderp.

4/18/11

Fucking Proms.

Admittedly, I hadn't been too keen on updating this. I've been quite busy with the last week with work and there's just been some family issues going on, not to mention I had to work my old High School's prom yesterday.

So to start, Karen hasn't talked to me since the night of the last post I made. Whenever she's babysitting, she only waves and speaks to me when necessary. The way she's doing this and speaking in a passive-aggressive manner drives me up the wall. Now I can deal with assholes at work all day. Trust me. This shit however, does not fly with me. I've just stopped trying at this point. It's not like I'm the one who made the move.

Work's been a bit hectic with some of the events, but at least I'm earning some money. Then there was prom.

Okay, high school sucked. I barely keep in contact with anyone I knew from it in the first place, and I sure as hell don't want to see any of the younger people who knew me from there either. I didn't go to prom either. This white boy can't dance. I was so glad by the time I got off work till the realization of graduations coming up soon that I know I haven't made any progress with my original intentions.

I don't want to divulge into my work too much, but I deal with local and popular events. Concerts, school events, etc. So I'll end up enduring having to see people I know and want to forget for those many days, and have them looking down on me for not being in or having gone off to somewhere for college.

Nothing I like dealing with, and it's things like that that make me want to put more effort into any attempt I made to progress in life. I really need to see if I can get a job that I work more at. I don't want things to stay like this for me. I want my own life.

In other aspects of my current life, apparently my mom is taking my sister to a guidance counselor. Not sure why, but apparently the teachers are worried about some pictures she's been drawing of what they interpret as her dad. I haven't seen any of the pictures though my mom told me it's of Alan with an arm around her neck. From what I understand, Layna's been drawing them at school and won't talk about them to her teacher.

I know this routine. They think something's going on at home because of some drawings, and then teachers and parents have the big discussions that will end up tearing apart the family. You tend to see these things at school and on reality TV shows. I may not like him, but I know Alan never hurt Layna. She's his own flesh and blood, unlike me.

I think that about covers it for now. We'll see.

4/9/11

The things that keep me up at night.

So I went to go hang out with friends today, but they never showed up. Some fucking friends they are. It just got worse from there. My mother and step-dad had gone out to socialize like me, and they actually have people to talk to and enjoy time with. They offered me to join them and wait till they were done to get home, but I didn't feel like being socially awkward for however many hours until they actually decided to leave. I fucking hate being in areas where I clearly don't belong nor want to be in. I'm sorry. I'm not at the point in life where I don't feel craptastic about not being in college, or for even having a life in the first place. I'm just a waste of space that no one really cares about here. So I had no ride, no money, and I was alone. So I walked home. The entire two hours back.

I began to ponder on how much of a failure I am and how it's not even worth trying to do anything in life, and that it's all a waste. Then my fear kicked in and I had a panic attack and started crying and I just... Yeah. I just don't see a point of living anymore when everything I do means nothing in the end, and I wish I wasn't so scared of dying. Yes, I'm agnostic. No, I don't believe in God, or anything else, but I want to believe there's something. Anything after this. This doesn't seem possible to me anymore. If there really was a God then there wouldn't be suffering and pain in this world. People would be happy and live on, and not have to deal with all of the pain that life brings. Being alive hurts me because I know it will end, and I don't want it to end. I don't want to..

I'm already crying and in hysterics even while typing that. I don't know. I've just had a lot of stress from other things and I've almost lost what mind I have left that's "sane". Everything's surfacing again. My fears. The memory of my mother crying. Feeling alone and helpless throughout my life. Being a failure. I try to ignore it but it always comes back. I just want it to end.

Anyway, trying to move on. When I got home I found the babysitter asleep on the couch and Layna on her bed. The babysitter's name was Karen. She was a bit older than me, so I felt slightly outranked whenever she was around. I try to be friendly to her on occasion. Personally, it's always awkward around her since this one time. I mentioned my door had no lock, right? Yeah. My mother had called Karen to pick up Layna from a half-day school one day, and I came home and found Layna playing outside unsupervised. She told me that Karen told her to play outside for a bit, so I go inside to see just what was going on.

Was I in for a shocker.

Going up to my room, I heard a scream coming from behind the door. So I open it, and let's just say I caught her with her pants down among other things. In my bed. On the phone. Karen had a boyfriend at the time, and I'm guessing she was feeling pretty lonely. Not an excuse to be fapping in my bedroom. Least not without me.

So yeah, awkward. I woke her up and she jumped out of her skin, nearly screaming before I put my mouth over her so she wouldn't wake up Layna. We both apologized and I walked her out to her car. I felt pretty bad because it was much later than I was expecting to get home, so gave her some extra money. Then of all the strangest things we embraced, and she kissed me on the lips. Just for that split moment I lost all my thoughts from earlier, completely distracted by her small, soft lips on mine. At that point I'm sure she realized what she just did and pushed me away from the car. Much as I enjoy rough play, tonight was a bad night. I headed back inside and gave her a wave before she left.

Now I'm here. Just tired and alone again. I should get some sleep since I work tomorrow.

4/6/11

At work. A SUV drives up with a hitched trailer with the name "BJ's Party House". If that isn't dirty, then I don't know what is. And it's for face painting.

4/5/11

Holycrap Thunderstorms

So, severe ass thunderstorms tonight. Crazy lightning everywhere. My sister woke up scared out of her mind. Apparently she had a nightmare and waking up to the storm didn't help her at all. She's laying in my bed now while I'm on the laptop, so I'm hoping she'll feel a bit safer.

Well, Sunday turned out alright. Had lunch at the mall with my friend Kelly, bought Alan Wake for the 360, and then went to go see Red Riding Hood. Interesting take on the old story, but it was a bit too dull for my liking. Kelly gave me the impression that she enjoyed it. Personally I'm not too sure. Then she was nice enough to let me go job hunting. We went to a couple of places that said they were hiring, but all I ended up getting were applications. So we came back to my place for a bit and talked a bit before she had to go. Even if I don't have much of a social life, it's not so bad when you actually get to see people you care about.

After that, I took a nap and then played my new game. I must say, I love and hate psychological horror games with a passion. On one hand, they're in-depth and the character development is well done for the most part, and the story plays out well. Then on the other hand, there's that feeling of annoyance that you get when there's a certain part you just can't get past and you keep failing at it until you finally manage to pass it or give up. Maybe that's just me. Hell, it probably is with the way I'm going.

I've stayed up too long as is. My parents are probably going to yell at me for being awake. Fuck terrible sleeping patterns and not wanting sleep.

4/3/11

Another late night.

So, babysitting was... Bleh. I can't even begin to start. I want to kick my parents around so much. So they leave early for dinner around 5PM or so. Didn't bother leaving us anything for our own dinner, so I was nice and ordered pizza for me and Layna around 7PM. After a few hours, I was playing Halo Reach on the 360 when I hear her screaming my name and find her sprawled out on her bed with vomit on the floor. I happened to step and slip in said vomit. Not fun when you have regurgitated pizza all over your pants. I gave her some pepto-bismol, and by that I mean forced it down her throat despite the chalk taste, and then switched clothes and took a relaxing shower.

I don't know what I did to piss off whatever Almighty being there is out there, but the power went out. Shower in the dark right when the water gets cold isn't the best case scenario by far. I felt around for the knobs to turn off the water and made it out into the bathroom safely. By the time I got dressed, my parents finally came home and started arguing about my father.

Well I'm sure this would've came up eventually, but now is a better time than any.

My father is dead. He died April 2nd, 1998. My step-father Alan always takes her out on this day to distract her from thinking about it, but it always ends up in a fight because he wants her to forget him. It's not really that easy. I was only 6 years old then, and I don't remember much. Actually, I can't remember anything before he died. My earliest memory is my mother crying as a man in a suit had his arm around her and her telling me that my dad died in a fire. I think it was a detective, but I'm not sure. Of course she's remarried and started up this new family of ours. Every year though, she always has to remember this. I've always guessed it was her own personal way of a memorial for him since the body was burned to unidentifiable ashes. They buried a coffin for him too but she could never go there. She never told me anything about the fire either, but I don't bother her with it out of respect.

It winded down after I got Alan to back off of her case as I've done with recent years. He's not entirely a bad guy, but a slight temper can get the better of him. After that I just put on some music and relaxed. I thought about becoming a firefighter one time, putting out fires in forests with the water hose thing they use and saving lives. Never quite sat well for me considering what happened.

So I'm awake at a reasonable time this morning. Had breakfast, and try to make some plans with friends today and maybe coerce them into getting them to take me job hunting for an hour if I can. I need to get out of the house and do something. I'll probably go on another walk to help clear my head from yesterday before anything else.

4/2/11

Late nights before work suck.

I must be determined to do this. I must be determined to do this. I must be determined to do this.

Oh yeah, update on that walk. I took my camera with me and took some pictures of the area I live in, namely around the gazebo. I apologize if any of the pictures are blurry.

http://i1142.photobucket.com/albums/n617/AidenForrester/SDC11878.jpg
http://i1142.photobucket.com/albums/n617/AidenForrester/SDC11879.jpg

This is that little gazebo thing I was talking about. It's in the middle of the circle of houses that border the place. Usually people just read there or have their kids play on it, but when no one's around it's easy to relax and focus.

http://i1142.photobucket.com/albums/n617/AidenForrester/SDC11876.jpg
http://i1142.photobucket.com/albums/n617/AidenForrester/SDC11877.jpg

That's one of the walkways leading up to it. They have small signs at the start of those to warn people that it gets slippery when it rains. Nearly busted my ass on that thing more than a few times.

http://i1142.photobucket.com/albums/n617/AidenForrester/SDC11874.jpg
http://i1142.photobucket.com/albums/n617/AidenForrester/SDC11880.jpg
http://i1142.photobucket.com/albums/n617/AidenForrester/SDC11883.jpg

I really did mean that where I live is a giant canopy. Very nice to have with the hot spring and summer weather.

http://i1142.photobucket.com/albums/n617/AidenForrester/SDC11886.jpg

And there's the exit of the place. It just gives me more of a secure feeling the way this area is. Closed in, sheltered. You get my drift.

So there's that. Now for the title. I always have that problem where I can't sleep the day before I have to work. Luckily, I don't work till the afternoon. Sadly, I sleep till then most the time. My mother wants me to babysit my sister tonight while her and the step-dad go out. Not like I was planning anything. Didn't do much today either except hang out with a friend of mine. I don't even know what to really do right now. Where should I start? What should I try for? Might go job hunting tomorrow to see if I can get paid slightly better. I really don't care what the work is. I just need the money. When I mentioned that to one of my friends yesterday, he suggested prostitution to me of all things. Honestly I don't think the market for a man-whore is in demand around here, even if that crossed my mind.

And again, a man needs to look good shirtless. I don't think I'm terrible-looking, but still. I always think that you'd have to be one of those well-built men with abs and biceps who has good endurance. I have that last part, but that's aside the point. Anyone out there have ideas? Obviously I'm starting to over-think that a little.

...I really should sleep.

3/30/11

Morning Walks

Alright, so that first post was rather awkward. Now here's me trying to redeem myself. One of the things I need to do is exercise. I mean hell, I won't lie. I may be tall, but I've gained a bit of a gut. Can't quite kick the soda habit either since I'm a gamer but I need to start somewhere. I always enjoyed walking anyway. Especially the mornings. Cool air filling your lungs with each breath, your eyes admiring the scenery. Normally I walk everywhere no matter the location. In recent times, I haven't been much of an outside person. I relied on my high metabolism to keep me in check. Though a couple of years ago that changed. I went from 140 to 170, then 170 to 190. Thankfully I'm around 6'4" in height so it's not too much of a problem.

However, a man needs to look good shirtless.

I never considered myself "good-looking" at all. I feel rather average, save for my upbringing... Then again, that's another story for another time. Ah well. Off to my walk. I'll post pictures later on too.

In other news, I see that I have one follower. I guess I'm more interesting than I let on? Hello out there.

An Introduction of Sorts

So, I'm Aiden. Nice to meet you? Whatever. As my little description thing says, I'm 19. I live in Florida, and I'm stuck in the midpoint that's between High School and College. You know how it is after you graduate but you may not want/can't go to college at the moment? Yeah, I'm stuck in that rut. To explain, I only have a part-time job. I'm living with my mother and step-father still, along with my little half-sister Layna. Not really out of the ordinary. A lot of people are stuck in a rut like this. For me, it's been almost a year coming up. This realization has come and slapped me in the face to where I need to do something about it. So I'm making this blog here to keep track and focus on what I need to do to progress in life.

At the moment, that's jackshit. As I said, still living with parents. No car. No license. Just an ID to verify a body if need be and a credit card. Even then, the financial front isn't great. My work hours are iffy, but it's the only thing I have right now going for me. I don't even really have a social life either. Not being in college tends to do that when others are busy with their own lives.

Despite that, I have a certain amount of freedom. Mattress. Drawer. Desk. TV. Gaming systems. Laptop. Phone. So not too bad on that front, but not having a lock on my door sucks majorly in that equation when you're not wanting to be bothered. I live in a heavily wooded housing/apartment complex. It's quite peaceful. There's a gazebo in the middle of the place that I used to do my writing and whatever work was needed there. The complex itself is always a nice, cool, and quiet area to be in. Its like a giant canopy shelter. I always liked living in this area. Might be able to upload pictures later, but it's late right now. Bit of an insomniac in ways too. I always have trouble getting to sleep, so I just wait till I pass out like I will tonight.

Not sure of what else to say right now, so I'll probably just head to bed. Good night world.