Identity

chapter ten

I don't know how I feel about this chapter but here it is lol

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Peter woke up feeling infinitely better. Yesterday had been weird; it was like his senses went crazy. It'd never happened before, and he hoped it would never happen again.

At least today he would be able to get back on the bus and get moving again, despite this road bump.

While he was walking through the park, it sounded like the bus was coming. That couldn't have been it though, because the bus was all the way on the other side of the park; he couldn't have been able to hear it from here.

Yet that's exactly what it was because he could see it driving away in the distance once he got to the bus stop. What was odd too, was that even though the bus was a good distance away, he could still read the writing on the back of it clearly.

He felt different too. Stronger, maybe? He didn't know, but it was nice.

After waiting for nearly an hour for the next bus, he hopped on. He worked more on his fake parents' documents, making sure that they looked real and he had all the ones he might've needed if someone ever did a background check.

It seemed like the coding was getting easier, but it might've just been from experience.

Speaking of which, it had been almost three weeks since he left. It didn't sound like long, but it felt like years since he was in the old orphanage. He hoped the kids were doing okay. That the orphanage might've been shut down or gotten better owners.

For a few hours, he focused on coding, trying not to think of his hometown. If he thought about it too much, he knew he'd get sad and not be able to focus, and right now he couldn't afford that.

They'd started driving through a bigger town that reminded him of the first one he ran to. When the bus came to its first stop, Peter got off to use the bathroom, and maybe get some food.

There was a small grocery store nearby that he decided to go into, and after he could get some more food since he was running low. He felt starving–more than usual at least.

When he went to wash his hands, he ran into some problems though. He turned the faucet, only for it to snap off. Panicking he tried to get it to stop but only made it worse.

Maybe he should tell someone it broke. He grabbed the door handle and opened it, and that too broke right in his hand.

He thought again about telling someone but realized he wouldn't have any money to pay for it. As bad as he felt, he decided to just leave the store.

Or he would have if an employee didn't try to stop him. "Hey, kid, did you break the faucet and the door handle?" an employee called to him.

Peter just kept his head down and kept walking though.

"Hey, stop!" the same employee yelled.

Running footsteps were heard behind him, and he turned for only a brief second to see he was being chased.

Without a second thought, Peter turned and ran out of the store and turned down a street. His backpack bounced up and down on his back, and he wished he didn't have it on him. He knew it was pointless though; he'd never been particularly fast. At least, he hadn't.

Now, for whatever reason, he found himself a lot faster than he had been in the past. And, on top of that, with more endurance. He should've been panting and sweating right now from the long sprint, but here he was not even out of breath.