Tw: child abuse, bullying, poor self esteem, suicide

I had a thought about this joke and then the Chara feels followed.

Why did the chicken cross the road? Everyone's heard the joke. It's the first one you ever heard on the playground, tucked in between fart jokes and high pitched laughter. Why did the chicken cross the road?

To get to the other side.

The other side of what? You asked the first time you heard it. The road, you were told. What else. Chickens cross roads. And then they laugh, and laugh, and you laugh too, even though you don't get it. Keep your head down and blend in and do what everyone else does, even if it doesn't make sense. Those who stand out are targets. Those who stand out get hurt.

You don't know why a chicken would want to cross a road. Or how it turned into a joke that everyone knows.

You don't ask Mom and Dad. Mom and Dad say you ask too many questions and get mad and call you names and hit you. You don't like Mom and Dad very much. You don't tell anyone that, because you already know you're a bad kid, and if you admitted out loud that you didn't love mommy and daddy like a normal kid you'd be even worse.

Your teacher scoffs and rolls her eyes when you ask her about the chicken. It's a joke. You don't need to question it. Just laugh.

Your classmates call you dumb, and pull your too-long hair. The teacher never does anything. You wish Mom and Dad would let you get it cut, but they won't. You know it's too expensive and you're already bleeding them dry, but it hangs in your eyes and it's perfect for pulling and yanking. But they don't let you cut it, and it's length gives the other kids another thing to make fun of.

You wish you could cross the road with the chicken and get away from everything. You wish you weren't alone. You wish the teacher took you seriously. You wish Mom and Dad were nice parents. You wish, you wish, you wish, you wish.

You wish you weren't alive.

The chicken was never trying to cross the road, you realize as you trek up the mountain that no one ever comes down from. The other side isn't the other side of the road. The chicken is killing itself. The other side of life.

As you fall, you hope that the other side is better than here.