//------------------------------// // Chapter 1: I'm Leaving // Story: My New Life // by SwirmTESwirm //------------------------------// My name is Ian, I am 12 years old. I don't have what you could call a good life. I live in a small village in the middle of nowhere. My parents have never shown any sign that they love me. I think I'm more of a burden to them than anything else. I don't go to a school, I don't have a clue how to read or write. All I do during the day is help butcher cows at the towns meat shop. That's it, that's all I've done for the last 2 years. When I'm not killing innocent animals, I'm at home, being yelled at, and hit by my parents. I normally am given little to eat, and spend my "free time" in my room, waiting for nighttime so I can sleep. I really enjoy dreaming, because it's a temporary escape from what I call Hell on Earth. This has been my routine for 2 years now. But I plan to change it soon, somehow... ---- Last night I had the dream again, but this time it was different, this time she talked to me... It was the same, unknown field, devoid of any sound or life... I walked aimlessly, as if I were lost... Then I heard it, the flapping of wings belonging to a dark blue pony I had been dreaming about for the last month... She landed in front of me, and we stared at each other for the longest time... Then she spoke: "Do not despair little one, soon your life will take a turn for the better..." *KNOCK KNOCK I jolted awake and gasped. What was that about? What time is... KNOCK Dad was pounding on my door. I rubbed my eyes and jumped out of bed. I almost opened the door when it swung open. My dad stormed in and hit me upside the head. I yelped and fell backwards onto my butt. "Wake up you lazy little shit! If your late to your job then I'm going to beat you until your purple!" This was the morning routine... Wake up, get hit, get threatened, put clothes on, and go to work. I hopped up and got my shirt and jeans on, with Dad yelling at me all the while. Mom usually wasn't awake until about noon, she would stay up all night at the bar and get home very early morning. I passed through the kitchen and grabbed a piece of bread. I was almost out the door when I took another hit to the head from behind. I fell onto my stomach and almost dropped my small amount of breakfast. i lay there in a daze before I heard the door slam. Then the lock click as I got to my feet. "What a surprise" I muttered. I began to run to the other side of town so that I wouldn't be late. I had to dodge a couple people along the way, and got a dirty look here and there, but I made it on time, barley. I burst in the door and ran right past my angry boss and into the main room, whatever you call it. I called it the "Cutting Room" I walked up to the man that normally gave me instructions or tasks. I typically was the one that cleaned up the floors, counters, and tools. He seemed to not notice me at first, so I had to call out his name, which was Paul. He turned his head slightly from the meat he was cutting and pointed to a blood soaked table behind him. I knew what he meant. Clean the table, and get the slab of meat hanging from the hook onto it, and wash the hook. I walked over and sighed, must have been a new guy, the mess was bigger than normal. After completely reddening 2 wash cloths and washing my hands thrice, I went and grabbed the new slab off the hook and plopped it down onto the table. Next I took the hook over to the sink and rinsed it off. I had found a way to work faster if I just rinsed the hooks rather than full on washing them, no cooked meat would ever be hung from them, so it wasn't hurting anything. After cleaning off the hook I put it back into place and waited. About a minute later, someone finished cutting up a slab and whistled me over, lather, rinse, repeat, for 6 hours. I was the last to leave the shop every day. After cleaning all of the tables, floors, and tools, I began walking home. I walked slower today, to think about the dream I had. I've never had a dream like that before, why would I have had one like that? What good would it do if I was to run away? Maybe it was my subconscious telling me to do so? It seems like the only way I would ever escape this place... Then why don't you run away, for real? You've got nothing to lose! Yeah your right, I'll take off tonight, while they are sleeping. I ended my thinking process, but didn't return to normal pace. I wasn't that excited to get home. But I had to get there eventually. After another few minutes of snail paced walking, I saw my house. I got to the front door and was greeted with my mother yelling. "Where the hell have you been?? It shouldn't take you 20 damn minutes to walk a quarter mile you lazy ass." She followed this up with a strong smack across my head. I stumbled a bit going through the door, but I didn't fall. She didn't hit as hard as dad. Yup, tonight couldn't be better. I got my balance and took a seat at our small table. My dad came over with a small plate of food. He gave me a glare that told me to stand up, so I did. He handed me the plate. Well, more like shoved it at me. All it had was a small piece of almost raw beef. "You'll get even less to eat tomorrow if you show up even one fucking minute late, do you understand?!" I quickly nodded. "DO YOU UNDERSTAND?!?!" "YES!" He then punched me in the nose. "Go to your room and stay there, if I catch you out here before 7:00 tomorrow morning then your spending tomorrow night outside. GOT IT?!" I nodded and ran off to my room. I waited until I heard the chair get pushed under the door knob and knew that it was now or never. I tossed the plate onto my bed and grabbed, well, nothing, I had nothing to take. I unlatched the window and slowly opened it. After slowly crawling through the small gap and landing with a small roll, I stood up and looked back inside. I decided to close the window, it might buy me some time if they actually come looking for me. I reached up and slowly closed it. I then turned around and bolted off away from the town. ----- I had been walking for about 2 hours, I was at least 6 miles from the town, I had been looking for a place to take shelter. I stood a moment to stop and look along the horizon, there, about 11 o clock position, was a small building in the distance, had to be about a mile away. "As good a place as any..." I muttered and began to walk in the direction of the building. After about 30 minutes, I arrived. It was smaller than I thought, but it would work, it had a roof. I opened the very rotten door and stepped inside. There, in the exact center of the hut, shack, thing, was a small glowing rock. Or at least, it looked like a rock. It could have been a quartz crystal. Whatever it was, it was glowing. I was very intrigued. I reached down to pick it up. But the very moment my hand touched it, I heard an ear piercing sound, like a dog whistle that you could hear. I covered my ears and realized that now I was glowing too. I pulled my hands down and looked at them, but immediately put them back over my ears. The sound was unbearable now. I was about to scream for help, when everything abruptly turned to black...