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CHAPTER ONE [Not a Great Idea]

My bedroom window looks out at the sky, I can still see the tops of the evergreen trees while I lay on my mattress. Dingy white walls, no curtains, my bed frame broken and in the corner of the room… It’s depressing. My phone makes a ping, I grab it and check the notification.

“Hey I wont be home again 2night, make urself dinner.”
It’s from Dad. Of course, he’s out doing things that I don’t even want to think about right now. He’s never home. I don’t even know why he bothers texting me about it. I clench my phone in my hand, this cheap thing isn’t worth anything. It’s just so he can track me. I don’t have any friends to text to, I’m not allowed to download games, just text him and mom. I stand up and chuck the phone at the wall, I’m furious. It’s been 4 days now since he’s even come home. The phone hits the floor and the glass clinks on the floor.
I push open my door, it slams against the wall as I pass through it. The rest of the house is a disgusting mess. I learned cleaning it is stupid. “Everything has a place so keep it there,” he says. The hall is not a place to pile things. I kick over a box of random trinkets and gadgets
I really don’t feel like doing this anymore. Every little thing bugs me now. I stare down at the floor. A tear drops, I didn’t even notice my eyes were tearing up. I miss my Dad, but he would never miss me. No one would miss me. The world wouldn’t miss me.
Recently these thoughts have been too often. I know it’s not good but it’s so consuming. I continue staring at the floor. The crying feels good, I don’t want it to end. I keep thinking of things to make me feel worse. I’m pointless, I’m worthless, I’m dumb, many things. It feels terrible and great.
I Look at the spilt gadgets, a rope is in the midst of it. Should I? I don’t think anyone is going to care. No one is going to care. I grab it and look around. There’s nothing to hang it from. Maybe a tree outside? I grab it and start walking to the back, my legs feel like they’re trudging through tar. I push open the door as my body seems to do things without me really thinking about it.
I consciously wake up a long while later. I’m on my bed and I hear my Dad talking to someone else in the kitchen. Did I fail? When did he get home?
“I didn’t know she would do this! Don’t get mad at me.” I hear him yell.
I’m such a disappointment, such a failure. He doesn’t even care to check up on me. I lightly touch my neck, it hurts so bad. I’m sure there is a bruise but I don’t want to see it. I sit up, my head spins but I push myself into the hall. A woman storms out of the house, I don’t recognize her. He puts his hands on his face.
“Hi, Dad…” I say, my voice comes out hoarse. I feel like the house around me darkened as he slowly looked over at me.
“Jacey,” He says glaring at me, “Do you know what you’ve done now?”
I looked down, “No… I don’t.”
“It’s because of you that Rachelle just walked out the door. Because of you, I have to start over with some other woman.” He starts walking towards me, “Because of your little attention scheme, I have to leave again!”
I take a step back, “I’m sorry…”
“If you want my attention, then stop doing things so I have to leave again. You’re lucky that I came home to pick something up.” He grabbed my broken phone from the floor where he had put it who knows when, “If you had seen my texts like a good child, you would have known. Brat.”
I muttered to myself, “If you would come home like a normal dad, you would have known.”
I should have known I would get smacked. I still said it and now there’s nothing to do about it. I run back to my room with him yelling after me. I hate this. Why do I do anything? I hate him.
I’m not the problem, he’s the problem. He’s the reason I feel so bad. I don’t love him and I should have never thought that. I’m so stupid. If I can’t leave my life for good, I’ll just run away. That will be even better. Then I can be happy again someday.

The day ends. He’s gone. I’m the only one in this house right now. I grab my backpack, stuff a pair of clothes in it, a water bottle, a coat, and almost step out the door. What about food and stuff? I search through my Dad’s room and find some spare bills in dressers. Mom’s old dresser had a lot in it, no one has touched it in a long time. I leave all the drawers open for when he comes back to find it.
Then I leave. That’s it. I’m out the door and I’m not coming back. The moment I turn onto another street, it feels like I’m on a new planet. No one will miss me, all I have is myself.

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Authors Note:
Thank you for reading the first chapter of Great Idea! It does have a gloomy feel to the first chapter, the next two might be as gloomy, but it does get happier. Subscribe to Dear Marshall for updates on the next post!

Chapter Two [Ideas going nowhere]

The first beams of light started shining on the clouds in the sky, a beautiful red orange. I stared in awe before ducking back down from gusts of wind. I tried covering my face with the neck of my coat, but it didn’t do all that much. I slept against a tree all night a bit from the road, it helped rest my feet but didn’t do much for my back. At least with every step, I’m getting farther away from the places I hate.

The road I follow leads towards more road. My house had been in a small neighborhood a little farther from the town, but it felt like the middle of nowhere. Having never explored this direction, everything was new to me even though it felt the same. An empty road with landmarks that repeated. A thought entered my head to go off road and just walk through the woods and see where that would leave me, but I could be walking through there in circles for days. I’m not yet ready to risk that.

Walking takes ages. I reprimand myself for breaking my phone and not bringing it with, listening to some music would be very nice right now. Oh, yes, the tracker. I had forgotten about that. I hum a familiar tune and continue on for the next 12 hours. Things don’t seem any different, there’s still nothing to see although I’m miles from home. I’m exhausted, ready to sleep, legs burning, hungry, freezing,… I definitely wasn’t anticipating this enough.

The sun starts to set behind me. There are no lights on the road, it’s dangerous to walk at dark so I guess I have to go off road again. I walk past a few trees and look out for a comfortable place to sit down. I spot a few, but my legs keep walking. I’ve been going for so long that my body moves on its own. This feels terrible. I keep walking until I find myself at a lake, I hadn’t seen it before. I check behind me, I can’t see the road at all. All this time spent walking towards the next town or whatever was down there now wasted. The lake in front of me reflects the light of the setting sun, it’s disgusting. It doesn’t make up for anything. A house sits on the side of the lake, the windows are dark and there’s nothing in the yard. Paint is peeling, things look dirty, it’s just as gross as the lake. Despite that, I start heading towards it. The wind is getting colder as the sun sinks beneath the trees.

I step up to the house’s back door. There’s no lock on the screen door, and the door is unlocked. What kind of an idiot would do that? Even if the house was abandoned it wouldn’t be so unlocked. The door falls shut when I step in, it feel immensely warmer without the wind. I look around me in the dark house, I’ve stepped into a small kitchen with an open wall to the living room. It looks like the furniture hasn’t been changed since 1990. I can’t judge, the furniture back at home didn’t change from the year my parents moved in during 1983. Things that broke got thrown away and never replaced unless it was necessary.

I put down my bag on a table in the kitchen. I couldn’t stop walking still, so I went up the stairs and found some bedrooms. The doors were open and I walked right into a room with a large bed. My legs hit the side and I fell on to it. It was the best feeling ever. My body burned and ached, but I had something comfortable to lay on. My eyes closed and I fell asleep in my coat. It was amazing. I wouldn’t mind going in to a coma right now.

Sadly, the time comes when I wake up again. I find myself curled into a ball, still wearing my coat, in the middle of the bed. I feel so much better, I could start walking again. Staring at the wall, I start thinking about just staying here where I am. There’s a dresser right where I’m staring, I wonder what’s in it? I start to get up when I hear someone yell at me out of the blue.

“It fucking moved!” He screamed, “I told you it was a person! Winn, get over here right now!”

I sit up and start getting off the bed, there’s a man in the doorway holding a pan as if he plans to strike me with it.

“Don’t… move any farther!” They said, staring me straight in the eyes.

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Authors Note: It’s starting! Woo, story stuffs! I told you it wasn’t all depressing, now just wait ’till next Wednesday to see who these people are.
Have a nice day!

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