Chokechain

CHAPTER 1

“Whatever.”

I stormed out of the house, slamming the door on the way out. Mom had gone into another one of her drunken rants and screamed at me in annoyance. She went on about Dad again and I couldn't take it. I yelled back. She seemed shocked but was still able to slap me full across the face. I had staggered back a few steps for walking out. On the way out I poured the rest of her wine bottle on the floor.

Real mother-son bonding going on here.

I grew relieved for wearing my bulky hiking boots today as I went to the woods surrounding my house. I could still hear my mother screaming at me, “Gabriel! Come back now!” so I picked up my pace.

I yearned for Clarissa to be with me. She was my friend since birth and the only one who knew about my mother's reactions. Clarrisa often stayed after school with me just so I wouldn't have to go home to Mom.

I began to run. I jumped over the fallen branches and tree trunks in my path. I tripped over an exposed tree branch and sighed. I wasn't exactly the most coordinated person on earth. Getting back up, I ran again.

All I could think was, Run. Faster. Faster. Faster. Just run.

Before Dad left he used to go out on runs just to keep in shape. He could easily run a marathon if he wanted to, but he never applied himself to anything. The only thing he ever actually went through with was leaving me behind for some freaking twenty-some year old, fresh out of college.

The thought of Dad left a pain in my chest. It had been just over a year since he'd left and about the same amount of time for mom's behavior. It still hurt just thinking about it. The only thing that I can never fully understand is why he left me.

I went back to thoughts of Clarissa. The way she smiled when I tripped or dropped my books. How she would always be their to help me back up. I loved the way she focused on her home work in study hall instead of playing games or surfing the web on her laptop.

I remembered how she would look at her homework and casually toss her golden hair over her hair and chew on the end of her pencil. She was very good looking, but was too nice to think about something like looks. Boys tended to watch her every move but she ignored them. She was one of the few people in the school who cared more about grades rather than who's-dating-who stuff.

I’d known her since pre-school so she was like a sister to me. Well, that's what she thought of it. I liked her more than that. Not for her looks but for genuine personality. She would become as stubborn as a mule when fighting her point but then would do anything just to make any one person happy.

Lost in thought, I tripped. Again. But instead of falling to ground and picking myself back up I found myself sliding downward. There was a tunnel entrance no bigger than the size of a person and I was falling down it head first. I tried to grab at the sides of the tunnel made of rock, but they were slick with water.

I gained sped as I slid down the tunnel. I grew worried of how I would get back to the woods after I finally made it to where ever the tunnel ended up. The sides were too slick and steep to climb back up. How could I have been stupid enough to fall down a freaking hole? Now, who knows what was going to happen to me.