Chapter 1
Wales, Cardiff
9th February, 1988
The story begins in Wales, UK, Cardiff to be exact. Many early teens feel lonely or anxious or maybe even depressed early on, but these 6 kids were'nt just depressed, one was exploited, one was angry, one was guilty, one was desperate, one was tired, and one was scared.
Lets start with a quick introduction and what their story is, as they say, youngest goes first.
Cody Seth was a skinny, short, brunette boy with circular glasses. He was relatively small for his age and didnt have all to many friends. He was 11 but could pass as 8. He was also the target to bullies, every day after school Cody was tormented by a boy called Nathan kingenton. This boy would punch, kick, pull, twist, and do so much more to the petite boy. Why didnt his mother help? Well Cody's mum was usually of busy, by busy I mean hungover or passed out on the sofa, or up stairs with a new man. Overall Cody was alone, no dad, no friends, no caring mum, no one.
The next child has a problem that I can gaurentee youve heard of. Helen Quinn was 11 years old and only 6 months older than Cody. She was quite a breath taking girl, she, like Cody, was short and skinny, (some would describe her as petite) dark medium length hair in a high ponytail, Asian and slightly tanned. Her parents were originally but she grew up in the UK. When she was younger she was known for being quite chubby, eventually it got to her when she was around 9. So she did the only thing she could think of, every day her diet consisted of a fruit, some seeds that she kept in a small box and some peanut butter. Yes she had gone to hospital for this before but no one ever stopped her, and she had indeed lost weight. So why did she still need to eat like this? She didn't know how else to live, and well, no one ever tried to stop her so it can't be that bad, right?
Aria Barlow was the next victim, she was a gorgeous girl, she had blonde hair with big green eyes and was only slightly taller than Helen. Her dad was a rich famous man who at a young age had exposed maya to the life of fame. However it wasn't all glitz and glam. Aria had almost no free time and when she did she would be followed by paparazzi, and her fathers friends wanted her to be a model. But they always wanted to know "what she could do..." and with that, Aria was molested by producers, model agents and sometimes even her own father. She lived a constant life of tourture that led her to believe that people would only stick around if she could be of service to them, if not she had no purpose.
I think everyone's had the thought of stealing before, but you turn away because your aware it's wrong. But what if you didn't turn away? Willow Marvin lived in poverty and was homeless along with her parents and little brother Gareth. She was often harrased by random thugs on the street or would have to go hungry in order for her younger brother to eat. She would sometimes sit on the side walk begging anyone, even children sometimes, for some spare change, however it never usually worked. At the young age of 7 willow discovered she could do something that would change her family's issues, she would just steal. And she stole until she was 13. She stole bread, money, water, anything she could. Sure she felt guilty but she always lived with the moral 'it's for my family' as she was a Cristian who lived by God's rules, she would never want to displease him, so knowing he was watching her, she would always rationalise her actions.
Noel Carter was 13 years old, 14 in one month, and up until year 8 had quite a normal life. However In year 8 Noel had discovered that he was attracted to males. He knew his father would not approve, his father was a person who was a very cold and mentally (sometimes psyicly) abusive. However he swore he'd never hit a child, and as Noel was one, he didn't. But when Noel came out to him he broke his promise completely, that day Noel was on the street. He probably did run into willow at some point that night but was to scared to remember her. His mother was the one who let him back in however she only did it out of sympathy and still disapproved. His father like willow, was a critsian, however he also believed that no Cristian should be gay, so he justified his actions as serving God, this caused Noel to develop a hatred for Christianity as he believed it was what caused his
Lastly, Tai McCarthy, he was the oldest of the bunch at 14 years old. He was tall, mixed, intelligent, and was quite handsome for his age, with forest green eyes. His mother and father gave him up to his uncle John and cousin Tara when he was just 3 months old. His uncle loved him unconditionally and Tara was there for him through thick and thin, however his uncle struggled with lung cancer and couldn't pay for the treatment. Tara was 16 and had a part time job but it wasn't nearly enough. But tai's grandma, who as far as he knew, could care less about the family, made a promise with him. "You show of your dick, I give you a nick." We're her exact words... on wendsday and sometimes Fridays, tai would go to his grandmas house, strip his pants down, and she forced herself on him. This happend to the point where tai would cry himself to sleep on Tuesday night knowing what was to come, but he got £200 out of this every wendsday, sometimes £400 if he did Fridays, but was it worth it?
Now how did these children all come to meet? Well as I'm sure your aware, before the events of this book the 6 had no idea the others were even alive. However one day they all wound up in the same place, same time, same spot, different reasons.
Cody was about to go and get tormented by Nathan once again, but instead took a run for it and ran the opposite direction of his house, later leaving Nathan confused. Cody couldn't even catch his breath as he just kept running to the point of coughing up blood, very impressive for a young boy.
Helen was scheduled to go to the hospital for an appointment due to her anorexia, however she didn't want to go so badly that she caught a quick bus and went to the other side of Cardiff hoping that her parents would never find her. She also brung no money as she had no intention to eat.
Aria wasn't really trying to run away, she hadn't planned this like Helen and Cody, she just did it in the moment. She was trying to go shopping but found paparazzi outside, making her run as to avoid them. She caught a quick train that was heading in the same direction as Helen. She had no idea where she was going or how she was getting back, but then she had a thought 'I'll just run away!' In retrospect that's a great idea, but she didn't have anywhere to go, she only had £6 that she used to get on the train, and she had no idea where she was going. This soon came to realisation as she started worrying realising that she had no way to get home.
Willow was doing her usual thing, stealing from her local super market. But as she was walking out she felt a cold and stiff hand on her shoulder. It was a guard. "Now where are you going with that?" He said firmly. In a moment of desperation, willow stomped on his foot and ran, she ran miles until she was out of breath and had to fall to the ground, she caught a bus and went far, far away, wanting to avoid authorities.
Noel was going home as usual, expecting to be beat, but was instead given £10 and told to get out by his father. The £10 was his mother's idea as she only slightly pitied the blonde boy. Noel was bowled over, he couldn't even hear himself breath as thoughts clouded his head. He appreciated his mother's miniature offerings however it did not make up for her and his father disowning him to the streets. He was now a street ran, cold, alone, and fearful. He used the £10 to get a train to, you guessed it, the same place Helen, Cody, aria and willow went.
Tai was on his way home from school, dreading his grandmother. You see tai had missed the previous Wednesday, this inraged his grandma, when he went to her house he saw in the window, she was like a hawk eyeing its prey. Unlike the others, tai lived quite close to the mysterious destination everyone was heading to. So he only had to run past his grandmas house for about 5 minutes, his grandma was old and couldn't walk to well making it unlikely she'd come find him.
And somehow, they had all ended up in the same spot...
They were at a large lake surrounded by 6 benches. Conveniently they were all taken by one of the six children. They all stared at the lake is agony and depression, hoping to end their obscene lives.
Suddenly, a load creek was heard among the silence. They all turned their head to see a melal, grey, rusty drain that's lid had somehow slip of. They all didn't think to much until a loud bang was heard. This caused a panic in all of them who started to leave the lake, some slower than others. But it was to late. I don't know what happened, or why it happened, but it happened.
They were knocked out and send into a dreamless sleep. Waiting for hell to get them.
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