Love Never Fails

He wasn't anything like the other people. He never talked, he was shy. Isolated was his middle name. He wasn't anywhere near other people. He was alone. Alone in his world of dreams and fictious reality.

And he liked it that way.

He liked the reserved, dark embrace of his world. He could deal with it. Whatever it threw at him, he would catch it and lock it away. Pretend it never happened. Was that why he was so admired?

He would never know. Or did he not care?

Cody Maverick was reserved, in this familiar place called the world. Everyone knew about him, but he paid no attention. With a life biography like this, anyone would agree. If only he knew a safe haven. A place where he could speak openly, without the restraints.

Yeah, that would be the day.

But for now, all he could do was contribute to his life, his problems, his dreams. His secrets, if he ever confessed them. Cody Maverick could wait for an eternity, if he had to. Although he knew he would never live that long.

Never.

Past the dark days. With an irritated scowl that lasted only a second, Cody passed through the unrelenting wilderness. Wild abandon caused him to wade into the masses of ranting animals with no place to go, flinging themselves like caged birds across even the smallest expanse of space. Plastering an expression on his face filled with nothing but blank emptiness, he slammed his back against the wall and stared at the tiled floor. One conlusion, and one conclusion only: People were crazy.

And this, my friend, was Hard Knocks Junior High.

Pretty ironic, huh? I'd think so. Peeling himself off of the wall and casting one sharp, reverberating glance around, Cody slipped quickly into Algebra II. He was greeted, charmingly, by a mixture of taunts and tainted laughter. Wonder where that came from?

Keeping his ice blue gaze locked on the dull, plastic top of the desk, his cheeks flared with the usual prescription of embarrassment and mocked shame. Cody got this everyday, and he should have been used to it. But he wasn't. He was the type of guy who stood, perfectly immobile, while anyone and everyone screamed cuss words and pelted him with laughter. The quiet, shy wolf with a loyal and omega personality.

But he did have a dark side, a side he used only when the event was called for. This perception was locked away. Not in the chamber of his heart, but of his self control. And now his self control was wearing thin. Bone marrow thin.

Watch out, world. Here I come. With a dark, muffled sigh, Cody exhaled in a faint wave of discomfort. He entered his own time zone, with its own free limits. Again, time melted away.

Staring at the floor now, his only perception of reality was the droning echo of the teacher, Mrs. Lyster, occupying the emptiness at the front of the room. She seemed miles away now, and very long forgotten. With an open mind and a persuasive air to it, the world was a coin. A coin with no direction, and no wisdom to guide it. Reality was a nightmare.

Cody's thoughts were a dream.

School was yet another thing to deal with, and it was a safe haven, believe it or not. Life away from this peaceful sanctuary, no pun intended, was a living Hell. Ravenous anger mixed in with a dose of bold rage. Isn't that fun? His residence, his house, his home.

They gave all of that a new meaning.

Suffering from child abuse, from year three to present day, fourteen, Cody lived in a nightmare purely from the black hole itself. His father was a drug addict, and his mother was bipolar. Good combination, huh? Think again. The days were endless, and they started with pain, right from the beginning.

Everyday as he got home from his personal dilemma, he was struck upside the head and dragged to the bathroom. There, he was forced to vomit up any content of food that was left inside of his stomach. Not allowed anything else for the rest of the day, he was thrown into the basement, and there he dwelled, in the darkness. In his own pity, his own agony. And no one was there to help him.

Not one person.

Cody was beaten and abused, neglected. Here, the story had no hope of returning, not one small chance for survival. He was a cutter, and he was an Emo, an outcast to the world. Everyone hated him. Which brings us back to the regular story.

Hello, world. Welcome to the screwed up version of Chainsaw Massacre.

There's always a reason to things, for better or for worse. After enduring his daily, "sacrificial" ritual, Cody locked himself in his room. Away from his parents. Away from school. Away from life.

It was the only place left to go.