Fears 3 - Journeys

Chapter 13 - Jinn

WARNING: DEPRESSION AND POSSIBLE OVERDOSE TALK

I couldn't sleep tonight. All I continued doing was sitting on my bed, contemplating what I was supposed to do with this life of mine. Why was I chosen to be born into a world where I had to suffer this much? Why?

I took another sleeping pill since I still couldn't sleep after sitting on the side of my bed for what felt like a couple of hours. I checked my clock. 11 pm. I had been sitting in one place with a blank mind for two hours. It surely didn't feel that long, as time felt like it was going faster than it actually was.

I started to feel the effects of the sleeping pill, but I still couldn't sleep. I smelled the alcohol from downstairs, and I kept thinking about how I could get out of a situation like this.

Peering out the window, I got an idea. I slowly creaked the window open and walked outside the house. I looked up into the shimmering sky. Tonight was a tentative night. I wasn't sure how to feel about everything that had been going on. Although the night sky was beautiful, and I could finally do something without distractions, I couldn't shake the thoughts of my terrible household away, even if my life depended on it.

It was dark out, so I took one of my bedroom lights and broke it off the ceiling. This left me with a light bulb in my left hand. To my luck, I found a small battery on the floor of my room. Although the house was dirtier than a landfill, I loved collecting things because my family and I couldn't afford anything.

I needed something to connect the battery to the light bulb now. I went outside and found a piece of steel wool my mother used to clean the house once in a blue moon.

Using my intuition, I connected both sides of the battery to both sides of the steel wool. I then connected the strands of wool to the bottom of the light bulb. I was able to get a small light going. Now, I was able to leave the house and see in the dark.

The night was gloomy. I heard nothing but the sounds of my feet tapping on the ground. I watched as my house faded into the distance I walked away holding the small light bulb. Although I grew up poor, that made me more resourceful with the shit I got.

The first idea I had was to sleep and get some rest. I decided to head to the school, which was only a mere few miles away. I was used to walking the distance, as I had to every day.

The city looked like a ghost town, with no cars or people anywhere to be seen. I looked around and enjoyed the quiet time I finally got.

I walked and walked and walked for what felt like eons. Time seemed to go slower now that the only thing I focused on was the sound of my feet clicking against the dry sidewalk. The temperature was starting to drop, and it was nearing midnight, so I had to get some shelter and sleep fast.

My legs were aching, but I saw the school in the distance. I was finally about to get shelter for the night and get out of the cold. I slowly approached the building with the last bit of strength I had left in my system. I felt like I was about to crumble away into nothingness.

I fell flat on my face under the roof of the school. Being a thirteen-year-old, I wasn't the smartest at all. Despite ditching my house for the night, I didn't even bother bringing anything with me. No blanket, no change of clothes, nothing. Man, I was one stupid ass teenager. How could I be so resourceful and fuck something like this up? I don't know.

"Jinn, what the hell is wrong with you?" I asked myself.

I set up camp and dozed off to sleep on one of the school's benches. The night was cold, but at this rate, I would rather be cold than stay around my parents for any longer.

MODERN DAY

"And that's only one of a million stories I could tell you guys," I smiled.

PERSPECTIVE SWITCH: BOTTLE