Manny's Despair

Chapter 2

He watched as his mom stormed upstairs after her, and slammed the door. After that all he could hear was screaming, coming from his own sister's from. Pain, the pain that she felt, he could feel too. The amount of fear he felt in that moment, and couldn't bear to think about what was happening behind those doors.

Manny's eyes snapped open, as he shot up, breathing heavily and sweating. The nightmare, it felt so weird, so real.

It was real, because it happened, 11 years ago.

Manny tried to shake the thought out of his head. As he reached over for his backpack, grabbing one of his rations of chips and munching down on it, until he noticed some black dots around his pack. Ants. Tiny little things that can cause great damage. Some of them were on his ankles biting at his flesh, he quickly swatted them off, and grabbed his backpack and shook it. He could feel his legs swelling up as he checked his food, making sure no pests had eaten it while he was asleep. He looked at where he had laid down and saw that it was right next to big ant hill. "Damn it" he said under his breath, quickly scrambling to grab his backpack and get up.

He looked around at the area he was in, it was a plain, open field with a few rocks and plants here and there. Until he turned around and saw a giant cluster of trees, forming a forest area. He grabbed his bike and walked it over to the trees, it was dark and muddy, with some dirt getting on his shoes and pants. Disgusted, he tried to wipe it off, but gave up when he started getting a bunch of dirt on his hands. This was one of the worst things about running away. It's dirty. And being a germaphobe while having to roam the streets was not the greatest thing. He shook the dirt off of his hands and started walking away, too dirty, not worth it. But, he still needed a place to sit, away from the ant piles, so he found a nice rock to sit on, put the kickstand down on his bike, and slumped down onto the cold, hard, rock.

He looked up at the sky, it was an orangist-pink, meaning that the sun was about to rise. He looked over at his phone, which he had powered off, and realized just how hard this trip might be. He will never know what time it is, probably never be clean, have to scourge for food like those homeless kids in the movies, and, he'll be alone, for everything. Out here, there really isn't much people you can trust, it's probably really rare for kids to run away nowadays. But, at least he's away, away from the snakes they call people back at his home, his school, and, if he gets far enough, his town. But then, a memory came to him, a week or so before he ran away, he was telling his friends about his plans for the future. But, he had lied to all of them, except Korie, he had told her about how he is going to run away soon. Why did he tell her? Well, it was because he knew how things were at home for her, she was suffering too. Manny asked her if she wanted to go with him, but she said no, thinking that it wasn't worth it.

If only she hadn't said no. She'd be sitting right next to him, probably as tired as him.

If only.

End of chapter 2.