Unbreakable Hearts

Chapter One

"Keep her safe, don't ever let her see the horrors of the world. Promise me this son. Promise me."

"I promise."

Joshua awoke suddenly from the dream he was having. He remembered his father telling him those exact words, right before he died. Joshua got up off the hardwood floor and groaned before pulling on his shirt and coat before walking outside, remembering what he needed to do. The sounds of power tools in the distance and people yelling at each other was company enough for Josh as he began to walk down the path to the road.

Leaves crunching beneath his feet, the air a bit cooler than it usually was at this time of day. It was early in the morning, the sun hadn't even risen yet but every hour was an unmissable detail that needed to be checked upon; whether it be checking the perimeter or getting firewood. He needed more lighter fluid and in this area, completely picked clean; there was only one place to get it. He dreaded going there but it had to be done, for the sake of Her safety and warmth on those cold winter nights that were quickly approaching.

He walked out onto the gravel road, the rocks and dirt crunching beneath his feet with every step he took. He continued walking until he came to a little dirt path which led up to an old cabin that had seen some action recently. He saw the two men working on the broken front door. He could hear the two of them bickering to each other about the previous night and what they shouldn't have done and all that. Joshua didn't really care all that much about their mistakes so he just brushed it off as he stood with one foot on the bottom step of their porch and the other on the soft dirt path leading up to their house. Josh sighed and tapped his foot on the porch step.

"You two done sucking each other's dicks?" Joshua asked, looking from Derek to Greg.

One of the men, who's name was Greg jumped slightly and turned quickly to face Joshua. The other man, named Derek, just continued hammering nails into the fortified door. Greg gave Joshua a confused eyebrow raise.

"We weren't sucking each other's dicks; what the hell are you talking about?" Greg asked, his voice slightly raised.

"I didn't mean literally, you dumbass." Joshua said as he crossed his arms over his chest and shook his head.

"Did you just- did you just call me dumb? Derek he called me dumb!"

Derek stopped hammering and stood up, stretching out his back as he looked at the two. Normally Derek was a happy, cheerful kinda guy but recently he began to look more and more pissed off at the world than anything else. Joshua chuckled under his breath and looked at the two men. Derek  groaned softly as he sat down on the front porch steps and took out a cigarette before lighting it up.

"Well that's because you are a dumbass sometimes." Derek said and shook his head as he took a puff from his cigarette before blowing the smoke off to the side.

Defeated, Greg walked back into the house, looking like he had just lost his best friend or something. Derek flicked his cigarette down onto the ground, which Joshua stepped on rather quickly.

"I need some lighter fluid, you still got some?" Joshua asked, trying make his voice sound a bit more stern and intimidating but failed horribly.

"Lighter fluid? Boy do we look like a fucking convince store?" Derek snarled, looking up at Joshua with slightly narrowed eyes.

"No, and I know I owe you a lot of favors by now and I'm sorry for that; but I could really use some lighter fluid."

"All right, I'll get your fucking lighter fluid but after this I'm done giving you shit for free." Derek said spit his chewing gum out onto the ground. "If you don't have something good to give us in the next two days, me and the boys are coming to your little shack there and we're gonna take what we want."