Deep In Lava

Chapter One

'"Hey Lizzy! Watch me!" I jumped from one couch to the other.

"Liam! Be careful!" She shouted at me and threw a cushion at my direction. "what if you had fallen?"

I laughed at her comment, as if I'd have fallen. I am the best around! I held my arms up high and showed off my muscles.

"Liam! I have told you again and again, not to jump on my furniture." I heard my Mum shout at me as she entered the room.

"But Mummy!" I protested, "I'm jumping over the Lava!" I pointed towards the floor to emphasise my excuse, "and if I fall in the Lava, then I die." I said it as if it was the most obvious thing. 

"Well the lava has gone now, anyway I made cookies for you and Lizzie." Me and Lizzie squealed with delight as we ran into the kitchen, my mum's cookies were the best! '

I miss being a naive kid, so much better than the real world.

The light coming through my curtain, means it's time to get up. I look over at my bedside table, It's littered with empty bottles and cans. My head is killing me, maybe I shouldn't have drank so much last night. 

A fist banging on my door sends a shooting pain in my head, "get a shower and get your arse up!" The shouting just makes it worse.

Mum's been pissed off with me ever since I started drinking at home, saying that's why Dad left, he was too invested in drinking than he was his family.

"Now!" Her high pitched scream goes straight through me, my only reaction is scream back.

"Fuck off! I'm getting up!" Not my fault, it's hers. I'm nineteen now anyway, I could get my own place if I wanted to. I can make my own bloody decisions. I don't need her sticking her nose in and bossing me around anymore.

I check every can and bottle, but they're all bone dry and I don't get a paycheck till the end of the week, bearing in mind it's a Friday, not long now. Scratching the back of my head, I try think back to when this all went so terribly wrong.

'"Daddy! Are you staying home tonight? Let me show you the drawing I made you at school!" I was so excited to see his face when I showed him it. It had taken me so long, it was me, mummy and daddy playing at the park.

I ran and looked up at him as he entered through the front door.

He moved his hand towards me, so I reached up my hands thinking he was going to pick me up, but instead he just pushed me aside and walked into the kitchen. Leaving me to ponder over what I had done wrong.

"Suzy! Get your kid away from me!" I heard him shout, along with a can being opened.

"He's your kid as well Michael!" Mummy screamed back at him. But mummy never screamed. Even when I did something really, really bad.

I listened to them talk that night and I wished I never had, daddy screamed naughty words at mommy, then there was lots of banging noises. 

I didn't like it when mummy and daddy argued, so I ran up the stairs and hid in my wardrobe. Where, as always, teddy was waiting for me, so I hugged him tightly to my chest as I hid in the blankets, and tried to block out the screaming and banging coming from downstairs.'

I had been four then.

There were many nights I had spent huddled up in that wardrobe, the next day I remember taking the picture and putting it in a box I kept under my bed, until I could show him some other time.

I still have the box under my bed, but under my bed it would forever stay.

After that he had left again, only to come back 5 years later. He had looked worse than when I last saw him. Being nine I was more educated in what type of person he was, but I still hoped he was back for good.