Haunting Ghosts

Chapter 5 - Bearing the Strain

    John got out of the car and choked on the cigarette smoke that hung around the area like a plague. He'd always hated it here but he wouldn't dare think about telling his dad. Who knows what would happen. 

   "I've got some of your stuff upstairs"

   "OK"

   Andy opened the front door and it creaked open, causing John to be confronted by the yellow ceilings and brown floor of his dad's apartment. Worms would be ashamed to live here. 

   All John wanted to do was to be by himself so he ran straight up the guest room, taking two steps at a time, almost tripping on the pile of dirty washing his dad had discarded at the top of the stairs. He closed the door and crashed on the bed. All he could think about was running away. 

   "Do you want pizza or Chinese for dinner?" His dad called up to him. 

   "Either" John shouted back. 

   "Chinese it is"

   John hated Chinese and had told his dad many times but the pizza was just as bad. Besides, he wasn't in the mood for arguing. He put his iPod on through the speakers, laid back on the bed and tried to forget his life. 

   He often did this, imagining he was another son whose parents were together, whose dad didn't disgust him and whose life wasn't quite so...difficult.

   Closing his eyes he fell into a deep sleep where he could visit his thoughts like old friends, comforting him and pushing away reality while they could bear the strain. His own fairytale life would be so simple if it weren't for the issue that it was only in his head. 

   "Did you not hear me calling you? You're noodles are getting cold" 

   John could feel the spit on his face before he heard the words. 

   "Get up you lazy shit" 

   Andy pushed him out of bed and on to the floor, ending John's escape. 

   He walked out and left John to fully wake to the world around him. Grabbing on to the sheets he hoisted himself up, ran his fingers through his hair and blinked so he could adjust to the light coming from the lamp beside him.

   Half staggering, half dragging himself, he managed to make it out the room and down the stairs where Andy was waiting for him with a takeaway on his lap and a beer in his hand. He was watching some game show where nobody's were put in a glass container while money was shot up at them using fans from below them, whatever they caught they kept.

   Andy was in hysterics as the man fell over chasing a £20 note. John sighed and grabbed his noodles off the table, the grease soaking his hand through the container. 

   "Thought I might watch Hamburger Hill later" His dad managed to sound through slurps. 

   He was big into war films, especially American ones. They had a whole selection of DVD's ranging from PG documentaries to 18 shoot em' ups. John never understood the appeal in war. 

   "I'm going to go to bed early, I'm tired from school" John replied

   "Pussy, scared of a little blood?" Andy burst into psychotic laughter spraying the table and his lap with the food from his mouth. 

   "LOOK AT HIM FALL!" The TV shouted.

   "Pathetic" Andy said. 

   Ring ring.