Save Me Tragedy

Prologue

It's been 2 days since the day you were supposed to pick me up from school. Yet again I am sitting outside on the school steps watching as all the other kids are laughing with their friends before parting ways and being greeted by their loving parents. Not me. I have my black hoodie pulled over my face attempting to hide my resentment towards my mother who has abandoned me on these cold, damp steps for the second day in a row.

2 years since my parents divorced... 2 long years. And today is Tuesday.. One of the three days my mother is supposed to be picking me up from school. I contemplate calling my dad to pick me up again but disregard the idea just as fast as it crosses my mind. He's "getting serious" with my "new mom" and that phone call is only going to end with an hour long argument.

I swing my backpack over my shoulder. Pick myself up off the steps. And reach into my pocket to pull out my Ipod and headphones before starting the 3 mile trek to my mother's house. My legs feel heavy as they sway front to back through the cool September breeze and I begin to regret skipping lunch as my stomach yearns for substance.

I flip through the songs on my Ipod till it lands on "Drown by Front Porch Step". This songs always seems to relax me and put me in a calm state even though the lyrics are dark and depressive. The soothing acoustic guitar and the male vocal give way to a blissful state of trance as I walk in perfect sync with the music, stepping over each crack in the sidewalk on the way home.

As soon as I hit the last block before arriving at the house nostalgia washes over me. I know. 13 years old? Nostalgic? This is where i grew up. When both my parents loved each other and all was right with the world. You know when you see those before and after pictures of an accident victim? Well this is my before. Before I lost hope in the world. Before I stopped believing that life had meaning. Before I was covered in permanent scars that no doctor could make disappear...

As I walk up the driveway I turn to look at the front yard. I remember a time not so long ago I used to push my little plastic mower behind dad, pretending I was cutting the grass with him till my shoes turned green while mom sat on the porch watching us with her welcoming smile. I close my eyes for a second and a breeze brushes past my face wiping away the distant memory.

I march up the steps to the front porch and notice the door hanging wide open. Mother is "sick" again. My dad tries to hide it but its hard not to notice the smell of alcohol radiating from her breathe as she's screaming at you. I stand there for a second debating whether to enter or turn around and call him. I miss my mom and I'd rather take the wrath from "sick" mother than spend another day wondering why she hasn't even cared enough to call these past few days.

I decide to venture in and push open the screen door which slams shut behind me with an agonizing thud. My nose is instantly filled with the smell of stale cigarettes and yesterdays beer. I set my backpack on the kitchen table and start making my way to the master bedroom.

"Mom!? You home!? You forgot to pick me up from school!" I yell as I trudge my way through the debris from what looks like last nights binge.

This house is a shell of the home it used to be for me. All the once lavish furniture is gone and there is an echo that returns my call as I yell for her.

Slowly I make my way to the bedroom door and see the empty bed unmade sitting near the far wall of the room. This is out of the norm for mom. Even when she's hung-over her OCD isn't. And that bed is always made. The whole house can be trashed but if she isn't sleeping the sheets will be tucked in and throw pillows put in perfect arrangement.

I backtrack through the vacant house and make my way to the garage to see if her car is still here.

Man do I hope she isn't at school waiting for me. I will never hear the end of how she waited 20 minutes outside the school waiting for my punk ass to get in the car.

0-8-0-8 I enter in on the keypad as the door starts its screeching while it slowly makes its way up the tracks.

The door continues course and I can start to make out the outline of the old family Volvo's bumper as the pungent odor of exhaust fumes fill the air.

The screeching stops and the door comes to a halt as I stare into the garage and freeze in terror. Everything speeds up and slows down at the same time. A sense of numbness rushes across my entire body and I am paralyzed unable to move as I stare back at my mother's cold blank eyes. Colors start fading to a dark eerie shade. My vision narrows and the noise of daily commute is deafened by a sharp ringing deep within my ear. As I run over to my mother's lifeless body my feet are silent as they strike the cold bare pavement beneath me. I am screaming as I kneel down beside her. Shaking her. Yet my voice is drowned by the pounding of my heart in my chest. And just like that everything turns black.