Two of a Kind

A Fresh Start

"Breath Alex, breath"

Alex could barely hear the nurse telling him to relax over the sound of his sobs. Tears ran down his face, each racing past each other, falling faster than the one before. Nothing could stop him from crying. He had tried to hold it in before on the days where he visited the hospital, but now he couldn't. Every memory Alex and his mother have shared over the past 14 years seemed to come flooding back, and immediately dissolve into nothing.

Alex's mother had been in the hospital for days from a stroke. The doctors thought she had a chance, and it seemed like she did, until yesterday. Alex had slept over at the hospital, savoring his last moments with his mom, the only person who cared about him. They spent as much time as they could together, when he wasn't at school, and she wasn't working. Now Alex would never get to spend more time with her, and he started sobbing again on a waiting room chair.

Alex's dad was a different story. He beat Alex and his mom, and was always drunk. Alex couldn't stand him, but he was too scared to tell anyone. But now that Alex lost his mom, he knew it would get worse. He would get more frequently hit and belittled, and although he always took a hit for his mom when he could, Alex knew his dad would be abusing him significantly more than before, each word hurting more than the next, and every bruise showing more.

Alex's grandparents were never around. They lived in some remote town that no one knew about, and only had around 20 people in it. Alex always wondered what it would be like to live there, but he thought he would never get the chance to. His grandparents would tell his dad immediately if Alex had ran away. They didn't know what was going on, and Alex made sure it stayed that way out of pure fear his dad would kill him for telling anyone.

Alex knew, in the moments of his mother's passing, that nothing would be the same. He knew he would have to drag himself home from a long day of school just to get tormented by his awful dad. Alex would have to start working, as his mother was the only one who supported the family. Alex was tough, on the inside and out, but if anything was too much for him, his mother was always there for him. But now, in the hardest part of his life so far, she wasn't. And she never would be back. Alex, a boy who always felt strong, even in his worst, could barely handle the thought of it without breaking down. Now that it was real, he couldn't even think over the sound of his mother's silence.

Two years later, Alex's grandparents had both separately died of old age and sickness. His dad and him went up to Pelican Town to clean out the house, only to realize that they would be living there, as his grandma had left the house to Alex's family in her will. Alex couldn't believe how empty the town was, he had been here many times as a young boy, but he hardly remembered any of his visits. As his dad went to meet Caroline, his grandmother's friend, Alex started looking around. His new bedroom, the one he stayed in as a child was almost the same. He still had the baseball wallpaper from when he used to play.- except there was something on his bed. A book. With a note from his grandma on it.

"Alex, I don't know when you will be here next, but Incase you ever are here again, I want you to read this. It helped me and your grandpa get through your mother's death, and you can read it any time you are here. Xoxo, Granny"

Alex shoved the book on the old bookshelf, he never had an interest in reading, especially anything that was going to make him upset. He had dealt with enough these past few years, and realizing how long ago the book was placed there by his grandma made him start crying again.

But his trance was ruined by his dad storming into his room.

"What's wrong with you? No one in this town is going to like you if all you do is cry all day. Your mother's been dead for years, get over it!"

It was almost like someone had stabbed him, right in the heart. He could hear his dad yelling from the living room, and Alex prayed the neighbors couldn't hear him. Alex's eyes started welling up, and he couldn't stop the tears from running down his face. He could feel the floor shake beneath him, like a boat on rocky waters about to crash. He ran out of the house, as far as he could, until he reached the edge of town. He was out of breath, panting, and still shaking. Until he saw the farmhouse.

No one lived there. Alex knew nothing about the town, but he could tell. The trees were overgrown, the house was broken down, and there was nothing growing on the farm. But there was nothing special about the farm. He would've tried to fix it, but he wasn't strong enough. Alex was scrawny, and he and his dad couldn't afford much to eat. He was starving, and still tired from running. Which is why Alex waited until the next day to find a job.