Beyond the Streetlights- Karson's Story

Chapter Five- Splinters

The hallway is dark, splinters still hiding away for a victim to dig its flesh into.  Sharp ends facing everywhere I go, my shoes trample over them as I trace and feel my way through the darkness.  The wood creaks under my weight making me freeze in place.  Stiffening my muscles, I lean my ears to hear the clearance.  The house remains silent and dead, much of the dense worry still hanging in the air.  The front door is shattered, only a thin plastic sheet separating my remaining family from the world outside.  From it, shards of golden light streak through the air, giving life to the floating dust.  Wooden planks are nailed to the windows, hiding us from the face of society and the sun.

My house relished the essence of a battlefield; my weapon is my voice; my heart is my fuel.

Finally feeling the edge of a fractured copse, I lean against the wood, loud noises erupting as I bend down hastily snatching my boots by the laces.  Grazing the floor with the tip of my finger, curses fly out on a line from my lips as I heave at the feeling of penetrated skin.  Bringing myself up again, I feel the wooden splinters dig in my finger, grazing at my blood as iron oozed.  Throwing my head back against the wall, I feel my overgrown hair cushion my frustrated thud as I close his eyes, hearing a drip.  I heave, raising my chest and then letting my breathe escape from my nose.

Even with my finger bleeding out, my fate waiting for me beyond the entrance; my eyes close for the first time in days; my mind's wheels stop turning after endless racing; sweat glands holding onto precious water after nights of torment.  Clenching onto the laces, I feel them burn against my palm as I tighten my grasp, fists turning white.

"Karson?" The sweetest voice disrupts my rage, like a melodic tune leading me away from darkness.  Opening my eyes, my gaze shifts in a haze to a small figure holding onto a candle with a single flame.  It wafts in the air against her breath, turning and spinning, looking alive against the hurt surrounding us.  The energy must have cut due to my father's disappearance and debt.  No... due to his incapability of being a father; a husband; a man. "What are you doing?  It's 5:00 a.m.," she speaks out.

"Carter-" I begin, but know from her trembles that she had already figured it out.  The only light in the house radiated from her hand, yet it trembled.  The light will go out if I don't take action now.  "I-"

"You were going out weren't you?  Mum told you not to.  We agreed-"

"I didn't agree to anything," I voice sternly squeezing my first foot into the boot.  The knot on the laces seem meagre compared to the chain entanglement which make up my thoughts.  Every hoop of the chain, a heavy word that could sink me to the bottom of any ocean deep enough.

"Karson, don't do this.  Please.  We can figure this out together," she tumbles toward me and places her hand on my forearm.  I keep my eyes on the gnarl before me, lifting my other foot as it slides into the right boot.  Consequences beckon my voice chords to stay still.  "Karson, listen to me!"

"No, you listen.  If I don't do this, bad things will happen to you.  I can't let that happen.  I won't let them take advantage you," I finally bring my eyes to peer into hers.  Emerald shimmers reflect back as sheers of glass appear, breaking into drops rolling down her cheeks against the candlelight.  "I will never let myself become like Dad,"

"Don't you understand anything?" Her voice trembles as her nails dig into my skin.  The splinters in my finger go unnoticed in comparison.

"You don't understand anything.  You're only 16, now let go.  I have to live up to my promise before shit gets worse-  Carter, I said let go!" I hoot, ripping my arm away from her soft quaking grasp.

"They'll kill you!"

"Rather that than live to see the things they will do to you,"

"Karson, no!" she hollers out, the single flame in her hand cowering into almost extinction.