I'm so sorry about not being on here, I miss you so much! As soon as I have a couple minutes to myself I'm going to update you about everything in my life. Stay tuned for a long rant about errryyyythaaaannngggg haha. Any who, here's another portion of the 21st Century Breakdown book thingy ive been working on. I feel like it's such a cop out, but I promise I'll be better. Cross my heart and hope to die.
Chapter 3
When Christian woke up, he wondered what time it was. It had
never occurred to him to ask Gloria or one of the guards the time. He also
realized that in no more than 48 hours his entire life had been turned upside
down. His beliefs had been challenged, questioned and completely obliterated.
He thought of how he had seen the government, how he had thought they were
trying to help everyone. But now, he wasn’t quite sure. He was even questioning
their authority. He sighed, nothing seemed right anymore.
As he slowly pulled himself out from underneath the warm
covers, his thoughts turned to what Gloria had told him the other night. Was
her childhood really that bad? What was it like to have parents who didn’t
care?
Then Christian stopped. “Oh crap.” He said out loud. His
parents. He had totally forgotten about them. They were probably filling out a
missing person’s report right at that moment. Let them find me, Christian
decided. While he was fiddling with the button on his pants, his thoughts
returned to Gloria’s story.
What had happened to her father? Had she ever known him? Did
she even care? He thought back to his childhood. He knew for a fact that he
didn’t have the best childhood, but still, his parents loved him and he had
never felt unwanted by them. How would it feel to not have parents? Christian
wondered. His thoughts returned to his parents.
“I really should call them…” Christian murmured to himself.
“Call who?” Asked the now familiar voice of Gloria.
“Oh my god! Stop sneaking up on me like that!” Cried
Christian, clutching his chest. “You’re going to give me a heart attack!”
“Sorry, I just came over to see how you were doing, and make
sure you were comfortable.” Gloria said, seeming genuinely sincere.
“That’s ok, and to answer your question, I was dreaming, I
was only dreaming of another place in time where my family’s from. Maybe I
should call them, y’know, to tell ‘em I’m ok. Now where did that cell go?”
Christian finished while beginning to rummage through his remaining
possessions.
“Oh, do you mean this cell?” Said Gloria, producing a black
cellphone from her pocket.
“Hey! Where’d yah get that! ”Christian cried, snatching the
phone from Gloria’s hands.
“You have a really pretty girlfriend, what’s her name…?”
Gloria said quietly, taking a seat beside Christian on his bed.
“How do you know about her??” Christian cried
“You have a lot of pictures on your phone.” Replied Gloria
shortly.
“Fuck.” Was Christian’s only response as he quickly deleted
all the pictures.
“So, tell me about her.” Gloria continued.
“Well,” Christian’s tone was cold. “Her name’s Stephanie. She’s
the reason I’m in this whole mess. She was going to pick me up at work the
other night, but she never came. So I had to either walk home or spend the
night at the shop.”
“But you still love her, don’t you?” Gloria whispered,
holding her breath.
“I’m not in love because I’m a mess.” Was Christian’s simple
answer.
Gloria slowly got up. “Well I guess I’ll let you get back to
your dreaming and junk.” She said finally.
“Yah, I guess I’d better call my folks. Then, maybe do you
think I could go for a walk, to clear my mind, y’know?” Christian said, getting
up also.
“Sure! I mean sure, I’ll tell the guard on my way out. When
you’re ready, just tell him and he’ll bring you to the doors.” Gloria responded
hastily, while making her escape through the door.
When Gloria was gone, Christian gave a sigh of relief. Man,
was that uncomfortable talking to Gloria about Stephanie. He had met her in
eighth grade. He had liked her then. As they made their way through high
school, she was always there. They soon realized they were into the same type
of music (mainly Green Day) but Christian had liked football, and Steph
detested all sports except gymnastics, which she did in her free time. They had
started going out shortly before he dropped out, and to his surprise she found
the time to balance school, gymnastics and him.
Christian sighed. He realized now that he had never really
loved her. Sure she was pretty, and he liked her, but he never took their
relationship seriously. He was glad he didn’t have to deal with her right now.
Glancing at his phone, Christian began the task at hand.
First and foremost, he had to call his parents.
First he tried their home phone, with no answer. They were probably
at work he told himself. Then he tried his mom’s cell, again, no answer.
“She must’ve left it in the car, or she turned it off.” He
said to himself.
Next he tried his dad’s cell. It rang and it rang, until it
finally reached his voice mail. Christian began to worry. Where were they? His
dad never went far without his phone, and it was unlike him to let it go to
voicemail. He decided to leave a message and try again later.
Now, with that out of the way, Christian’s thoughts began to
wonder.
He thought about his life without Stephanie, which seemed
pretty good. He thought about a life without a girlfriend, or friends in
general. He thought about a life without parents, or rules or the government.
Finally he thought about a life with Gloria. He dismissed it quickly, he needed
to see his parents. They would set him straight once and for all.
It was at that point that Christian remembered his walk.
Fresh air would do him some good. Heck, he might even be able to drop in and
see his parents!
After a quick chat with the guard, Christian found himself
standing outside the abandoned subways, his black backpack slung over his
shoulder and Basket Case blaring in his ear. He put his iPod on shuffle and set
off.
He was lost, Christian finally admitted it. He was utterly
and completely lost; like refugees.
He had been roaming the streets for more than an hour now,
trying to find a street he knew. It was hopeless, he couldn’t tell the
difference between the that street and this boulevard. Where the hell was he?
As he turned the next corner, he noticed something familiar. There was the 7
Eleven he used to hang out with friends at, and there was the hill he rode his
bike down, resulting in a trip to the hospital and four stitches in his right
hand. As he made his way towards the familiar driveway, he suddenly smelt the
familiar stench of smoke and fire. It was un-mistakenable. He started jogging,
then went into a full on sprint. Something was wrong, he knew it. When he
finally caught sight of his house- or what still remained of it- his entire
world came crashing down around him.
Gloria restlessly checked her watch for the third time in
the same number of minutes as she paced her small bedroom worriedly.
Pacing was a rather long ways from the truth, because there
were so many articles of clothing littering the floor that it was more of a
restless hop from patch of clear floor to patch of clear floor.
“Where could that boy be?” She asked herself quietly. “It’s
been two hours since he left…” She finished, her voice trailing off as she sat
down on her bed.
Holding her cellphone tightly in her right hand, she lay
down and drifted off into a restless sleep.
Christian stood motionless in front of what remained of his
childhood house. Everything seemed to have either been demolished beyond
recognition, burnt to a crisp or vandalized. Christian was speechless. He
slowly started to make his way through the remains of his room. All he could
salvage were a couple of slightly singed shirts and his phone charger. As he
made his way back towards the street the smell of burnt flesh made his skin
crawl.
“They couldn’t…It’s unimagionable…” Christian cut himself
off because something disturbing caught his eye. In the center of the burnt
remains of his family’s living room were two badly charred skeletons with a
simple message written in what appeared to be blood between them.
“Take this as a warning to all those who dare speak against
the Peacemakers and the government.” Christian read slowly while his mind raced
a million miles a minute.
Cautiously he reached into his pocket to retrieve his cell
phone. He was grateful that Gloria had added her number when she had stolen his
phone what seemed like ages ago. He dialed her number and held it up to his
ear, calling the only person he seemed to have left.
Gloria awoke with a jolt. Something was vibrating in her
ear.
“Where did I put my phone…my phone!” She cried out, still
half asleep. She searched frantically through her sheets till she finally found
it under her pillow. She glanced briefly at the number but it was listed as
unknown, so she ignored it. Placing it back on her bedside table, she forgot
completely of the incident and drifted back to sleep.
Christian slowly removed the phone from his ear and cradled
in the palm of his left hand. He was completely and utterly alone in this
world, for the first time in his entire life.
Holding back tears he turned his back on his childhood and
began walking. He didn’t particularly care where he walked, nor for how long or
how far. All he knew was that he needed to get far, far away from all of this
and take some time to stop and think about all the events that he had gone
through in the past two days.
In the past two days of his entire life his entire world had
been completely turned upside down. Everything he had been taught, everything
he believed in, since his childhood had been slaughtered, abused and ripped to
shreds. He no longer knew what was right and what was wrong. His entire
religion had been mocked and disrespected to a point where he was questioning
if there was even a god. Surely if there was, he wouldn’t stand by and let his
creations abuse each other in such an unruly manner? Surely he would stop the
madness, the unnecessary blood shed of the innocent?
Another aspect of all this was that of the Undertakers.
Gloria seemed to truly believe in what she preached and she had been through so
much… All they wanted was the freedom of speech, but at what cost? What lengths
were they willing to go to in order to achieve their idea of a perfect world?
And did the end justify these means? Christian didn’t know, nor did he care at
this point. All he knew was that when he thought about all of this, he couldn’t
get Gloria off his mind.
Christian continued walking deep in thought for several
blocks. Finally, he couldn’t bare it any longer. He needed to talk to Gloria he
needed to tell her how he felt. He quickly took out his phone and began writing
a message.
Gloria was awoken yet again by the buzz of her cellphone.
“Jesus Christ who could it be now?” She muttered to herself
quietly while reaching for her phone.
As she quickly glanced at the short text she had received,
she gave a short gasp and he phone clattered to the ground.
It read:
I lost everything in the fire so I’m sending all my love to
you… Please pick up your phone next time.
-Christian
As Christian finished off his text he smiled briefly to
himself. It felt good to at least get one thing off his chest. He slowly made
his way towards the 7 Eleven in order to await a response. He was in the middle
of picking out a post card when he received a text that nearly made him drop
his phone.
I love you too
-Gloria
Till next time my lovelies, you make my day better<3
xoxo
No comments:
Post a Comment