creatures addiction

Beginning

Past tense -

Tessa's boots crunch on broken glass and stone as she walks across the small space called her living room. Her father had been drinking again. He broke another vase and knocked over one of the gravel garden pots they had. Now he lay on the couch snoring, slobbering and half his hand down his pants.

She scrunches her nose at the disgusting display of her father. She picks up a small pebble of gravel and throws it at him not wanting to touch him. He wakes with a start, when he sees her he raises an eyebrow. " Yeah?" He says. His hoarse voice sounding like putting rocks in a blender. She simply points to her watch and he nods slowly getting up. He has to skip around the mess so he does not cut his feet. As he slowly gets ready for his day he glares over at Tessa. " Why are you dressed like that?" He says pointing to her combat boots, leggings and the large military jacket she had found at a yard sale years back.

" Im going for a walk" She said and jabs her thumb behind her where the woods are. He stares at her for a while but simply shrugs and continues getting ready for his work. " Well?" she says wanting some kind of 'stay safe' or 'dont stay out too long' He lets out a deep groan.

" Have fun. You're sixteen. A young woman like yourself can take care of themselves." She lifts her chin. He's stopped caring that much. He just tells her ' Have fun' She turns her on her heel and runs out the back door. She runs down the small hill and looks back at the rickety old double wide trailer. Over half of which they dont even use from her father's hoarding. His addiction was to guns and books. No clue why the books but they were there.

She runs into the woods and soon finds the old car her older brother had found. It was a car probably from the mid to late 50's and looked as if someone had throw something large at the front windshield. She hopped inside, making sure to be careful of the springs popping from the seat cushion. And pretends to driving she slams her body left from right acting as though she is in a race car and slams on the brakes when she is finally tired of the fake driving. She jumps out of the car and continues walking. She was always so calm in the woods. Even if it was storming or animals were being crazy she had always been more comfortable in the woods than around people. People were always rude to her. Telling her that she should get with the times. Get a boyfriend or start making more friends than the 3 people that she had been friends with since elementary school. And at times she thought that they might be right. But who else would accept her a tomboy girl that had almost no future.

Just then her phone goes off. 'What great timing' she thinks as she rolls her eyes. She pulls her old phone out of her pocket. The phone that just made it to the touch screen age and runs like a snail. She looks at the small text from her friend. ' did you see that thing on the news?' She frowns at the message. Her friend should know she doesn't watch the news, it upsets her to see all the bad things. She texts back 'no' and almost immediately her friend has sent a link. The headline was enough to make her not want to click on it. It had a picture of a girl that was clearly terrified, her pale blue eyes looking at the camera in fear. More drugs had been circling around the area. She didn't like it. Not at all. Her phone vibrates again and she reads what her friend wrote. 'Would your brother get into that stuff?'

Tessa glares at the phone and throws it before she can think of what she is doing. As soon as she does it she run for it to go for it again. When she finally finds it the screen is cracked so badly that wires had popped from it. She rubs her eyes and breathes slowly. She picks up what remains of her phone and decides going home is probably for the best. By the end of the walk she had finally come to terms that her brother probably would do it.

~~~~~

She walks inside her house and when she opens the door her father is still home. "Dad?" She says. She looks at him concerned. His eyes look bloodshot from what looks like crying and he looks very upset. He runs past her bolting the door. He hands her a backpack that is already packed. He throws on his own and quickly grabs her hand. His hands are warm and calloused from working most of his life. He grabs the keys on his way out and pushes her to his large stick shift. She stares at him in worry as he panics to start lock the doors and starts what he calls " betsy" as a child she thought it was hilarious that he called the truck it. It was her mother's name and she would always get mad when he started to call it that.

" What is happening?" She says looking at him. He looks at her in worry. " Is it damien ?" she says remembering the article she saw earlier. " Uh ... you could say that" he says and slams on the gas break. And quickly the clutch then gas. Her head goes back hitting the headpiece of the seat. " Tessa, you tired?" he says looking at me. " a bit wh-"" good girl, go to sleep" He says. I frown but dont question him as i close my eyes and fall asleep