The Curse of Job

~ Chapter 1 - Peter~

Peter Foulsling was listening to a man about how he'd lost his wife during the war.

 'And there it is.' Said the shody, depressed man. 'All of my dreams ruined, I mean  how can I recover from that? Losing my wife, I could've saved her.'

Peter wanted to cry, he'd seen the look of despair in the mans eyes, He'd seen the pain he'd been through and he understood why he was here at the AA Meeting, Peter thought to himself 'That dimishes the reason I'm here by a fuck ton.' It was his turn to talk and his story was nowhere near as touching as the man who had last spoke, He stood up. 'Hello, my name is Peter and I've been sober for 16 months.' He paused as people softly aplauded him, some of them said softly but enthusiastically 'well done.' or 'Stay strong, brother.'

He continued 'It all started - the drinking - when I was 19 - My mother was an alcoholic and as a kid she used to beat me, she'd tell me how shit I was and how much I ruined her life by being born... Fuck... I was only seven years old at the time, Well anyway back to the main story - I was laying in my bedroom one night - I was slow to move out, I stayed at my mums house until I was 25 - I was laying in bed anyway, and out of nowhere there comes this crash sounded like it was coming from my hallway, I'm thinking it's my mother coming in drunk like she did most nights so I shouted her I should 'Come on mum, Follow my voice, I'm upstairs' - big mistake, it was too late before I'd realized it wasn't my mother... I recall that she came in a few hours earlier and I must've forgot in my sleepy state.'

The room was filled with gasps, looks of confussion mixed with horror filled the room, The balding mid-forties councellor looked at Peter and smiled sadly and said airily 'Please, go on.'

Peter obliged 'I heard a mans voice, he sounded strong, he sounded feral, the words shocked me like nothing ever has "I know who you are Peter, your eyes are mine." I heard my mother stir in her bed and then I heard heavy and fast footsteps come up th flight of stairs....' Peter paused and took  a deep breath, he hadn't ever meant to tell this story to anyone and now here he was relaying to a room full of ex-alkies, but it was somehow theraputic so he carried on 'The man Flew up my stairs and straight into my mums room - Hers was the closes to the top of the stairs - and then I sat stunned as I heard a shill scream come from the room, I jumped up off my bed and grabbed a baseball bat and ran into my mothers room, And there.....Right fucking there on the bed....He was....' Peter coughed and gagged and then forced out the words 'He was eating her face, her eyes were gone....' Peter spluttered and a tear rolled down his cheek. 'I stuck the man....I carried on striking him....I killed him as he lay there, my mother pushed the body of her and she had no fucking eyes, she was screaming at me to get help...and that...that is basically it, not long after I quit my job....and became an alcoholic....' He looked around the room, people looked white as ghosts and some of them were actually gagging at the mental picture Peter had painted for them.

He continued again 'Anyway, I drank myself sill for 5 years of my life....and then someone came along, someone who hardly knows I exist, the beautiful lady who lives across the hall from  me in my appartment block....we've spoke as friends and I just can't get her off my mind, she stopped me from hitting the boozer every night without even knowing that she had, she's simply amazing.' Peter sighed a quick 'thank you for listening.' and  was showered with "thank you, Peter" from the 7 other attendants at AA meeting, and then he took his seat.

Another couple of stories were read out, a woman who dropped out uni, a man who got his hand caught in a meat grinder and narrowly escaped death, Peter sighed and pondered why everyone either had a grotesque reason for being an alcohol or they had no real reason at all, with no grey area...then he thought it might just be his experience so he stopped thinking about it, and waited for the meeting to end.

He stepped out into the brisk september evening out of the community hall, where the AA meeting was held, and peered at his watch.

it read 20.47.

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Thank you for reading the first chapter of my book, sadly this is just a teaser and I can't post another piece for 1-2 weeks, If This gets 10 Votes, I will post the update as soon as that happens!

My name Is Chris Valentine, and I'm an amteur writer, I hope you like my works, Like Comment Fan, Do what you want, as long as it's for me ;3

- Chris