Runaway Child

Chapter 1: The Beginning

We start the adventure in a room, a cold, dark, unfurnished room. A 9-year-old boy called Alex sat in there, on the floor. The walls were thin and the black wallpaper was peeling, revealing a dusty old grey layer. Despite such harsh conditions, Alex was happily playing with a broken train he found in the dumpster outside of his house. He could hear the loud clanging of the pots and pans as his mother was cooking. He sighed as he got bored, and looked around. How he longed for a friend to play with, to talk to, to get up to mischief with. Alex's parents were... irresponsible. They didn't care for him and he knew it. They were poor because his father had always been fired for theft of work supplies, or doing drugs during shifts. His mother usually liked to go out drinking on weekends with her girlfriends and wasted the budget away. Alex was usually left home. It was just him and his imagination. 

One particular afternoon, Alex was sitting at the table, playing with his broken train as his mother went to buy food. He knew it was risky having anything worth money around his parents, so he would only play with his train when they were gone. As he was getting carried away with his imagination, the door swung open and his mother stood there, holding a bag of bread and some butter. Alex quickly shoved the train in his pocket, but it was too late. She already saw it. 
"What was that?" She hastily asked as she threw the bread and butter on the table.
"Nothing, Mother." He sighed, and looked down at his shoes, hoping she would go away. "I saw you put something in your pocket, give it here." Alex looked up at her. She had her hand extended, motioning for him to give it to her. Alex started to realize there was no way out, and slowly reached into his pocket and gave her the tiny broken train. She snatched it and inspected it carefully. "it's a train." She muttered. Alex looked pleadingly at her to give it back. "It's broken. Why do you have this?" Alex shrugged. His mother took a few more seconds and held the train out to Alex. As he went to grab it from her, she threw it hastily at the wall and it broke into a million pieces. She cackled and went outside to smoke. 

Alex began to sob as he held his only toys parts, it was shattered and unfixable. He held it close and sobbed. As he cried he heard someone's presence standing over him. He turned around and his father was standing over him, with an angry look on his face. "What are you, 3?!" He shouted. Alex started to cry harder. His father noticed he was holding something and ripped it from his grasp. He held the broken toy parts is disgust. "What is this?!" He shouted. Alex tried to talk between sobs, "m-m-my train-n." he sobbed. His father looked at the shattered pieces and shoved it int his pocket. "Nice train." He muttered and rolled his eyes as he walked away. Alex continued to cry. "And SHUT UP!" he shouted as he slammed the door to his and his wife bedroom.