Prisoners of Our Minds

Chapter 2

October 13th

As Coal pushes the front door of his house open he walks past the pile of wrapping paper and presents, heading towards his room and flopping onto his mattress. He takes a deep breath in and out as the events of his day play like a movie in his mind, allowing sleep to engulf him in a tight and warm hug.

***

After waking up on Saturday, Coal got ready to go do all his favourite things with Sawyer. The day consisted of jamming out to music in the car, getting breakfast, going to an arcade, getting lunch, getting ice cream, and going to see a movie.

After the movie Coal and Sawyer drive to Coal's house to have his birthday dinner. "Thanks for spending the day with me Sawyer, I had loads of fun." The girl beams as she takes a sharp turn.
"It's no problem, I'm glad you enjoyed it as much as I did." The majority of the ride is silent up until they pull in front of Coal's house.
"You go in, I need to do something really quick." Sawyer speaks with little to no confidence which causes Coal to roll his eyes.
"You forgot to wrap my present again didn't you?" She hesitates but shoo's him off.
"'X ourse not. Just need to text my mum. Seriously I'll be there in a few minutes." Coal chuckles and nods, taking his phone with him as he shuts the door. He walks up and goes through the front door where he's greeted by his parents.
"Coal! Where's Sawyer?"

"Oh I think she forgot to wrap my gift so she's doing that. She'll be here in a minute." His mother nods as she places plates around the table.
"Alright well you can come help set up dinner while we wait." Coal nods and helps set everything up.

"What're we having?" Coal asks as he sits in his designated seat. "Smørrebrød. I know it's your favourite." His face instantly lights up with joy as he realizes his mother prepared all his favourite things. Coal jumps as he hears the front door slam shut.
"Oops sorry, gave that a little too much power." Sawyer exclaims as she so gracefully enters his home. He begins laughing as he sees his gift wrapped in her hands. Sawyer glares at him lightly enough for his parents not to notice.
"Sawyer! Oh how lovely to see you! Here I can take that." His mother implies as she takes the gift and places it atop the other 4. Coal watches as Sawyer sits across the table from him, grimacing as she kicks his leg under the table. As Coal reaches for a slice of bread he feels a sting of pain hit his hand away. "Coal!! For goodness sake wait until we pray!" His fathers voice booms against the walls, leaving nothing but a ringing in everyone's ears. "Right." His father retorts as he sits at the head of the table.
Like a king... coal thinks to himself, missing the concerned look Sawyer gives him.
"I say Coal should say grace." Coal's head shoots up at the idea.
"Why me?"

"You're thd birthday boy. I'm sure God would love to hear from you." He sighs and looks to Sawyer who nods.
"Fine." Everyone bows their heads as they await the words Coal dreads to speak.
"Dear Heavenly Father. Thank you for this day I've had with Sawyer. Thank you for this meal my mother has prepared, and uhm... amen..?" Everyone around the table echoes the last word and begins to dig into dinner. Coal takes a slice of bread, pickled herring, and some eggs.
"So how was your day Coal?" His mother questions as she piles pork and egg on her piece of buttered rye bread. "It was good. Sawyer took me to all my favourite places and we saw God's Not Dead at the cinema." His parents share a strange look which Coal doesn't take the time to notice.
"Mmm, this is really good. Thanks mum." The edge of the woman's cherry red lips curl up to form a smile. "Thank you sweetie."

As everyone finishes their dinner and puts the plates in the sink, Coal and Sawyer sit on the sofa in the living room followed by his parents who sit in their chairs.
"Are you ready to open your gifts?" Coal nods with a kind smile sewn into his lips. 5 gifts are pushed his direction and he grabs a box shaped one. He can tell the 4 wrapped in angel wrapping paper is from his parents, and the brown paper one is from Sawyer. He first opens a box to see a sweater with a picture of a wolf on the chest. "This is amazing! I love wolves!" His mother giggles and his father keeps a stern look.
"I know, that's why I knew you'd like it." Coal nods and takes the next gift.
"Those are new clothes for church. Since you said your old ones got small." Coal nods with a simper and folds the clothes, putting them on the arm of the sofa.
"Thank you." The next two are gifts from his father. One a BB gun for hunting, and the other a Crucifix for his bedroom wall.
"Here's mine." Sawyer retorts as she hands Coal her newly wrapped gift. He holds in a giggle from her lack of effort. He tears the paper away to be met with two words instantly smacking him in the face.
Holy Bible.
As strange and random as the gift is, his instantly averts his attention to the golden pages and the dark burgundy cover with gold writing Holy Bible. "Oh that's a beautiful Bible Sawyer!" His mother exclaims as she stares at the book.
"Yes I know, I found in a cupboard when I pulled some blankets down. I knew Coal would like a Bible of his own too." Coal nods as he cracks the book open to a random page.
"Thanks Sawyer." They both share a smile and Sawyer looks at her watch.
"Well it's getting late, I should probably get going."

"Okay. Thank you for coming dear." Coal's mum says with a bright smile on her face. Both Coal and Sawyer walk to the front door, hugging each other tightly.
"Happy birthday Coal." The boy smiles and squeezes her. "Thanks Soy." As they depart from the hug Coal watches his best friend walk out and drive away, leaving him alone behind the closed door. He sighs and grabs all his gifts, hugging his parents goodnight and walks up to his room. He puts everything away except the bible. As Coal sits on his bed his cat comes out from underneath and jumps up beside Coal. "Hello Oskar." Coal smiles as he pets the grey fur on Oskar's head. He stops petting his cat to pick up the bible and open it to the index. The pages looks old and dusty, and the inside part of the pages aren't gold as the outsides are. As Coal flips to the first page of an actual story, Oskar stars hissing and his tail puffs up.
"Oskar? What's wrong buddy?" The cat jumps forward and claws Coal's hand, causing a few drops of blood to drip onto the open page.
"Oskar! What's gotten ino you?" He turns to see the blood begin to soak into the page.
"Well now I can't get the blood out-" his sentance is cut short as blackness seeps into his vision like ink. "What-" Coals vision fades to nothing.
Darkness.