Pathways by Monarch Krow

Chapter 1: I light my house on fire

"Catch on fire to set the world ablaze, bask in the glory of my creation. View the purge and the plague."

At around 5:30pm my mother calls me down for dinner.

"Yeah yeah I'm coming, hold on a sec." I shout, I take the last few puffs from my cigarette and smush it out in the cup on my roof, yeah I smoke, so what. I put the pieces of paper back in the cup and climb back through my window. I take a glance in the mirror and change my jackets. "What were you doing up there hun?"

"He was cutting himself, that's what!" my step dad yells.

"Fuck off 'Derik', I don't do that shit."

"LANGUAGE!" my mother yells back.

"I was doing homework, I got a test tomorrow after all."

"Stop being so hard on them Derik, they're going through enough harassment at school as it is." my mother states.

"HARASSMENT? YOU CALL THIS, HARASSMENT? SHUT YOUR MOUTH WOMAN, THIS IS MY HOUSE. I CAN SAY WHAT I WANT." Derik yells. "Jake isn't the alpha in this house. I AM. if he can't understand that, he can leave."

My mother snaps. "THEIR NAME, IS GRIM."

My Mother and Stepfather start arguing and I walk back to my room and grab my bag. It's always packed in incase something like this happens. I always have some spare clothes, stolen cash from my stepfather's wallet. He's always drunk so he never notices. A few packs of cigs, don't ask how I got them, A Zippo, lighter fluid, bandages, my hunting knives and butterfly knife, and a few other things. Things start to get loud again so I open Spotify on my phone and play my metal playlist. I grab my Leather jacket that my dad gave me before he died and throw it over my tattered gray flannel. I sneak into my mother and stepfathers room and snap open my lighter, and light the curtains. I text my mother to go to the store and stay there for a few hours.

I grab my stash of booze from under my bed and jump off my roof. My best friend Felix lives a few hours away from my house so I pick the lock on the garage and grab the keys from above the garage door to my stepdads Honda CB550, slip on the helmet and take off. Yeah yeah, I know what you're going to say, "but grim, you're 16, it's illegal to ride a motorcycle." and to that I say, Screw you, I look older for my age. On this bike, and not following the laws of the road, it takes me about twenty minutes to get to Felix's house. At the first light, I call Felix.

"Hey Grim, what's up?"

"Shit went down, I'm on my way, get ready. We are getting the fuck out of dodge."

"What happened Grim?"

"Don't worry about it. I'll be there in 20."

The whole time I was driving I was playing scenario after scenario. Cops kept chasing me, and I was running, downshifting, upshifting, full throttle white knuckled. Lane filtering, the whole 9. I got out of the county and made it to Felix's road. I go onto the sidewalk and there he is, Felix, in their ACDC t-shirt, ripped jeans, my old black zip-up hoodie, and white helmet to match my gray; in his hands. I take off my leather and give it to him, they pull it on and I put out my arm so he can use it to climb up behind me.

"Grim, what's wrong?"

I don't respond, I crank the key and rev the throttle twice, the signal to grab on because I'm putting the pedal to the metal, as they say. I throw it into first gear, second, third, fourth, and just go. I don't care what happens right now because I'm just tired of this shit. I didn't have a destination but I remembered that we have this abandoned cabin me and the others use as an escape. Even with Felix repeatedly tapping my shoulder trying to get my attention I just don't respond.