{"id":109,"date":"2013-07-20T21:05:17","date_gmt":"2013-07-20T21:05:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dreamers-sanctuary.com\/undead\/?page_id=109"},"modified":"2013-07-22T15:28:50","modified_gmt":"2013-07-22T15:28:50","slug":"chapter-11","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/dreamers-sanctuary.com\/undead\/story\/chapter-11\/","title":{"rendered":"Chapter 11"},"content":{"rendered":"

PART I: \u00a0INFERNAL FRIDAY<\/strong><\/p>\n

Chapter 11<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

People always think they’re better than others.\u00a0 I ain’t ever been like that, ya know?\u00a0 We’re all the same.\u00a0 Even if I haven’t done much with my life, I shouldn’t be judged by some kid who doesn’t know me.\u00a0 People like to feel better, and they put others down so they can feel good.\u00a0 It sucks, and what sucks even more is when I’m dumb enough, drunk enough to get drawn into that bull like I did that night.\u00a0 Even though people say alcohol brings out the worst in people, doesn’t it bring out the truth in people too?\u00a0 I think so.\u00a0 I don’t like the truth that came out of me.\u00a0 I bet few people ever did, and that’s why they said \u201cworst\u201d rather than \u201ctruth.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

Nowadays, there ain\u2019t much room for lies or distorting the truth.\u00a0 You can\u2019t do that stuff when your life depends on it.\u00a0 But this was before that. This was when people all had that \u201cI\u2019m better than you\u201d attitude against others for no real, good reason.\u00a0 Sometimes people suck!<\/i><\/p>\n

I can’t say that much now, but I’m just glad to have my life to live.\u00a0 Life is too short to waste on things like that.\u00a0 I know that now.\u00a0 I didn’t then, but I would, soon enough.\u00a0 If there\u2019s anything good about the world now, it\u2019s that the lies, the superiority, the petty things, are long gone.\u00a0 It sucks it took such a crazy extreme to get there, that we couldn\u2019t get there before that.<\/i><\/p>\n

Like that night at the bar\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Friday, April 13, 2012<\/b><\/b>
\n12:00 a.m.<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n

Nick walked into the bar that night with a mission.\u00a0 After the ordeal he\u2019d been forced into, as a result of his homecoming, all he wanted was to forget.\u00a0 Forget how unwelcome he was, even at his father\u2019s and stepmother\u2019s home, how unwelcome he was to the rest of his family.\u00a0 Forget how his father and stepmother had gone on and had a baby two years before, while he had been in California, without even bothering to tell him about his new baby brother, Kamden.\u00a0 He had to forget it.\u00a0 All of it.\u00a0 Forget that his life was going nowhere.\u00a0 Forget that he had no true goals anymore. that his dreams had been lost.\u00a0 And really, what was life with absolutely nothing to aim for, to reach for?<\/p>\n

Frustrating.\u00a0 Incredibly frustrating.<\/p>\n

So since he had nothing better to do after a long day of job hunting in a failing economy (back in 2009, the country had dove into the largest depression since the 1930s, and now Nick was amongst the ever-rising ranks of the unemployed), he wanted to end the day on a more relaxed note.\u00a0 But he didn\u2019t want to think of the reasons he wanted that.\u00a0 That was the entire point.<\/p>\n

He had been barhopping for about the last two hours that Thursday night.\u00a0 Now he was hitting the bar close to home, since it was nearing midnight, and he still had to job hunt on Friday.\u00a0 He needed money, and fast.\u00a0 An apartment would be salvation, for he couldn\u2019t live at home much longer.\u00a0 He didn\u2019t want reminders of failure, nor of his family\u2019s blatant dismissal of him.<\/p>\n

He knew he had a slight alcoholic buzz going.\u00a0 But he wasn\u2019t drunk yet.\u00a0 That was what he wanted.\u00a0 Nick wanted to be blissfully drunk, to truly let go.\u00a0 He never really got hangovers anyway, so it wasn\u2019t like it would affect him much tomorrow.<\/p>\n

He walked through the doors of the small tavern.\u00a0 It was very obviously a college bar.\u00a0 Nick himself lived close to the university, so it made sense.\u00a0 With a glance around, he began to regret his choice of taverns.\u00a0 Immediately, half the people within the room stopped to look at him.\u00a0 He knew why.\u00a0 He was pathetic:\u00a0 a washed-up, no talent townie, getting drunk \u2018cause he didn’t want to go home, where he lived with his father.\u00a0 He stumbled his way over to the bar.\u00a0 He didn’t pay much attention to anyone, didn’t care to.\u00a0 All they were, in his eyes, were reminders of what he couldn’t be:\u00a0 a man with a real future.<\/p>\n

He just had one goal, and that goal was to make it to a stool and order the strongest drink he could afford.\u00a0 He began his mission.\u00a0 Careful steps.\u00a0 Well, he thought they were careful.\u00a0 The music was blaring some of the current Top 40 hits that got played twenty times an hour on the radio.\u00a0 His vision didn’t clear up as much as he’d like, but he didn’t care.<\/p>\n

He continued walking, until a large force blocked his path.\u00a0 He just rolled his eyes at the obstacle, which happened to be some college kid.\u00a0 He wore a shirt with some Greek symbols on it.\u00a0 A frat boy \u2013 that was even worse.\u00a0 Nick was about to just keep going, no words and no apologies.\u00a0 Until two hands shoved him roughly against a pool table near the wall.<\/p>\n

“Watch it, loser!”<\/p>\n

It took a lot to make Nick really snap on a normal day.\u00a0 But that moment, those words, caused it to happen within mere seconds.\u00a0 Perhaps it was the fact that he was stuck in Florida again; perhaps it was the alcohol, or that some college kid had the nerve to judge him.\u00a0 He wasn’t sure.\u00a0 It could’ve been a combination of all three, even.\u00a0 It really didn’t matter because there was no true thought behind the action of his fist slamming into the college boy’s face, hearing the nose make a satisfying crack upon impact.<\/p>\n

“Fuck you!” Nick yelled, after watching the younger man stumble back.\u00a0 “You don’t know me!”<\/p>\n

The kid charged at Nick, tackling him onto the pool table.\u00a0 Punches flew between the two as it quickly turned into a bar brawl.\u00a0 They rolled off the table and onto the floor.\u00a0 The two were throwing fists every which way, rolling along the ground, as the battle between them continued.\u00a0 It became evident that Nick was taking more of the beating.\u00a0 People tried to break them apart, but were thrown off by both in the process.<\/p>\n

Soon, sirens could be heard.\u00a0 Someone had called the police, but neither cared.\u00a0 Nick didn’t even care that he was losing.\u00a0 He cared that he was trying to prove that he was<\/i> something. He wasn\u2019t<\/i> a loser, no matter how many dumb kids wanted to judge him.<\/p>\n

The kid grabbed the stool Nick originally had been aiming for when he\u2019d first entered the bar.\u00a0 Nick stared up from the ground, where he was lying; his vision spun around him in a haze, as he saw the stool come slamming towards him.\u00a0 There was severe pain within his skull, beyond anything he’d known up to that point.\u00a0 But it only lasted for a moment.<\/p>\n

Because then came the bliss of darkness, as consciousness faded away from him.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

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PART I: \u00a0INFERNAL FRIDAY Chapter 11 People always think they’re better than others.\u00a0 I ain’t ever been like that, ya know?\u00a0 We’re all the same.\u00a0 Even if I haven’t done much with my life, I shouldn’t be judged by some … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":8,"menu_order":11,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"onecolumn-page.php","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/dreamers-sanctuary.com\/undead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/109"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/dreamers-sanctuary.com\/undead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/dreamers-sanctuary.com\/undead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/dreamers-sanctuary.com\/undead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/dreamers-sanctuary.com\/undead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/dreamers-sanctuary.com\/undead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/109\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":375,"href":"http:\/\/dreamers-sanctuary.com\/undead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/109\/revisions\/375"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/dreamers-sanctuary.com\/undead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/dreamers-sanctuary.com\/undead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}