“Dad!” I screamed as the ground beneath the house opened up and the house was swallowed up into the impending darkness below.

“Uhhh” I said as my stepmom shook me awake.

“Get up!” She said as I rolled out of bed and onto the cold floor. “Warren is still sleeping and I need to wake him up, too. So, as I said before, get out of bed.” My mom yelled.

“It’s Saturday” I said, complaining.

“Yeah, and?” she replied.

“You suck!” I shouted as I got up and pushed past her.

”Thanks for getting up,” she replied, sweetly.

“Uhhh!” I said as I walked to the bathroom and slammed the door. My stepmom and I had not been getting along well together. We were nothing like each other. I felt like she was Cruela Deville. I missed mom. Losing her four years ago was the hardest thing to get over. I felt a tear come down my cheek. I couldn’t cry now, I had to be strong. After finishing my shower and brushing my teeth, I came out wrapped in a crisp towel. I walked to my closet and rummaged through my clothes until I found something that smelled decently good enough to wear. I dressed and walked down the wooden steps to breakfast.

The smell of blueberry waffles with syrup overwhelmed my taste buds I felt a drop of drool coming out of my mouth. A paper napkin fixed the problem. Luckily, Warren didn’t notice. Something unpleasant mixed with the waffles scent and I asked, “What is that smell?”

“MY COOKING,” my mother yelled. “GOT A PROBLEM WITH IT!” She shouted, furious for no reason.

“Geese, take a chill pill,” I said, trying to calm her down. I was starving and I needed to eat something. I quickly gobbled the food up. One pancake, two pancakes, three. We eventually ran out and dad was two lazy to make some more. Warren stared at me with strange eyes as he took careful bites of his food.

“A little hungry, Alex?” Warren asked.

“Shut up, Warren.” I said staring him down with fierce, penetrating eyes. Warren didn’t talk for the rest of breakfast.

After my feast, I went outside and walked in the forest. Our house was quite large and was in the center of the forest and that gave us a lot of privacy. My short brown hair grazed a branch as I went deeper and deeper into the woods, stopping to look at fungus growing logs and weird insects. My chocolate eyes squinted as I tried to see something that had just moved in the bushes. I almost somersaulted as a coyote moved out. My heart beat at one hundred miles an hour. I was alone, in the forest, correction, deep in the forest, with a dangerous, maybe even rabid coyote in front of me. For a few seconds I froze, and then I took action. I saw a long branch about five feet from me. It wasn’t a fencing sword like I normally used, but it was something. I stood still and suddenly lunged toward the branch but the coyote moved with me. The fierce beast pounced at me and got me straight in the chest. The impact blew me off my feet and onto the ground where I struggled with it, trying to get its sharp teeth as far away from my face as possible. I used my other arm to grab the branch and with the all my might crushed the branch down, right into the coyote’s face. It whimpered and went limp. I slowly got up and checked myself for any damage. Now I felt happy I had decided to start taking fencing lessons in the fourth grade. After seeing I was spotless, I went up to it to tease it. “That’s what you get,” I said to it, putting my hands up. “Not so fierce now, are you.” I laughed, kicking its head. Then, its head moved and I did what every normal 13 year old boy would do, I ran, hard. I kept sprinting until I reached the house, pulled the door open, got in, and slammed the door shut.

I ran up to Warren’s room and opened the door. “Warren, you will not believe what just happened!” I said.

“What, you came into my room without knocking?” he said sarcastically.

“No, stupid! I just fought a coyote!” I said.

“Ya right, you can’t even open a can of coke without help,” he said, laughing.

“Hey! I’m serious!” I said, complaining.

“Ok then, tell somebody else that’s interested,” Warren said.

“But,” I said until Warren interrupted me.

“Get out!” he said, starting to raise his voice.

“Ok,” I said, a sour tone in my voice as I opened his bedroom door and walked out into the hall. “Ok, now what can do for the rest of the day,” I said quietly to myself

As if an answer to my call, the house suddenly dropped. “Dad!” I screamed as the ground beneath the house opened up and the house was swallowed up into the impending darkness below.

I awakened one hour later, dazed. “Dad,” I called out in a hopeless attempt. I was trapped underneath a pile of rocks.

“Alex,” I heard him call, and I struggled to reply. Suddenly, the rocks on top of me moved and what I saw above me, amazed me. A gigantic hole was where our house had been, and we were in it.

“Where’s mom?” I asked, trying to care even though I didn’t.

“I don’t know,” he said sadly. I suddenly realized another person we were missing.

“Warren, where is he?” I said, frantic. “Warren, Warren, where are you,” I yelled.

“Uhhh…” I hear a voice say.

“Warren!” I pulled him out and after seeing he was okay, dropped him. “Oh, you’re okay, now I don’t care,” I said crossing my arms.

“Thanks a lot.” He said sarcastically, trying to pull the rest of his body from underneath the rocks.

After seeing we were both okay, our father hugged us tight, not even letting go when we were suffocating. As we tried to find our mom, we heard no sound, after four hours, we decided she was gone. The cave had paths on either side and after finding a light that had not been destroyed by the fall, we continued on through the darkness ahead.


to be continued…