“Breaking news, there has been yet another spree of wild animal attacks, this makes the third month in a row, the police are still no closer to finding the animal responsible, or the previous victims that were reported to have checked out of the hospital, despite the doctor's recommendations.” The female news reporter said in an excited voice, brimming with poorly masked pleasure with this being the most exciting news in a decade, to happen in the small town of Hartwood.
Groaning Josh rolled over hand blindly grasping for his radio to put a stop to the news report's gory description of the attacks, the words blood-soaked and dismembered swirling in his head ensuring that he will defiantly be having nightmares for yet another night. “Jesus, doesn’t she know this is a morning show? Kids listen to this; I won’t be the only one not sleeping if she keeps that up.”
Swinging his feet out of his bed to rest them on the hard cold floor, Josh stood up beginning his morning route of stretching and light exercise, more to fend off the perpetual chill than to get in shape, his slim body refused to add any muscle or fat, leaving him looking little better than skin and bones. That combined with the fact Josh’s mum couldn’t afford to heat the house and feed him and his younger brother Nathan.
Grimacing Josh couldn’t help but dread the coming winter, Josh’s mother Elizabeth Rowe tried the best she could, being a single mother of two, but times were hard for everyone and life doesn’t care what your circumstances are, it is ruthless to the end and if you want to live in this world you have to fight tooth and nail every single day. That was the lesson drilled into Josh since birth, nothing is free everything has a price and you’d damned well better pay it.
Josh’s father refused to pay, he took and took, thinking himself above that fundamental rule and eventually, it caught up with him, Andrew Rowe was driven out of Hartwood beaten and blooded, the townsfolk he scammed and tricked cursing him the whole way. This would have been fine with Josh if not for the financial situation his father left them in when leaving, every penny wasted on gambling and half-baked ideas, not a day goes by that Josh didn’t hope to see his father’s name in the papers.
Bracing himself for the cold shower water about to burn his skin, he sighed knowing that he had a long day of college and job hunting ahead of him, Josh tried to help his mum as much as possible but no matter how well-intentioned the universe didn’t seem to want him to keep a job longer than a week. He honestly thought he had lucked out the last time getting a job cleaning up the local park, making sure that no kids would cut themselves on broken glass or stumble across any used condoms he thought shuddering, but at least it was a job that paid. Until Josh was let go indefinitely due to the park's sudden closer, finding three dead bodies and two on the verge of death will do that.
Holding back the instinctive need to vomit remembering the terrible site, Josh did what the therapist said to do and tried his best to regulate his breathing, focusing on the present and not getting drawn into the past. There was time enough for that at night when it was impossible for Josh to ignore the slide show his brain seemed to have locked and loaded each night, ready to keep him up and deepen the dark circles under his eyes even further.
Josh went through the process of showering in an almost meditative state, trying to focus on nothing else but the cold water running through his short brown hair, hands slick with the three-in-one shampoo, shower gel, and conditioner that his mother bought in bulk hoping to cut costs where possible, not even the sting of pain from when his hands traced over his newest bruise managed to break the trance.
Stepping out of the shower knowing that he was going to be late for his first class, Josh couldn’t bring himself to worry or care about something as dumb as maintaining attendance or grades, after all, it’s not like a good grade in photography will help Josh pull his family out of poverty, at least not in Hartwood anyway, maybe if he lived in a big city like London, but the Rowe family could barely afford to live in a small town that most people had never even heard of, London would never be on the table not for them.
Leaving the house the sound of his left shoe slapping against the cracked concrete the sole holding on by pure stubbornness at this point, he made sure not to make eye contact with any passer-by on the street, in small towns like this, the old saying about the sins of the father rang true far more than Josh wished it too, to them he was a no good lowlife just like his dear old dad. Very few are willing to forgive and forget what Andrew did and Josh was the next best thing to take their frustrations out on.
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Stomach already starting to growl, reminding him that he yet again left without breakfast Josh kept his head down while walking past his so-called peers, as far as Josh was concerned however they may as well be from another planet, Hartwood may not be a big town but it was filled with old money, the family’s that who’s great great ancestors settled here years ago and bled to ensure their later generations could live comfortably. None the wiser just how spoiled and entitled their actions would leave the current generation of Hartwood.
In a town of wealth and privilege where everybody knew everybody and rules and laws change as frequently as the weather people like Josh and his family were the odd ones out, the ones that were needed to maintain everyone else’s life of privilege but never accepted as being part of that life, they were expected to live in the background keeping the machine running from the shadows and never stepping out of them.
Looking up after narrowly avoiding bumping into two laughing girls Josh could smell the scent of the shampoo the tall redheaded girl used, a pleasant sweet smell kind of like oranges. “No way that’s the three-in-one stuff” Josh muttered absentmindedly his new line of sight highlighting one of the best examples of wealth and privilege in Hartwood, and the cause of Josh’s most recent bruise.
Thomas Clarke the tall golden-haired son of the Mayor, as handsome as he was rich or his daddy was anyway Josh thought spitefully, but that’s how it was despite having anything they could ever want, not a single one of these shining little gems of Hartwood society did a thing to earn it. In most cases their parents didn’t either, Josh hope to live long enough to see this town’s money run out and watch as it all crumbles around them.
Swallowing the coppery taste of blood from my bitten lip, he tried to push the surge of anger down as far as he could knowing full well that it would achieve anything, he was a nothing in this town no matter how hard he tried Josh wouldn’t be able to change this town or its people.
Seeing Thomas make eye contact and start to head over Josh swallowed down words far more bitter than bleed, never one to for swearing Josh refused to let Thomas Clarke be the reason for him to sully his mouth with those words. Memories of his drunken good-for-nothing Father throwing bottles and cursing up a storm pushed their way to the front of Josh’s mind.
Each word seeming to upset his mother and cause her to flinch more than all the bottles he ever threw at the wall, no matter how close some of them came to hitting her. The one time Josh swore he could hear his mother crying the whole night, terrified that she had raised her son to be like his Father. After that night Josh promised himself to not swear especially around his mother.
“Muttering to yourself again bin boy!” The loud booming voice of Thomas said startling Josh out of his thoughts, “what did I tell you about doing that annoying shit around me? You should show more respect, you and your useless family do nothing but make this town look bad, you should be thankful we let you stay here” Thomas said ensuring it was loud enough for everyone around them to hear.
“I’m not a bin boy Thomas,” Josh said barely more than the muttering that brought on this fresh load of bullying and harassment. Noticing some of the others around him scowling not at Thomas for disturbing the peace but at Josh for simply being there. “Right yeah how could I forget, my Dad had to fire you when they found you fucking those corpses in the woods, you little freak.”
Thomas’s statement brought the crowd from simply giving Josh dirty looks to agreeing with Thomas and chiming in with insults like a freak, scum, trash, and disgusting a few even accused him of murdering them himself, despite the evidence proving it was some sort of animal. Proof and evidence meant nothing to them, all that mattered was what they wanted to be true.
“I wasn’t fired, and all I did was try to help them, I’m the one that call the police, you’re honestly not dumb enough to think I would have done anything to”, “What the fuck did you just call me you no good piece of shit?” Thomas growled lunging forward to grab the collar of josh’s shirt to pull him in.
“Huh? Did you just call me dumb? I guess you didn’t learn your place yesterday after all.” He said leaning into Josh’s ear finally not playing to the crowd, Josh tried to pry Thomas’s hand from his shirt, knowing just how he planned to teach that lesson, all the while he mentally berated himself for letting his anger slip through.
“That’s enough Clarke unless you're finally going to come out and confess your love for Josh there’s no need to hold him so close,” a girl’s mocking voice said as though she had no care in the world. “Fuck off Sam!” Thomas shouted but letting Josh go as he did so.
Stumbling and falling backwards as Thomas pushed him away, Josh looked up eyes tracing the entrancing figure clad in black and purple, eyes coming to a rest at Sam’s lazy carefree grin. “Always causing trouble Rowe,” she said mockingly but with no malice behind the words, after all, she was Josh’s one and only friend. She knew better than anyone how fragile he could be.