[original story] Wish [PP May Submission]
Title: Wish
Author: rin_no_himitsu
Genre: General
Rating: T
Summary: Once upon a time, there lived a happy family of two...
A/N: My May submission for the PP. I wrote it in a rush, so hopefully it isn't /too/ bad. ^^;;
Once upon a time, there lived a happily family of two.
The boy’s mother had died when he was born, so he lived with his father.
His father worked very hard to support them. He would always be working away, even at home.
One day, the hard-working man got called into his boss’ office. He went in happily, firmly believing that he would be given a raise. When he came out, the man was deprived of a job.
“We’re sorry,” his boss had said. “Everyone’s struggling with money in these times, and we couldn’t afford to keep paying all the workers.”
Since that day, the boy’s father fell into a depression. He started drinking, and he gambled away whatever money was left.
When the landlord came in and told them they couldn’t stay there anymore, the father turned red with rage.
The little boy hid in his room until he couldn’t hear any more glass shattering.
They moved out. The little boy spent every day searching for food and shelter only to return to his father, passed out in the box they slept in the night before.
He would wake up the unshaven man and feed him half of the scraps he managed to find that day. His father would push him away after, desperately grasping for the closest beer bottle-his only comfort.
When the boy tried to take the bottle away from his father, the man lashed out. The next day, his body was decorated with colourful spots of black and blue.
From that day on, his father would beat him whenever he touched him. The man had forgotten his own son. He was traded in for the sweet escape of alcohol.
It tore him apart to see his father this way. It hurt more than the stinging slaps and bone-crunching punches he received every night.
But he couldn’t stop trying. Because once upon a time, he and his father lived a happy life.