Only a Shadow - Chapter Two
Took long enough, didn't it? Welp, here's chapter two, hope it's okay.
"I don't know, Max..." Sean looked up at his friend, who had crawled up onto a counter. Max looked down at Sean
"Come on Sean, you can't tell me you haven't been curious..." Max's grin was contagious.
Sean rubbed his shoulder, "I'm not supposed to touch dad's drinks..."
"He won't ever know!" Max exclaimed, turning towards a cabinet with a glass window on the front, a few shelves of different types of liquor stood proud.
"Pass me the key." Max reached down to Sean. Sean handed Max a small golden key and Max chuckled a little.
"Who hides a key under a mat these days? I mean, hello! It's 2007, not 1932." He laughed. Sean chuckled a little, but still remained nervous.
Max inserted the key into the padlock keeping the cabinet secure. The padlock dropped onto the counter with a loud clank. Sean and Max held their breath and looked over at the door.
After a few seconds, Max breathed a sigh of relief.
"I thought we were caught there..." Max chuckled a little. Sean looked at his friend with a nervous look.
"I don't know..." Sean said, "We should probably just stop..."
"Not happening." Max opened the glass cabinet and reached in. He pulled out a bottle of liquor and held it in his paws, "Man this thing is big..." He sat on the edge of the counter, then tapped his paw beside him, beckoning his friend to come up.
Sean climbed up onto the counter and sat next to Max, staring at the bottle. Max reached behind him and grabbed a bottle opener, "Now...let's get this thing open." Max attatched the bottle opener to the top of the bottle, pulled it with all his might, and the cover of the bottle popped off without a trouble.
Max took in the strong scent of the bottle's contents and looked over at Sean, "Well, you want a drink first?" Max asked.
Sean rubbed the back of his neck, "It smells funny...and I don't want to get in trouble."
"Suit yourself." Max shrugged and brought the top of the bottle to his mouth. A few seconds passed, Max put down the bottle and sighed.
"It tastes funny...but still pretty good. You sure you don't want some?" Max asked.
Sean looked into Max's pleading eyes and shook his head, "Fine."
Max handed over the bottle, Sean grabbed the bottle and held it tightly in his paws, "Okay..." He tilted the bottle to his lips and drank some of it's contents. Sean quickly handed the bottle to Max, he coughed and some of the alcohol spilt onto the bench.
"That made me choke a little..." Sean coughed again. Max sighed.
"Sorry, I just thought this'd be fun to try." Max apologized.
"What was the whole point of this...?" Sean asked, his mouth still tasting the alcoholic beverage.
"My mother kept going on about making memories before she died. So...I thought maybe we could try doing that." Max shrugged.
"Okay, first, we're eight years old, and second, drinking this sort of stuff..." He glanced at the bottle, "Isn't a good way to make memories."
"That's not what dad said. He said that drinking this sort of stuff was the only way to make memories with mom." Max argued.
Sean had no idea what Max meant, and he had a feeling that Max didn't either, but none of them questioned it. Max stood up and reached into the liquor cabinet. He tried to reach the top shelf, but tripped over his own feet. He fell onto the shelf, knocking multiple bottles off the shelf.
Sean reached over and yanked Max away from the cabinet, knocking them both onto the floor. The bottles shattered on the bottom of the cabinet, emitting an extremely loud smashing sound.
Only a few moments later, and Sean's father walked into the kitchen, "My drinks!" He shouted, "Who is responsible for this!?" He grabbed Sean and Max by the collars of their shirts and held them up to his shoulders.
Neither Sean or Max spoke, they were frozen in fear, "You little shits! All of that cost over four hundred dollars!"
"Why would you buy drinks that expensive?" Max asked.
"That's none of your damn business, kid." Sean's father said. Max's ears dropped and he looked away from the male.
Sean saw his friend retract from contact and looked over at his father, "Put us down." He said, nervously. His father game him a glare that could only be explained as terrifying.
"You don't tell me what to do." Sean's father growled at him.
"You don't have the right to treat us like this...!" Sean exclaimed.
"If you think you're old enough to drink, then you're old enough to be treated like an adult." His father said, with a serious tone.
"How did you...?" Sean's eyes widened.
"I can smell the alcohol on your breath." Sean's father grinned. Sean looked over at Max, who hadn't stopped staring at Sean's father, he was scared that he was going to hurt either one of them.
"Put us down, dad..." Sean begged. His father just ignored him and glanced over at the desimated cabinet.
"You're going to help me replace all that, you hear me?" He said, looking over at Max, "You too, fag."
Max glanced at Sean, "What's a fag?" Sean just shrugged.
"I'm not going to explain it..." Sean's father facepalmed.
"Well...if it's bad...then you're a fag!" Max exclaimed, triumphantly.
Sean's father growled at Max, and brought him a little closer, so that he was face to face with the kid. Sean had had enough and growled at his father.
His father looked at him and gave him a glare, "Don't hurt my friend!" Sean shouted, he slammed his paw into his father's face, his claws digging through the skin. His father dropped both of the kids and staggered backwards a little bit, blood dripping out of his newly opened wound.
Max stared at Sean with disbelief, Sean's claws were dripping with the blood of his father. Sean's father looked over at his son and walked over to him. He grabbed Sean and scratched him across the face, through one of his eyes.
"Sean!" Max grabbed Sean off the abusive parent and held him tight.
"You better go wash your face and cover that wound before your mother gets home." Sean's father growled at his son, "If you don't, you'll be in the ground before she gets back." He spat and walked out of the kitchen.
Sean and Max shared looks of fear. Max wrapped his hands around Sean and pulled him in for a hug, "Let's go fix you up..." Max said, leading Sean out of the kitchen.
Sean stared in the mirror. Looking at the scar he'd gotten four years earlier. The scar that he'd gotten that day was still there, starting beneath his eye, and ending just above it. He felt the scar with his paw and sighed.
It wasn't one of his finest moments.
"Max! Time for school, kiddo!" Max's mother shouted from downstairs. Sean wiped some tears that had escaped his eyes and opened the door to the bathroom, peering outside. He looked across the hall, into Max's room. He saw Max getting out of his bed and stretching.
Sean felt his face with his paw one more time, "I'm not going back there..." He said to himself, walking out of the bathroom,
"Ever again..."
I hope this chapter was okay...personally I felt it was kinda...over-the-top, unrealistic and just...bad. But I hope this chapter was okay for the rest of you. The next chapter should be coming soon but, you never know. :/ Thanks for readin', I guess.