It's Raining Here.

Rain.

They always hated rain.

Whenever rain happened, bad things followed. It gets all dark and gloomy, and the radio keeps talking about all these car accidents on the roads. Everybody gets umbrellas out and has to fight against the winds and try not to get wet. And being wet meant being cold and uncomfortable and super soggy.

Most importantly, rain always meant that mom and dad were arguing again.

This time, they could hear beer bottles being opened and dad screaming over it. "You're turning into your damn father!" they could hear from the stairs where they played with dollies on motorcycles. "It's ridiculous how much booze a woman like you can put down. You're becoming an utter slob, too!"

"Shut up," they heard a slurred, feminine voice say. "It's only my second pack. And who's the slob? You don't even bother washing dishes when you finish making a mess on them!"

"That's nothin' compared to the stack of dirty laundry you leave around for the guests to see! I swear, if I see one more dirty sock-"

"Well, how about that fucking garbage you leave around the TV, huh? All those bags of Cheetoes and bottles of Pepsi aren't leavin' a good impression, either."

"Don't change the subject! What I'm getting at is that you're a filthy, disgusting alcoholic! You keep telling me it'll get better, it'll get better, no worries, but you just sit there and do nothing! Absolutely nothing! You wasted four years of your life getting a bachelors and you don't even bother to get a job!"

"What about you? You're no better. You get yours and you get your ass stuck in retail. You can barely even pay rent!"

"With YOU being a drain on my life, what did you expect? That everything would come out smelling like daisies?!?"

On and on, over and over. It happened a lot,but it always seemed to get worse on rainy days. This time, they could hear the sound of something breaking. Their hands trembled as they tried to focus on their dolls, pretending that they were a part of a motorbike gang. Maybe they rode the streets and gave starving kids ice cream. Or steak. Steak was nice. Not the one mom makes, though. Those were slimy and chewy. Kind of like how they imagined eating a car tire would be like.

The yelling became louder. Their hands trembled. They placed the dolls down, bringing their hands up to their ears. Imagine a happy place, they told themselves. Someplace really happy. An ice cream parlor in the middle of an island, wind brushing against their skin, sitting in a hot tub for longer than 15 minutes with sunglasses on...

"-I can't even belive how I even fell in love with a woman like you-"

Sunglasses? Yes, sunglasses. And flowers around their neck. A horse with a giant leaf in its mouth, waving it to fan them. Sun smiling down on them. Everything was fine-

"-bet you couldn't even pay child support if I left you-"

Everything was fine. Just sweating from the heat, that's all. Wow, so really, really hot. Bring another glass of water, horse. Yes, that's good. Lovely. Mm, tastes good-

"-ME? Take care of... No, you're out of your damn mind!"

Tastes... tastes really good. You're a good horse. Yes, yes you are a good horse. Please don't go. Please don't leave.

"It's not like I wanted the damn kid in the first place, but NO, your backup plan fucking FAILED, and now we're STUCK-"

Their heart stopped. Everything seemed to stop in that moment.

They ran. They didn't even know they could run so fast. Ran, ran, ran. It was too much. They were too much. Everything was too much.

Wasn't there a mountain? They heard it from the other kids at school. That it was cursed. That everybody who went up there was doomed to never return.


Yes, let's go there, they told themselves. Let's go, even if it takes forever.

After all... being gone would be better than staying home.