"The Painting"

It was a brisk fall morning in London, but yet as always my brothers Ryan, Zach, and I were outside exploring around the woods. We just needed to get away from our dad for a little while, he was always constituently yelling at us and hitting us for stupid reasons like not putting our bike away, or beating the snot out of each other for no reason. He never liked us and we never liked him, plain and simple. This time we really made him mad, my best friend Jared and I were outside playing baseball as we do every Saturday morning. We were easily passing it and then it somehow got into a throw it as hard as you can to see who misses it first, when I threw a nice fastball. It looked like a bullet being shot from my finger tips. I barely saw it go past his glove; I started to celebrate when I heard an eardrum piercing noise, a window being broken. My dad ran outside and started coming at me, he jumped on me and starting beating me over and over and over. Until I made my own move, a crack in the jaw.
I turned and ran as fast as my legs would go, Jared and I cut into the woods like bulldozers plowing everything down. I couldn’t go back; my dad always abused our family, well not everyone. My mother passed at the age of 31, I was five so nine years ago. It broke our hearts, tore us apart as a family, socially that is. My brothers and I haven’t had a complete conversation with our dad since that day.
It was a nice summer day, the sun just came up. Everyone was happy, believe it or not, even my dad. We were going to surprise mom with a happy birthday bed in breakfast. So we all got up and went to the grocery store to pick up some of her favorites: bagels, chocolate milk, cookies, a nice white cake and some party stuff for her surprise party. We were coming home when we heard this on the radio, “A police car was driving by a local resident’s house when the officer heard a gunshot, it was a woman of her late 30’s that was found, that’s all the details we have for now.” It was terrible, we raced home as fast as we could, and with all the luck in the world, the police were at our house.
That’s how my mother died, very tragic. The beatings started that day, dad was crying all day, never left his room. About midday he came out and all of a sudden, just started hitting us all. So back to reality, we’re hiding for now so our dad can’t find us. About three hours after Jared and I decided to go back, worst mistake ever. We snuck in as quietly as we could in the basement door, and there sat my father. “Where have you been” he asked.
“We were out hiding so you didn’t kill us, as usual,” I said.
“Well all actions have a punishment Jake, you broke the window so come here,” he said with a fierce look and a grin on his face. At that second I knew what to do, what I always do, run. I turned and sprinted like a gazelle as fast as I could upstairs and Jared and I hid in my room. We heard the door downstairs open, Ryan and Zach walked in. My phone buzzed, I looked and saw Ryan was calling me.
“Where are you hiding, I’ll distract him,” he asked.
“We’re hiding in my room, we need somewhere better. Cover me while we get into the closet in dad’s room” I said.
“Alright, you got about a minute starting now” said Ryan. We heard Ryan screaming, that was our signal, and we took off as fast as we could into dad’s room which was on the first floor. We covered ourselves in his dirty clothes pile. It stunk so bad we were gasping for air, dads an artist, so he’s always home. Never has time to change his clothes he said to me before, that’s because he’s always working, sleeping, eating, or mostly abusing us. He told my brothers and I to stay out of his room, were about to find out why. I was looking through his stuff trying to find something suspicious he wouldn’t want us to see. I was looking and I found a niche in the wall, I was about to examine it when I heard cries of pain from Ryan and Zach. We went out of the closet and ran downstairs unnoticed and saw dad on top of Ryan punching and chocking him. I ran put my shoulder down and nailed dad right in the side like how I do in football. “Follow us” I told Ryan and Zach.
We went upstairs into dad’s room, shut and locked the door, and went to examine the niche again. I looked at it over and over again, it just didn’t make sense. Was it an accident, no way, it was put there on purpose. Someone tried to conceal it so no one would find it, but why is it there? I ran my finger through and over it over and over trying to figure out why it was there. We all inspected it; we thought and thought again, until it hit me. Something fit inside, like a little rectangular key. I told everyone else my discovery, we all ran around frantically trying to find something that looked like it fit.
We searched for hours; dad came up and tried to break the door a couple times, it never worked. Jared and I were searching his closet; we found a shoe box and looked inside. Inside the box it had a smaller box labeled; Property of Joseph Thompson, Do NOT Open. We of course opened it, and there it was the little piece for the niche. “Good job boys, mission accomplished” I said.
“Oh my god” Jared said, “What do you thinks inside.”
“Honestly, none of us could know” said Zach.
“What are you waiting for Jake, put the last piece of the puzzle in there and see what happens” said Ryan.
“Alright, here we go” I said. I went over and placed the piece into the niche. Astoundingly the wall pulled back and it revealed a small room. It was fantastic, everything was beautiful. Paintings were everywhere, there were nice leather seats, but in the middle of the room there was something suspicious. Under a cover there was a stand with a painting, glass was protecting it. We got up close and inspected it, it was true beauty. The painting was of fall, and there were leaves everywhere, but in the middle was a path leading to somewhere.
“Wow, I never ever knew this was here” said Ryan, “Why do you think Dad kept it a secret.”
“I think it’s a bad idea” said Jared, “it could’ve been hidden to keep something bad in here”
“Look at this place dude, its fantastic” I said, “let’s take the glass off the painting and look closer.” Zach helped me lift off the heavy glass. I took the painting and examined it, it was true art.
“What’s that in the corner, that little scribble” said Jared. We all looked closer to see initials. It read: Painting By JAT. The initials obviously stood for Joseph Andrew Thompson.
“Wow I can’t believe Dad actually painted this, why is it all hidden, it beautiful” said Zach.
“Does anyone else feel weird, like your being sucked on by a small vacuum” I asked.
“Weird, but yeah I do” answered Ryan.
“Me too” said Jared. “As do I” said Zach.
“Wow that’s weird I wonder if something is happen-” I tried to end the final word, but we all disappeared, right out of thin air. We landed in a place that we didn’t know, like in the middle of the woods. I looked around and found everyone else looking around like deer caught in a headlight. “Oh my god guys, does this place look familiar, like really familiar to you” I asked scared.
“No way, we got sucked into the stupid painting” Ryan said.
“I told you guys, there was a reason it was hidden, but no you guys go ahead and get us trapped here anyways” Jared screamed, “No one ever listens to Jared, oh no, he’s never right.”
“Dude, chill, this place looks harmless” said Zach.
“Are you kidding me, this place is a painting, we’re stuck inside of a painting” Jared said fiercely.
“We’ll be fine, now what do we do” I said, “I’m starving.”
“Let’s just calm down and follow the path, maybe we can find a town” Ryan suggested. He turned and started walking, we all followed, and Ryan was the oldest one of the group. Plus he’s the most experienced in the woods; he goes camping all the time. It was near dark when we stopped for a rest. “Let’s get ready and sleep here for the night, were getting up early to continue on” Ryan said out of breath, “We traveled far today.” We all found a tree branch to sleep on; Ryan wondered off for five minutes and came back with some raspberries.
“Dude, wow, you’re awesome” I said happily.
“My pleasure, just eat up and get some sleep” Ryan ordered. We got about six hours of sleep before Ryan woke us up to continue on. “Wake up sleepy heads, we got a busy day” Ryan said. We all moaned but agreed, we got up found some more berries and continued on. We were all keeping a lookout in case we see anyone, or anything. On our left there was a field and about eight deer prancing through it.
“What I would do to get some deer meat,” Zach said, “I’m starving.”
“Oh hush it,” Ryan said, “We just started walking.”
“What’s that running through the woods, its big and black,” said Jared, “Run; it’s a bear charging us!” We turned and ran down the trail, the bear about 30 yards behind Zach, who was behind us all. The bear picked up it pace, it was mad and hungry.
“Turn right!” Ryan shouted. We were close behind him, the bear now about 17 yards behind. I thought we were going to lose it because it was falling back, but as usual, I thought wrong. We ran right into the ledge of a big cliff, about a 400 foot drop to the bottom.
“I don’t want to die like this!” Zach screamed as he caught up. The bear was 10 yards away and it was standing there, then it slowly started coming closer.
“I have a plan, when she charges, jump to the right,” Ryan said.
“That’s not very safe,” Jared exclaimed.
“It’s better than being breakfast for a hungry momma bear, now isn’t it Jared,” Ryan asked.
“I like your plan then,” Jared said. The bear was now only four yards away from Zach, he backed up, but he was out of room. The bear acknowledged that he was close, and attacked.
“Jump now Zach!” I shouted. Zach dove a little too late; he and the bear fell off the edge.
“No!” I screamed, “Zach!” We all ran over to see Zach lying at the bottom with the big bear on top of him. I couldn’t believe he died, he actually died. We all stared with dismay; it was sad, we all cried that day and decided not to go on. Jared and I found a tree to sleep in again, it was going to be a long painful night.
It was about six am when we all woke up, dreary eyed, but ready to go. No one said anything, it was going to be a day where nobody and anything. We headed off and started following the trial again, but it started getting darker and darker. There were fewer trees as we walked on. “This is awkward” I said.
“Very” agreed Ryan silently sobbing still. They did everything and I mean almost everything together. We continued on in hopes of finding some other human life form. About 4 hours later we could see nothing but a wasteland; there were no trees or grass. All we could see was dead plants and sand, it was creepy. We looked back to where the path we came in at was, it was gone, and we were trapped in this barren wasteland.
“What is this magic!” screamed Jared, “First we get trapped here, Zach dies and now were trapped here, great just great.”
“What’s that sign say over there,” Ryan asked.
We all walked up to it and it read, “Whoever enters never returns.” We all stared wide-eyed at the sign then each other.
“Wow, so much for the sign,” I said happily, “There is a large castle type thing right over that hill!” We gathered our energy and ran for the door. “What should we do,” I asked.
“Knock,” Ryan suggested. I walked up and hesitated but knocked, I turned around with a worried glance, looked back and no one answered. I looked back at Ryan and saw he was there, but with a spear in him. Jared was gone, how could this of happened? I sat down and started sobbing; I curled up into a ball and sat there for hours, day’s maybe. I stood up, faced my fear of whatever was inside, and knocked. The door flew open and a man stepped out, looked me over, and two guards took me captive. I had no clue where I was, they knocked me out and handcuffed me, and I must be in the dungeon. To my surprise there was another man in the cell to my left.
“Excuse me, but where am I?” I asked.
“Oh,” he replied, “Were in the dungeon of the city.”
“Yes I know, but what’s the cities name?” I asked again.
“The City of No Return,” he replied, “do you know what they do to prisoners in this city?”
“N-n-n-n- no sir” I stuttered.
“They either hang them,” he said, “Or they make us fight to the death against the guards.” A guard burst into the room and stared me down.
“You,” he said pointing at me, “Are sentenced to Armageddon.” He knocked me out with his club; I had to be out for at least 20 minutes before I awoke. I stood up to see cheering fans and a man holding me down. The people got quiet as someone entered the cage, I looked up to see a man wearing fine robes and gold all over, he must be the leader.
“Kill this boy,” he replied, “Now.” I looked up to see spears flying and knives, which was the end of me and my family. We entered the City of No Return, and we never returned. I learned one thing from all this, never go into my father’s closet. I tried to picture the man’s face while I laid there bleeding, he looked familiar, very familiar. It came to me like a train smashing me in the face, the King was no one else, but my father.