Chapter 1 Rock Slide

CRACK! The picture frame in which Shawn just held shattered against the wall and shiny flecks of glass scattered around the room. His phone lying under the bed vibrated as it always did when he got another notification. Usually he would be running for the phone, to see which friend had wanted to talk. But today was different he was tired of everything that was happening to him, he was tired of being there. For some reason he wanted to run and never stop running until he was somewhere he didn't know.

There was just one problem he was on an island 7 miles from the nearest land. The island was quite large it had its own school of around 800 kids from grade school to high school. No matter the size everyone in town seemed to know who he was. He had to get away from it all they all knew him as the farmers son, the bastard now. His dad ran away to be with the love of his life, when they ran away they went to Iowa to grow corn on small farm how that detail got around to the whole island he didn't know. Now this left Shawn to live with his mother who has grown distant from Shawn recently because every day he looks more like his dad. He's just over 6 feet tall with light brown hair a little scrawny but fairly average in most aspects. But he couldn't lie he did look exactly like his dad except for his hair which was the color of his mother's.

This fact, that he gave his mother Andrea Pearson the pain from just looking at him made him want to leave over everything else. But then he thought about the pain she would endure if he left her all alone on this island where she only ever had one true friend, and she was dying. She had cancer 5 years ago and with treatments it had subsided, however it was back with a vengeance and had only a few weeks left and his mother spent every day next to her bed.

Shawn was also spending time with his mother's friend Molly Henderson and her son Kevin who was only a year younger then Shawn soon going into 10th grade. He like Shawn had no father to look up to however Shawn would rather his dad had left like Kevin's because his dad died fighting wildfires in Nevada. It was strange however Kevin's parents never worked nor did he mention that they did his father was only a volunteer firefighter...

Shawn was startled, staring in concentration at his floor trying to clean up the glass fragments when his phone vibrated. He had his head nearly pressed to the floor spotting more pieces of the glass when his phone went off a foot from his head for the third time. This time he had decided to look at his phone. He had three messages all from Kevin the first simply read "hey", the next was just "?" And the third message read "call me, she's gone". For a second he just sat there wondering whether he would breathe with the wait on his chest that his new friend's mother had just passed. It hit harder than he expected it too he knew she would die soon but that didn't lessen the impact but why did it matter so much.

He decided he better call Kevin, finally taking a breath that didn't seem forced he hit the call button next Kevin's name and it started ringing. Kevin picked up almost immediately and said with an eerily cool voice for the situation "can I come over".

Shawn mumbled "sure".

With that Kevin hung up without a word. When Kevin looked back at his phone it was nearly 11 o'clock at night but it didn't matter Shawn couldn't tell him no right now.

He looked down at the photo, glass shards distorting the view he saw the photo of his dad playing catch when he was eight years old. He didn't want to clean it up right now so he just kicked it under his bed for now to clean up later but even the hatred of his dad was pushed to the back of his mind at the moment. The only thing that mattered was Kevin where was he going to stay he lived in the biggest house on the whole island but he couldn't live by himself he was only 16 and barley. Then he wondered if he should go wake his mom, as he walked across the room he put his foot right on to the edge of a shard of glass. He jumped on his other foot and swore realizing he might wake his mother he bit his knuckles and fell on to the bed.

But his mother already woke and called out "Shawn are you alright?"

He said through gritted teeth "I'm fine", in all reality he wasn't the blood was leaking out of his foot at a rather good flow.

Then his mother replied "are you sure I heard you yelling?"

Frustrated as he was he tried to keep himself from losing his cool at that moment, recently he found it hard to keep a level head. To his relief the door bell rang and heard his mother ranting "who would be here at this time of night". Then her tone changed dramatically and Shawn remembered that Kevin was on his way, "oh hello Kevin why are you here so..." her voice drained away.

Shawn hobbled over to the bathroom and started cleaning his still bleeding foot, when he heard his mother start to sob down in the kitchen. He decide to just put a rather large bandage over his foot and wrap it in some tape and make his way down to his mother and friend. When he made it down the stairs and turned the corner he still heard the sobbing. Expecting to see Kevin eyes full of tears, he was surprised to see that his mother was the one crying. Kevin sat there comforting her telling her "it's okay really; we all knew she wouldn't be here forever".

This had no effect on her mood in fact his might have made her feel even worse. She slowly rose from her chair at the kitchen table and walked towards the stairs and mumbled something in audible that may have been goodnight. However neither of them questioned her movements and Shawn decided to talk to Kevin now, "so how are you doing."

Kevin took his time taking a long breath and saying "fine." There were a few moments where neither of them talked and then Kevin spoke. "I've known for a few days that it was going to happen soon, it wasn't really a shock but I don't really know what I feel really, I feel lost."

Another silent moment passed between them and Shawn was the one to break the silence, and he wasn't really sure what to say. So he asked a question "when did she, pass?"

He hesitated, this direct question clearly made him emotional because when he next spoke he had a slight studded "well s-she passed around f-five, this afternoon". He seemed to get his voice back when he spoke next "she went peacefully at least that's what they told me when I got home, died in her sleep." But as he said this, a tear leaked from an eye and ran down his nose as he stared at his feet.

Shawn thought he should change the subject to something else but the only thing he could think of was, "so where are you going to live now? Are they going to let you live by yourself?"

"No my aunt is going to move into the house now, well my house." He said that last line with a kind of forced laugh. "Yeah, we planned this week's ago; she has no kids and nothing to tie her down. She's going to be arriving early tomorrow morning."

They sat in silence for a few minutes, Shawn listening to hear if his mother went to sleep he heard nothing guessing she went to sleep. Then out of nowhere for no reason Shawn blurted out "hey you want to go to the rock slide?" The rock slide is a waterfall that has a sheer rock cliff on one side conning down from a mountain a waterfall 20 feet across 15 feet high and a grassy bank sitting at the foot of the waterfall with a large pool of deep water. But the part he wanted to go to was the top side of the water fall and up the hill where you could sit and look over the small town.

Kevin thought about then it looked down at his watch and noticed it was almost midnight by now and then he realized he really didn't care anymore. "Yeah let's go I'll drive us." Shawn was one of the few people on the island who had a car most people ride around on bikes and other off road vehicles.

Shawn was on his feet before he responded "alright I just want to get out of here right now I hate this place."

They were both on their feet when Shawn took a step and pain had struck him, his foot still had a gash in it. The bandage was stained dark red but when he went to take the bandage off at least the bleeding stopped so he limped up the stairs and planned to clean out the cut. However as he was across the hall from his mother's room he stopped as he heard soft groan and mumble from his mother. He knew she was still crying, but he thought that anything he could do would do more harm than good so he continued onto the bathroom.

After a quick rinse he decided that the cut looked clean enough so he went to his room to get a new pair of socks and Kevin was sitting on the bed holding a picture. When Kevin noticed Shawn walk in he tried to hide the picture by putting it under the sheets. Shawn just tried to ignore it as he grabbed a fresh pair of socks out of a clean basket of clothes, when Kevin asked "are you going to be alright to get up there?"

"Yeah it's just a little cut; we go up there all the time." He said this with only a little hesitation knowing well that it might impair his ability to do anything physical.

Kevin eyed him over before speaking, "alright let's go before the sun rises."

They walked down the stairs trying not to make too much noise. When they walked by Shawn's mother's room Kevin gave a glance and knew that Ms. Pearson was not sleeping and he felt a little guilty about not doing anything. Shawn didn't give a second look at the door and hurried down the stairs to the front door. Kevin waiting for Shawn to put his shoes on spoke "I really didn't think she would take it that bad."

Shawn replied with a tone of contempt, "I don't know why, she's been so emotional and it has been like this for a long time now."

Kevin felt uncomfortable hearing someone talk bad about their mother when he has so recently lost his. Shawn must have seen this look on his face and got up and started heading for the door. When he opened the door he was hit by a cool breeze and gave a slight shudder it was a cloudless night and the moon was shining bright. Kevin walked out behind him and shook a little also "I thought during the summer it was warm."

Walking to the passenger side of Kevin's truck he noticed that he had the nicest car on the island too. It was a 2008 Ford F-250 it had every feature you could ask for including seat warmers (which were a huge bonus in the winter). "You know Kevin you never told me how you guys could afford all your toys."

Kevin hesitated to answer "you know I really don't know I never remember either of my parents ever working, the only time I asked they said they had made good investments." He put the key in the ignition and the truck roared to life, this gave Kevin a broad grin. "No matter how they got their money, I'm glad I got this baby."

They made their way down Shawn's drive way and on to Trotting Ham Way he lived at the far east side of the island. It was a short drive on to the main road Megunticook Lane, which wasn't very creative because that was the name of the island. That road drove nearly the length of the island from east to west but they were going down to the far west side where a road breaks of and goes north about a mile.

The two boys drove all the way into town without passing a single car and the only person who they saw was the sheriff sitting out in front of the cafe. For a moment they wondered if he would pull them over for being out so late, but then they realized he was sleeping because he had his hat pulled down over his head. Anyways it wouldn't have mattered because it wasn't the sheriff it was as just the deputy Ronald he was only 24 and let about every one get away with anything if they aren't causing harm.

Shawn looked back "man for a second I thought that was going to be Sheriff Rick."

Kevin retorted "I don't know what your worked about I'm the one who would get in trouble."

With that the two boys headed down the main road for a few miles till the road turned to dirt and the trees slowly started to make a canopy over the top of them. With all the recent rain from the start of the summer the dirt road was mostly mud and water he got stuck in only about 100 feet. So with a smile he put the truck into 4 low and went off down the road marketing easy work of the road. Kevin made certain to hit the gas around every corner carelessly, most people would think him mad but Shawn was already use to the lunatics driving.

Around the last corner they came to stop where the trees opened up and there was a large lake sitting atop a cliff. The lake use to be an old rock quarry however they struck a huge underground spring and with the other springs running down the mountain the water over flowed and down into a short river into the ocean. However before this journey it had to fall 20 feet and through the rapids, they both sat there in awe staring at the beauty but also the danger brought by the mountain.

They parked the truck and jumped out it was even cooler here with the sea breeze, they walked around lake to the foot of the mountain when they realized they aren't the only ones there. In a small clearing on the edge of the trees there were two four wheelers. Kevin looked at him "you know who that is?" Before Shawn could answer he could hear the distinct sound of boulders falling down a mountain. He knew these all too well because he himself would purposely push larger boulders down to watch them crash into the water when he was upset.

As he looked up though it was not a large boulder that caught his attention, but the shape of a lifeless body rolling down the hill and the shouts of a girl. "Collin NOOO!" Kevin and Shawn sat in awe watching the scene unfold in front of them the boy had fallen down the mountain from about 60 feet down sharp rocks to the water the only chance the kid would live is if he landed on the water conscious. To their horror the boy Collin landed in the water and did not resurface, without hesitation Shawn dove head first and into the icy water he had to swim fast to save the boy.

Kevin sat there frozen watching the scene until he saw the girl running towards him, down the path in which the boy had just fallen. He looked over the water seeing that Shawn was under the water and realized he went under just next to the water fall feet from his truck. Kevin went at a dead sprint to the truck with the girl racing after him screaming, "HELP HIM, HE CAN'T SWIM!" But she didn't know he already had plan because he too couldn't swim that well, he got to his truck and dove into the back seat looking, and he found what he was looking for a long tow strap.

When he ran back out he noticed Shawn resurface with the boy at his side thankfully the boy was alert and screaming "AHHH, my leg I think its br..."

Shawn had cut across him "Kevin help the currents to strong."

The girl was about about to jump into the water Kevin grabbed her by the shoulder "the currents to strong it will drag you over the edge." As he was yelling at her she noticed the rope and stopped trying waiting for him to make his move.

He turned to the two in the water Shawn swimming with the boy clawing at his back but there movements were going away towards the waterfall. Kevin ran closer to them and threw the rope it landed about ten feet behind them and with all that he had Shawn swam against the current trying to reach out for the rope. He could feel the current getting stronger wondering if he would make the fall over the edge were many rocks that would easily crush bones. With this new fight in his heart knowing this was his last chance took another stroke and he hit the rope was in his hands.

Kevin notice the slack had just tightened he grabbed the rope and pulled with all his might, his feet slipping slightly on the loose gravel on the bank. Shawn was also slipping the rope was slick in the water and his life seemed to be sliding through his fingers. With the last foot of rope approaching he wrapped his arm around as much of the rope as possible, finally the rope stopped sliding but that was only because the rope stopped moving.

Up on the bank Kevin had fell to the ground losing his footing felt his forearms dig into the ground. The girl was right there to pull him up and help drag the two in the water to safety and finally they started to make headway. Back in the water Shawn had a firm grip on the rope with one hand and the other wrapped around the boy who was now coughing. Collin seemed to be losing his grip around Shawn. They were now just feet from the bank and they could stand, Shawn tried to heave the boy up but he too was too tired to move.

Kevin and the girl jumped into the water and dragged them to the shore where the girl had collapsed on to the boy sobbing. Shawn was out of breath and completely numb from the icy water but stood up to walk towards the boy. But there was something wrong the boy was slipping in and out of consciousness, and the saw why a long with the many cuts and bruises just behind his head there was a trickle of blood. Before he passed out he mumbled "I'm c-cold, Jamie."