Homebound for the Horizon

The City loomed up towards the sky. A vast ocean of steel and concrete, cold neon lights stretching for miles like a starfield. An enormous jungle where it was so easy to lose yourself. In a dark, gloomy corner of the glorious modern city, a boy ran through the streets. Ignoring the stray cats that scattered before him, and the splash as he stepped through an overflowed drain, he charged up a flight of rickety metal steps, until he came to the hovel that was his home. A single room apartment. Ignoring the corner designated as the kitchen, the boy headed straight to the "bedroom", where his mother was tending his father. "Here," The boy said, out of breath. "Streets said you owe him one" Mother took the offered bottle and poured nearly the whole thing down her husband's mouth. The boy couldn't help but stare at the ugly, red bandage on his father's side. "Thank you, dear," His mother said. "This should kill the pain enou...

In an attempt to get Carol to behave herself, I did a random "scary writing prompt search". Which I will not put here because it contains spoilers.  And because I didn't exactly follow it.  ---------------Arriving------------  Somewhere in the Pacific North West in late September, Carol pulls into a campsite. Despite the dust from the campsite's road, Carol unrolled her window. The heater in the old SUV had been going full blast despite the pleasant weather. An overheating engine was to blame. It worked ok as long as the roads where flat, but they had not been for the last few hours.  She does a quick once-around to pick a site.  The whole site was in a wobbly figure eight shape, with the entrance from the highway entering in on the top, and at the bottom you could sometimes catch glimpses of a creek. Many trails spider webbed off into the mossy woods.  This late in the year the place was almost empty, and she ...