“Good!” The tall young man said as Luke effortlessly lobbed the ball back to him. “One more, come on.”

“Sure,” Luke replied, stopping the ball dead with his feet before chipping it back into his training partner’s hands.

“You sure you’ve never played on a team before?” Luke’s training partner, a young man named Darren, asked in his thick Yorkshire accent as he and Luke followed the rest of the team off of the pitch.

It was quite an early start on Tuesday morning. I’d committed to myself that I was going to follow a normal school day routine, even though I’d be studying on my own. I’d not be doing myself any favours, if I allowed myself long lie ins or spent all morning watching You Tube.

“Well, that was easier than I’d expected,” said my Mum, as she put her phone back down on the desk in her study.

“Okay,” I whisper to myself, before taking a deep breath and focusing on the words on the page in front of me. “Doctor, what should I do with this liver?”

“Well, fry it with some onions and some beans!” Comes the reply from George, one of my fellow students.

“…It’s a transplant liver, doctor, for humans,” I say in a deadpan voice, before grimacing. “Ah, shit, sorry, that should be ‘it’s a human liver for transplant’.”

“Oh, how privileged I must be! Princess Sam finally deemed me worthy of having my phone calls returned. I am so honoured!” my Sister teased, as I called her back.

“I’m sure you’ve been sat, twiddling your thumbs, waiting for me?” I replied.

“Well, after a couple of hours of that, my thumbs got tired! So, I decided to head home from Manchester. I’ve taken the scenic route, over the Snake Pass. It was fun.”

“Oh, that’s funny. We were out for a drive in the countryside today, too. How long have you been back? I asked

“Hey honey. How was your day?” my Mum called back.

I headed straight into the lounge, where my Mum was sat in the middle of the sofa, with her laptop open on her lap, and a series of papers spread on the two empty seats beside her. I took a seat in one of the adjacent armchairs.

“Great, thanks. James took us out for a drive to Broadsbury; it was really pretty.” I smiled across to my Mum.

“His car got you all the way there? Didn’t you say his door was falling off, or something?” my Mum asked, with some concern.

I wasn’t exactly thrilled to change schools for my junior year. That meant that I would try to fit in a school with already established groupings. Awkward. To make things even more awkward I was the only new student in junior year apart from the more notorious one. A transgender girl started at the same time as I.

Link: The Road to Hell Title Page and Description

CAUTION - Highly Emotional Content

--

Living with Joss turned out to be more difficult than the pastor and his wife had believed it could be. Even though he was a boy, they realized he might find it difficult to adjust to living as a boy given his physical development. Even as Daniel drove them home, Susan noticed one major problem.

I woke early on Saturday morning, after again struggling to get to sleep the previous night. Too many excited thoughts running though my head, from the experiences of the last few days and the anticipation for the coming evening. I got up much earlier than I would normally have on a Saturday, and very early considering how tired I had felt.

Link: The Road to Hell Title Page and Description

CAUTION - Referenced Attempted Suicide

--

Floating in a dream state, Joss wondered if this was what death was, an endless sea of nothingness for all eternity.

“I don’t have any pyjamas. I don’t wear them; I’m neither seven nor seventy years old! Can’t I just keep this on, until going to bed?” I said, gesturing towards my current outfit?

“No. I don’t want you crying all over my clothes. And you need those as costumes, don’t you?” My sister replied.

“Why on earth would I cry? What are you going to do to me?” I queried in fake panic.

“Nothing. I hope you don’t. But trust someone who knows from experience, these girlie chats about boys often end that way.”

“Boy chats?”

Link: The Road to Hell Title Page and Description

CAUTION - Attempted Suicide
CAUTION - Highly Emotional Content
CAUTION - Intense scenes involving a minor

--

A month to the day after the accident, Josh went back to school. He walked into the building dressed in a black skirt, top, tights, and flats. He also carried the black backpack that Grace had used for the last three years, the same one he'd had before her. Judy let him keep it as a memento of their love, along with a few other things. He'd asked about the carving he'd given her for her sixteenth birthday, but Judy told him she'd been buried holding it, unwilling to make her daughter ever part with the gift she'd loved nearly as much as Josh himself.

“Hi you two!” Gary says, greeting me and Kayla with hugs as we enter his home and drop our travel cases in the hallway.

“Hi dad!” Kayla replies with a giggle, before we head through to the living room and flop down on the plush sofa.

“Hi you two!” Charlene- Kayla’s mother- says as she emerges from the kitchen with four warm (and very welcome) mugs of tea. “Did you have a good train ride from London?”

“Yeah, it was great, thanks!” Kayla replies. “Didn’t get mobbed by TOO many fans, hehe!”

If the bell hadn’t rung, I likely could have stared at the textbook for hours, and would still be none the wiser.
“Is it me? Did I miss something when this was being explained?” I asked, to myself more than to anyone else.

“Well, if it’s you, it’s me too!” answered my classmate John, as he put his books away in his bag. “I think I made a big mistake choosing Maths; I stopped understanding what we’re doing weeks ago.”

8 Months Earlier

“Come on Devin, we’re going to be late!” Elise yelled.

Devin ran from his mirror and quickly got to the car. He had specifically picked his suit based on Elise’s wishes. He had never been to a homecoming dance before, and probably would’ve blown off finding an outfit if it weren’t for her. He wanted to make this night very special for her. He wasn’t going to let Elise down, no matter what mental crisis he was in.

“Sorry I was just…” Devin started. “Never mind, we better get going. You look stunning by the way.”

Link: The Road to Hell Title Page and Description

--

Before the end of the month, Grace had her driver's license and the two spent their first evening out alone without Judy. It was a simple dinner at a fast food place and then a movie, but she and Josh enjoyed it just the same.

Elise was making her way to the front door of Devin’s house. Her parents knew she was going to his house, but they didn’t know his parents weren’t there. She didn’t tell them that part, since they probably wouldn’t have let her go otherwise.

As she approached his house, she knew that she would need to keep a close eye on Devin. She may not have been the most observant person in the world, but she wasn’t blind. Something was clearly happening to him.

Link: The Road to Hell Title Page and Description

--

Judy spent the next month looking into any legal options for Josh. In the end all that came of it was that he could file a malpractice lawsuit against Dr. Williams, but not until after he turned eighteen. Until then only his parents could file one on his behalf.

Link: The Road to Hell Title Page and Description

--

Trapped in a one-car garage filling with smoke, Josh found it strange that he could breath just fine. It was then that he saw both Jennifer and Grace were there and choking on the deadly fumes as he watched helplessly. Suddenly, he noticed he had a respirator in his hand and looked at the two girls in turn. He knew that he could only save one of them at this point, as they were both so close to death that by the time he'd saved one, the other would be gone. Frozen in indecision, he stood there and watched as both succumbed to the smoke and fell lifeless to the floor as he screamed.

“It’s weird how this has become just, like, normal again,” Lee says as we pull on our coats and head out of the flat, locking the door behind us as we go. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, I love university, but you know? I kinda, like, got used to it being summer, having all the time to myself… Am I making any sense?”

“Maybe a little,” I reply, smirking as my flat mate rolls his eyes. “But I kinda get what you mean, I think.” Even though my summer was a hell of a lot busier than yours…