Writer's Notes: Hi, I'm TheEightFoldPath and this is technically while technically not my first story. Me writing stories on this website, it's not my first story. However if you were to go on my profile it will only have this story. This is for reasons that can be easily explained. However I'm not gonna explain them because I don't want to. Time for the story.

I Promise You

Chapter 1: The Elephant in the Room

Carl sat in his mom's hospital room. The slow beeps of the heart monitor was the only thing making a noise. Lori slept silently while Carl stared at her. She was so pale and lost all her hair from chemotherapy. She's been sick for nearly two years. He would sometimes hear his dad talking to Shane about their financial issues. With Lori not being able to work and the city making cuts on the police department, Carl had to get a job at the local grocery store. It wasn't fun, but he did what he had to. His dad walked into the room holding bags of McDonald's. Shane walked in behind him. Rick sat next Carl and handed him a hamburger.

"How you doing kid?" Shane asked leaning against a wall.

"Fine." Carl answered quickly hardly touching the food his dad him. Rick didn't care. He hardly eat anything either. It was utter silence after that for nearly five minutes. Then the silence was shattered by the heart monitor going from a pattern of slow beeps to one, long, drawn out beep. No one did anything and nurses ran into the room. Carl grabbed his mother's hand. He knew she wasn't dead. She couldn't be. There was a problem. A glitch or bug in the system. That's all it was. The nurses tried to pull him away, but he wouldn't let go. Shane had to pick him up and drag him out. Carl didn't cry or scream. He just watched in shock as he was pulled out of the room. Rick sat him on a chair in the waiting room and bent down next to him.

"She's gonna be okay. Understand? Everything is going to fine. I promise you. I'll make sure of that." Rick said looking in to Carl's eyes.

"You promise?" he replied.

"Promise."

-Three Months Later-

Carl walked down the steps of his high school and began walking home. He kept his eyes down as he walked through the hundreds of his smiling peers who, unlike him, will be enjoying their summers to the fullest extent. Carl has made the plan however to make his own summer a living hell. He's been making his life up to this point one so he didn't expect to chance his mind anytime soon. Since his mother's death he could barely look anyone in the eye. Especially his father who he still hated for not fulfilling his promise. Carl knew he had no control over it, but that just made it worse. Why would he make the promise if he knew he couldn't keep it? Carl walked in to the house. He walked in to the kitchen to find the note he usually finds, "I'll be home late again tonight. Order some dinner there is money on the table. -Rick". Carl has read that same note so many times he's pretty sure his dad just reuses the same one. Carl walked in to his room and slammed the door shut.

Rick sat in his patrol car with Shane. Shane munched on a burger as he listened to Rick vent out his daily thoughts. Shane always wondered how he could think about this much stuff to talk about when he so little time in between talking about all the stuff.

"I was thinking about who would take Carl if I died. As a cop I could get shot almost everyday." Rick said.

"Don't think like that, Rick. Besides you're waaaaay too careful to get shot." Shane replied with his mouth full of burger.

"I'm really worried about Carl though. He's barely said a word to me since Lori died."

"He still needs some time to grieve, Rick."

"Yeah. I guess."

"I remember when my dad left my mom and I, so she sent me to my grandparents house for the summer. Thought it would get my mind off my dad. Damn. It was terrible, I hated every minute. Worst part was seeing my grandad everyday just reminded me more of my dad. I had no fun at all."

"Shane that's a great idea. I can send Carl up to my dad and mom's house up in Woodbury!"

"Did you listen to anything that I just said?"

"Yeah I know, I'll call my folks right now." Rick grabbed his cellphone and called his dad.

11:00 PM

Carl sat at his desk drawing picture when Rick swung his door open.

"Ever hear of knocking?" Carl said continuing to draw.

"Pack up your bags." Rick said pulling a suitcase out from under Carl's bed.

"What? Why?" Carl said finally looking up to stare at Rick.

"You're going to your grandparents' house." Rick began shoving clothes into Carl's suitcase.

"No thanks." Carl went back to his drawing.

"You don't have a choice. Besides I already bought you your bus ticket."

"My bus ticket? Aren't you coming."

"No. Someone has to look after the house!" Rick picked up the packed bag and walked down the hallway with it. Carl quickly followed.

"Tell Shane to watch over it."

"Shane? Are you kidding. He can barely take care of himself."

"I agree." Shane said walking in and flopping himself down on the couch "What are we talking about?"

"Shane tell him he's crazy for sending me to my grandparents' house." Carl begged.

"Sorry kid, my hands are tied." Shane turned on the TV.

"You leave tomorrow morning. So get to sleep." Rick said walking into his own bedroom. Carl sighed and looked back at Shane who was already asleep on the couch. Carl walked back to his room.

6:25 AM

Carl was sleeping soundly when he was suddenly woken up to someone dropping a dish in the kitchen. Carl got up and went in the kitchen to find Shane try to make breakfast. Rick walked in fully dressed and looked over to Carl.

"You better get dressed. Your bus is leaving at seven." Rick said. Carl sighed and walked back into his room to get dressed. W

When Carl walked back out Shane, Rick, and him all got into the patrol car. They drove to the bus station.

"Alright have fun." Rick said.

"I won't." Carl promised.

"Please, Woodbury has so much to do and to see. You're gonna have a blast."

"I doubt it." Carl began walking onto the bus when he turned back around to Shane and mouthed the words 'help' and 'me'. Shane waved back and they drove away. Carl sighed and momentarily thought about running away, but after a quick pros and cons list decided that would cause more problems than it would be solving. Carl took his seat and prepared for the 6 hour drive that he was sure would kill him.

After about an hour he realized the drive wasn't that bad. The bus stopped in Atlanta to pick up some more passengers. He looked at all the passengers as they walked on and hoped no one would sit next to him. He sat in the back of the bus and thought that would be the most unappealing spot. An old couple walked on and he watched them sit down in a front seat. A cute girl walked on(who to be honest he would be fine with sitting next to him)who he watched sit in the seat in front of him. Then finally a tall nerdy looking kid with glasses walked on. He looked at the seats as he walked down the row. Carl watched with dread as he passed up every row of seat until he sat right next to Carl. He almost immediately started talking.

"Hi, I'm Patrick." He said putting up his hand expect a handshake.

"I'm Carl." Carl said ignoring the handshake. Patrick slowly put down his hand.

"Why are you going to Woodbury?" Patrick asked.

"My dad sent me there to go see my grandparents."

"I was at Atlanta to see my Uncle. I live in Woodbury. Maybe I can show you around."

"Sure..." Carl said very unsure. Patrick seemed nice, but he didn't seem to have a lot in common with him. After about another two hours of listening to Patrick talk, and at one point the cute girl from before turned around to talk for a while. Carl barely listened. She just talked about her family in Woodbury. Her name was Sam or something. Carl honestly couldn't care. Carl looked at his phone and assured himself that it was only 3 more hours. Everyone was eventually quiet and Carl just looked out the window. He watched as trees and farms zoomed by. He liked to pretend someone was chasing the bus and trying to avoid all the signs and other obstacles. The game got boring when there wasn't really anything for the guy to avoid. They were literally in the middle of no where. Just the road and tons of farmland.

Eventually the bus stopped. Everyone piled out of the hot bus. Carl looked around. The town looked like it hadn't changed since the 50s. The only sign of anything modern was an appliance store with one television in the window and a pizza place with some arcade machines. Everything else was just malt shops and hardware stores. Rick told him his Uncle Jeffrey would be picking him up. Carl walked around and waited for Jeffrey. Carl eventually got too hot and walked into the only place that seemed somewhat appealing. He walked in to the pizza shop and looked around. A guy ran up to the counter breathing heavy.

"Hi ca-n I...hmm...tak-e yo-ur ord-er." he said taking deep breaths in between.

"Hmm.. no thanks I'm just waiting for somebody." Carl replied looking at the man who was drenched in sweat. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, I just had to run across town to deliver a pizza and since the other guy just quit I'm the only one here." The man slouched against the counter. Carl walked over to the pac-man machine and began playing. He looked out the window every so often for his Uncle Jeffrey. The man walked over to him and looked at his high-score. "You're pretty good kid, you play a lot?"

"Not really." Carl replied.

"I'm Glenn by the way." the guy said.

"I'm Carl." Carl checked the window against and saw a man driving an old rust car drive up and park on the street. He saw Carl and waved over to him. Carl thanked Glenn and ran over to Jeffrey.

"How you doing Carl? I haven't seen you in years." Jeffrey said.

"I'm fine Uncle Jeff." Carl said getting into the car. Jeffrey drove off towards the house.

"You're gonna love this town. I promise you, this will be the best summer of your life. I'll make sure of that."

"Yeah...I bet you will." Carl leaned back in his chair and sighed.

"Welcome to Woodbury, Carl."