Chapter 10

Chapter 10

I woke up the next morning and Jessica was no longer next to me. I was really tired from being so high the night before. I wanted to just roll over and go back to sleep but I talked myself out of it. I sat up and lit a cigarette. The one window in Jes's room was was cracked almost all the way across. She didn't have any curtains, so the light poured right in onto the bed. I noticed that the day was kind of cloudy. I looked at a clock and it said it was only ten-thirty. I was surprised that I woke up so early. It probably has something to do with the past couple of days when I had to wake up for work. I was kind of glad I wasn't working today, but working at the Shop wasn't hard it gave me something to do.

I went to bathroom before I did anything else. The bathroom was surprisingly clean. I opened up the door and saw Alice walking by the hallway. She saw me and waved. I just gave an apathetic wave back. I walked through the living room and into the kitchen. Jes was sitting at the table drinking coffee. The smell of coffee made my nose happy, I walked over and poured myself a cup of joe. I sat down next to Jessica, I saw that she was working on a word-search.

"Did you sleep good?" I asked her as I sipped my coffee.

"Yup." She pushed her word-search off to the side and smiled at me. "How about you?"

"I slept good, especially because I was with you." I smiled back at her.

Jes lights a cigarette and hands it to me. Even though I just smoked a cigarette I accepted it anyway. She then lit one for herself. We talked a little about last night and how much fun it was. We also talked about what we wanted to do today. We thought about playing frisbee, unfortunately it looked as if it was going to rain. That was out of the question. I offered to go get the weed Chuck had given me and just smoke all day. I was kind of hoping that she would want to come to my house. Alice called Jessica into the other room in the middle of our conversation. Jessica got up and walked fast as if Alice was going to hurt if she didn't come. The two girls must have spent at least ten minutes talking.

Jessica walked back into the kitchen slowly. Her smile no longer was there, it was replaced by a nervous look. She told me that she couldn't do anything today. I was really disapointed. I tried to figure why she suddenly changed her mind. The only thing she would tell me is that her and Alice had stuff to do today. I wasn't happy at all, I left without even saying good-bye.

On the ride home I took a bunch of Hydrocodons and smoked a bunch of cigarettes. I loved Jessica with all of my heart and I was really scared for her. She was hanging out with the wrong crowd and it was beginning to change her. I just hope she doesn't get hurt. I'm actually thinking about telling her father where she is. Jes would hate me forever though.

I got home and I rolled a joint. It was only about lunch time, but my mind was already tired. My mom was at work but I still didn't feel like sitting in my room. I went for a walk down the same path that I did the other day. Once the Hydrocodons kicked in with the weed, I almost forgot about how pissed-off I was. I sat on a rock and listened to all the different sounds of nature. My senses felt more enhanced than ever. I lit a cigarette and my phone rang. I looked on the caller-ID and it was Josh. I quickly answered it.

"Hey man." I said, really excited to talk to him.

"Hey bro." I could tell he was happy to talk to me too. "Wanna get together and hang out?" He asked.

"Yeah you should bring your acoustic up to my house and we can play acoustics at this new place I discovered."

"Be there in a few man."

I walked back pretty fast so I could roll a nice size joint before he gets here. The day was still cloudy and I was hoping really bad that it wouldn't rain. I almost started to run, when I reached to road I walked the rest of the way to my house. I went down to my room and turned on the television. I was already high and I was about to get higher. Usually when I get high I get motivation to do stuff, but I didn't really want to do anything today. I wasn'y sure if it was the gloominess of the weather or if it was the whole thing with Jessica. I just felt horrible.

I was making some coffee in hopes that it would wake me up some when Josh arrived. That alone helped a little bit, I haven't seen him in awhile. He came up to door and just walked in, it wasn't abnormal for Josh to do that. He is pretty much part of the family around here. He noticed I wasn't quite myself when he got inside. He smiled and started to tell me about this new CD that had came out. To be honest I was listening much at all.

We started walking down the path that we used to go down as kids. It was pretty much a quiet walk. I didn't talk because I was lost in thought about Jessica and if there was anything I could do. Josh was already high, I could tell. He was walking next to me with a nice glow about him. He was ejoying nature and the sounds of all the different animals chattering away.

We arrived at the rock that I had discovered the other day. It was really big, just like the one at the park. Josh and I climbed to the top and I pulled out the joint. Josh was telling me about his sickness he had. I tried to listen, it wasn't working very well. He mentioned something about puking and not being able to eat anything for two whole days. I couldn't imagine that. I didn't want to imagine that. As Josh and I passed the joint back and forth he finally brought it up...

"So Jessica's father came by my house, I was sick so I didn't talk to him." He hit the joint and waited until he let the smoke out to continue. "My mom told me about it...Why did she run away?"

"I don't know why exactly." I accepted the joint as Josh passed it to me, but I waited to hit it until I was finished. "I went to see her last night. She is staying with some new friends of hers. They are bad news though. Her roomate tricked me into smoking cocaine and then tried to rape me." I looked down at the ground, I suppose I was ashamed a little bit. "Her roomate...Alice... is a b***h...She doesn't care about Jes's safety and sometimes it seems like Jessica is afraid of her."

"Damn." Josh put his hand on my shoulder for comfort. "Is there anything I can do man?"

"I wish there was man." We sat there and finished the joint, and then an idea hit me!

I told Josh to follow me and I ran back down the trail to my house. I ran inside and wrote a note for my mom saying that I was out with Josh. I told Josh to get some food and drinks and then go get in my car. I grabbed my cigarettes and some more pot. I don’t know why but you never know when I might need it.

I got in the car and didn't even bother to buckle-up. I took off and didn't look back. Josh just looked at me with confused look upon his face.

"We're going to Chucks house, if his roomate will put Justin in the hospital then maybe he can send a firm message to Alice. Jessica doesn't know Chuckeither so she can't get mad at me."

The sky was dark and dreery. It was beginning to sprinkle a little bit. Which didn't surprise me at all. I turned on some music just enjoyed the ride. I was really really high so Josh and just laughed and joked around. I loved having him around because he always put me in a good mood. I had to stop to get some gas and more munchies. Josh and I ate a whole bag of ships and it wasn't nearly enough. Josh took care of getting those. As I was pumping gas I was just dazing off. Then something horrible caught my eye. The truck that had fucked with us last we were heading up Chuck's went by. It was going slow and the old man was looking righ at me. As we made eye contact I got chill down my back. I was relieved that he was going the opposite way we were going. I didn't want to have a run-in with that guy.

I got back in the car and waited for Josh. He walked out the front door with a huge paper bag and he just laughed when he saw my face. I couldn't help but laugh either. He had gotten sandwiches, six drinks, more chips, a few chocolate bars, and cigarettes. I looked at him with one raised eyebrow as if to say, Seriously?

"Got to be prepared man." He set the back down in between his legs. "First...we take care of this." He pulled a joint out of cigarette pack.

I wasn't quite sure if could of handled another joint but I wasn't about to say no. We smoked this joint hard and fast. I donn't know why, we still had over thirty minutes until we would be at Chuck's. I was so high it was getting hard to drive. Josh offered to drive, but I didn't accept. It's not that I didn't trust him, I just knew the way so it would be easier. After we were done with the joint I lit myself a cigarette and it calmed my nerves enough so it got easier. Josh put in a Death Cab for Cutie CD. I always liked them, their music is very sophisticated, talented and poetic. The pot and pills were hitting me hard. I was lost deeply in the music, Josh was too. I heard every little thing and probably some stuff that wasn't in the music. The pretty relaxed sound of music felt like it was controlling my body. Normally I listen to the vocals and intelligent lyrics, but this I wasn't. I was lost in the way the drums and music flowed. For a few minutes I thought I was in a movie and Death Cab was the soundtrack for my life. My brain was completely gone with the deep meaning of the songs.

When we were about five minutes away from Chuck's I turned the music down so I could get myself back to reality. I lit another cigarette even though I just had one, damn painkillers. I was really excited to talk to Chuck again. I remember the last time we hung out. On the ride up here I told Josh about it so he feel better about coming up here, he actually sounded pretty stoked about joining me after that.

We pulled into the driveway and I noticed that his apartment was completely dark.

"Do you think he is home?" Josh asked.

"His car is here." I replied.

By this the sky was dark and it was raining pretty hard. I shut off the car and turned of the lights. For some reason his house still gave me the creeps. Trying not create an uncomfortable vibe I got out the car andmotioned for Josh to come with. We walked slowly up the stairs and we noticed that the front door was open. The horrible stench from the meth lab was pouring out of the apartment. I was frightened, there was no denying it.

"Chuck?" I called out with nervous tone. It was pitch black inside and Josh and Iwere soaked at this point. Chuck man?..You in there?" No answer.

I decided that I needed to toughen up at least a little bit. I proceeded in the door. As I pushed it open I saw that the lock was jammed back. Obviously a break in happened here. I turned on the light and the place looked pretty much normal. I walked into the living room and I couldn't see a thing. When I reached to my left to turn on the light switch I felt some kind liquid get all over my hand. When the light flickered on I looked, and my hand was covered in blood!

I stared at my hand in complete shock. I looked at Josh and he had a terrifying look on his face, but he wasn't looking at my hand. He was looking out into the room. I was kind of scared to look but I slowly turned my head the other way. The guy that cooked the meth and put Justin in the hospital was lying there on the floor...Dead. I was way to high to be dealing with this. There was blood splatter all over the walls and there was big pool around the body. I was wondering where Chuck was. I looked in a bedroom and he wasn't there so I looked in another one, nothing. I opened up the bathroom door and I saw Chuck lying in the tub with a bloody arm hanging off the edge. I ran over to the tub hoping he was still alive.

"Chuck!" I felt tears coming out of my eyes. "Chuck...Don't do this to me man...Not now!"

Josh ran into the bathroom and puked in the toilet. He was pale as could be. He just stood there in shock.

Then I heard a mumble come from Chuck's body! He mouth moved a little bit. "Help." He could barely breath. I didn't know where the hospital was around here and Chuck was in no shape to explain how to get there. I debated on calling 911. Not because we were high, this whole event definitely sobered me up. I was worried about what the cops were going to think about us coming to a meth lab. Then I realized that I had no choice if I wanted Chuck to live. I pulled out my cell phone and dialed: 911.

"Hello, what is your emergency?" Some lady answered with a calm, monotone voice.

"Four-sixteen Patchwoods Rd. I need an ambulance now!" I was practically yelling at her, her calm voice was pissing me off.

"Now calm down sir...I'm sending one now. What has happened?"

"My cousin has been beaten just this side of death!" I still couldn't believe how calm she was. "His roomate has been murdered too."

"I will send some units right away. In the meantime try to stay calm and donn't leave."

I hung up and tried to comfort Chuck by telling him help was on the way. I was so worried and I was crying and I didn't even realize it until now. Why did this have to happen?

The ambulance and the police arrived at the same time. They rushed inside and the EMT's told Josh and I to get out of the way. So we went outside, I was couldn't stnd the sight of blood anymore at all. Josh and I were outside smoking cigarettes when an officer asked Josh to come to his car questioning. Not to long after an officer approached me as well.

"I'm Officer Mike...Whats your name son?"

"My name is Ian Rockwell sir." He didn't look at me yet he was just writing on his little notepad.

"So what happened here tonight?" He looked at me this time.

"..My mom told me to come up here to visit my cousin because I haven't talked to him in forever, so I did. This is what I found." There was no way I was going to tell him the truth.

"Are you sure that’s it?" He looked at me like he didn't believe me.

"Yeah...Thats it." I took the last hit of my cigarette and stomped it out.

"Alright well don't leave town. I'm going to need to ask you more questions....Okay?"

"Mmhm." I didn't really care about what he had to say right now. I was way more concerned with how Chuck was doing.

I lit another cigarette and was wondering why this would happen. I figured with their lifestyle they probably had a s**t-load of enemies. then I remembered the old man driving by the gas staion. He was driving away from Chuck's direction. The fact that he knew I was at the gas station was really suspicous. I had no doubt that he did this. I wasn't going to tell the cops that though.

Josh walked up and lit another cigarette. We both leaned up against the hood of my car and silently examined the situation.

"Let's go home." Josh said as he made eye contact with me.

"Good idea." I said.

The ride home was long and depressing. I gave josh the bag of pot I brought and told him roll a fatty. I've been high constantly lately, but I didn't care. I needed it right now. While Josh was rolling it he asked me if I knew who would do something like that. I hesitated on telling him about the old man but then I realized that I couldn't handle this situation by myself. I told him everything while we were smoking. I told him about the beating he gave me and the threats, I told him about the random times I would see him. I told him about the time with Jes in the ruins and everything else.

At first he was speechless. He just looked at me, possibly hoping that I was joking around. Unfortunately....I wasn't. He said he didn't have any ideas either. My mind was blank as well. Once again we were sitting there high as the sky riding home in the dark night. I didn't want to think about all these negative events but I couldn't help it.

Then Josh broke the silence. "You know the only way to get out of this is to kill Justin's father right?"

I looked at him hoping that he was joking. "I suppose your right." I couldn't think of any other way to solve this problem. "I've never killed anyone before though."

"Well I hope not." Josh replied quickly. We both laughed at the remark. It felt good to laugh, even though it wouldn't of been funny normally, but the fact that we were both really helped.

We didn't talk much about it for the rest of the ride. Josh offered to stay with me or for me to go over to his hosue and we could talk about this stuff. I wanted too, I mean it was a good idea. Part of me told me to do that, but the other half of my brain told just wanted to go home and be alone. Thats what I did.

When I got home Josh and I hugged then he got in his car and left. My mom's car was in the driveway but no lights were on in the trailer, so I guessed she was asleep. Which was good considering I was pretty much to high to function. I walked inside slowly and quietly so I wouldn't wake my mom. This night had been so crazy I just wanted to go to sleep and forget about it all. I got in a nice, long, and hot shower then I didn't even bother to put clothes on before I fell asleep. I finally succeeded at forgetting...at least for now.