Part III: Violent Tremors, Year -6

Part III: Violent Tremors

Year -6

Sydd! Get up before you miss the bus again!” Moxxie yells.

“Um, mafibble.” Sydd responds.

“NOW!” So he gets up and gets dressed and Moxxie leaves the room. Leon and Lance wake up to the yelling.

“Morning Sydd.” Leon says.

“Whatever.”

“What’s your problem?”

“Nothing. I’m fine.”

“Ok, whatever man.” Sydd grabs his backpack and heads downstairs.

“Look mom, I’m going to school. See? See?”

“Don’t you give me an attitude, two day school weeks? That’s unacceptable.”

“Whatever.”

“What’s gotten into you? It’s like I don’t even know my own son anymore!”

“I’m gonna be late, bye.”, and he leaves the house. Leon comes downstairs.

“Leon?”

“What’s up, mom?”

“There’s something seriously wrong with your brother, he’s been acting weird lately. He’s been missing school, he’s gotten distant and not so friendly, and I’m worried about him.”

“I don’t know, mom.”

“Well, if you find out anything, lemme know, ok?”

“Will do, mom. I’m heading to the bus stop, I gotta go to school.”

“Ok, bye. Love you.”

“I love you too mom.” Leon walks down to the bus stop and meets up with Aaron and John.  “Hey guys, what’s up?”

“Hey dude.” Aaron responds. Leon looks over and sees a girl standing there.

“Hey, wasn’t she in our class last year, the one who told the D.A.R.E cop about her dad and then she disappeared after that?” Leon whispers.

“Hey yeah, I thought she looked familiar.” Aaron whispers back.

“I heard she got taken away for a while and her parents had to fight for custody to get her back.” John says.

“Why would she get taken away?” Leon asks.

“Don’t you remember? The cop said her dad was a criminal so he probably did something about it.” Aaron answers.

“But that’s not right, if he was still being a good dad and using the weed as medicine and could still be there for her, why is it such a big deal?” Leon asks.

“Cause the law says so.” John says.

“Well, it’s stupid. When I become a cop, I’m not gonna be that mean to people who smoke it. Now the other stuff is worse, that makes sense to arrest people who do the worse stuff.”

“Bus is here.” Aaron says. Meanwhile, Sydd and Rob are behind the school.

“What do you got?” Sydd asks.

“I got some crystal, horse, and dust.”

“Gimme some horse.” Rob hands over a bag of heroin, and Sydd takes out his notebook, dumps the bag, takes out his school ID card, makes a line, takes out a broken straw and snorts it. Rob takes out his pipe and takes a hit of meth, and passes it to Sydd. Sydd hits it and passes it back, gets his stuff together, and waits for Rob to finish taking his last hit. A couple minutes later, they meet up with Marissa and Kelly in the cafeteria.

“Where do you guys go every day?” Marissa asks.

“Guy stuff.” Sydd says.

“Secrets don’t make friends and friends don’t keep secrets, Sydd.”

“Oh, you said on the bus you wanted to ask me something?” Marissa pulls Sydd off to the side.

“Listen, Valentine’s Day is coming up, and my friend Teri has a crush on Leon. They’re both in the same class together and she’s too afraid to ask him out so I was thinking that this Saturday the local church is holding a youth Valentine’s dance and I figured they could go together and you can be my date and we’ll supervise them to make sure everything goes ok.”

“Yeah sure.”

“Great! Me and Teri will stop by and pick up you and Leon on Saturday then.”

“Sure, ok.”

“Oh, it’s gonna be so cute to see them together!”  The bell rings and they head off to class. Meanwhile, Leon is eating breakfast with his friends.

“Dude! I forgot to do last night’s math homework!” Aaron exclaims.

“Here, you can borrow mine.” Gabriella says.

“Thanks Gabby.”

“Oh, did you guys hear that Sara came back?”

“Yeah, me, Aaron, and John were talking this morning about it.”

“I think it’s wrong what happened to her.”

“I think we all do.” Just then, a short, stocky girl with long, brown hair approaches Leon.

“Hi Teri.”

“Um, hi Leon.”

“What’s up?”

“Um, hi.”

“Yeah, hi.”

“Ok, bye.” She blushes and walks away.

“That was weird.”

“Ooh, she likes you!” Gabriella teases.

“No! You think?”

“Looks like it.”

“I’m sure it’ll pass.”

“Ooh, maybe you’ll get to kiss her!” Aaron says.

“Hm. Maybe.”

“Go for it dude!”

“I don’t know, we’ll see.” Later that day, Leon goes home and heads upstairs where Sydd is putting away his stash. He closes the drawer as Leon steps into the room. “Hey bro.”

“Oh, hey.”

“Um, mom’s concerned about you.”

“Why? Cause of this morning? I’m fine.”

“She said you’ve been acting weird lately.”

“I’m fine.”

“Ok, whatever man.”

“Oh, hey, Marissa told me there’s gonna be a Valentine’s dance this Saturday at the church and that her friend Teri likes you and she was wondering if you’d like to go with her as her date to the dance.”

“That explains a lot… are you gonna be there?”

“Yeah, I’ll be with Marissa, but we’re just going as friends.”

“Yeah, I’ll give it a shot.”

“Cool, I’ll let her know.” That Saturday, Leon and Sydd are getting ready for the dance. Sydd is just about dressed when he gets a text from Rob: ‘dude I need you now! I finally scored us some lucy!’ So Sydd writes back: ‘cant, gotta be at the dance with ‘rissa’. He gets back: ‘fine, more for me!’ So Sydd writes back: ‘be there in ten’. “Hey Leon?”

“Yeah bro?”

“Could you do me a favor?”

“What?”

“I gotta take care of something. Tell Marissa I’ll meet her there.”

“Where are you going?”

“Don’t worry about it; you got this though, right?”

“Yeah, sure.

“Thanks, man.” So Sydd grabs his stash out of his drawer and stuffs it in his pocket when Leon leaves to check himself in the bathroom mirror and leaves the house. He walks over to Rob’s and he lets him in. “Let’s see it.”

“Here ya go.” He opens a small bit of tinfoil revealing two small squares of LSD.

“That’s it?”

“Yeah, I was told we only needed one.”

“You were gonna take both of them if I didn’t get here!”

“Heh, heh. Got ya runnin, didn’t it?”

“Dick. Alright, let’s take it then.” So they each take one and start to trip out. Sydd sees two girls in front of him. “Ohhh heyy!” he says excitedly. He approaches them and notices one of them is Marissa, but better looking. The other girl is in all rainbow: clothes, hair, nails, lips, eyes. Sydd ends up enamored with them both. “Woah, you’re both pretty, I don’t know which one to pick.” He says dreamily.

“Come with me, you know you can trust me.” Marissa says.

“No, come with me.” Rainbow says. “I’ll make you feel really good.”

“Don’t listen to her! She’s lying to you! Come with me instead.”

“I’ll let you experience a constant state of bliss.” Sydd starts to move towards Rainbow.

“Get away from her, get over here before something bad happens!”

“I’ll let you play with my boobies.” She takes her top off, exposing her breasts. Sydd continues towards her.

“Stop! Stop!” Sydd wakes up to his phone ringing. He waits until it stops. He shuts the phone off and passes out.

 Rob takes his, and his vision dims significantly.

“Oh, man. I hope I’m not going blind.” He sees a bright light and heads towards it. He finds himself face to face with a pale white woman in all black.

“Hi Rob.” She says.

“Do I know you?”

“You should, but you don’t. But I know you.”

“So who are you?”

“You already know. It’s a shame when I must visit the young. They’re the only ones who don’t understand.”

“You’re confusing me lady.”

“Yeah, yeah, me too.”

“What the hell?”

“Enjoy it while you can. Make the most of it.”

“Of what?”

“Life.”

“Huh?”

“You’re so dumb. Unless its straightforward with you, I might as well be talking to a wall.”

“I’m confused.”

“Goodbye.” She disappears. Next, Rob hears an earsplitting high pitched woman’s scream as he sees violent images. He manages to get himself a line of heroin which he snorts and breaks him of the violent images, but when it does, Rob snaps. He leaves the house and heads downtown to the poorer area. He wanders around a bit and finds a homeless guy in an alley, asleep. He uses the cover of night to slit the bum’s throat. He takes off his shoes and socks, then puts the shoes back on. He wraps the knife in one sock and pockets both. He ends up back home and passes right out.

Meanhile, Leon is finally ready to leave and Marissa knocks on the door. Leon answers the door and lets her in.

“Where’s your brother?” Marissa asks.

“He said he’ll meet us there.”

“Why? Where’d he go?”

“He didn’t say.”

“Well, I guess we’ll meet him there then, like he said. Are you ready to go?”

“Yeah.” So they walk over to the church and go in.

“I don’t see your brother anywhere, I’m gonna try calling him.”

“Ok.”

“You two have fun.” She takes out her phone and calls Sydd and it goes to voicemail. Three hours later, the dance ends and despite calling him numerous times, she never gets an answer.

“Did you ever get ahold of him?”

“No, but I left a voicemail. He never answered me.”

“Oh, that’s weird.”

“Are you ready to leave?”

“Yeah.” So they leave the church and Marissa drops Leon off at his house, but not before Teri gives him a quick kiss. “See you later.”

“See ya. Tell your brother I’m furious with him.”

“Ok, will do.” Leon goes through the front door where his parents are in the living room, watching tv.

“How was the dance?” Sydd senior asks.

“Oh, it was fun.”

“Did you get a kiss?” Moxxie asks.

“Yeah…” Leon says sheepishly and blushes a little.

“Aww, that’s so cute! Where’s your brother?”

“I don’t know, he was supposed to be at the dance but he said he had to take care of something before and that he was gonna meet us there.”

“Do you know where he went?”

“Most likely Rob’s.”

“Ugh. Ok, it’s getting late, you should go to bed. We’ll be going soon too, I’m not-“ she yawns, “gonna wait up for him. Just let him know he’s in trouble if you see him before we do.”

“Alright.” The next day, around early afternoon, Sydd comes home.

“Where were you?” Moxxie asks as soon as he walks into the front door.

“I was at Rob’s house.”

“It would’ve been nice to tell someone where you were going. I thought you had to go to a dance last night?”

“Oh s**t! I forgot!”

“What was that?”

“Oh, I’m sorry mom, I didn’t mean-“

“You’re punished for the rest of the day. Go upstairs; I don’t wanna see you till dinner time.”

“I-yes, mom.” He goes upstairs and into his room where Leon and Lance are watching tv.

“I heard mom yelling at you, you ok?”

“Yeah, I’m fine, just punished.”

“Marissa’s mad at you too.”

“Oh s**t, seriously?”

“Yeah, I think she was crying last night, I couldn’t tell, if she did, she hid it well.”

“I gotta call her.” So he takes out his phone and calls Marissa but gets no answer. “Oh, she left a voicemail.” So he hits the button and listens to the voicemail:

“Sydd, I really hope you’re having fun whatever it is you’re doing. Glad I’m not important enough for you anymore, you jerk!”.

“Wow, I messed up pretty bad.” The next day, Sydd goes to school and is given the silent treatment by Marissa on the bus.  They all finally go into the cafeteria and Sydd catches up to Marissa. “HEY! C’mon, answer me!”

“Oh, like how you answered me last night??? Where were you Sydd? I waited the entire night for you to show up and you never did! You didn’t answer any of my calls!” she answers through tears.

“I’m sorry-“

“You’re sorry? THAT’S IT? Just, you’re sorry? Get out of my face you b*****d!” she says, tears pouring down her face.

“But-“

“NOW!”. Sydd turns around and runs straight into Samson.

“Watch where you’re going, freak.”

“Oh, sorry Sam-“ Samson pushes Sydd and he slams into the lockers. He walks up to Samson and punches him in the back of the head. Samson turns around, grabs Sydd by his collar and slams him back into the lockers. He grabs him by the hair and starts slamming his head five or six times before Sydd blacks out and grabs Samson by the throat and squeezes tightly. He swings around in a 180 still holding onto his throat while Samson is trying to grab Sydd’s arms to pull him off. Sydd slams Samson’s head into the lockers, still choking Samson. Samson finally passes out and collapses onto the floor, and Sydd collapses instantly as well. They both wake up in the hospital a few hours later. “What the hell happened?”

“You got into a fight with Samson.” Marissa says.

“Oh, you’re talking to me now?”

“You blacked out and almost choked him to death, if his girlfriend Sandra hadn’t clonked you on the head, you would have killed him. You had another attack, you never listen to me. I’m not a nag, I’m your best friend, if I didn’t care, I wouldn’t be here. Your mom is here too. I’m still not talking to you.” She gets up and leaves the room. Moxxie walks into the room with a bottle of iced tea in her hand.

“Oh good, you’re awake. Are you ready to go?”

“Ugh, I think so.”

“What did I tell you about your medicine? Is this why you’ve been acting weird, cause you’re not taking your meds, or is it something else? Or a combination of the two?”

“Huh, wha-?”

“I-I’m sorry mom, I haven’t really been taking it lately.”

“Is there anything else? Because I heard that Rob is into drugs and you’ve been hanging out with him a lot… I’m not stupid.”

“Uh-“

“We’re gonna talk when we get home.”

“Ok.” After a couple of weeks, Marissa calms down and starts talking to Sydd again. “This is your last chance. Don’t mess up.”

“Ok… it’s sooner than I expected, I thought it’d go on longer, I’m happy that it’s not, but this is the longest you’ve been mad at me, so I didn’t know what to expect.”

“Well, Samson is a real jerk, so you scored some brownie points, I just hoped it wouldn’t be so violent.”

“Yeah, well, you know I can’t control myself.”

“Watch yourself before you do something really terrible. You could end up killing someone someday.” She heads off in the other direction and a tall, blonde girl with glasses approaches Sydd.

“Hi Sydd.”

“Hi Nancy.”

“Um, listen, are things ok with your girlfriend?”

“My-my girlfriend?”

“Marissa.”

“No, she’s not my girlfriend, she’s just one of my best friends.”

“Oh, do you need a girlfriend?”

“I would love a girlfriend.”

“How about me?”

“Aren’t you a Junior? I’m a Freshman. Usually upperclassmen don’t date underclassmen, especially Freshman.”

“Yeah, but you seem cool.”

“Ok..” She walks away, and Marissa, about to turn the corner, was listening. She waits till she leaves and approaches Sydd.

“Another girlfriend?”

“Yeah, an upperclassmen.”

“You know, she’s in the remedial class and is nineteen years old, right?”

“So?”

“I also heard she’s a carrier of diseases, she’s been with just about every guy in her class and Senior class.”

“What’s your point?”

“You know what? I’m trying to help you, but I don’t know if I should try anymore, you never listen to me anyway. Do what you want, don’t cry to me when your dick itches.”

“You said something similar when I dated Alyson.”

“And how did that go?”

“Um… it lasted a week…”

“Exactly.”

“But she’s a different person.”

“Yeah, she’s probably worse.”

“Why?”

“Well, she’s older, been with lots of guys, and, uh, hello? She’s already an adult.”

“How do you know all this about all these people?”

“Because girls talk, Sydd, I have a few upperclassmen friends and they talk, and the things I hear are not good.”

“They could just be rumors.”

“Yeah, they could be, or maybe not, do you really wanna take that chance?”

“Know what? I will, and you’ll see that you’re wrong.”

“Fine. Know what? Go ahead, don’t come to me for help anymore!” The bell rings and they head to class.

Meanwhile, Leon is on the bus sitting next to Teri, holding hands.

“So, how’d you two end up together?” Aaron asks.

“Valentine’s dance.” Teri answers.

“Heh, did you get a kiss yet Leon?” In response, Teri gives Leon a kiss on the cheek.

“Does that answer your question?”

“Wow, that’s awesome!” Charlotte and Carmella, a couple of seats back, watch in shock.

“Hey!” Charlotte yells. They all turn around. “Nice girlfriend Leon, I didn’t know you liked fat girls!”

“Yeah, and she’s dirty too!” Carmella says.

“Hey everyone! Leon’s dating a pig! Oink! Oink! Oink!” Charlotte yells across the bus.

“Stop it!” Leon yells back.

“Kids, calm down and be quiet for the rest of the bus ride or you’re all getting written up!” the bus monitor yells. So, the rest of the bus ride is silent and they get off when it stops at the school.

“I’m sorry for what they said about you, Teri, it was mean of them.” Leon says.

“Thanks for trying to get them to shut up.”

“Know what? They’re just jerks anyway.” Gabriella says.

“Yeah, they’ll both be working in a fast food restaurant or grocery store or be in jail when we’re older anyway.” Gabriella says.

“Don’t worry bro, we support you guys.” Aaron says.

“Thanks, guys.” Leon says.

“You have some great friends, Leon.” Teri says.

“Yeah, I know.”

Meanwhile, during lunch, Sydd pulls Marissa off to the side.

“What?”

“I thought about what you said, and I figured, I’m still gonna go through with it.”

“What a surprise.” She says sarcastically.

“I’m not done yet.”

“Hm?”

“I’m, I’m gonna be cautious with her…”

“What does that mean?”

“Don’t- don’t make me say it… when I’m with her, I’ll…”

“OH! OH! Ok, I gotcha! Is that it?”

“Yeah, why?”

“What are you gonna do when she’s with another guy?”

“I’ll-I’ll try to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

“Good luck with that one.”

“Why?”

“Do you even know where your girlfriend is?”

“Yeah, she’s in class, no, it’s lunch time, she should be here.”

“Exactly. You should go look for her.”

“Yeah, yeah, that’s a good idea.” So he starts walking down the hallways, looking in the windows of the classrooms, but she is nowhere to be found. He covers all the hallways with classrooms, the gym, special education classes, and finds his way back to the cafeteria. He locates and finds Marissa and walks up to her.

“Did you find her?”

“No.”

“Alright, well, I gotta go to the bathroom, get your lunch, take a break and eat, I’m sure your girlfriend will turn up soon.”

“Alright.” So Sydd gets in the lunch line, gets his food and sits down next to Rob.

“Where were you?”

“Looking for my girlfriend.”

“Oh, here’s a pill for ya.”

“Thanks.” He takes it, and just as he’s about to take his first bite he sees Marissa coming at him.

“Sydd! Come quick!” So Sydd gets up and follows her. They go all the way to the girls’ bathroom and Sydd stops.

“I’m not going in there.”

“Just come on!” So he follows her and he hears a low moaning. He kicks open the stall door and catches Nancy in the stall with two guys with one dick in her mouth and the other in her hand. He leaves the bathroom, and the second he does, he throws up all over the floor. Marissa chases after him, but isn’t fast enough. Sydd finds Rob and says,

“Let’s go. Now.” Sydd and Rob sneak their way out of school and start running until they’re out of sight.

“Haha, why did we just do this?” He asks Sydd.

“I need to be away from everyone and I really need to get high.”

“Oh, what the hell happened?”

“I’ll tell you on the way to Zakk’s.”

“Alright.” Minutes later, they end up at Zakk’s.

“What the hell are you guys doing here this early? Aren’t you supposed to be at school?” Zakk asks.

“I caught my girlfriend giving a blowjob and handjob at the same time, I need to get high.”

“At school?”

“Yeah.”

“Jeez I wish I went to your school, imagine how loose they’d be in my time. Watcha lookin to do?”

“I need to be brought down.”

“Horse?”

“Of course, of course.”

“What do you want, Rob?”

“I’ve only got five bucks.” Rob says.

“Alright, that’ll get you a line of meth.”

“Ok.” Sydd slaps a twenty on the table.

“Let’s have a little fun, I deserve it.” Sydd says. There’s a knock on the door and Zakk answers it.

“George, nice to see you, it’s been awhile.”

“Yeah- yeah it has.” George, a shriveled looking white guy says.

“Do you have my money?”

“I need some more meth, and some horse, the sickness hurts so bad. Here’s a twenty.”

“Come in my friend.” The guy sits down and he does his drugs. “How do you feel?”

“I feel good, thank you so much, Zakk.”

“Now where’s the other two thousand you owe me?”

“Look, I’m sorry I lost the batch, I honestly don’t know what happened to it.”

“That’s really a shame, cause if you were ripped off, that’s bad.” He takes out, and opens his pocket knife. “But if the cops found it, that’s even worse.” He says as he plays with the knife in his hands. “I can’t have it link back to me, and you’re a squealer. I can’t have that.”

“I promise I’ll make it up to you somehow.” He says as he gets on his knees.

“Rob, there’s a cooler in the kitchen, could you get it for me?” Rob gets up, goes to the kitchen, and brings back a large, stained cooler. “See, it’s funny. You told me you’ll make it up to me a month ago when you first lost it. I gave you a month to recover it or pay me back, neither of which you’ve done.” He says as he twirls the knife in hands. “Hug the cooler.”

“What? Why?”

“Do it.” George grabs the cooler, and holds it chest level. Zakk grabs him by the back of the head by his hair and slits his throat, letting the blood flow into the cooler. Zakk tips George so his head and upper body are in the cooler. When the bleeding stops, Zakk looks at Sydd and Rob. “You guys help me carry this down to the basement. The three of them pick up the body, carry it to the basement to a large freezer where they drop him inside. “I’ll take care of this later. Alright, this will be painless, just let it happen.” Zakk starts moving toward them, pointing the knife at them.

“What the hell are you doing?” Rob says.

“Well, I can’t let you live, you just watched me kill a guy, and you helped me dispose of it. I need to tie all loose ends. Just let it happen, embrace it. It’ll only hurt for a second, I promise. Then, you won’t feel anything at all.”

“Someone’s gonna be looking for that guy, you’re gonna get busted.” Sydd says.

“Nobody’s gonna be looking for him, he’s a junkie, so no one is gonna know he’s here or what’s going to happen to him afterward, but if you tell even one person, then I’ll definitely get busted, and we don’t want that, now do we? So you see, you have to let me kill you. How about you, Rob?”

“Uhhh, I don’t know, I can kinda see your point…”

“I don’t wanna die just yet. Besides, we’re kids; if we go missing, someone is gonna be looking for us.” Sydd says.

“You have a point there.” Zakk says.

“Yeah, if you kill us, you’re going to definitely get caught.”

“I would rather die than go to jail.”

“Seriously?”

“Yeah. Maybe we can come to an agreement.”

“What’s that?”

“I don’t kill either of you under the following conditions: you don’t tell anyone what you saw today, not even amongst each other in the middle of nowhere for a thousand miles. If this comes back to me, whether you said anything or not, I’m going to assume somebody talked and I’m going to find and kill both of you and then myself. You’re going to push product for me when I need you to, and in return, I’ll keep you high so long as you sell. I’ll still sell to you, but if you sell for me, you get a finders fee. Now, gentlemen, what occurred here today?”

“Nothing.” They say.

“Thought so. Here, I’m having trouble pushing meth. Don’t go after people who know who you are unless they’re cool. If you get busted, you don’t know me, and I’m not bailing you out, so be careful. Don’t sell at school, that’s the easiest way to get caught, Go instead to the slums. Look for dilapidated houses and even more dilapidated looking people living inside of them, trash outside. Don’t knock door to door either, look for people loitering. Don’t trade with bums unless they have the money for it. Some of the slummy neighborhood ‘gyms’ have people in there who might be interested. They use it for more energy and as a weight loss aid.”

“Uhh, ok.”

“So remember, keep the secret, keep your lives.”

“Yeah, we uh, we get it.”

“I sure hope so.”

“It’s uh, getting close to dismissal, I’d better head home to make it look convincing. I’ll be back though tomorrow, yeah?” Sydd says.

“Sure, Sydd.” Sydd goes upstairs, grabs his backpack, and heads home.

“Holy s**t, holy s**t, holy s**t.” He says to himself. “I just saw a guy die, and I could be next. Holy s**t. Rob better keep his mouth shut. Oh, man, I’m freaking out.” He finally arrives home, where he goes upstairs and immediately falls asleep on his bed. The next day, before school, Rob and Sydd are at their normal spot. “Are you freaked out?”

“Nah, I’m not a snitch… why, are you thinking of snitching?” Rob asks.

“No, hell no. I was just making sure you weren’t.”

“Pfft, I could give a s**t either way.”

“What? Seriously?”

“Eh, it’s whatever.”

“You ok?”

“Just shut the f**k up and let’s get high.”

“Fine, whatever.”

            “By the way, how was your trip? You never told me.”

            “Some confusing lady.”

“Yeah, I saw ladies too.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, one was rainbow and the other was Marissa.”

“Gross.”

“Yeah, but it was weird, she was hot.”

“What? Marissa?”

“Yeah. I had to choose one.”

“Which one did you choose?”

“Rainbow. She said I could play with her boobies. But I woke up before I could play with them.”

“Aw, that sucks.”

“Yeah.”

“The only thing my chick said was how she was sad she had to visit me or some s**t.”

“That’s pretty vague.”

“Yeah, it’s whatever, I don’t care.”

“Come on, we gotta go.”