FicWad

The Poison
Chapter Eight
Can't you see their faces melting as the sun rains from their eyes?
Go on and keep your head with the hearts that you left behind.
I tensed instinctively, peering over my shoulder to see two bulky forms emerge from the fog that had settled around the graveyard. I hunched down into a ball, hoping they hadn’t seen me yet, giving me at least a chance to escape. But when I felt a sharp kick in the back, I knew that this was no longer an option.
I rolled onto my back and kicked out blindly at my assailant, earning a rough grunt from them, followed by a string of cuss words. Encouraged, I threw out another kick, this time missing the first but able to just graze the second’s leg. Now crouching on my feet, I attempted another kick, knocking the man’s legs clear out from under him. A heavy thud marked his defeat, paired with a precise ‘bitch’, spat out from between gritted teeth. I whirled around to face the other brute, but he had already fled- or had he-
I screamed in pain and coughed up a spurt of blood as another blow was dealt to my lower back, sending me crashing down into the dirt. The moist soil coated my tongue and seeped into my eyes, but it was nothing compared to the screaming pain in my back. My breath came in shallow gasps, and I tried to stand, only to have my arms collapse underneath me. Now prostrate and helpless on the ground, I had no way to defend myself and was at the mercy of my opponent, whoever he may be. Said man had already started over to where I was, but instead of finishing me off, he called over to his fallen friend.
“It’s a chick, man!” he called.
“Wha’?” the other propped himself up on his elbows, glancing over at me. “Shit. You’re right, man!”
Now that I could see them clearly, I realized just how thuggish they appeared- muscle-bound, hulking creatures that probably couldn’t read a stop sign if they tried. Identical buzz cuts of slightly differing shades of blonde barely concealed their bulbous, veiny heads, and sickeningly green, tiny eyes were set too high above the large noses. Missing teeth, black eyes, scars that dotted their hands and faces- I could tell they knew the street fighting scene well. I had picked the wrong idiots to mess with.
Evil, disgusting grins lighted up their ugly faces.
“We don’t care whose chick you are.” one started.
“For the next two hours, you’re gonna be our chick.” the other smirked, rubbing his mammoth hands together in anticipation of the impending pleasure.
My eyes widened. Shit.
“F-fuck you.” I spat, again trying to get back up.
“Naw, it’s you who’s gonna be fucked.”
My breathing quickened to a full-out pant, and I searched frantically for a way out. But there was none- the two thugs had barricaded the gate with their enormous bodies, leaving literally no escape. I felt a single tear tremble at the end of my eyelash, but blinked it away harshly. I will not cry, I vowed to myself. No matter how awful, how painful, how humiliating it is, I will not cry.
As it would turn out, I didn’t need to. As the two closed in on me, one of them let out a sudden cry of agony, collapsing on the ground not one foot from where I was. I gasped and rolled back onto my front, shielding my head with my arms in case my savior was another rapist. Another scream signaled the other brute’s downfall, and as a pair of footsteps squelched through the mud, I resisted the agonizing temptation to look over my shoulder. I bit down roughly on my tongue to silence the impending sob, squinting shut my eyes so my vision was hardly anything but black eyelash.
Two booted feet stood in front of my face, then one was obstructed by a knee- the person was kneeling, now running thin fingers through my hair. I pathetically batted it away, letting out a tiny cry as I did so.
“N-no! Don’t touch me!” My voice was thick with tears. “Please!”
“Sh, it’s alright.” the unknown man said, gently placing my head in his lap. “I’ve got you, Atropine.”
Gerard? I sucked in a labored breath, feeling the tears finally roll down my cheeks, leaving tracks of skin through the coat of mud and grime. He planted a gentle peck on my cheek, accidentally stretching out my spine. I keened in pain, gritting my teeth so hard that I was sure I had lost a few layers of enamel. Instantly, Gerard let go, quickly flipping me on my front, inspecting my back with a practiced eye.
“I think you’ve slipped a disk.” He pursed his lips, breathing in deeply. “I can’t really tell, though. I think we’ll have to take you to the doctor to see for sure.”
I had begun to shake my head in refusal when he suddenly lifted me off my feet, heaving my limp body over his shoulder.
“Come on. Let’s get you cleaned up.”
Despite my reluctance to visit the hospital, the prospect of scraping off all the muck that had accumulated all over my body was enough to shut me up.
-.-.-
What I hadn’t considered, however, was the fact that, due to my injuries, I couldn’t exactly bathe myself. It seemed that this hadn’t occurred to Gerard, either. He stood with me slung over his shoulder in the bathroom, towel in one hand, blushing furiously.
“Okay.” He breathed. “How do we go about doing this?”
“How about you fill the tub, put me in, and if you hear screaming, you know what to do.” I said sarcastically.
Much to my surprise, this actually managed to elicit a small laugh from Gerard.
“Somehow, I don’t think that’s the best idea.” He replied, carefully setting me down on the counter, where I almost instantly collapsed. “I’ll just… oh, I know. I’ll get Alicia.”
Of course, I thought. Why I hadn’t thought of that before?
Gerard had left the door ajar when he went to fetch Alicia, and I then realized that I had a clear view of his bedroom. I silently counted to ten, feeling the claws of that one memory creeping up my spine. My breathing grew slow, trying to calm myself down with pleasant thoughts of flowers and chocolate and music… anything but that. Anything… including Lindsey.
The translucent blue figure which now stood in front of me, frigid fingers splayed soothingly across my forehead. Her eyes were shut, deep in thought. She whispered a few unintelligible words to herself, as if in prayer, head tilted longingly to the sky.
And then all the pain was sucked away from me.
That’s the only way I can describe it. Sucked away. I felt the pain traveling steadily up my back, into my neck, finally at my forehead and into Lindsey’s fingers. And then it was all gone. I could sit up, stupefied by what had just transpired. Obviously, I knew something paranormal was afoot here, but healing someone by just touching them? That just wasn’t plausible. The ghosts could just be a hallucination, a coping strategy for me to deal with everything. But this- this was simply unexplainable. Crazy. Not even that, absolutely fuck-shitting-insane. Bad timing, too- how was I supposed to explain my sudden wellness to Gerard and Alicia? ‘I got better’ surely wouldn’t suffice for a reasonable explanation. And saying a ghost appeared before me and took all the pain away would just be a one-way ticket to the Funny Farm.
Well, I thought. I could just undress and get into the bath right now, and say I crawled in or something.
Compared to my other possible excuses, this one was definitely the most realistic. I slipped of my mud-flecked shirt, wincing as it brushed roughly against what promised to be an impressive bruise on my face- okay, so Lindsey could heal a slipped disk, but not a bruise?- then my jeans fell on the floor, dried mud crumbling off the denim and onto the floor. I had just removed my socks when the door creaked open, with who else but Gerard, an embarrassed blush dominating his pale face.
“Oh God! Uh, I’m sorry!” he apologized hastily, raising his arms in front of his eyes.
“Yeah? It’s not like you haven’t seen me like this before.” I said flatly, strangely unembarrassed.
I pulled of my camisole, fully aware of his eyes on me but unfazed by them, as I had been before. It was like I almost felt comfortable around him- but that couldn’t be so. I couldn’t just go from absolutely hating someone to maybe even liking them. That shit was for TV shows and sappy romance novels (the ones I avoided), like Pride and Prejudice. Not real life- especially not mine. God above forbid that I ever experience any happiness, no, Atropine must suffer her entire life just because she was an illegitimate child-
Stop it. I reprimanded myself. It’s okay to complain a little, but now you’re being ridiculous.
I was now fully exposed in front of Gerard, and fully unashamed.
(Everything.)
He had seen all this before. Maybe that was why I didn’t feel worried by what he would see. He knew me well enough already.
The bath had already filled with water, and as I climbed in, I welcomed the sharp sting of the clarifying hot liquid. I lowered myself slowly into the tub, gripping the curved white rim and focusing on the plugged drain at the far end.
Normally, one would leave me alone at this point, but Gerard still lingered, leaning casually against the doorframe. Soon, I felt a blush beginning to creep up my cheeks. He wasn’t going to watch me bathe, was he?
Sensing my agitation, a minuscule smirk wormed its way across his face and he pushed out of the doorframe, disappearing back into his room. I let out a huge, long breath that I had been unaware I was holding, dipping below the water for a few seconds to properly clear my head.
I know the normal saying is ‘nothing like a cold splash of water to clarify’, but I beg to differ. Hot water is more painful, and therefore, snaps everything into perspective much quicker. It speeds up your thought process, because you don’t want to feel the unbearable heat pouring onto your face- you stick by the animalistic instinct that tells you that pain is bad, and suddenly you have all the answers to your questions. I’ve always been unable to work unless under pressure, and I sure as hell am experiencing some now.
I burst out of the frothing water, sucking in a lungful of air and wiping my eyes. When I finally opened my eyes, everything seemed immensely clearer than it had been before. My face burned, my eyes watered, and I was quite possibly the smartest person on the planet.
-.-.-
Even as the tub drained to half empty, I still refused to get out. Over time, the hot water had cooled to a more soothing lukewarm, and slowly spiraled me into a trance of sleepiness. It was only when the last of the water whirled down the geometric set of holes that I finally forced myself out of the near-Godly state of drowsiness.
Wrapping a threadbare gray towel securely around my body, I caught my reflection in the mirror. I was still scrawny and pale, but something had changed about me- something significant, yet I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. Was it the sharper jaw line? The more prominent cheekbones? Out of curiosity, I dropped my towel onto the floor and examined myself in the looking glass. It was then that I realized I wasn’t a child anymore. I had grown up, nearly completed the stages of puberty- and it showed. Fuller breasts, wider hips and curvier thighs. I couldn’t count my ribs as easily as I used to. I looked taller than five foot three, and older than just fourteen.
And honestly, it scared me.
I squirmed under my own gaze and rushed to pick up the towel, a profound flush already alighting my face. Was this what Gerard had seen earlier today? Not a girl, but a fully-grown woman? Something totally different from the skinny mutt that had stopped at his doorstep back in January.
Was it really that long ago? January, was when I found this place. Now it was March, nearly April, my birthday only two months away. That much time had passed, and I barely noticed. Okay, so I wasn’t known for my sharp-as-a-tack attention to detail, but this was a new low. It was almost like I didn’t mind how much time passed when I was here. But then, I suppose that could be a half truth, as I enjoyed my time there as soon as Alicia and Mikey arrived. I felt my brow furrow considerably. It seemed that my mind just couldn’t pick sides these days.
“Atropine!” Alicia called from somewhere in the front room. “Hey Atropine! Where the hell are ya?!”
“In here.” I answered, tightly gripping the towel around me. I was suddenly minutely aware of the cold drips that leaked from the tips of my hair and down my back, cold as can be, and the strange way I stood- too straight in the spine, like a spoiled blue blood girl at her piano lessons. Immediately, I slouched over a little and attempted to finger comb the extra moisture from my hair.
No sooner had I done so when Alicia’s head poked in through the doorway, a pile of clothes in her arms.
“Hey, there you are!” she said. “Here- some clothes. Meet me in that… that big room in a few minutes.”
“The great room?” I mumbled.
“Yeah. That one.”
She handed me a red shirt, folded into a neat square, and a pair of black jeans that looked too tight for anyone to fit into. Looking back at my other clothes for a split second, I accepted them anyway.
Pulling on the shirt, I then realized that something was written on it in thick black marker- ‘Homophobia is gay.’
Wonder who came up with that, I thought wryly.
I struggled into the pants with difficulty, further proving my theory that no one was supposed to actually wear them, and grabbed my other clothes off the floor. Disappointed in the lack of hair dyer, I left my hair stringy and damp, pausing to hastily drag a comb through it before going to meet Alicia, whom I’ve come to expect as someone to be very spontaneous. Therefore, I had every right to be terrified of what she was about to discuss with me.
The rest of the house appeared strangely vacant, sunlight spotting the wooden floors with dust particles dancing in the natural limelight. Where had Gerard and Mikey gone? I would have to ask Alicia about that.
The aforementioned was sitting docilely in the great room as promised, lazily skimming through a book, as normal as one can look when they’re dressed in a Metallica t-shirt and Tripp pants. She dropped the book instantly when I stepped through the pillars, unfolding her legs and tapping her stripy-socked feet excitedly on the floor.
“Okay. It’s been less than a minute and I’m already suspicious. What is it?” I demanded, folding my skinny arms.
“Well, you know what you said earlier?” she let a giggle slip between her lips, refolding her legs and bouncing up and down in her seat.
“Which thing? I said more than one thing, you know.” I said irritably, growing impatient.
“You know, that thing you said about not being finished with high school.”
“And?” I lifted an eyebrow, still not following her.
“Weell, I’ve decided that…” she paused, grinning almost maniacally at me. Suddenly, she leaped off the couch and poked my nose with her index finger. “I’m going to be teaching you!”
O.o Pervy Gerard is pervy... anyways, you’ve all heard about Frank and Jamia’s new kid, right? So proud of them! squee
Kind of all I have to say, except that my sister and I are now planning on moving to South Hampton in England... you know, as soon as she graduates from college, which is... about four/five years from now.