Jess and the Odd Dilemmas of William

#8 Salt and Vinegar

How can this feel good? The feeling of weightlessness and loss of thought, the way the needle pierces the skin as I try to forget. Why is the suitcase almost empty and why aren't I more scared? Why doesn't he make me pay? Does he really trust his deliver boy that much? Did I ever pay this off?I feel as if the bed is swinging above the floor; as if my head is empty and my soul is floating. My stomach's empty too and my mouth's dry. I wonder what will happen if I went to get a drink. More vertigo and falling down the stairs probably. Just stay still and everything will be fine. Why does this feel good? This sense of weightlessness should frighten me, the slowing of my heart beat cause terror. Still, I only feel calm and lost. The visions take a bit but they're always glorious in a strange way. They're always better then my dreams. Night terrors are seeping into my mind so I combat them with the sparks dancing before my eyes. The colors, the sounds; I can almost touch them before they fade. I've haven't seen any real things, just disjointed shapes and bursts of light. I hear whispers of a sweet melody I can't place; almost feeling the sound as it hits me in trembling waves. I roll onto my stomach in a haze, a small chuckle escaping my throat. The lights are coming. Bright burst of red pop from my spinning floor, like poppies with an addiction to Miracle Grow. Poppies, Jesus those plants were blessed. Yellows and greens lit my ceiling as the world was covered in a teal haze. Dancing colors in the vaguest forms of flora swirled across my iris. The chuckle turned into a fit of giggles as they started curling around my body, a pastel twister lifting me further and further from reality. The scent of peppermint clouds my nostrils as something forms. A being with violet eyes and glowing shape grinning down at me. It wraps itself around me a sickly sweet song ringing from its throat. I can taste the notes, like honeysuckles and battery acid. I feel so lost, a body without any consciousness lashing at the air. The thing clutches me to its waist as a long slimy tongue licks up my face. I twist away but it grips me harder, it's tendrils leaving marks on my arms. I want to scream but a part of me was yelling that they will see the needles. It's claws rip down my back, it's mouth dripping slobber on my chest. I can feel the cool of the liquid turning white hot as it corrodes my skin. The gleam of bloody bone sending screeches through my throat. I try to control them, but they raise into a painful scream, my legs kicking at the glowing monster biting at my shoulder. It rips my shirt, it's acidic salvia leaving scars and gashes on my torso. I growl in pain as it dissolves the skin covering my rib cage. It has me by my wrists and was licking down my back, my spinal cord jutting out from the disintegrating skin. I scream again, my throat raw. Suddenly, my sight was filled with off white light. "For fucks sake, boy. I told you not to scream like that." I let out a stuttering sob as my fathers cold hand pulls my head off the bed. "Your mother lives here too ya know. She doesn't want to hear her son screaming at two in the morning. You still got some time. I'll wait for you to sleep." My muscles twitched as the needle was pulled from my arm. I was shivering from the cold on my bare skin. The creature still gnawed away at me but now my dad covered my mouth when ever I tried to scream. I let the horror and fear build up in my chest, the beast laughing in my ear as it crawled inside my open ribs, tearing at my spine. It was playing with me, pulling on organs and slipping it's fingers through my abdomen like a young child might do with their food. I can taste the metallic tang of blood as the beast rams its tendrils in my mouth. Go away, please go away. I mutter softly in my head around the slimy thing until it finally pulls out of my throat causing me to let in gulps of air. The colors were faded to the cool gray of my walls filling my sight. My forehead pressing against the cool paint. "D-dah. I think a th-thing tried to k-kill me. W-was that me?" My father sighs against my neck. His breath is thick and heated coming out in long pants. I want him to let me go but I'm barely able to see properly. I notice how heavy my breathing is and how something that tastes slimy and sickeningly bitter lingers in my mouth. "Certainly it is just a bad dream. Go back to sleep and you'll feel better." "D-dad, let m-me go. I c-can't sleep like th-this." He chuckles darkly, tightening his grip. "Why is that? Do you hate being handled like this?" He asks, his breath right at my neck. I shiver, my entire body repulsed by this action. "I'm not an innocent dumbass so let me go. Or else I'll make you." He chuckles ominously leaving me shaking. He licks my neck, the disgusting creature laughing deep in my chest. I scream as loud as I could, kicking and scratching at the man behind me. I claw at his arms and chest as he squirms under me. I felt a rush of strength as he lets out a yell of pain. The creature resurfaces in his skin. He hurriedly jams his fingers in my mouth, pinning my writhing body to the bed. "Quiet ya bitch! Shut up! Will ya be quiet if I let you go." I nod slowly feeling his fingers slowly pull out of my throat. He let go of my arms, sliding off the bed. "Now, if you do this again, you gotta promise to be as quiet as goddamn air so as I don't do worse to ya. You understand?" I nod, feeling tears well in my eyes. That thing appeared with barely any of that shit in my system, how much would the whole syringe have done? "Dad?" He stops at the doorknob, letting out a grunt as his wrist moves to twist it. "I don't want to be afraid of it anymore." He sighs, a small edge of uncaring annoyance in the breath. "Then stop using it. You're almost out of poppies anyways, why not sell 'em? Hell, put them in some assholes locker and get 'em expelled. Besides what do you care, you'll forget all about it in the morning." With that he opens the creaking door and closes it within a single beat of my frantic heart. The taste didn't leave my tongue until Jessica kissed it away.