Soul Pills

Chapter 14

Colm dragged Marcus' limp body into the house. As he pulled Marcus up the front walk he continued checking over his shoulder to see if Marcus had been followed. Once they were safely inside he locked the door and pulled Marcus into the living room.

Marcus was bleeding profusely and in the dim light Colm couldn't tell where all the blood was coming from. Colm looked around the room, searching for something that could help him. He listed off the contents of the room in his mind one by one as he saw them, hoping that some sort of inspiration would strike. Sofa, china, broken lamp...

"Shitfuck...motherfuckSHITSHIT!" Colm screamed at the top of his lungs. He looked down at Marcus and realized that right now the person who he needed to save was the one person in the world he had always counted on in crisis situations. He needed an idea - but his idea man was bleeding out on the living room floor. Colm grabbed Marcus by the shoulders and propped him up against the couch. Once Marcus was upright Colm slapped him across the face and yelled, "Marky! Fuck man, wake up! Marcus!"

Colm slapped Marcus again, this time much harder, and Marcus' eyes fluttered open. Marcus groaned and slid to the side, almost falling over again. Colm held Marcus up, leaned in close and said, "Marcus. Hey. Wake up Marky. I need your help, you're hurt bad, who can I call?"

Marcus shook his head slowly from side to side and said, "Uhrm... Call Grace. She can. She's on my phone."

Colm searched through all of Marcus' pockets searching for his cell phone. Finally he found a small pocket on the inside of Marcus' jacket that was bulging with a solid object inside. Colm opened the pocket and pulled out a small cell phone.

"Just push the button on the side and... No, wait," Marcus' head lolled backwards and Colm gave him a shake. Marcus straightened his head and said, "Hold the phone up for me. Okay, press and hold that big black button," the phone beeped and Marcus managed to strain out the words, "Dial Grace," before slumping forwards again. Colm knew he couldn't risk roughing Marcus up any more so he hoped that the phone dialed correctly.

Colm held the phone to his ear and waited. The first ring seemed to take an eternity. After three rings a message picked up and a delicate voice said, "Hello! This is Grace, leave a message after the beep!"

The phone beeped and Colm said, "Grace, Marcus is hurt, I need you to... Shit. What's this thing..." Colm trailed off as he tried to figure out how to answer an incoming call while still on another. He saw a small green icon on the screen - it had a little quivering phone on it. He tapped it and a woman said, "Hey, Marcus, you rang?"

Colm sputtered out, "Is this Grace?"

The voice on the other end grew tense. She said, "Who is this? Is this 555-1337?"

"Grace, my name is Colm, I'm a friend of Marky's. He's hurt, he said for me to call you. I need you to come quick, I don't know what to do!"

There was a short pause while Grace tried to comprehend what she had just heard. Then Grace just said, "I'm coming to you, what's the address there?"

Colm let out a deep sigh. It felt as if he had been holding his breath since Marcus dropped onto the front walkway. He gasped out the address and finished with, "How long until you get here?"

Grace replied calmly, "I'm going to be a while. I need you to calm down, Colm. Take three really deep breaths. Right now. Do it, long, slow breaths, I want to hear them."

A flash of anger passed through Colm, who was this girl to be telling him what to do? "Marcus told me to call this girl, she must know what she's talking about," he thought. Colm inhaled a long, slow breath. He let it out in a short exhale that was almost a cough.