Cartel Chronicles

Chapter 13

Javier had taken drugs as long as he could remember; they had always been a part of his life, ever since he was a child. He lived for his drugs; it was as though they had taken on a form of a life themselves. They were the only thing on the earth that brought him joy and comfort, his love was only second to one other and that was revenge. Drugs were his kryptonite, and it was no secret to anyone who knew him. Javier hated any signs of weakness, and drugs had been his downfall for long enough, he decided it was time to purge his bodies of the toxins.

Javier lay in his bed the following morning wondering how it was possible for every bone in his entire body to hurt. He was unable to sleep the following night; instead he spent it getting sick in the bathroom. He was surprised at how little his leg hurt, or maybe it just paled in comparison to how the rest of his body felt. He wondered how long his body would be plagued with this feeling. It was in his best interest that he was anti-social and did not talk to anyone otherwise he would be self-medicating with a needle sticking out of his arm. A needle, the thought of injecting his blood stream with the drug made his body quiver. Was his sobriety really worth it? Was it really that necessary? If it was something he enjoyed, was it really that bad, after all he was only hurting himself. He was trying to find any reason he could to justify using again. It was all he could think about, that and how much his throat burned from the hours of vomiting up stomach acid. He had nothing left to throw up at this point and his body had reverted to dry heaving. He lay on the bathroom floor his body drenched in sweat. Was all of this really from the drugs? It had to be from his injury he concluded, that asshole Sergio did this on purpose to torture him. Javier popped a few more aspirin hoping that he would be able to keep them down long enough to relieve him of the pain; so far he had been quite unsuccessful. He limped out to his truck and found enough roaches to roll up a joint. The weed was dried out so it offered him little relief, just intensified the pain in his throat. Despite all the coughing he was able to refrain from puking, but he knew it wouldn't last for long. He could think of a few places that he could probably find some poor quality drugs, but he could take whatever he could at that point. He pulled himself up into his truck his shoulder throbbing reminding him just how tender it was. The seedy parts of the tourist district usually had young drug dealers trying to get rid of low quality drugs, usually cocaine and marijuana; he would be hard pressed to find any heroine.

It was middle of the afternoon, the streets were fairly dead. Javier stumbled out of his truck and hobbled along on the sidewalk, he tried to be inconspicuous, but his blood shot eyes, gray face, and limp from his injury made him stick out like a sore thumb.

"Hey brother, you look like you could use something," a voice chimed in. Javier looked up and saw a young boy no older than fourteen sitting on a cooler right in front of a voo doo shop.

"What did you have in mind?" Javier asked.

"What are you looking for?"

"What are you offering?" The boy quickly learned from Javier's tone that it would probably be in his best interest not to play games; he hopped off the cooler and pulled out a bag.

"I have a few quarters of kush left!" Javier snatched the weed out of the boys hand to further examine it.

"This is not kush, this is a rip off, it's brown!" Javier growled. "Do you have anything stronger?"

"No, my buddy down the street had some cocaine this morning, I sold out of mine last night."

"Which way?"

"A block further down in front of that bar on the corner." Javier continued down the street sweat dripping from his brow, his mouth was parched, he should stop for a water, he was probably dehydrated considering all the fluids his body had lost the previous night. All he could think about was getting his hands on something to ease the pain; it could be anything at this point he didn't care. He found the young boy's colleague in front of the restaurant; he was also seated upon a cooler.