Angel of Death

12

Coraline Chambers

"Why the fuck are you taking pills, Harry?" She yelled, pacing around the living room.

Harry sighed, leaning his head against his hands

"Fucking answer me damn it!" She yelled again, kicking the coffee table.

"Because... this fucking world Sloane. I don't know who I am... I'm nobody here. I have nobody. My moms gone. Beth's gone." He mumbled, refusing to look up at her as he cried.

She sighed, sitting next to him.

"And my dads gone too. He's fucking gone. Not even 6 months later and my moms already fucking Kelly's dad. And my life is fucking falling apart." He cried

Cory looked at him with tears in her eyes, pulling the boy into her body.

"I'm here baby. I'm here." She whispered, smoothing out his hair.

"I know. But you weren't there when I needed you the most. My rock, my person disappeared. And Campbell was still there, with a bag of pills in his gross hands. Offering them to me like candy." He whispered, pulling the bag out of his pocket and throwing it on the coffee table.

"I know. I know I wasn't there then but I'm here now. Am I not enough? You still need to take pills even though I'm right here?" She asked him as he looked up at her.

His eyes were red and puffy, his skin still pale.

"You are. God you're all I need. But I can't stop taking them Sloane. I can't." He told her, shaking her arms off his back and standing up.

"When did this start, Harry? When your dad died?" She asked him, standing up beside him.

She pulled his body into her chest as he cried.

"I know it wasn't last year. You were still peeing in cups for me for soccer." She added.

"It was around December or November last year. Around three weeks after you stopped coming around."

His words made her heart sink, then break into a million pieces.

It was her fault he had turned to pills, it was her fault he had suffered so quietly, alone. And she hadn't even noticed.

"Here, sit down. I wanna tell you a story." Cory told him, pulling him down beside her.

Harry sniffled, looking over at her.

He leaned over and wiped her tears away, smiling weakly as she laid her legs on his lap.

"Umm as you know my mom overdosed. I was 10 when it happened, I had come home from soccer practice, Mrs.Pressman dropped me off cause my dad was working. It was quiet in the house. Scary even." She paused, sniffling.

"I put everything up, took my cleats and shin guards off and showered. And it was still quiet, my mom wasn't doing the dishes or reading a book in the living room like she normally was, so I went to their room, and sure enough, there she was. Dead on the floor, foaming at the mouth, vomit all over the bedroom floor. I slipped on the vomit as I ran to her, twisted my ankle and hit my head on the bed frame." She pointed to the scar on her forehead.

Harry sighed, rubbing her legs.

"I was passed out until my dad got home that night, by then it had already been too late and she was long gone. Ever since then I've been angry, at myself. How could I be so clumsy? At my mom, how could she do that, knowing I would be the one to find her. Her worst fear as a mother came true that day, I had found her, lying dead on the floor. I'm telling you this, because Harry. What if in ten years we have kids and they come home from soccer and I'm not here, and you're dead on the kitchen floor? I will not let you make the same mistake my mom did. I love you too much and I have loved you too long to let you continue to do this. Do you understand me?" She asked him, sitting up.