Eden

Chapter Sixteen: Mad Dog Disease

Jackson looks up at me, dazed and confused, "Where am I?"

"Jackson, what are you talking about?" I smile, "Come on, get up. We have to keep going."

"No! Stop! Don't touch me!" He waves off my arm.

"I'm sorry!" I snapped, "What's wrong?"

"I don't know."

Jackson looks remorseful, I don't understand why he's been acting so strange. He's been anxious and dazed the past couple of days. I'm worried about him, it may just be the concussion. But I'm worried it's not.

❋ ❋ ❋

Jackson had started to shake a little, we sat by a creek. But Jackson refused to get near the water, he just sat in silence eating the few crackers we had left.

"Jackson, are you okay?" I ask, "Jackson?"

He grunts and looks away from me, I move over closer to him.

"Get away from me!" He screams.

"Tell me what's wrong."

He continues to remain silent.

"You're scaring me. Please talk to me?"

I watch the sky turn blue as the sun rises. I wonder if Jackson is watching the sun rise with me, I turn my head to look at him. He's staring at the water in agitation. I don't know what to do for him. He's sick and I don't know why.

I'm just hoping that he'll be better when he sees Mimi. I think we'll all be better when we find them.

❋ ❋ ❋

I was walking through the jungle forest with Jackson close behind me. I wondered what time it was back home, was Emma watching me still, or was she asleep? I felt guilty for leaving her there. I felt guilty about her all the time. Ever since she was an infant.

When Bertie died and Wilma spiraled I was left with Emma. I was young and we were dirt poor, I couldn't afford to feed a baby. So I filled the bath one day and tried to drown her. My guilty conscience stopped me from going through with it. I just couldn't keep her and myself alive. That's when I took up a job and started pawning for Wanda. Emma doesn't know what I did to her, I don't want her to know. I'm the only one who knows. It's the worst thing I've ever done.

I feel water hit my back as I turn around, Jackson is dripping from water. His eyes are wide and he starts to convulse.

"Jackson?"

He lunges for my throat, knocking me to the ground.

"JACKSON!" I cough out.

I push his hands off of my throat and push him back into the ground. I take my gun from my hip and shakily point it at him. He begins to foam at the mouth, shaking heavily.

"Stop! Jackson!"

I don't want to shoot him, I don't want to kill him! Why is he acting this way? I backed away from him slowly, my hands shaking as they held the gun. He starts to run after me, and in my mind, everything is slowing down. Against my will, my fingers pull the trigger back, and 2 bullets fly across into his chest splattering blood everywhere. He still charges at me, he's only a couple of inches in front of my face before I shoot him in the neck. His blood spins out of his neck and paints my face. His body falls to the ground and I run over to him. Throwing my hands around his neck, trying to stop the blood. His mouth starts to froth, my hands shake as I try to stop his blood. He looks relieved and betrayed.

"I'm sorry! Jackson, don't worry I can fix this!"

I am covered in his blood, soaked in it. He stares at me as all the aggression he had disappears, and his hand brushes mine.

"We'll get out of this, Jackson. I promise." I sob.

I felt his hand grab onto my arm. His eyes are widened and he's trying to open his mouth.

"Take... Care of-" He starts to choke on his own blood, "her."

His body stiffened and his eyes stopped moving. I feel the blood on my face drips onto the red of my hands. I wipe my face with my right hand as I sob, it's all your fault.

"Please!" I scream at him.

I murdered my best friend.

I can't leave his body like this, I can't let them have him. I can't let this be our last moment together. I can't let them mutilate him.

I start to build a fire. Watching the flames climb higher into the sky I gather all of my things and push Jackson's body onto the burning logs. I sit back and watch as he is engulfed in the flames.

"I shouldn't have agreed to be near you." I say to him, "I'm a sick dog. All I ever do is fail and cause everybody else distress."

"I don't blame you for it." He says, I look to my right and see Jackson sitting there, "It was the rabies."

"It is my fault. I've paid for my place and I lost you in the process."

I want to feel it all at this moment, all the anger, sadness, hate, spite, and love that washed over me the past few weeks.

"I always worried about being good enough for my mom." Jackson whispers smiling sadly at me, "But in death, you can never do anything wrong. Now I'll be her number one boy."

I look at his body in the fire, his eyes are on me.

"Now you watch me die and feel remorse."

"I regret it all."

"Remorse is never regret over the consequence of what you didn't do. Remorse is the regret of what you didn't do."

"I know."

"We could have been happier out of here."

"I know."

"You were my best friend, over such a short time. I've loved you like a sister." Jackson looks at me ruefully, but without blame, "You couldn't look me in the eye as you killed me."

"It was easier to shoot you dead than looking in your eyes and seeing me break your heart," I whisper to him.

"I'll haunt forever, won't I? Like your father haunts you. Like you haunt yourself."

I sat against the log. Sobbing into my bloody hands. I rubbed my eyes and screamed into the ground.

He can't be dead, we're going to find Mimi together. They hurt him. How could anyone hurt him? I looked up at the sky Claudius and Priscilla were watching me closely. I could feel the whole world watching me. They were whispering, and another person came onto the screen with a clipboard and headphones.

"Well, my most loyal viewers, we will have to cut out for an hour or so. From technical difficulties." Claudius said with a worried face.

They were probably canceling the show because of me. As they cut out I could see them looking at me, through the camera.

What was I going to do next?

It's time they paid for their actions. It's time they act like adults because adults work. Adults get consequences. They do not know what it is like to be hungry, they can hardly survive a few hours without eating. It's time for work. My turn for a game.