Soul Pills

Chapter 9

Colm stared at the ceiling. He traced the patterns in the plaster with his gaze, trying to find the images of dragons and other monsters he had so easily discovered in his youth. But no wondrous creatures reared their heads. He wondered how long ago he had drunk his imagination into submission.

He thought back to the crazy days of his youth when he and Marcus would go out drinking. In those days their excesses had been a challenge, a mountain for them to climb. The first drink of the evening had been a Sherpa guide, leading them upwards and upwards to greater heights of joyous self abuse.

They made and lost friends in a heartbeat -and enemies even faster, leaving rivals broken in alleys and buying them drinks the following week. On more than a few occasions they had woken up in pools of blood and rainwater.

And once, only once, they had fought each other in that alley. The fight had been terribly one-sided. Colm had always been the fighter. When Colm found out that his best friend had been fucking his sister he had gone crazy. That night in the alley Colm had broken one of Marcus' ribs, dislocated his shoulder, and even when Marcus hit the pavement Colm had continued until mister Connolly pulled him off. It was very possible that all that had saved Marcus Coburn's life was a full bag of garbage and a pub owner.

Colm looked down at his watch, it was twelve fifty-six. He briefly considered leaving the house to get a case of beer and then shook his head. He needed to be sober in case Emma came back with a message for Marcus. Colm choked back a sob. Marcus' beating had been more than the end of a friendship, it had been a death sentence for Emma. That night had set into motion the events that led to her death.

If only he had understood that they weren't just fucking, that they were in love. Colm sobbed again and the tears ran down his cheeks. Since he had moved back into his mother's house this had happened several times a day. Colm had no job, he had no friends, all he had was an empty house and a life of regrets. He squeezed his eyes shut, trying to seal off the torrent of tears that threatened to drown him. If he hadn't beaten Marcus that night his sister would be living in a nice neighborhood with his best friend instead of lying under a modest plaque and six feet of dirt.

Colm wiped the tears from his eyes with the back of his hand and opened his eyes. Above him the plaster ceiling seemed to have developed new cracks and shadows. Had that long thin crack always been there? It ran half the length of the ceiling and angled off sharply near the end. On either side of it were two perpendicular cracks that almost looked like eyes. Colm concentrated, maybe he still had a bit of imagination left after all.

As he concentrated on the shapes above him he heard a faint crackling noise. The end of one crack lengthened a bit. In all the years he had lived in this house he had never actually seen one of the cracks appear. His mother had always told them that the cracks were from them jumping on the bed, and if they didn't stop they would fall right through the floor and straight into hell. Colm's mother had always seemed to have an endless list of things that could grant you instant admission through the gates of hell.

The sound came again, and then once more. Two more cracks appeared in the ceiling. Colm frowned and sat up. Bracing himself against the back of the couch he rose, trying to get a better look at the ceiling now. New cracks seeped in from the edges of the ceiling, weaving their way across the room more and more quickly. Colm paced back and forth, staring at the ceiling, trying to figure out what was causing the instability. Had one of the support beams finally rotted through? The cracks had almost completely taken over the entire ceiling. Their combined noise sounded like fatty flesh in a frying pan. Colm's heart raced, he looked at the door and wondered if he could make it, the house was certainly ready to fall in on itself. He started to run for the door, as he reached the hallway he turned back and gasped.