Soundtrack:
Myxomatosis--Radiohead
Reckoner--Radiohead (If you like Radiohead look on YouTube for the Live Basement version of this song! It's amazing. So is Gnarls Barkley's cover!)
Chapter 3
This is What We Call Sensitivity
"How was your day?" Chris asked as they walked out into the front parking lot of the high school.
"Could have been better," Eliza replied. "What did Matt say to you today?"
Chris stared straight ahead and shrugged. Obviously he had no intentions of sharing with Eliza. He drove her crazy when he did that. He always interrogated her but when she asked a question in return he would only shrug. He always kept his distance from her and that was something that even his undeathing would not change. When they were younger they were very close, but as soon as he became Mr. Basketball he never had much time for her. "Whatever Chris," she said slightly under her breath anticipating a change in subject like always.
"I talked to Dr. Hamliton today," Chris stated casually. "He wants to be our families shrink free of charge or as he put it 'a liaison of sorts with the living impaired community'. Mom and dad already made arrangements to go to his office in the city every other Saturday. Oh, and he's coming over to diner to talk to us more about 'the community'."
That's just fan-frickin'-tastic, Eliza thought to herself. She really just wanted to go home and sit in her room alone and leave of this undead crap behind her.
"Great," Eliza said without a hint of enthusiasm.
"He thinks we should move there," Chris continued ignoring her reply. "He wants to enroll me into a private school for dead kids. It's one of the first in the country and he thinks it would be easier for the family."
"So what does mom and dad want to do?" Eliza asked.
There was a hint of excitement in her voice. She had never lived anywhere but Winamac. Her dad grew up here and the only time he lived anywhere else was when he studied dentistry at IUPUI.
"Dad, of course doesn't want to leave," Chris said. "He has his own practice now and Mom wants to move home."
Home for her mother was Alabama. She never said much about it but Eliza always knew her mother missed the humid heat and felt guilty for leaving her grandmother alone. She came to Indiana on a whim to study art, but stayed after she met her husband.
"What do you want to do?" Eliza asked and turned toward her brother.
Chris looked distracted. He was looking around as though someone was following him and he just could not find them. He guided Eliza down the next turn.
"What's going on?" Eliza asked through her teeth too afraid to move my lips.
Chris did not answer her. He began to walk faster and stared straight ahead. She knew he had seen something behind them and her fear began to spread through her body like ice chilling every cell as it past. She became increasingly aware of several heavy pairs of feet slamming into the ground behind her.
"You're faster than I am," he whispered. "Run home as fast as you can. I don't know what they are up to." His face grew even tenser and she could see his fear in his tense jaw and wide eyes.
"I'm not leaving you alone," she whispered as the panic poured out of her and the words had a distinct high pitched squeak of holding back tears. Her breath became ragged as she allowed the panic to consume her.
"Hey shit head," screamed a voice behind them. The foot falls sped up and she knew there was no way to escape whatever the hunting party had planned. She tried to convince herself that they were only going to make threats or push Chris around but it was Matt. He was never the type to back down. If he put his mind to something he always followed through with it no matter what it was. He was reckless and stupid brave.
Chris stepped between her and the approaching group of guys. She could not help but feel like she was watching a standoff in an old Clint Eastwood movie her dad used to watch all the time. Instead of a fair fight of one on one it was Chris against three guys who were once his best friends and teammates. Matt had brought Blake and Garret with him. They were two of the toughest kids at school. They had the reputation of "roid heads" because of the size and demeanor. These two seemed to want to live up to the stereotypical jock from movies and TV shows.
"Hi Matt," Chris said trying to make his voice casual.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Matt asked through his clenched teeth.
"I'm just walking home with my sister."
"I'm not talking about that," Matt answered. "It's not like things weren't bad enough before you tried to off yourself, but you have not right making all of us look like freaks like you."
"Shut the hell up Matt," Eliza yelled at him. "Your family was already bat shit crazy and Chris had nothing to do with that."
She knew as soon as her own words reached her ears she knew she should have kept quiet and let Chris deal with it, but she just could not help herself. She had to fight against her body because her arms wanted to hit and her legs wanted to run home, but she knew the best thing to do was stand with Chris.
"Shut that little bitch up Chris or I will," Matt yelled.
"Don't pretend that she started this," Chris said. "Let her go home and we can finish this."
"We can't do that Chris," Matt said. "She's part of this too."
Blake flanked Matt's right side and Garret moved up to his left.
"Blake, you take care of her," Matt ordered.
Eliza took off running as fast as she could. Her lungs felt like there were going to burst and her head was heavy. The panic made her to lose her balance and she tripped on the gravel on the road and slammed into the ground. She felt fire on the palms of her hands immediately after impact. She tried to push herself back up to continue running but the pressure on her palms pushed little pebbles further into her skin. As soon as she shifted her weight to her knees she became very aware that the denim had been torn away and the grave had created deep tears in her skin. She heard heaving feet hitting the ground and coming closer.
"Where the hell did you think you were going?" Blake's low voice said from above her.
"Blake, leave her the hell alone!" Chris yelled from a distance.
Thump!
She heard impact against something soft followed by laughing, horrible insane laughter.
Whack!
Another hit. It was much harder. She turned to look back and Chris was doubled over from the impact. She realized that they were beating Chris with something and they were enjoying it.
She tried to get up again. She had no clue what she was going to do but she needed to get to Chris and help him.
She was knocked down again and doubled over in pain. Eliza could no longer breathe and felt completely paralyzed.
"You aren't going anywhere you little bitch."
His shoe struck her in the ribs this time. A pop reverberated in her ears and the pain was unbearable. She struggled against the pain and tried to curl herself into a tight ball to protect her injured rib.
The laughter started again. Her head was swimming and she felt bile rising in her throat. Down the road Chris struggling against the two guys and she continued to hear hits on to his body.
All Eliza could think of was the pain in her side and abdomen and as she tried desperately to focus on the sound of passing cars a block away she felt another impact on her back. The pain seared though her torso and landed on the spot on her rib. She cried out in and tried to stay still and quiet. Everything outside of the pain felt very distant to her. She pain was pulsating out from side. She could no longer hear Chris only echoes of distant laughter that sounded miles away. She tried to focus her eyes on a single pebble to kept herself from passing out.
The shoes of the person who was inflicting all this pain on her appeared in front of her face stepping on the pebble she was focusing on. She watched as one shoe slowly moved away. Little pieced of dirt and rock slowly fell to the ground like a snow globe as it retreated. She found the pebble and began staring again.
This moment was an eternity. She saw beyond the grey color of the dust that covered the rock and began to see the white shiny flacks that sparkled in the sunlight. It had quartz in it.
Her head erupted in pain as if it were split in half. Her left eye faded to black only a second before the right eye faded.
AN:As I am posting this I am installing the Sims 3 so there may be an update this weekend or there may not. I was working with a deadline on this one and I think that actually helped me write better. I hope everyone who is reading this enjoys it. And a little warning there are some curse words in this chapter. Anyway leave any comments, critiques, questions, or reviews if you have any I love reading them.
