Mark Joins the Party (Mark)

After the incident with the fire and Caroline beating the ever loving shit out of James, we cooled it with the misbehaving until James was physically healed. Physically was the key word because he was far too damaged back then to do any mental or emotional healing. A lot of people have speculated about the amount of damage Caroline did to him over the years, but only me and Annabelle understood the real extent of it.

Truth be told, even though both of his parents abused him, James never cared when it came from Joseph. He hated the fat bastard and wanted him dead, but nothing Joseph did ever stuck with him the way Caroline's bullshit did. Despite how much he hated her (and believe me, he hated her in a way I never thought possible), he wanted her to love him just as badly. He's never admitted this (and never will) but it's the only explanation I can come up with as to why he waited so long to kill her. Both Joseph and Jacob kicked the bucket way before she did…but really, that's a story for another day. Let's get this subject back to what we were originally supposed to talk about.

Cooper note: He only wants to get back on topic because it's about him today. He's a self centered prick like that.

What did you just write boy? Ah fuck it, I'm not getting into it with you today. Let's just fast forward though a couple years of bullshit and get to Halloween 1976. I was supposed to go to school that day, but I convinced Glenn to cut with me so we could hang out with James and Annabelle. Bearer was still trying to keep the two of us apart, but I was throwing as many monkey wrenches as I could in that plan. Things still hadn't been right between me and Glenn because of the fire, so I was still attempting to make things okay again. It wasn't exactly going the way I wanted to, but by then I was making at least some progress with patching things up (Bearer had told him that it was me and James that had started the fire and he had figured out I was lying when I said it wasn't).

When we got to James's house, we found Joseph sitting on the porch drinking some beer. "What the fuck are you two doing here?" he grunted when he saw us.

"None of your business," I snapped, making sure to shield Glenn from his view as much as I could. Glenn was still a few surgeries away from looking most of the way normal and I knew he was sensitive to people making fun of him (which Joseph would so totally do).

"It is my business," Joseph growled. He looked ready to get out of his chair and pop me right in the mouth. "This is my fucking house and I want to know everything that's--hey, get back here! I'm talking to you!"

In the middle of his little rant, I had simply grabbed Glenn by the hand and pulled him into the house. "James?" I called out, hoping he was right there waiting for me. The sooner Glenn and I got out of there, the better.

"Sssshhh! You're going to make Mom mad!"

I looked over at the couch and saw that Jacob was sitting there. "That bitch is always mad about something," I pointed out.

Jacob gave me a nervous look. He looked so much like Joseph that it was uncanny and irritating. "Yeah but James mouthed off to her earlier and she really got mad at him."

I groaned. That was the last thing I had wanted to hear. "How badly did she fuck him up?"

He shrugged. "I don't know. He hasn't come out of his room for two hours now."

"Shit." I grabbed Glenn and dragged him upstairs, hoping that we didn't run into Caroline on the way.

"I don't like it here," Glenn grumbled as I pulled him along. "Caroline is going to kill us if she finds us here."

I shook my head. "She won't. I won't let her." I got us up to James's room without being seen and knocked on his door as quietly as I could. "James?"

There was nothing coming from the other side for what felt like forever. Just as I was starting to think he wasn't actually in there anymore, Annabelle opened the door and ushered us into the room. "Keep it down," she warned us. "If Mom hears you we're all dead."

"What the hell happened?" I asked as I looked over at James. He was sitting on the bed with his knees drawn all the way up to his chest. "Jacob said--"

"The fucker needs to mind his own business," James growled. He was absolutely refusing to make any eye contact with me. It wasn't until I walked to the other side of the bed and saw the claw marks all near his eye that I understood what had happened. "Jesus fucking Christ," I muttered. "What the fuck did that bitch do?"

"It doesn't matter," James snapped. He got off the bed and slipped his shoes on. "None of it fucking matters."

Annabelle sighed and went over to him so she could wrap her arms around him. He didn't try to push her away, but he didn't exactly hug her back. "Let's get out of here," she suggested. "It's Halloween. We can go out and eat candy and have some fun."

"Yeah," I agreed, casting a look towards his door. This was one of the rare occasions that Annabelle and I were on the same page. "Forget the cunt Lawson. Let's just get the fuck out of here."

James nodded, but we could all tell he really wasn't with us. Despite that though, we decided to ignore that fact and sneak out his window and go to the nearest drug store. I had stolen a whole bunch of money from Bearer before Glenn and I had left so I bought us some Coke, two giant bags of candy and Halloween costumes. Annabelle was a princess, James was a pirate and Glenn and I went with good old fashioned monster masks. "Those things are creepy," Annabelle complained as we walked around aimlessly. We were going past all the casinos and shit, and there was the temptation to sneak in there just to see if we could get away with it. But on that day, we resisted the temptation and kept going on our way.

"Oh quit being a wuss," I said in exasperation. I growled at a couple of old ladies who happened to be walking by and managed to scare the crap out of them. That made me laugh my ass off and it almost made James grin.

"I think they're cool," Glenn said. "They hide my ugliness."

Annabelle gave him a sympathetic look. "You're not ugly," she told him. "Don't think like that."

"Yeah," James said. "You're only deep fried. There's a big difference."

"James!" Annabelle exclaimed, giving him a look that shut him right the hell up.

Glenn hung his head and I decided to change the subject as fast as I could before anyone else's feelings got hurt. "I had a dream last night," I said, moving my mask up enough to allow me to shove some candy into my mouth.

"Congratulations," Annabelle said, now glaring at me for no reason I could think of. "Everyone has dreams. Tell us something more interesting."

I raised my eyebrows. "I wasn't talking to you." I looked past her and focused on James. "Wanna know what I dreamt about?"

"Was it about my mother dropping dead?"

"No, that was the one I had last week. This one involved me…" I looked around to see if there was anyone around trying to eavesdrop on us. When I saw that there wasn't, I went ahead and said it. "I dreamt about killing someone."

James raised his eyebrows while Glenn and Annabelle gave me uneasy looks. I smirked and focused only on James, hoping I could cheer him up with what I was about to say next. "I want to do it," I declared. "I want to kill someone."

The very beginnings of a smile began to appear on James's face. "Are you serious?" He had been trying to get me to join him on his homicidal adventures, but until then, I hadn't really felt like doing it.

"Uh huh," I confirmed.

Something suddenly hit me on the back of the head, and when I turned around I realized that it was Glenn who had done it. "What the hell was that for?" I asked angrily.

"You're an idiot," Glenn declared before storming off.

Annabelle shook her head at us before taking off after him. "What the hell is their problem?" James asked.

I shrugged. "Who cares?" I grabbed him by the arm and dragged him into a nearby alley. I figured that the two of them could keep themselves out of trouble long enough for me and James to do what we needed to do. "Just help me out here, will ya?"

He finally did give me a real grin. "Yeah okay," he agreed. He began looking around for someone I could take out. "Oh little victim….come out come out wherever you are…"

I rolled my eyes. "Oh yes, like they're willingly going to come out to face their death. Come on Lawson, get real for a second."

He pouted. "I am real. You're just being a grouchy pants."

"Whatever." There wasn't anyone I could kill where we were at, so we wandered around until we finally stumbled upon someone. It was a blind homeless guy that was holding out a cracked coffee mug and had a golden retriever laying by him. The dog began to growl when it saw us coming, which alerted the man of our presence.

"Who's there?" he asked, looking around even though he couldn't see a fucking thing.

James snickered before handing me his knife and grabbing the dog by the collar and dragging it away so it wouldn't keep barking. I got right in front of the blind man, smirking in amusement as he got up to his feet and began reaching out for me. I leaned back just a bit, not wanting his dirty hands on my skin. I could feel James watching me, expecting me to just go ahead and do it quick. But I waited for just a bit, not because I was having second thoughts, but because I was trying to savor the moment.

When I did finally strike, it was pretty quick and effective for my first kill. I buried the blade right into his side, causing him to let out a cry of pain. I let the knife stay in there just a little as he stumbled forward but then I ripped it back out and shoved him down to the ground. I wasn't getting the euphoria that James often claimed to get when he offed someone, but it wasn't like I was getting any bad feelings from it either. In fact, there was a very nice feeling of satisfaction on my part because I was finally sating my own curiosity.

Once he was on the ground, the blind man started trying to crawl away. I sneered down at him before kicking him in the ribs a couple of times, egged on as James cackled in the background. When kicking him got boring, I started stabbing him again, trying to bury the knife into every inch of his back. I also tried to keep track of how many times I was stabbing him, but I got distracted after ten stabs and lost count completely.

"Marky? Are you done yet? I think I hear someone coming."

I finally stopped with the stabbing, wincing as my exhausted arm began to cramp up on me. I looked at James, who was giving me an eager look. "Well?" he said, anxious to hear my answer.

I grinned and gave him back his knife. I only had one thing to say.

"Let's do that again."