Psychonaut Lib

by: Sarah Katherine

Chapter One:

Mount Horizon lay in a blue darkness; rain fell heavily from the pregnant clouds eager to relive their burden; a greenish-gray haze could be seen above the tall pines, casting an eerie glow over the grounds. Lights spasmodically clicked off around the campus as student and teacher alike began to tuck in for the stormy night ahead.

Ezra Friedkin stared at himself in the bathroom mirror. The lights seemed to be getting low, 'Or is that the Vicodin kicking in?'. His eyes shifted in and out of focus, causing the world around him to blur. Giggling to himself, he felt around the wall for a light switch and pushed until some kind of lighting change occurred. He wasn't quite aware of all he was doing, though he hoped the others wouldn't suspect. 'That's just what I need', he thought to himself, 'Scott running off to Peter telling him what a bad boy Ezra's been'. He laughed inwardly at this thought, knowing Scott would never do such a thing. He was probably long asleep by now anyway, which took care of one of Ezra's problems. The second? Auggie.

Tripping over some foreign object in the middle of the floor, Ezra glanced to his right. Sure enough, there was Auggiesound asleep and snoring ever so slightly. Forgetting everyone else, Ezra flopped onto his bed and stretched his back in a cat-like fashion. As he felt the beginning effects of the opiate kick in, he allowed his mind to wander as he absently, yet loudly, clicked his tongue. 'What would Peter do if he found out about my little stash? My little midnight escapades?' Ezra rolled his eyes and shifted onto his left side. Starring absently through the darkness, he picked out Scott's frame through the heavy blanket. Ezra couldn't tell if Scott was facing him or not, as the blanket seemed to cover all of him. 'Would Scott be mad? Or just annoyed that I hadn't indulged him? Should I wake him up?' Ezra thought, seriously suggesting himself to jump up and pounce on Mr. Barringer's bed. 'Nah, wouldn't be the smartest thing I've ever done ... definitely couldn't pull that with Auggie, either.' He sighed heavily, closing his eyes. 'Once again, I'm left to fend for myself. FanTASTic.'

Letting his mind drift off to whatever subject it pleased, Ezra continued clicking his tongue and started to wiggle his fingers in front of his face. This trip, if one could ever call it that, was different than all the others. Of course, he'd upped the dosage quite a bit, going from the standard two HPs to five. He mentally calculated that, only half an hour ago, he'd consumed 50 mgs of Hydrocodone30 mgs over normal. And the Acetaminophen count? 'Ha! I might as well rip a big ole' hole into my liver with a screw driver.' He laughed out loud, continuing to wiggle his fingers in front of his face, teetering precariously on the edge of this cot.

After about an hours of Ezra's giggling, tongue clicking and finger wiggling, a protest was head in the room. "Ezr... uh ... what'reyoudoin'?" Scott poked his face from underneath the covers, looking thoroughly disturbed of his peaceful sleeping. When Ezra didn't respond after a while, Scott asked a little louder, "EZRA?"

Ezra jumped and snapped his head up. "WhaHOLY SHIT!" Losing balance, Ezra rolled off the bed and fell to the ground in quite the ungraceful heap. Scott groaned and threw back his covers. 'The one time I actually get some sleep around here ...'

"Ez, what in the Hell is wrong with you?" Scott asked jokingly, trying to disentangle his friend's limbs and help him to his feet.

"Uh, you scared me? I thought you were asleep." Ezra mumbled, trying to pull himself up on the bed. For some reason, his legs just didn't want to work. For some reason, he found this incredibly amusing. Looking up, and finding Scott's eyes, he said quite seriously, "My legs don't work anymore." He emphasized his point by poking himself in the thigh numerous times. Scott merely stared. 'Something ... is not... what in the hell is going on?' His sleep clouded brain was trying to form coherent words, but acceptable motor skills seemed to fail him at the moment.

"Why don't you go back to sleep, eh Scott? I think I'm just gonna chill down here for a couple of hours. Quite nice, actually. I hear sitting on the floor for extended periods of time helps a person become one with their spirituality" Ezra babbled, still poking himself in the thigh. The black boxer shorts he wore contrasted sharply with his stark white skin, though he was sure a bruise was to form in a short while. After all, he was poking himself awfully hard.

All the while, Scott just stared. The wheels in his brain started turning once more, and fragments of thought began to form. 'Shit. He's fucked up on something. Shitshitshitshitshit...' Without thinking, Scott bent down to grab Ezra above the elbow and hoisted him onto the bed.

"What are you doing, Mr. Barringer? I thought I explained that I was getting in touch with my spirituality? I quite liked it on the floor, thank you very much!" Ezra proclaimed in a pseudo-dignified manner, almost causing Scott to smile, were it not for the severity of the situation. Finishing his task, he took a seat beside Ezra and put his head in his hands.

"What am I going to do with you...?" Scott thought aloud, rubbing the temples of his head with his fingertips. Ezra chirped up behind him,

"Don't tell Peter." 'DAMMIT!' he thought to himself. 'I didn't have to go and say anything! Why ... oh why oh why OH WHHYYYYY...' his mind sung out, causing Ezra to close his eyes and smirk.

"I'm not going to tell Peter ... not unless ... what did you take? And how much?"

Ezra cleared his throat, "Well, Mr. Barringer, I took precisely 50 milligrams of Hydrocodone and 660 milligrams of Acetaminophen." When Scott looked like he was about to slap him upside the head, Ezra sighed. "Five Vicodin HPs. Happy now?"

"... Five?" Scott asked, thinking he'd heard wrong. Sure, taking five was normal for regular dosage Vicodin even he knew that. But HPs were extra strength, the highest you could get. Five of those was likely to tear up your liver ...

"Yes sir, five indeed. Usually I only take two, but"

"You mean you're doing this all the time!"

"Sssh! You're going to wake Auggie"

"I'M NOT GOING TO WAKE AUGGIE!" Scott nearly screamed, "You were the one giggling and clicking your tongue not ten minutes ago! You ARE the one who took five god damn Vicodin and"

"STOP FUCKING SCREAMING AT ME!" Ezra yelled, scooting as far as he could from the guy sitting on the edge of his bed, and brought his knees up to cradle his face. Scott stared at him in silence until,

"What's wrong with you two? People are tryin' to sleep!" Looking to his left, Scott saw Auggie rub his eyes with his left hand and rest on his right.

"I was sleeping too, until Ez up and decided to try and kill himself"

Ezra looked up from his knees, "I did not try to kill myself"

"You took five of them!"

"Both of you shut up." Auggie demanded, sitting up in bed and letting the blankets pool around his waist. "Now. Ez, why'd you wake Scott up?"

Sniffing slightly and grabbing his stomach, he replied, "I didn't try to wake him up. I was laying in bed and he scared me. And so I fell out of bed." He said all of this mechanically, as if he was forcing it out of his mouth. Auggie looked to Scott and raised an eyebrow.

Scott sighed. "He took something."

"Thanks for keeping a secret, ass-hole." Ezra mumbled as he fell to his right, still holding his stomach. He buried his head in the soft blanket, trying unfruitfully to drown out their voices and the light.

"I didn't say I wasn't going to tell Aug. I only said I wouldn't tell Peter." Scott looked to Auggie to reassure that Auggie would also keep the secret, to which Auggie nodded that he wouldn't tell. "See, he isn't going to tell either. So just chill, would you?"

"I am soo chillin' right ... ouch ... now." Ezra mumbled, curling into a tight ball and opening his eyes. "Everythin's all blurry."

"You did it to yourself, man. We won't tell Peter, but that only means you're going to have one helluva rough ride tonight." Auggie pointed out, sighing heavily. Ezra moaned and vaguely wondered what happened to that floating feeling he'd had just a little while ago ...

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Author's Note: So this is my very first Higher Ground story. I pretty much know where I'm going with this story, but I need some reviews. Tell me what you liked, what you didn't like. To answer a few would-be questions first off, this may end up being slash. Very mild, a'course, and it could just be how you percieve it. Another answer to a would-be question is that yes, I do plan on updating this story quite frequently, so long as you, the Reader, review and let me know that people are actually reading it. Besides all that, my Author's Notes from now on won't be nearly as long I just needed to get all of that out. Thanks for reading :)