Note: Ok, so it's been a while since I updated and I'm sorry. I just never could think of a way for it to go until now. I've decided that the "group home" part should not be the focus for the story and have switched the plot making chapters 1 and 2 developing parts. This is the way I think I want it to go.

So, this chapter is going to be very confusing unless you read this note, so read this note haha as it's very important. This chapter is heavily based on Requiem for a Dream. Requiem for a Dreamis a movie that is basically all about drugs and money and the peoples lives as they spiral downward.

They have now left the group home and are 18 living in LA in a small apartment. Cody has a girlfriend named Lauren who also lives with them. This one basically drops in as everything is beginning to fall apart. The "fun" that they first experienced with the drugs is almost gone and everything is shellshocked. Lauren is having to sell sex for money now. Cody, at one point, relapses and has a breakdown while Zack is passed out. Everything is falling apart.

This chapter is very harsh. I also want everyone to realize that drugs are not good and neither is prostitution.

Longest note ever, huh? I should probably start the chapter... now.

Swallowed

On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.

Zack sat with his back against the cold wall inside this small room and thumbed at the coins resting in his palm. He felt himself coming down. Lauren had turned all the lights off as she left. Zack spread himself out on the floor stretching his body in different directions and squeezing his eyes tight. He rolled over onto his back and looked through the window from the corners of his eyes.

The lights danced in his mind leaving little trails behind as a slow golden hit. His eyes closed slowly before drifting out of consciousness. A few coins rolled out of his fingers before spinning noisily and settling on the concrete floor of the apartment.

Cody walked the streets below slowly. Lauren slipped her hand into his. He grasped it welcomingly and stopped on the corner turning her around by the shoulders with his free hand.

He stuck his hand into the rear pocket of his jeans and reached a small roll of cash. He pushed the hair out of her face before pulling her close and kissing her forehead and resting his head on hers.

"You can do this. I know it," he told her. "Don't be worried. We need this," he whispered into her hair again.

"I love you," she told him and took the money from his hand and stepped off the street corner.

Walking down the center of the street, she turned off the next block. Cody stood resting his back against the street corner. They needed this hit. He rested his hand on his forearm across his chest. Come on. He turned around and headed back towards Zack.

Cody reached the metal doors to the complex. He opened them and reached the stainless-steel elevator. The buttons inside were worn and overused. The lights flickered and Cody's eyes tensed. His palms were starting to sweat and he rocked back and forth anxiously. Addiction, he told himself. Things weren't meant to be this way. Not now. Too late, he kicked himself again.

Cody reached the 25th floor and turned down another fluorescent hallway with interwoven doors. 2516. He thumbed his key and twisted it inside the lock. Click. Cody enjoyed the sound. He entered to find Zack spread-eagled on the floor. Coins were scattered across the floor reflecting the city lights into Cody's eyes.

Suddenly, everything broke in his mind. Everything. The windows shattered leaving shards of glass floating mid-air. The coins lifted from the ground and rotated around the room. The TV exploded and rapidly light flushed the white washed walls. The walls expanded and shrank at will closing the room.

Cody curled onto the ground wrapping his arms around his knees, pushing his head further into his arms. He didn't know what was happening.

The doors banged open and closed shattering the lock. No, he thought to himself helplessly. The hallway lights burned his skin.

Cody screamed. He screamed until his lungs burned and eyes were red. The coins turned and repeatedly hit him in the head. His eyes closed slowly and he drifted out of consciousness also.

Lauren walked several blocks before reaching a small fenced in parking lot. Come on, she told herself. A dark car was parked in the back. She reached it and tapped the glass noticing her reflection. Exhausted. The window retreated slowly into the car door and a dark silhouette emerged.

"So, you wanna do this?" he asked. His voice wasn't welcoming. She wanted Cody. No, he needs this, she told herself again. For Cody.

Lauren opened the back door and got in reluctantly. The car turned around slowly and left the parking lot tracing down the dark streets and Laurne counted the passing street lights leaving slow golden trails on the passing buildings.

Zack came to with a pounding headache. His chest was rising rapidly and his forehead dripped with a cold sweat. As he sat up he rubbed at his arms and the small of his forearm, harboring a single hole in his veins. Drugs, he thought again. He played off the guilty feeling again. He looked around for Cody or Lauren. It was still dark, they might not be home. As he stood up and walked towards the bathroom, he noticed Cody curled into a tight ball silently crying to himself speak softly to himself incoherently. What the hell, he thought.

"Cody," Zack said. "Wake up. Why are you talking like that? Cody?" Zack shook his shoulders pushing his legs away from his waist forcing Cody to lie regularly.

How long have I been out, he thought to himself. A small clock in the corner of the room told him it was 4:37. So, it must've been hours, right, he reassured himself.

"Cody, get up, please," Zack tried desperately getting worried. Lauren must still be getting the hit. "Cody, c'mon buddy."

Zack sat on the floor holding Cody's form in his arms. He slipped his arms around his waist and held his hand staring at his face. They were tear streaked. What happened, he thought.

"Zack, the room… exploded. Everything was breaking. And your coins. They knocked me out, Zack. I didn't know what to do," Cody replayed his trip to Zack. Cody gripped Zack's shirt and buried his face into it. "I was so scared, Zack. I screamed until my lungs exploded too, Zack." Cody relived it over and over.

"Cody, you just had a trip but everything is okay now. I promise you that you're going to be fine. I'm here and you're gonna be okay. I won't leave you," Zack reassured him. Zack sat with Cody on the concrete floor, holding him resting against the wall.

Lauren had returned, throwing a bag on the table before retreating to the bathroom without saying a word. She slammed the door cursing to herself. She looked into the mirror looking at her face. She cried into the sink.

Quickly, she turned the water on as hot as it would go and got in the shower, burning her skin. She yelled. Hell, I would do that too, Zack thought helplessly. Zack was still holding Cody in his arms against the wall. Cody had fallen asleep again from exhaustion.

I just don't know what to do, Zack thought.