Chapter 11, Here it is. More terrible dialogue.

I don't own this and blah, blah, blah.

Chapter 11

The next day I left the hospital as early as I could; staggering my way towards the reception where I received my bag and the other belongings I had taken to school. I awkwardly dressed myself in the now cleaned cloths, filed out some paperwork to state that the orphanage was paying for all my expenses and swiftly made my escape from the building via the fire exit. I didn't care if CCTV caught wind of me as I had seen around two doctors and some large number of nurses used the same exit for smoking breaks. Rather ironic if you'd ask me.

It was still dark when I began moving around the buildings side, keeping behind the large row of trees that attempted to make the gloomy hospital look even somewhat attractive to anyone. The brighter browns and greens just clashed with the dull grey.

Walking was much easier than the previous day, it still stung and jabbed and my cast arm felt like it had been covered in bricks, but I could actually move at a reasonable pace, I just didn't want to be stuck in a chase any time soon.

I kept a close eye on the ford van, the inhabitant looked completely devoid of life, for at least two days he had been watching the same window, did he even know that I had left? Was it even the same van? Everything seemed so upside down that I resigned to just believing that the blond man was just bored and I hadn't gone crazy.

After half the parking lot was behind me the pathway turned into a small hill and van was out of sight, covered by crowding cars, flourishing pines and resting snow. I thanked the heavens that I had decided to wear a hoodie the day I was hospitalised, the town normally was cold but in the dark morning it was comparable to a freezing bath.

As I left the entrance to the hospital's car park I turned at a final glance and immediately dived behind the trees as the van had moved! Now it was patrolling around the car park. It rumbled like an angry lion, waiting for its' prey to show itself so it could pounce for the kill. It circled the park once; every now and then I saw the headlights shine next to me, blocked by the protective tree that I felt was as strong as papier-mâché.

I stayed as still as a corpse, three times it circled, six times the light fell onto the large pine tree and nearly exposed me. I felt as if he knew where I was, he was just toying with me, playing fun with my terror. But was that actually true? No, I refreshed my thoughts, he couldn't know that.

I heard the vans angry rumble move closer it got slower and closer before moving near me, as if it were sniffing me out like a bloodhound. My blood complained at not moving fast enough, like a typhoon in my veins, beating and beating.

Quickly the van roared in displeasure and squealed then drove away, leaving me alone.

I smiled widely, I was finally alone, at least I hoped I was. I kept in mind that there could be another person watching and that didn't help me with calming down.

As usual I stuck to the maze of alleyways, sticking to the shadows although my brighter clothes didn't help me with staying hidden. My flat was about a twenty minutes walk from the Hospital and for every second of those twenty minutes I had my eyes glancing behind me, just to make sure that the van wasn't going to park near the exit/entrance to the alleyways or for the blond haired man to come out from the shadows.

The dawn's chorus was still a good couple of hours from their first verse when I arrived at the square space that held my apartment complex.

I moved as fast as my wounded body would let me and entered the building and ascended up the empty stairs, keeping it in mind to avoid any windows in the miniscule chance that I had been followed.

I quickly stuffed the key into the lock of apartment 29, the first door to the left of the sixth flight, and entered to a dark flat. It was still quite early, around five O'clock so the building was mute, every footstep was silenced by the underneath carpet.

I closed the door, quickly locking it and moving to my front room window that overlooked the car park, nothing unusual at all, I could recognise virtually every car and there was no silver van.

I sighed in relief and closed the blinds, darkening the room but after already walking through the darkness it didn't take my eyes long to adjust and I moved to the bedroom. I wanted to see if Damien was safe… or there at least.

I just waited at the door for a second, my hand caressing an invisible spectre above the handle before I gained the courage to see if he was alright and creaked open the door.

A figure was lying on top of the covers of my bed, asleep, it was Damien and he was fine. I smiled and moved to his side, finding him still dressed in a black shirt and jeans, straight faced in a content slumber.

'Thank God' I thought as I closed the blinds next to the bed, keeping a watchful eye on the urban labyrinth below to find no one.

"Hey… are you ok" I heard Damien say behind me. I turned and found him sitting straight on the bed, watching me with dropped, sleep filled eyes. "What time is it, do you ever sleep?"

"About five, and… well not really." I replied "And now I think I'll be doing less of that."

"Don't accidentally kill yourself, could you?"

"I don't think so. But I'll try to keep myself rested, ok?"

"Yeah, that's only the best right now." He covered his face with his hands and fell backwards onto the bed "God damn it all… Fuck, just… Fuck it all, ya know?"

"Not really." I replied sheepishly.

He looked back with a small smile. "I can't believe how damn calm you seem, I'm having an internal thunderstorm over here, just… let's just hope my dad can sort this out."

"Do you think he can?"
"When I actually get ahold of him later and tell him about this thing, I can tell he's going to march straight to the police and either their going to stop this as swiftly as they can, or he's going to make them the most hated thing on the planet… and then they'll help us. Or this will all go to shit, but I'm just going to hope he can help."

I felt like I had to as well, no matter how much Lucas freaked me out, he seemed reliable, just far too happy for normal. I couldn't blame him for his eccentricities though, that would only be hypocritical of me.

"Damn, I need something to take my mind off of all this bullshit." He said quietly as he pushed himself to lean against the headboard.

I sat further down on the bed, next to his feet and rested my arm on my cast.

"Umm… what is it you're interested in?"

He stayed silent for a second and looked at me almost agape "Wow, I've just realised that you trust me enough to let me sleep in your house alone and we actually know nothing about each other's likes and dislikes."

"I guess that's true but this is a weird situation, is it not."

"I guess so."

"What do you like then? You want something to take your mind of things... so maybe this will help?"

"Ok, cool… What do I like? I guess I enjoy playing the guitar... movies, I guess. I don't really know much else to say. You?"

"Oh..." I paused, not expecting the return question "Reading, I guess."

"Awesome, what types?"

"Oh… Any book really, I wouldn't say I'm picky really."

"Fair enough… do you like music?"

"Yes, I'd… I'd say I do, yes."

"What genre?"

"Oh… Uh" I nervously coughed"I guess… Metal… I guess."

"Really? Awesome." He said, perking up slightly "I never would have guessed."

"No one does, it's always a surprise to people." I paused, thinking. "You know what, bugger it, I've got a stereo in my front room, do you want to just put something on and… um, relax."

"God, that sounds fantastic."

We swiftly made our escape from the bedroom, traversing some three steps in the hall and arrived at the front room. I decided to not turn on the lights as the sudden light would not do us any good except making them sting like wasps angry jabs in our irises. Instead I expertly manoeuvred around the furniture and to the cabinet at the far end of the room that held the tv above and some shelves below. I opened both glass doorways and allowed them to swing open as if to dramatically reveal the contents, although those were only the stereo, more of my books, around ten CDs from varying artists and some candles.

"Uh, Damien… You have matches don't you?" I said, remembering his ethanol pyrotechnics from before.

"Yeah, they're in my pockets."

"Could you get them out?" I said, showing him the candles.

"Oh, yeah… Give me a sec." He flipped the packet open in one movement, took a single stick and swished it against the packet, igniting the red tip and illuminating his face in a calmly pulsating sphere of glowing orange. He lit the tip's of them and within the next five minutes the room looked as if we were prepared to enact a sacrifice although, the slowly speeding up electric guitar and drums of an iron maiden album broke the ambiance like a sledgehammer to a man's legs.

"Ya know?" Damien said as the music lowed and the song became sombre and mellow "I haven't really paid you back for basically looking after me, have I?"

"You… You don't have to, you're basically my only friend, and you don't need to pay me back."

"I'm really your only friend? I was just joking! What about that Kenny guy, he doesn't seem like that much of an asshole."

"He's not. It's just that… I'm not good with people."

"Neither am I, be it for different reasons but still. Ya know? Your problem is that you let things happen, which is strange, I've never met anyone who just lets things happen. No matter how awkward you are your…Laid blackness, I guess, is completely against all the shit you've had to deal with, if I had the shit kicked out of me as much as you do, and I've seen it happen twice in the, what, four days I've been here, I'd probably be hypersensitive to every damned word a person says."

"Well… If you just let things happen they will be over sooner, if you resist… then it will just keep going on, eventually if you are so aloof to it, it should all just eventually leave you alone."

"Maybe, but that seems like a bad way to live your life. Take that from someone who's also spent most of their life in small groups, it doesn't help to always let things happen. Try and stop something sometimes and it can be the best thing that happens to you, ok?"

I went over his words for a few seconds before nodding once with a small smile "Sure, maybe I'll try… Just… Just don't count on it, ok?"

The music's tempo began speeding up as the track changed "Sure, it's only the best you can do."

We moved back to a mutual silence, just enjoying the presence of another person and the music. It was nice, quaint and rather de-stressing; the paranoia of a watching force was sucked away like a sponge in a bowl of water.

Before long I noticed the sun's rays filtering through the edges of the blinds, darkened from the inside of the flat and seeming like an eclipse in the almost mesmerising way the light tried to creep through the edges of the blockade to replace the remaining darkness.

I checked my phone, 6:29 was what the digital clock said, we still had a lot of time, at least half an hour until I would think of leaving.

"Would you be ok with walking?" I asked, deciding to try it once again and hoping that Trent would think that I would use the bus, or was still in the hospital.

"I do that anyway, so yeah, I'd be fine"

"Oh, thanks."

He gave a small smile "No problem, anyway, wouldn't it be better to stick together in a scenario like this?"

"I guess so."

"Well I'd say you guessed right." He declared. "Should we be getting ready?"

"Not yet, give it five minutes." I said, waiting for the last track to finish its' sombre lyrics to the quick tempted finale.

I changed into my more formal attire, awkwardly into one of my generic long sleeved shirts and black trousers. I found that only being able to use one hand when buttoning up a shirt was a trial indeed.

"Why do you dress like you're going to go to a business meeting?" Damien asked as I walked back into the front room.

"Oh… It's just gentlemanly… sort of."

"Whatever, I guess it suits you."

"Um, thanks?"

"Sure. You know, I'm not looking forward to having another talk with that fat bastard."

"No one does."

"Why hasn't anyone dealt with him if he is really that much of an asshole?"

"Because anyone who can either doesn't care or is scared of the consequences. Usually both."

"I know you said he was smart but is he really that dangerous, get rid of his friends and he'll back himself into a corner for you. I've seen his type before, in Chicago, in province, even when I went to England with my dad for an extended vacation. That type of asshole is everywhere; you just think that they're some kind of mad genius, actually there scared and alone. Not like us Phillip, even just the two of us, we have more things to be scared of, more things to force us to loneliness but us? We stay upright, straight back and look forward, be it with apathy like you or whatever it is with me and we can make it through eventually, they're the peasants and we're the knights and the kings of this world, we're smart and they're stupid, we're strong and they are weak. Don't you see Phillip? You and I have lived this far, we can live forever, we will live forever and they will be forgot. What I'm trying to say is… don't worry about that Eric bastard or that Tweek guy's friend, because they are weak and us, the kings of this world, are strong."

I didn't believe him but the words were comforting and his look of utter confidence was so unique, so true that I just nodded, a true smile on my face once again.