Chapter 7: High.

Together they didn't have much cash, but what little they had was stored under a loose board in the creaky old kitchen of the small house. After what they'd been through Piper didn't trust anyone with money, she didn't trust anyone besides Alex.

Ironic, so ironic.

Their ways with money reminded Alex of a time she'd heard about in the past, a time where banks were never trusted and money was always stored in some secret spot. It was an older america, a brutal past she didn't want to live in either.

There was no way out of it all, there was only temporary escape from the ever pounding pain of life. Life was pain and that was all it was, pain and suffering. The problem would never be resolved, there was no place for her in the world and no way for her to be happy. As much as Piper and her mind tried to tell her otherwise, it was the truth. Soon she'd be dead, but not until she knew the secret her mind hadn't told her yet. She had to live that long, long enough to feel good at least one last time.

Half covered in sweat in her now fully tattered clothes, Alex painstakingly pried the board loose nail by nail. Piper had done it herself, this was their last stash of cash and she'd made getting into it a nightmare, but Alex would handle nightmares, that was her life.

Once the final nail broke free of the splintering board, she tore it out of the floor. It was half rotten like the rest of the old house, but not nearly as rotten as her heart.

Please don't do this, you don't have to do this to Piper, don't hurt her even more.

But she didn't care, her life was about her and her death would be too. She wouldn't spend all of it, just enough for a bump or two.

Greedily Aled reached down into the small space and latched her fingers tightly around the cash. She counted it all as she took it up into the low light. There was only a few hundred dollars, but it was more than enough for what she needed. Alex stuffed half of the cash in her pocket and marched back towards the crime filled town. She was in the middle of nature but she saw no beauty in it. There was no beauty left in the world.

With every freezing step she took she begged herself more and more to go back to the house and forget it, but her legs had a mind of their own. She couldn't keep this up, she had to get a hit.

Alex marched on through the harsh wind, only warmed by the feeling she knew was coming to her soon. 10 minutes later she had it in her palm, 2 grams of hard core heroin in her for $200. She'd had way more product on hand as an importer, but now this was all she had. Oh if she'd only had a kilogram of stuff then that would be the way to die, of so fucking good…

She walked away from the dealer her head began to ache with pain. She felt like shit for what she was doing but she couldn't stop herself from feeling excited as she ran back home. If she'd just died and not been a pussy about it, then this would be happening, but now she was just taking and taking more from Piper. All she did was take, hurt, and destroy.

Her entire life she'd always felt like shit. She was never a real person, she never would have that luxury again. If she stuck to what path society carved out for her then she was worse than dead, she couldn't be the common cog, she couldn't handle the pain of all those gears grinding on her temple nonstop... The drug in her hand was her only escape, her parting package to the shitty world of life.

She picked up her pace as she sped back towards their house her mind wired only on getting her fix. Soon she'd be happy, soon she'd feel free.

Author's Notes: Sorry about the late chapter guys. I hope you enjoyed it and thanks for reading and reviewing.