[CHAPTER 9]
*couple years later*
He was sitting on the beach for the most of the day.
Finally he had three days off and he decided to stay on the beach.
His mind was still returning back to the day couple years back when he was so terrified of loosing all he had. Though he wasn't free yet. And possibly won't ever be. The shards were still there. They couldn't risk of taking them out yet so they stayed waiting for the day they move again, because they were "too close".
What the hell meant "too close"? Wasn't everything these days "too close"? Hell, he already was "too close" to loose his sight, "too close" to loose his life, even that "too close" to loose all his money at once. But he still risked. He still was in denial.
Suddenly he felt the urge to go back and play the game. The game he need to play to get off things he wanted not to think of. He stood up and pulled out his pills. In a trained motion he flipped a bunch in his mouth and left the beach.
It was like standing in front of the train that was moving full speed.
He couldn't move, couldn't breathe, couldn't feel. There was just a dull silence. A complete emptiness in his chest. He was completely oblivious to the world around him, and especially very angry Rick Stetler. He didn't see the older man telling him that he's fired, telling him he's thrown out like a piece of shit. There were only stars dancing in front of young man's glazed eyes. He was in complete shock. In shock the he didn't see the obvious, that he stepped over the line, that he wasn't careful enough.
His mind was empty and his body trying but failing to react. He felt paralysed.
And with stars still swimming in his vision he slipped deep into darkness...
He woke up with a scream. But when his brain came to life he couldn't remember a thing. It was only this feeling still lingering somewhere between the layers of his his consciousness. For a while he just sat at his bed trying to wake his mind.
After the incident at lab it was even harder to regain his composure every morning.
The doctor said it was due to a lot of reasons starting the day he got the scar on his arm. He slided his fingers over the scar. There was still the black hole in his memory from that time, but one thing he sure remembered...
The person who did this to him. And now he had to start over his life in sake of the fight for the job he wanted back.
The one at television definately wasn't for him. Gun range was closer. Bodyguard- even closer. The hardest of all- fighting addiction. The addiction he had for years but he never admitted. Now he had to. And now one last step before return...