The Ghost Face Murders in Fall River

Ch. 7

The next day was a rough one for Autumn. She awoke with nausea from the excruciating pain she was in. Her injuries hurt worse than they ever had, it felt as if they were on fire. Danny tried giving her pain medication, but she threw it up almost immediately. He knew this wouldn't have happened if she had stayed in the hospital, but he really couldn't blame her – he, too, wanted to get out of there. He was the reason she was so miserable, he didn't try hard enough to talk her into staying in the hospital. Autumn felt bad herself for putting him through such an ordeal, she was positive he probably had regrets about taking her in. Danny didn't though, he just wanted her to feel better.

When her nausea subsided a bit, he gave her two pain pills and skipped out on her xanax, he would give that to her in an hour or two. He figured it would be best if she just stayed in a drugged up state all day and night since she felt so miserable. Danny had plans to go out that night, but he wouldn't leave her if she was still in excruciating pain. That's why he wanted her unconscious; she wouldn't feel anything and he could go out without her ever even knowing, it was a win on both sides. There was still the matter of going to the store, that was something Danny needed to do and Autumn needed something on her stomach. He would surely overdose her if she didn't eat something.

After the pain medication had kicked in, Danny gave her a xanax. She questioned him about the two pills he had given her earlier to which Danny admitted that he had given her two pain pills, but he lied and told her that the pamphlet said that she could take two at a time. The naive young woman took his word for it without any question. In Autumn's mind, Jed would never do anything to hurt her. Danny wouldn't, not intentionally, but what was so bad about drugging someone so that they wouldn't feel anything? That's not the whole reason why he was drugging her though so that made him feel a shred of guilt which made him angry at himself – if he was going to feel guilty for that, then what else would he start feeling guilty about?

"Auty, are you doing alright?" Danny asked her as he tied her shoelace.

"Mmhmm..." Autumn was higher than a kite.

Danny bundle her up in her jacket and wrapped the blanket from the couch around her.

"Where are we going?" she asked.

"To the store, remember?" This was Danny's third time telling her.

"Ohhhhhhhhhhhh.... Yeah."

He pulled the draw strings to her hood so no chilly air could get in and freeze her ears.

"Can we eat?" Autumn asked looking up at him.

"Absolutely, anything you want," Danny told her. Her pupils were nearly the size of nickels.

"Donuts." she said taking his hand.

Danny grabbed his keys from the hook by the door. "Well, you can have those too, but how about some real food?"

Autumn looked at him again. "Donuts... aren't... real food?"

He had fried her brain with drugs. "I mean, they are, but you need to eat something else besides donuts."

"Ohhh..."

Danny opened the door and lead the dazed girl out of the house. He could tell that she was still pondering the meaning of real food as he backed out of the driveway.

"How is it not real food when there's a place called Dunkin' Donut?" Autumn questioned when she saw the coffee shop sign.

"You know what? You are absolutely right, I stand corrected." Danny signaled and turned into the Dunkin'.

Autumn didn't miss a beat with her order, she wanted two strawberry donuts with sprinkles and a large vanilla iced coffee with extra sugar. Danny ordered what she had requested, only he told them to make her coffee decaf – he didn't want the caffeine conflicting with her drowsiness, she was already getting ready to consume a massive amount of sugar. Maybe... Autumn was starting to crash before he could even get out of the drive thru. He roused her and put one of the donuts in her hand.