Drawn

Chapter 2.1:

Three months after the accident (Past):

"Get your lazy ass up."

The gruff irritated voice called from near the doorway.

I should have locked the door.

My head was hidden under the weight of my pillows and blankets. If I didn't move, there was a slight chance the man standing in the doorway would give up and leave me alone. It had worked so far on my mom. Whenever she came into my room and offered me food or talked to get me to speak to her, I hid from her or pretended I was asleep.

I had barely even uttered more than two words to her since I came home.

My comforter was yanked from the corner of my bed and thrown across the room. Then the sheet went flying next. I was almost completely bare in just my boxers, freezing as the drafty, uninsulated windows did nothing to keep the winter air out. My room was always one of the coldest places in the house this time of year. It was a wonder that I ever survived childhood between the abuse of my dad and the constant uninhabitable conditions of my only sanctuary.

I wished I hadn't made it; it had been a long time since I felt differently. I never wanted to exist my whole life if I was brutally honest with myself.

I groaned and rolled over onto my back. The fuming outline of my Uncle Charlie was standing over me in the dark room. His presence was dark, large, and filled with absolute authority.

"I said you need to get your good-for-nothing, freeloading backside out of bed now." He loudly boomed like he was scolding a disobedient child.

"Fuck off and get out," I grumbled and rolled back over to my stomach.

"This ain't no bed and breakfast, kid. You and I have places to be this morning."

"I'm not going anywhere with you." I slurred.

I began scooting across the bed on my back to search for the almost empty baggie I had laid on the table next to the bed last night. I left about five pills in it for this morning. My cousin Jake had dropped them off to me three days ago and I already needed more. Hopefully, Jake was in the mood to make another house call. If not, I would have to walk to get them since I had no means of transportation other than my feet.

My hand came up empty.

Where were they?

I turned over onto my stomach and leaned the front half of my body over the edge of the bed to see if it fell on the floor while I was sleeping. There was nothing around anywhere near the spot I left it—not even under or beside it.

The pills had vanished into thin air.

Did I dose myself in my sleep?

My body didn't feel like I did. I was too alert and coherent to have used the rest of them up.

I sat back up, dizzy and nauseous from the movement, and fell back on my side, unable to support my own body for more than a few seconds as the blood came rushing back to my head.

Uncle Charlie frowned and shook his head at me with stern disapproval.

"Looking for these?" Uncle Charlie held up my baggie in his hand.

"Give them to me." I bit down on my tongue to keep from screaming at him as my body shook with anger.

They were mine. He had no right to put his filthy hands on them. The little balls of nothingness were the only thing I wanted anymore since the day I lost Riley. I needed those pills because nothing I could do ever wipe her from my thoughts.