Dust

Chapter 16

Faith POV: The next morning, Tim is still surprisingly by my side. He keeps flinching and clearing his throat... It keeps throwing me off.

He's been reading the paper for about ten minutes, and it's driving me nuts. He looks much older, and he acts much older too. It's weird seeing him like this. He finishes reading whatever section of the paper he was interested in, and folds it up, placing it on the chair beside him. I look to see it's the foreign affairs section... Different...

"Bin laden's dead, by the way... If you didn't know." He says, smiling a little bit.

"Bin laden?" I ask, wondering why this is a good thing.

"The leader of al-quada..."

"What?"

"Nevermind." He says, shaking his head. "Bad guy." He sums up, before walking over to the window.

"How old are the girls?" I ask quietly. He freezes for a moment, a sad look emerging on his face.

"15, 14, 11." He says, swallowing hard again. He sits back down and rubs his palms against his thighs.

Out of nowhere, Mark flies in the door, causing us both to jump.

"First day of therapy! You excited?" He asks. I can see his hands shaking, showing he's faking this enthusiasm. "Alright, Faith. We are going to try inducing a dream. I'm going to give you one thing that is going to make you very sleepy, and another thing to increase the functionality of your memory. Together this should, hopefully, create a dream that should be similar to a memory. You ready?" He asks. The whole thing is confusing to me, but I don't think I have much to lose.

"Yeah." I say, as he starts to pump something into my IV. He and Tim make small talk while I begin to drift.

"Sleep tight." Mark says, as I fall completely under.

The house is dark. Tim and I sit in complete silence on the bathroom floor. He has a pile of things hidden behind him that I can't stop staring at. He looks exhausted... I lean my head back against a counter, while Tim sits over by the tub. There's about five feet between us.

"Just let me go..." I cry out. He shakes his head. He looks horrified, as he tries to hold back tears. I begin to feel faint, when Tim goes back into action...

Within a few seconds, he has me bent over the toilet, and his fingers deep in my throat. I see a ton of pills sitting in the water as I sit back up. Tears are falling quickly, as Tim tries to make sure they're all out.

"Stop!" I scream, starting to hit and punch him. He pins me down, turns me on my stomach, and starts to make me gag again. Even more pills come out, as the door squeals open. Gracie stands in the doorway, staring at me and Tim. I completely ignore her, while Tim freezes, and lets go of me.

"Daddy?" She says, looking on in horror.

"You fucker!" I scream at Tim, punching his chest. He tries to grab my hands, but he can't, so he grabs my waist, and pulls me in tightly. He holds me, and tries to shush me, but it doesn't work... I manage to reach a razor blade from the pile behind him. Before I slit my wrists, I go right for his neck, cutting deep. Gracie screams, as he leans back against the tub and tries to stop his bleeding. He begins to gag as the blood pours out. Gracie barely looks at me when she goes to help Tim. She leans him forward, and tries to cover the wound with a towel before she goes to call an ambulance.

Tim lays face down, crying, and starting to scream, as I watch him. I crawl over to the pile and check out what else I can do to myself. Something in my mind makes me want to hurt him. I dump a whole bottle of pills in my mouth, and go over to Tim. I turn him over, and stare at him.