TOXIC BLOODLINES 1/4

DIRTBAG

IAN

I had heard that the prince of Seventh Heaven was released from the hospital. No wonder the people who came to the diner kept cussing me out all day.

I started to regret not leaving for college when I had the chance; I was the villain everyone hated again. The thought of leaving this shit hole for good was at the back of my mind. I could pack up and leave – that would be it, but I needed to stay. I was under strict orders from the man himself to stay put for my safety because I apparently had a target on my back.

Yeah, I got a bunch of death threats. People were telling me to fucking kill myself, 'Your mother should've aborted you' – shit like that. It sucked, but there was nothing I could've done about it; it's the fucking internet. Even the few friends I had left became part of the lynch mob when the news spread out. It got to a point where my uncle didn't even want me to go to work anymore.

Kim's aunt dying like they said she did ripped the town's wounds back open. They couldn't come after me over the boat, but this time I had no one to get me out of it. Was I scared? Hell fucking yes, who wouldn't be in a town full of racists? I kept my eyes on the door every night, fearing one of them would come in here and blow my brains out, probably chop me up and hide me in the woods too. It was extreme, but those people are capable of anything, especially when they think they have a noble cause sent from god.

Everything was fucked.

Elenore even kept to herself these days. The hate I was getting finally caught up to her at school; she barely went out now. Nobody went out anymore –it's ten p.m. on game night, and the diner is empty.

People were scared, and the crap that reporter guy who got fired had been uploading only added to the fear. I thought it was a load of bullshit, but it felt good watching the dicktator get ripped apart. At least it took their attention off me a little.

Nobody knows what to believe anymore; too much happened too fast for anyone to process it. Something was off.

I took as many shifts at the diner as possible to hide from my uncle. He'd been on edge, and I was a trigger for him; the shit he'd ignored in the past didn't fly. He was constantly on my ass now. Shit went down after those articles dropped... he was out of his uniform now. Conner was working on the guest house; that got him out of my hair for a while. He was building something; I saw the plans, just didn't bother asking him about it.

I had a lot of time to think about everything; summer was over, the snow started to fall, we'd be buried under it for months, and life came to a standstill.

I hadn't spoken to Kim since her aunt's funeral, and even then, she wasn't present. There was nothing in her eyes. I don't even think she noticed me there. I used to joke about us being orphans; we shared that trauma even though neither of us remembered our parents aside from the photographs and stories. Kim and I both got second chances; parents and a normal life... but Kim's had all that taken away from her again. It wasn't fair; it felt like a cruel joke. Out of all the people in this town, it had to be Aunty Aminah. I wiped a tear as I counted the money in the cash register at the end of my shift.

And then you got Sara. After the articles put everything on us, we only had each other. She was angrier than I was over the way we were portrayed.

Sara thought that if she acted the way people expected, they'd leave her alone. I won't say it's been working out for her. She got the same amount, if not more hate than I did because she was 'supposed to be her friend.'

When I woke up in the hospital, it wasn't all sunshine and gift cards. I was handcuffed to the bed like some convict. My uncle was in the room with me. I could hear his voice, but it was all muffled; I was trying to wake up. I grabbed the bed sheet with my right hand and wiggled my toes before I fought hard to open my eyes. The first thing I could see through my muffled vision was the light on the ceiling. I tried to lift my head but couldn't; a brace was around my neck. Shit.