Mayhem's Beginning (Everybody Changes)

Chapter 24: The Morning After

I stayed the night at Dahlia’s house, even though I didn’t get one moment of sleep. I just sat in the corner of her bathroom staring at my hands with my knees under my chin. I didn’t cry, I didn’t freak out, but I just stayed and didn’t move a muscle. Everything was just happening so fast I wasn’t sure if I could keep up with it. All I know is, from now on I was never going to steal someone’s life again. The mental aftermath is just too much to bear.

 I scrubbed my hands until they were raw, but every time I blinked and opened my eyes I could still see the red liquid covering my skin. I wasn’t sure if it was just my mind playing games with me, but I also could still feel the warmth of the blood dripping off my flesh. Whatever I had unleashed last night, it was much too deadly to ever lose control of again. What if I hurt someone again, or even worse, someone I love? I was going to have to learn how to control myself, make sure to avoid everything that could possibly trigger it again.

 The Vulture was also now aware of my existence. Does he know who I am? Does he know what I can do? Does he know what I look like? If I wanted to protect myself, and the ones I love, I was going to have to cover up somehow. A type of disguise, or costume, just like the city’s favorite fictional hero Spider-Man would be necessary. I was always thinking about how cool it would be to be a teenage mutant, but now that it was happening, I was terrified.

Were those men’s deaths worth grieving about? Sure, they were people, but they were far from innocent. They worked for the Vulture, they were talking about bringing me in so the Vulture could eat me. Maybe I was doing the city a favor by getting some of the street’s worst criminals out of the way.

But on the other hand, everyone does something for a reason. Most of the people who join gangs did it for the money and the fame, but some people actually have their reasons. What if those men were just trying to feed their families? Maybe it was their only way to get any kind of money.

 Dahlia’s door opened as she entered the bathroom. I hid my face in my knees hoping she didn’t notice I was there. After a minute or so she must have looked sideways because it sounded like she almost jumped out of her clothes. “Holy shit, what are you doing there? I thought you left early or something.” I didn’t answer. “Are you alright, you’re acting like you just saw a ghost.” She almost got it right. I looked up at her, and instantly she noticed my face. Her pupils enlarged as she yelled a few curse words.

 She quickly grabbed a damp towel and knelt down beside me. “Andrew, what happened? Where did you go? Who did this to you?” She began gently tapping on my bruises.

“That’s classified.” I couldn’t just tell her that I was a freak who had just murdered some people. Now that I think about it, it was a bad idea to come back here in the first place. Why didn’t I ever think?

 “Classified? Come on, you know nothing is classified between us two.”

“Well this is.” She stopped cleaning me up and then looked into my eyes. She was confused, angry, frustrated.

“You’re kidding right?”

“No.”

“I told you my biggest secret!” She began raising her voice. “I let you stay in my house! You can tell me anything but not this? Are you fucking kidding me?”

“You don’t understand. It’s dangerous.” I stayed calm and collected, but did not appreciate getting yelled at. Standing up, I started for the door.

“Dangerous? What could be so dangerous that you can’t tell me?” She started after me.

“I just can’t, okay?” I made my way down the hall.

“I bet you’ve told Kate!” She yelled. I stopped dead in my tracks and turned around to face her.

“What are you talking about?”

“Kate, you’ve been spending a lot of time with her. You’ve replaced me, haven’t you?” Was Dahlia actually getting jealous?

“No...” I couldn’t help but start raising my voice. The fact that she would bring up such absurdity was getting under my skin. “...I haven’t told her, I haven’t told you, I haven’t told anyone! This is something I need to deal with myself. Don’t you understand? There’s just some shit that people aren’t comfortable with talking about. Especially while  it’s still happening. How dare you accuse me of forgetting about you. Do you not understand who you are to me?” I felt my fists balling up.

“I’m sorry I didn’t mean to—“

“I have to leave.” Which was actually the truth. I was supposed to meet up with Kate and the rest of Juilliard Jazz later. On top of that, I had to find a way to cover up my face. I put my hand on the door knob and twisted it when Dahlia grabbed my forearm.

“Wait...” her voice was much more calm now. “...take this.” In her other hand she was holding a bottle of Perfect Match Foundation. It’s like she read my mind. “You thought it was a secret, huh?” She smiled softly as I felt my muscles loosen up and my hands open back up. I took the bottle from her and slipped it into my pocket.

“Thank you.”

“Don’t mention it.”

The morning air felt fresh on my skin. I had to get home, change, cover up my face, and get to Juilliard all within a time span of two hours. It was going to be a tight squeeze, but I was going to have to make it work. I paid for an all day pass, took the bus home, cleaned myself up, grabbed my saxophone, and was on my way out the door. I made it to Juilliard in just the nick of time.

Kate greeted me with a hug as the rest of the band showed up. We rehearsed our pieces as I resisted falling asleep. Kate sounded much better than I could have ever imagined. Afterwards, I even had the nerve to ask Kate if she wanted to get coffee. Surprisingly she agreed.

“So, what do you think about Chance?” She asked me as she noticed I was staring off into the distance. I was exhausted so it was hard to focus on one thing.

“Why do you ask?”

“Because, he’s been acting strange lately. I just wanted to see if someone else had noticed something weird. And I heard he’s different when he’s not around me. Is that true?”

 “Yes, he is completely different. But what do you mean he’s acting strange?”

"Well, we used to talk on the phone every night, but now he says he’s too busy. Like, we haven’t even hung out outside of school in a week or so. I tried asking him if there was something wrong but he said there wasn’t anything. We’ve been arguing mostly when we talk. He’s just, changing. I guess I don’t like it. I feel like he’s hiding something from me.” Honestly, I didn’t want to say it out loud, but it sounds like he is cheating.

“Maybe something is wrong. Sometimes people don’t like to talk about something if it is hurting them. Possibly even dangerous for the other person to know about it.”

“Yeah, but we are slowly drifting apart. One side of me is sad about it, but the other side of me feels nothing about it. If that makes any sense? He’s a cool guy and all, but he’s just changing a lot.” If only she knew how much I was changing as well.

“Yeah, that does make a lot of sense.” I continued to sip my coffee.

“Hey, do you like video games?” Kate asked.

“I do.”

“Well, I just got this new game for my SNES. Maybe you should come over and play it with me sometime? It’s no fun playing it by yourself.” I couldn’t believe Kate just invited me over to her house. The only person who has invited me over was Chance, and that was when we were kids.

“I’d love to.” I said truthfully.

“Great!” Her face lit up like a candle. “Come over this weekend maybe?” She softly bit her lip. “My parents will be there, but they will leave because they always have stuff to do with work. It will just be you, my SNES, and I.”

“Sounds like a plan.” I smiled back.