One day in Brooklyn

Chapter 19

I wake up in the middle of the night, randomly. When I fall back to sleep I do have a dream.

I am lying on my bed. Everything is much cleaner and shiny. I look at everyone. There are many people looking down at me. All of them are people from my life. Mother, Adrian, Mr. Sanchez, Father, Cindy, Jeff. There are a few more. Each of them is looking at me, smiling. They all look as happy as can be. I am relieved, this is all I've wanted, to see everyone I love so happy, until I realize why they are happy.

My eyes start to flutter closed and I can feel a hand on my neck, checking my pulse?

"It's finally happening." My Mother’s voice says. I open my eyes. They are all rejoicing.

"He is finally dying!"

"Yes! We are done with him!"

"He is out of our lives forever!" All of the voices are unknown but this one I know by heart. Adrian's voice, I look straight into her eyes she laughs a bubbling sound "I'm finally done with you I no longer have to deal with you and pretend to care!" She exclaims laughing with relief.

"You don't mean that." I say ultimately hurt that she wants me to die.

She looks at me her eyes hard and emotionless "Yes, I do." She snarls and looks the other way.

Then my eyes close, and it is like finality like I'm dead.

Then I wake up. I am sweating a bunch. I go into the living room and Adrian is sitting on the couch. I have this feeling of anger at her. It is unexplainable, I think it may be something instilled by the nightmare of last night. She sees me and gasps.

"Vito," She whispers walking to me. She touches my neck and I wince. She takes my sweaty hand and pulls me into the bathroom she points to my neck tumor "Look."

I gasp at the thing growing on my neck. It is completely red now. The inside is a rotting purple color. The purple skin is flayed and blistering. It is repulsing. Curiously I pull up my shirt. The tumors on my abdomen are doing the same thing except the corners of the purple are a yellow mucus color.

"That is the most disgusting thing I have ever seen." I mutter looking at the rotting flesh. I walk back into the living room and collapse onto the couch almost in defeat. Adrian walks after me.

"Vito," She says sighing largely afterward. I know it is going to happen soon. Now I am starting to worry. I've been so selfish all this time. What is going to happen when I do die? Not to me, to Adrian. She wants me dead anyway, why should I care what happens to her.

In a flash I spit out angrily "Leave, don't come back. I don't want you here." Adrian looks at me and laughs

"Vito even joking while you are so sick." She says smiling until she sees my cold eyes. She realizes that I am serious.

Adrian's POV

I walk to Vito's door and unlock it. I have been down this same rotting hallway covered with mold so many times before. When I step into his apartment Vito isn't on the couch so I assume that he is asleep. I go in and sit on his couch. The stuffing is lumpy and uncomfortable I shift my weight trying to get into a good position where the springs don't hurt as much.

I hear a noise and look towards the hallway. Vito is standing there looking at me. I gasp at the sight of him. The tumors are ugly, they look like they are eating the skin and causing it to rot away. I walk up to him and whisper his name, gently placing my hand below the lump in his neck. He winces in pain. I take his hand and lead him down the dimly lit hallway. I turn into the room and from there into the bathroom.