A Life Like This

Chapter 7

...
School. It's earilly quiet today. Something happened.

"Yo! Pen! Did you here about what happened last night?! I thought you were a gonnar!"
That's JoeJoe, he's my bff, and most amazing gay guy friend. With is constant changing of hair colour, those sparkly blue eyes, and fingers that move at the speed of light on his trumpet keys.
"Nah Joezy, what's happenin?" I ask with an arched eyebrow, EE standing next to me.
"Your house, they were sure you were inside, but when they canvases for survivors you were nowhere to be found!"
"Can you just tell me what's going on!?!?!"
"So you really don't know...?"
He asks in a small quivered voice.
"No Joezy, I don't."
I reply in a smaller voice getting scared.
"Your house burnt to the ground...your parents were inside, they couldn't find you so assumed you were either dead, kidnapped or safe, your face has been all over the news this morning. They recovered a few items, they said your bedroom was actually the least damaged belonging wise. All the walls burnt down around it though, and they have smoke damage...Penny, are you okay?"

I can't breath, I hear sirens blaring in my ear, but they aren't real. I see my friends lips moving but no words coming out. I'm shaking all over. My knees hit the floor. Dry heaving. Puke. Black out. My usual anxiety attacks just hit an all time high, now they include nightmares!😅👍.

**nightmare**
I'm in the dark, not sure where, but I feel calm. Its pitch black but I can see shadows moving, there's a figure, 10ft tall with red eyes (I know cheesy but that's what it was), in a scratchy, broken record voice, he speaks to me.
"YOU ARE ALONE NOW! YOU ARE ALONE! ONLY I CAN HAUNT YOU! YOU ARE ALONE WITH ME IN YOUR THOUGHTS! MEMORIES! REGRETSSSSSS! I KNOW WHAT YOU THINK! IM...INSIIIDE YOUR HEAD! IVE ALWAYS BEEN HERE!"
I can't respond, I can't speak at all. All of a sudden I'm back in that cellar, my uncles cellar I spent years trying to escape...and no one on the outside was looking for me. I'm strapped down to that lab table. He's standing over me, covered in my blood, carving out organs, playing with then and putting them back.

**awake**

I wake up in a hospital bed, at first I don't know what's happening, then I remember. I start getting really dizzy, I can only worry about my parents. Just as it's starting to get bad, EE walks in. He realizes I'm awake and rushes to my side.
"I'm sorry I wasn't in here when you woke up, you've been off and on conscious, for two weeks. Not really awake but stirring anyway."
He holds my hands tight, he makes sure I'm comfortable.
"Are you okay?"
"I think so... But what happened to my parents? I need to know."
Silence. He looks down at the floor, as if it's going to grow a mouth and tell me.
"... I'm sorry" he barely chokes out the words, I know what will happen next...
"Pen... your parents caused the fire. They were stoned out of their minds and the matches they were using to make their 'stuff', one was left lit on the table... It caught the table on fire, then burned the house down to the bones... And your parents too."

Although my parents were horrible people; beating me through my childhood, trying to get me to sell their drugs, getting me on drugs, (it didn't take long for me to stop that though). I still love them, even now that they're dead... They raised me, and were supportive of whatever I wanted to do. Thanks to the drugs the had the money, so they unknowingly bought me whatever I wanted. Though I never asked for much, I nfelt almost guilty that many of my belongings were untouched and had been brought here to the hospital.
"Pen, you know I'm here for you. I'm not going anywhere."
"I know...but where will I go. There's no chance in hell I'm living on some sort of shelter, and my parents relatives were mostly all killed in that plane crash in 2006, I told you bout that right?"
"Yeah."
"So its not like I have any eligible family members, and my parents don't have-sorry had- any friends...what do I do?"
"We've already talked to the judge, my mother is now your legal guardian."
"So we are siblings?"
"No, my mom's just legally caring for you."
"Ah, okay. But when am I getting out of this hell hole?"
"Shortly...but they want to send you to a mental hospital..."
"WHAT!? WHY!?"
"...the saw your cuts Pen...you need help."
"A hospital will just make it worse! I'm getting better I promise you that. You know I'm three months clean..."
The last sentence I said a bit quieter realizing I forgot about the small relapse about a month ago, although I don't really count the scratches.
"Pen, I didn't say I'd let em take you. They'll have to go through me first."
He squeezes my hand and leans down to kiss me with those big pink lips. His flowy long hair drapes on my eyelids making me close them. His other hand slides up to my neck. I can feel his long thin toung living the roof of my mouth like a salamander licking a water droplet from a small leaf.

***Three Weeks Later***
"So are we just gonna sit here today like every other day?"
"Its summer, what do you wanna do?" He mindlessly speaks as he plays mortal combat with the only Xbox360 controller.
I bound off his bed as silently as a cat, tip toe up behind him, careful not to make a sound.
"I WANNA HAVE FUN!" I yell in his ear as I pounce on him like he is my prey, I begin biting him all over. I quickly have his shirt and pants removed before he even touches mine. My shirt is flung to the right, pants to the left, bra on the door handle, and no clue where the underwear went. He has me now pinned to the floor, and is vigorously grinding on me. It's 2am and we're fucking. He starts out slow digging his nails into me as hard as he can, and running his hands up and down my sides, caressing all my curves and bones. Just as he's speeding up and we're climaxing the door creek's open...it's the shadow man.