Barely Bones

Barely Bones 5

Your eyes are swallowing me

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Chapter 5, Part I: Reflect; Deflect

My insides were tingling. My fingers scratched at the already-marred table. Yes, I felt like a vessel of disaster. No, it wasn't that time of month.

It had been five days since I'd packed my luggage for the trip. We were leaving tomorrow, meaning that I had less than a day to plan my escape.

But why wasn't I excited? I was, as always, numb, unhappy, and intrigued.

Numb from the constant lack of sleep, numb from the fuzzy spots that swirled in my sight, numb from the black that plagued the lower lids of my eyes.

Unhappy, but I didn't know why. It's just that, everything and everyone pissed me off. Little glitches I happened to catch made me want to stab the unknowing offender, like when someone would pretend to be smart and lame things like that. Everything just made me miserable, but I just hadn't registered it yet.

Intrigued, at the old pictures of Ess, Cameron, and even Valery. We were so stupid as fourteen year olds, and we'd never grown out of it.

I fell back on my bed, causing the mattress springs to retaliate vigorously. I was so bored. So annoyed. Was it already July? School was only a month and a half away.

I cringed.

Mother dearest was just coming home from her date. No doubt she would stumble into my room, slightly tipsy, and tell me about her evening while I was forced to stroke her hair.

It would be best for all of us if she was off because she couldn't know about he case of booze under the bed, which was searing a hole in my conscience. Getting mom drunk for the sake of sneaking out? All time low.

A nasty shatter resounded downstairs, and I assumed it was the sound of our glass corner table cracking. Mom must've thrown the keys at it again.

Violent footsteps marked the hallway, and suddenly a face appeared in the crack of my bedroom door.

"ey, th... there's my baby girl!"

"How was your date?"

"He was a loser," she giggled with a gentle hiccup. "Wouldn't hold the door, sp-spilled hot sauce on his shirt... He even slammed his finger in the restaurant door as we were leavin'. He's pro'ly going to the hospital now, ahaha!"

"That's great mom, sounds like you had fun."

"Haha.. can't wait to get outta here again."

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Chapter 5, Part II: Hysteria in the Other Room

'We'll be there in ten minutes.'

This text was killing me.

Sebastian and Gwynn were arriving at seven so that we could leave just before it got too dark.

But how could I leave when my mother was weeping in her bedroom? How could I steal away when I was supposed to help, to heal her?

'I'm so excited.!' said Gwynn's smiley-faced text.

Ten minutes before I would have to go, and she wouldn't even realize my absence until I was a couple towns over. The poorly pieced note I put on my pillow would not be enough.

'Dear mom,

Yes, I am with Gwynn and Sebastian. Don't worry for me. I'll only be gone for a couple of days. I'm sorry, but Ess and Cameron mean the world to me.

Much love, and I hope you do well.'

I'd signed it, unintentionally, with a tear.

Gwynn's text screamed, 'Five minutes!'

Mom, please stop crying. The neighbors can probably hear you, and there's nothing you've done to bring this on yourself.

I grabbed my suitcase, my backpack, and sixty dollars from my desk for sock money, and shuffled out of the house after securing the booze in the cabinet, behind about a week's worth of pasta for one.

As I locked up, I noticed something funny about the screen door. The way the fuzzy sunlight shot off the indented mesh kind of made it look like a chiding face.

I threw my luggage in the trunk of Sebastian's new Ford Fiesta and climbed into the back seat.

Gwynn smiled at me from her cozy spot passenger-side. "You ready?"

"Yeah, let's go."

Soon, the dim light from my mom's bedroom completely disappeared.

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Chapter 5, Part III: Foreshadow

The sun was a finger nail by the time we arrived at the train tracks near the border of the town. I'd only been in the area twice before, but I knew that the freight trains that came through took a decent ten minutes to pass.

We had the misfortune of being stopped by a pair of flashing red lights and a retractable DO NOT CROSS sign flung in our path. It seemed another family had come across the same fateー the obnoxiously tourist-type family of four was taking this opportunity to get out of that painfully small Scion iQ to stretch and adjust the bikes strapped to the top of their car since we were the only ones on the road.

There was only one problem. Their anxious mini schnauzer was loitering dangerously close to the tracks, and a train was mere seconds away.

"The dog!" Gwynn shrieked.

"The dog," I agreed.

Sebastian sighed and pointed to the oncoming freight train, at least three hundred cars strong.

'Move', I said mentally.

The dog ran directly onto the tracks, barking furiously and leaping up and down.

"Goosey, come back!" hollered the family's little girl.

"Goosey!" they chorused.

Too late. Goosey was foie de gras, and the train wasn't stopping, either.

Gwynn was shaking violently, so much that I had to grab her.

"What just..."

"Sebastian!"

"Y-yeah?"

"Take the ump!"