Death, Murder, and Suicide

chapter 1

Yet another boring, uneducational, useless day of school passed. Everything was just so easy I was about to rip my head off. You would think that being the smart kid in class you would never get bored and always enjoy things at school? Well, you were wrong. It's about the exact opposite of that. For one, since you are the 'smart kid' and 'nerd' you make no friends. A downside even for an introvert like me. Just to throw out another reason, there's no classes on criminal justice. What's the point of going to school for 13 years and not learn anything about my passion, just to be thrown into a bus on overwhelming stress once college comes around?

    The bell rings and my gears switch from overexerting boredom to rushing out of the classroom as fast as I can. I hated bloody language arts. It was a horrible way to end my day.

    Just as I was closing my locker and shrugging the backpack on my shoulders I heard someone yelling down the hallway.

    "Neal!!!!!" The voice I knew all too well came crashing into my backpack knocking me down on the floor. I never really had a fight in me, so I just layed there for a while, Jasper looking high and mighty on top of me. He was gay and obviously had a thing for me, but I didn't swing that way. "Can I come over?" He asked with that squeaky voice of his, slowly getting off of me and reaching out a hand.  

    "Even if I say no you're going to come anyways," I answered taking Jasper's hand in mine. Once we were up, I dusted off my pants and started walking the direction of our apartment complex. Jasper and I were neighbors (Well, if you count living a floor under me as a neighbor). Almost everyone in the school lived in the apartment complex nearby. That's the way it is in the city.

    We talked and chatted about different things on the short 6 minute hike home (most of this consisted of waiting for traffic lights). When we reached my 2nd floor apartment I pulled out my keys. Opening the door, I heard the faint sound of the news on as Jasper and I walked in. My mom always knew that I liked to be updated on the things I missed while at school.

    "Oh, Neal, you're home. Take a look at this," she said grabbing the remote and started turning the volume up louder, dropping whatever she was working on in her lap. I walked in shrugged my backpack off and took a seat on the couch next to her.

    "What's up mama T?" Jasper asked in his always-enthusiastic manner of his shutting the door, taking off his backpack, and taking a seat right next to me.

"You know, the same old usual,trying to get this thing for my work don..."

"SHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!" I whisper-yelled at the duo. I would have usually let them talk, but this was a big one. The reporter on the TV I knew all too well. He was John W. Anderson of channel 6 news.

His voice was very captivating, which is probably why he is their spokesperson. He was in the middle of talking about a man who beat his wife and when the police finally came, he jumped out of their 3-story apartment window causing a double-suicide. Neither the man or the woman survived. The possible causes of this were either a drug overdose, alcohol abuse, or both. Judging by Jasper's and my mom's confused looks, I could see they were only thinking about this on a surface level.

"Let's go." I exclaimed removing myself from my position on the couch.

"Go where?" Jasper asked, slowly peeling himself away from the couch too.

"To the police station," I answered blandly too busy retrieving the keys I threw on the kitchen counter.

"I should have known."

"You coming?" I asked.

"Of course. Wherever you go I go." He replied with a smirk on his face. He walked to the door along side me trying to grab my hand, but from years of experience, I moved my hand out of the way, focusing to unlock the door. He looked dejected for a moment but regained himself asking, "Let me guess, you have this whole theory about the cause of death that the police are too ignorant about, and you're going to try and prove yourself a worthy detective?" We were halfway out the door.

"You know me too well." I answered. Looking over his shoulder I called, "Mom, we'll be back in time for dinner,  okay, love you, bye!" I said too quickly for her to even reply, slamming the door and locking it.

We walked down the stairs heading toward the local police and fire station. About halfway down the road Jasper breaks the silence (he can never stay quiet for long), "So what is this 'overly amazing theory' about?" I waited a little bit to answer(Jasper hates when I leave him hanging).

"Well you know how there have been a lot of drug abuse based incidents? At least enough to make people think it was a 'norm'?"

"Yeah. What does that have to do with anything? It is normal for a city like this."

"Yes, I know that, but what if it's something else entirely?

"Something else?"

"I have a theory that all of these people suffered from the same drug."

"What would this drug be?"

"I'm not sure yet, but most of the symptoms seem the same."

"What do you think that means?"

"I think we have a black market dealer on our hands."