The Tale of Archer and Sawyer

Chapter 01 | | Are You Nervous? | | Sawyer

© Copyright 2014 Kailey Alexandra Marie

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  A month has passed since my parents were arrested for possession of drugs and neglecting their children. At least, my dad was arrested; Mom got away, apparently, that fateful night in November. According to the police, they were so caught up in trying to restrain Archer and me Mom managed to allude the police officer in charge of her. She ran, and they've been looking for her ever since. But, I know they'll never find her. Mom was good at manipulating people and getting what she wanted. If she didn't want to get caught, then she wasn't going to get caught.

It's also been a month since I last set eyes on my sister. We were separated after that night and went into questioning. They wanted to know if we had any knowledge of anything our parents were up to and why we attacked them. Of course, I told them nothing, and they didn't like it, especially since I caused one of their officers to go to the hospital because of my bite. It was his fault, really, for trying to touch me in the first place.

After a while, they gave up on me. I knew they already gave up on Archer a few hours before because I heard them. They took her away somewhere, kicking and screaming as usual. As for me, they were more patient. I think they were scared I was going to blow at any moment and were treading on thin glass with me. They were wrong, of course. I wasn't crazy after all. When they did decide to take me somewhere, we didn't go to the same place Archer went. No, we went somewhere completely different. It was a mental hospital.

I don't know why they sent me there. Maybe it was to try and get me to talk again since that seemed to be all that my therapist talked about to me. She wanted me to talk, to tell her everything, but I wasn't going to. The only person I ever said anything to was Archer nine years ago. But Dr. Michael (that's my therapist's name) didn't give up. For the entire month I was there, she kept urging me to talk. And when she wasn't urging me to talk, she was prescribing me pills. That was the only part about my sessions with her I liked. She gave me more pills, pills that made me happy and loopy.

I liked being loopy.

Sydney (she's my friend there) said my smile wasn't crooked when I was loopy, and a not crooked smile was okay with me. But then again, Sydney was half-blind and often loopy along with me. She could have been lying to me or just confused. That's another thing about the pills Dr. Michael gave me: I was always confused. She said it was a side effect of the sleeping pills she gave me, but I wasn't so sure. I think it was because of how many pills they had me on, which was four by the way. One pill was for sleeping, two were for depression I apparently had, and the last one was for anxiety, I think. But, I don't think I'm depressed or anxious all the time. Yeah, I'm sad Archer is away from me, but I know we'll be together again soon because she's in a foster home, and I was going to be leaving for a foster home soon. Dr. Michael said I was better and wasn't going to be in the mental hospital anymore, which also meant I wasn't going to be getting loopy again any time soon. My last dosage of pills was that morning because it was my last day.

My new foster dad was coming to pick me up.

"Are you nervous?" Dr. Michael asked me, her pale lips pressed into a thin line. She always had her lips pressed into a thin line around me, and in the month I was with her, I never figured out why. I guess it was because she made like no progress with me. Besides my new liking for the pills, I haven't changed.

"Of course she's nervous," Sydney said sarcastically, picking at her nails. "It's not like she had an extra dosage this morning."

I brought my eyebrows together in confusion at her. Sydney wasn't supposed to be waiting with me, especially since it was right in front of the exit. Plus, Sydney had a record of trying to escape so they usually kept her under lock and key, but there she was. She was wearing the standard uniform of gray sweatpants (with no string) and a gray sweatshirt. Blue slippers covered her feet, and she had an annoyed expression like she always did. Out of everyone, Sydney was actually the most normal despite being locked up for almost beating a girl to death.