Hooked The Making of an Addict

Chapter Twenty One: Dead or Alive

I closed my eyes, my heart racing at the speed of light, preparing myself for the painful death that was about to occur. But it never came. I heard a loud noise and then a thump on the floor. 

I opened my eyes to see to CeCe kneeling on the bed holding a bat. The man was on the ground in front of her. 

"Is he..." I began to ask what I didn't want to know.

"No. You need to leave before he wakes up." She replied angrily. "Now."

"I'm not leaving you here. Not with him."

"I'll be alright just go."

"No!" I shouted. 

"This is where I belong Aaron. This is my would, my people. This is where I'm going to be for the rest of my life." She said. "There's no escaping it."

"Please come with me."

"I can't go back to Ann and Michael's you know that."

"We don't have to go back. Let's just go somewhere, anywhere. We can start fresh. You don't have to live this way. There is better things out there CeCe." I pleaded with her.

"Please just go."

"If I leave here without you I promise I will tell them where you are."

"You can't do that."

"No you can't do this. You can't stay here it's going to kill you."

"I want to be dead." She said looking away from me. 

I stepped over the man on the floor and wrapped my arms around her. 

"Please come with me. I promised I wouldn't hurt you. If I left you here, with all of this, I would be shattering that."

She nodded into my shoulder. 

"We have to hurry." She said looking into my eyes. 

I nodded and let her go so she could get her things together. It didn't take her long as she had very few things. Just enough to fit in a book bag.

"Cecelia." The man coughed. 

"We have to go now Aaron." She said shaking. 

"Come on."

I reached out my hand and she took it. I pulled her through the door. She looked back at the man with sadness in her eyes. Sympathy. I still didn't understand, I wasn't even sure if I wanted to know. I just kept hold of her hand until we were out the door without a goodbye. 

We took off running as soon as we stepped outside. Neither of us knew where we were going but we knew we had to get out of there. Distance ourselves from whatever world that was. 

We reached the bus station. I really didn't know what to do from here. Neither of us had really thought about the situation, we just knew we needed to get out of there. 

"What now?" CeCe asked pulling me away from my thoughts.

"What do you want to do?" 

"Anything. Take me anywhere. I trust you." She said looking into my eyes, her mood clearly changing more and more by the second. 

"Let's go to Jake's. He can help us figure this out."

She nodded and we sat down on the bench waiting for the bus to take us back to our town. 

We spent the entire bus ride in silence. It gave me time to think about what had happened. I realized that I recognized the look in her eyes. That man was her dad. And he was about to do some things only true monsters do. 

The bus stopped at the benches in front of Jake's house. The reality set in on what we were about to do. Could we really get away with disappearing? Would Ann and Michael look for us?

We stepped off the bus into the cool night air. CeCe shivered so I passed her my hoodie. I wanted this air. I wanted the cold. I needed to wake up before this went any further. There was no way we could really leave. We would be homeless the second we walked out of Jake's house. 

CeCe began knocking on Jake's door softly. 

"What if he's not awake?" She asked. 

"It's Jake."

The door opened moments later to a surprised Jake. 

"Cecelia? Aaron?"

"We need your help." I said cutting to the chase. 

"Come inside. Get out of the cold." Jake said. 

We followed him into his living room. He walked over to his cabinet of poison and threw a bottle of pills at me. 

"You look like shit." He said laughing. 

"Thanks man."

"Go ahead and crush a few of those up for us." He replied back. 

I sat down on his couch and used the paper he had on the coffee table to roll the pill up in. 

"Anyone have a lighter?" I asked looking at both of them. 

CeCe was the first to get her out of her pocket. I crushed up the pill into a nice fine white powder. Jake sat down beside me when I opened the paper up. He pulled a straw from his pocket and took a line before I could even make them. 

"So what do you need my help with?" He asked passing the straw to me. 

"We have to leave Jake. Like for good we can't come back." CeCe said with a blank expression.

I took a line and let CeCe and Jake talk. It was obviously something she didn't want me to hear because their talking became whispers. I didn't care though. I would soon have her all too myself. We would get away from all the bad and create a perfect life of nothing but good. 

I could feel the pill taking affect as I laid back on the couch. I felt overly exhausted all of the sudden and I just wanted to sleep. Today completely wore me out mentally. I was back to having so many unanswered questions. I gave in, closing my eyes and drifting off not caring what was going on around me anymore. 

All of the events of the day didn't matter anymore. 

I was happy. I was soon to be free. I was safe. 

She was safe.

Then came the knock.