A Beast with a Smile {Book 1}

Chapter 8 (Scarlett): History Can't be Re-written, Just Re-told

"Are you still having the dreams?"

"Yes. It's the same as always. I'm in the hospital with my boyfriend, Tyler, and my deceased best-friend, Freddy. I kiss Freddy and Tyler tries to kill him. I try to separate the two by getting in the middle of them.

Tyler responds by lifting me up by my neck, choking me to near death. Scavenger... I mean Freddy punches him in the chest, sending him through the walls of the hospital into the forest where he lands in a pond."

"Why do you refer to him as Freddy when you called him Scavenger almost your entire life?"

"Have you ever had to burry your best-friend?"

"No, I can't say I have."

"Well when you do, call me because you sure as hell won't want to believe it. I call him Freddy because if I call him by that stupid nickname that I gave him when we were kids, it makes his death real. It makes it more than a dream. It makes me wake up and realize that the one person in this world that deserves happiness will never find any."

"Tell me the story about what happened."

"It happened five years ago, October 26, 2011. I was eighteen and in my final year of high school.

It started as a normal day, Freddy and I drove with my boyfriend, Tyler, to school. On the way a deer ran into the road and Tyler swerved into a tree. The fire department was called and Tyler and Scavenger were taken to the hospital, both in serious conditions.

I somehow escaped the crash without any scratches, bruises, or broken bones. Tyler broke four ribs and shattered his right arm. Freddy suffered from a massive concussion that knocked him completely unconscious.

They thought he was dead when they found us; he was knocked out and barely breathing. When the car hit the tree, Freddy was thrown from the backseat, out the front window, and into the cornfield that was near the wreck.

The paramedics rushed them both to the hospital where they received immediate treatment. They were there for only a few minutes before the tornado sirens started blaring.

The twister tore through the hospital, mostly the children's ward and main lobby, yet only one person was killed. That one person was Freddy Sims, my best friend. He was sucked into the sky and we never saw him again.

A candlelight vigil was held outside the destroyed hospital to honor his memory. Tyler blamed himself for Scavenger's death, I mean Freddy's death.

Atom re-built the hospital with his own money and completely upgraded and updated everything to be state of art. The entire thing was built in the span of a couple days.

Sheriff Sims received a check in the mail from Atom for a couple million dollars and said that he would receive a check of this payment every year for the rest of his life. He didn't want to accept it at first, but Atom is very persuasive. Time went on and people moved on from Freddie's death; even Tyler acted or forgot like it even happened."

"How did that make you feel? Knowing no one really cared about his death?"

"Well, when I got my acceptance letter from Harvard, my diploma, and one of Atom's pity checks, I left Harrison so fast that I left the dust silhouette you see in cartoons."

Veronica smiled, "You seem like you're in a better place than when we met at your dads all those years ago, but you know for the amount that Atom gives you every month, I might have to start charging you like my other patients."

She smiled.

"Well, what's the point in having a sister-in-law that's a psychologist if you don't use her services?"