Remember Me This Way

IV

Remember Me This Way

2014

Chapter IV

 

“Just because I’m dead doesn’t mean I don’t get a say in what we watch on TV.” Cassie muttered in a huff at a grinning Tate who was shoving handfuls of popcorn into his mouth while flicking threw channels on the TV.

“Yes it does. You’re not a guest here Casper; you’re just stubborn and won’t leave me alone.” Tate replied, rolling his eyes but not taking his eyes off the TV screen.

Cassie scoffed and crossed her arms over her chest.

“How the hell did I get stuck like this? I die and my punishment is that I ‘need your help to help me move on.’ What the hell did I do to deserve this?” Cassie grumbled, eyeing the popcorn with hunger but knowing it was a subconscious longing to eat food again.

One thing she really did miss was food.

“Maybe it was all those times you said ‘hell’?” Tate mocked, chuckling and settling on a re-run episode of The Simpsons.

Cassie scowled at Tate but stopped talking as she watched the episode with him in silence.

It wasn’t until Tate’s phone began to blare out ‘I Want To Be Sedated’ by the Violent Femmes that Tate or Cassie even acknowledged each other.

Cassie watched Tate with interest as he picked up the phone and started talking with urgency at whoever was calling him. Worry lines etched onto his brow as the person’s muffled voice on the other line spoke quickly.

“What do you mean?” Tate said, his eyebrows creasing in confusion before a horrified look took over his face.

“Is he okay?” Tate’s body went rigid and tranquil and it set Cassie on edge to see him so scared and worried.

“I’m on my way.” Tate hung up the phone, chucking the popcorn onto the coffee table carelessly and stood. He turned the TV off and grabbed his keys from the kitchen in record timing, already making his way out of the house.

“What’s wrong? Is everything okay?” Cassie asked in a panic as she followed behind him to his car, disappearing and reappearing in the passenger side.

“Carter is in the hospital. He overdosed on sleeping pills on purpose.” Tate said through gritted teeth, his jaw clenched in worry. Throwing the car into gear he took off down the street like a hooligan, hurriedly driving towards the Clorville Hospital.

Cassie instantly went silent and if she was alive, she probably would have thrown up from the news.

Why would the happy, sweet, charming Carter do that? What reason could he possibly have for trying to die?

She knew first hand, that dying was nothing special. It was lonely, dark, cold and rather scary.

Tate and Cassie both remained silent as Tate drove them to the hospital, his mind whirling a million miles a minute. Pulling into the first empty parking space he saw, he threw the car into park and turned it off before jumping out, not bothering to lock it as Cassie followed him inside the hospital doors. 

“Carter Andrews. I need the room he’s staying in.” Tate said, walking straight up to the front desk. The middle-aged woman nodded and asked, “Are you a member of the family?”

Tate nodded at her and answered, “I’m his cousin and his best friend.”

The lady typed something into the computer before telling Tate, “Level three; room 153. It’ll be on the left.”