Adam [BOOK ONE]

VI

Elena is played by Nafessa 'can get all 17 inches of this dick' Williams. Enjoy the chapter.

TRIGGER WARNING

I always hated funerals. I never understood the box, the sadness, the lingering feeling of that being the last time to see someone. They scared me. Yet, here I was browsing through black dresses just in case the doctors were right and Adam wouldn't pull through.

I had seen it with my own eyes. Big, strong, unbreakable Adam being carted out of his house and lifted in an ambulance. My eyes watered, my stomach knotted, and my knees hit the ground all at once. Blake had come rushing out of his office, the paramedic was asking if I was okay, the whole night was something of a blur. I asked if I could go with him, I told them he didn't have any family and I thought he would like someone there when he woke up. That's when he lowered his head and reluctantly told me that if Adam was to wake up, it was a slim chance.

The feeling of sadness was accompanied by the strange feeling of hopelessness. What could have been? What if I had been able to help him, transition him back into the world, give him a life of normality. Would Adam have even wanted that? What if I would have never bought up his wife and kids and set him over? Despite everything, the nudging feeling that I was responsible for his spiral out of control haunted me.

I picked up a black dress and held it against my body. I could see myself at the funeral, the room almost empty. Andre in the back weeping loudly. Dr. Baker in the front, standing strong but hurting deep on the inside. Then me, standing awkwardly trying to figure out how? Why? I placed the dress on the counter and paid.

It was raining. Not a light drizzle that was accustomed for the area, but a heavy rain completely with thunder and flashes of lightning. I ran to my car, staring the engine, and pulling off into the street. Music ran smoothly through the speakers, drowning out anything I was feeling in a smooth and mellow beat. I rarely listened to the radio, but I always seemed to find small gems when I did.

I pulled up to my house not long later. It was a townhouse, built too long ago and with too many problems to count. I groaned as I thought about how the rain would only bring more problems that the landlord, of course, would not fix. The inside of my home was cozy, I always had candles lit, small lamps that boasted different colors, anything thing I could do to make the home feel more like home. I sat the bag with the dress down, turned on the t.v, and sat on the couch.

"-and we have some breaking news this afternoon, the police think they've found a match in a murder case gone cold. Yesterday night a man admitted in a half-way program attempted suicide. The man was a John Doe that everyone reportedly called Adam. After being admitted to the hospital and swabbed for DNA, he was found as a match in case that happened almost twelve years ago. When twenty-five-year-old Georgie Phillips was found dead in his California apartment. Now, many of you may remember Georgie as the son of hotel mogul, Desmond Phillips, who was found innocent by a jury after getting into an accident that killed a woman and a small child. That's all we have for you tonight folks, Amanda Rock signing off. Good night everyone."

For the first time since forever, things made sense. Adam made sense.

I threw my jacket around my shoulders to brace for the rain and then made a run of my car. I needed to talk to Adam, I needed closure, I needed to know that if he was a murderer that it was in some backward moral justified. I wanted to know it was out of blind anger and not serial killer instincts. I just wanted to know that he was still Adam and that he hadn't been able to pull a blind so far over my eyes that I couldn't see something staring me directly in the face.

The hospital was crawling with police officers when I arrived. Every corner in the lobby had a policeman or woman chatting it up with a coffee in their hand. People came in and out looking in different stages of banged up and they gave everyone a one over. I walked up to the help desk and waited for the receptionist to notice me.