Catharsis [Novel]

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER TWO

            The realization startles me, and I jump backwards slamming my head against the dumpster.  The loud GONG of the ricochet hurts my ears and rings off down the alley like a bell tolling on a dark night.  I have never seen so much blood in my life.  I think there might be more blood here in this one spot than I’ve seen in all the fifteen years of my life combined.    

            Leaning back against the cool metal dumpster with its yellow letters and looking up at the faintly glowing night sky, I concentrate on not looking at the man lying next to me (Is it called a "corpse" now?  Or is it just a body?).   It’s creepy sitting next to something like this.  Closing my eyes, I work on relaxing.  Even though I know freaking out won’t solve anything, it’s an incredibly tempting option.  In an attempt to distract myself, I take a moment and relax.  I want to analyze what’s happening and not just react to it.  "Reacting without thinking" is my sister’s vice, not mine.

            Visualizing some questions, I begin to orient myself.

            Do I remember why I was in the alley? 

Nope.  This situation has scored rather high on the ol' what-the-heck-is-happening meter.

            What’s the last thing I remember doing?

Eating dinner last night at the Chinese restaurant, Great Walls, with my family.

            Anything else register as weird in "memory land"?

            Pausing for a moment, I try to think of all the clichéd things that happen in movies when a character can't remember something (Do I actually have amnesia?  I always thought that was fake.).

            My name?

Check. Catarina Perez.  Although I tend to just go by “Cat”. 

            My home?  

Old, brick house near the canal, downtown.  I have my own room.  Younger sister has her own room.  Both parents at home and happily married.  

            School and friends?

 I can remember all of them (Or at least a lot of people I categorize as friends.  I don’t know if it’s all my friends, but it’s enough to allow me to check off this category.), so I guess that means there aren't any obvious blanks. 

            My memory is consistent up until last night's dinner (I had the Four Seasons plate for the first time.  More expensive, but I was betting on dad relenting and being nice to me.).  Then it gets blotchy.  I remember an argument at dinner, and someone getting mad.

            A small growl tickles the back of my throat.  This is frustrating.  And stupid.    

            To answer my previous question...nothing is out of the ordinary aside from the lack of details after dinner.  Maybe I had some bad seafood.  I did have scallops for the first time last night (They were delicious.  Like eating fish-flavored dice.).  Maybe they had gone bad, and I’m experiencing a severe case of food poisoning.

            Yeah, right, I think.  Food poisoning so bad it makes a random stranger erupt in blood next to you.  I'm sure that's completely common.  Speaking of blood...

            ...I check myself to see if there are any new holes in me.  It hadn’t occurred to me that the blood could be mine.  I had just assumed the old guy was responsible for all of it (That's weird.  Why'd I assume he was old?  I've barely even looked at him so far.).  Then again I also remember what my nana used to say about "assuming" things.