MORGAN'S MISSING

10-98

December 11th, 2017
California, Los Angeles

Officer Daniel Ramirez:

       "Yo, Dan, wake up" Landan nudges my shoulder lightly. Even though his touch was soft it made pain shoot down my back.

       "What?" I ask, opening my eyes. I slowly sit up from my bed, pushing my legs off the side.

       "You can stay laying down, I just wanted to see if you were hungry.." Landan trails off. That's when I noticed the smell of something burnt. I scrunch my nose, looking at his messy frame.

       "You can't cook" I state the obvious, watching him squirm under my gaze.

       "Well uhhh.." He rubs his neck nervously. I suddenly thought back to the car ride home last night. 'Who was Daxton?' The question rang through my head again.

       "Fine, I'll make you breakfast. Only if you answer a question I have." I say, heaving myself up. I balance on my right leg as I reach for my crutch.

        "Okay!" Landan laughs, quickly handing me the crutch and rushing back into the kitchen. I hear loud bangs as I slowly walk down the hall. I assumed he was cleaning up the mess he already made. I suddenly stop walking, slowly backing up into the mirror hanging on the wall. I look at myself in the mirror, slightly disgusted. My jaw line was a dark purple with slight swelling. My cheeks were sunken in and littered with small cuts. Finally I looked at my nose, it was still quite swollen. With redness peeking out from under its wrap. I settled on my blue eyes, they were red and irritated. My right eye had a popped blood vessel, creating a big red circle on the white of my eye. I also had dark bruises under both eyes. 'How pathetic' I thought, trailing a hand down my face. I press a finger into the darkening bruise on my jaw. 'I deserve this pain' I winced.

         "Stop" I look over at Landan. Who stands at the end of the hallway with a sad look on his face. Shrugging my shoulders I walk forward.

        "What?" I ask, pushing past him into the kitchen. I lean against the cold counter, ignoring my skin's protest. I leaned into it farther, 'I deserved to feel the pain'. I ignored my bruised body screaming at me to move away.

        "Stop that!" Landan spits.

      "Stop what ?!" I shouted back, instantly feeling sharp pains in my sides.

        "Stop hating yourself. I can see it in your face. You didn't deserve this. You didn't do anything wrong. It wasn't your fault." Landan softened his voice, letting his concern disintegrate the tension. I let my shoulders sag. 'It was my fault'.

        "I don't want to talk about it. What do you want to eat?" I quickly change the subject, swallowing all my emotions. 'I don't get to be upset. It's not fair to Amy'.

       "No. I saw you at the station. I saw you shut your emotions off. That's not healthy. You need to talk about it. You need to mourn." Landan continued, placing a hand on my shoulder. I look at him in the eyes.

       "Who's Daxton?" I asked, watching him tense immediately.

      "Uh... Daxton? I don't know who you're talking about..." I watched as he lied, stunned. Landan has never lied to be before, and he wasn't very good at it.

     "Liar. You said in the car that Daxton really did a number on me. So I'll ask again, who's Daxton." I spit out, if my eyes could turn to slits I'm sure they would have by now. I was beyond angry. 'He lied to me' I kept repeating that in my head. Although I knew it was just an excuse as to why I was mad. Truthfully, I was angry at myself and Landan is giving me a reason to act out.