Dead To Me

The cold morning breeze blew through the window causing a chilly feeling. Marcus sat up on his bed, rubbing his head. His door started opening, his mother appeared in the doorway.
    "Oh great! You're awake, please get ready and washed up," she said, giving off her warm smile that could brighten anyone's day, "come downstairs afterwards."
    "Alright, give me a few minutes." Marcus sighed. HIs door closed and he could hear the Thump...Thump...Thump coming from the stairs. He slowly got up and stretched. His eyes were a little blurry than usual but he brushed it off as nothing. Marcus finished his morning routine and headed downstairs where he was greeted at the table by his mother, his father stayed silent.
"Good morning," She smiled at him, "come sit down, I want to tell you something."
Marcus greeted both of them and sat down next to his father.
    "What is it that you wanted to tell me?" He asked.
    "Well, me and your father are going to a funeral just after this and I wanted to ask if you would come?" she explained.
    "Well I guess I could come." Marcus agreed, "just after we're done with breakfast."
    "Of course." she looked back down at her plate.
Marcus's father was very quiet that morning, he usually would be the one to start conversations. But this morning was different. Later after breakfast, Marcus changed into a black suit and put on his leather dress shoes. He then stomped down the stairs. Making it down, he led his parents out and in the car to leave.
       "Make sure you go up and pay your respects when we get there please." His mother said backing out of the driveway.
About 15 minutes later they arrived at the gates of the graveyard. They parked the car and headed out. The grave was surrounded by family and friends when they started walking towards the commotion. Tears were shed, people gathered in bunches, everyone was devastated. Except one person, Marcus's father. Straight face, no emotion. He stood there staring at his glowing watch as if the funeral was a waste of time. One by one everyone said their pieces either sobbing or holding their tears back.
      "I hope you're ready, it's almost your turn honey." Marcus's mother whispered as one family member was giving their speech. After the rest of the family said their parts, his mother went up. Him knowing he was next, he didn't really know what to say.
     "We all loved him very much, may he Rest In Peace." His mother wiped a tear from her face and bowed, slowly walking away back to her spot. His heart was pounding as he gripped his bouquet of flowers. He slowly walked to the front where he could see all the tears on everyone's faces.
     "We all g-gathered here to pay respects to this loved one today," he stuttered as he looked down. His mother put up a thumbs up for reassurance. He looked up and was able to talk more normally. "We all loved him and cared for him, and he is now resting in peace, thank you." He loosened up his grip from holding the flowers and walked over to the open casket where you can see the body. He froze in his tracks. Marcus stared at the body and dropped his flowers.
     "Is that....me?" He paused. He took another step and covered his mouth with his cold hand.
     His eyes started spacing out, becoming more blurry. He kept hearing his mother calling him.
     "Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!" His mind was spinning. And suddenly everything in sight turned pitch black. Suddenly his eyes shot open. It was all a dream. He turned to his right where his brother, Nathan, was there standing next to his bedside shaking his arm.
     "Marcus!" Nathan exclaimed, "Are you okay?"
     "T-this makes no sense, you didn't exist and—" Marcus was shaking, but Nathan cut him off before he could explain any further.
    "Marcus it's okay, just relax." Nathan reassured him and let go of his arm that was trembling with shock.
    "But you don't understand—" Marcus was cut off once again.
    "Listen Marcus, just lay back your fine." Nathan put on a stern face and walked out the door.
  If only Marcus remembered what could've caused such a dream that he's never had before, never in his entire life that he had seen such a horrific sight. Marcus layed back on his pillow and closed his eyes for a while.
    "What did I take?" Marcus thought.
    "What could've been the cause for this?"
    "Why is this happening to me? Is this a sign?"
Marcus's head was swirling with questions. But only one answer was brought to his attention; Pills.
    "That's it! Medication pills!" Marcus exclaimed.
Marcus opened his eyes and hopped out of bed, making his way to the kitchen downstairs. Before he could even reach the stairs he heard some muttering coming from down the stairs. The voices seem to be Nathan and His father.
   "I didn't know he would wake up!" Nathan crossed his arms.
   "How many did you give him?" His dad said angrily.
   "Just two, like you said." Nathan answered.
Marcus dashes to his room and sits on his bed, In even more shock than before.
   "What did they mean?" Marcus said to himself quietly.
   He suddenly heard footsteps coming from the stairs which made him jump. He quickly got back into his original position. Luckily his mother walked in.
   "Honey, I heard something happen up here. What's going on?" His mother asked in concern, peering through the door.
   "Mom, you need to tell me what I was doing last night." Marcus turned around and was relieved to hear her voice, but turned serious instantly.
   "You don't remember?" She asked.
   "No, but you can't tell Nathan I'm asking you this." Marcus sat up straight, fixing his hair while waiting for an answer.
   "Well, for starters, you had a really bad headache and you took every medication pill you had but nothing worked," His mother stated, "Nathan said he had pills that could help heal your headache," she continued, "You took the pills he gave you and headed to sleep." She finished.
  It all started to come back to his mind again, he remembered that Nathan talked to him last night.
   "Here, take these." Nathan said, gesturing to the orange bottle of pills.
   "Are you sure—" Marcus tried asking.
   "Yes I'm sure, just take them and go to bed." Nathan patted his back and walked his way upstairs and into his bedroom.
   "What kind of medication is this?" Marcus thought as he turned the bottle around looking for a name or at least something. Unfortunately nothing. No name, no address, not even how many pills to take. He took Two as usual because he was unsure of it. He then started to feel a bit dizzy a few minutes after gulping down the 'medication' or so he thought.
    "Marcus? Hello?" His mom said waving her hand across his face.
    "Oh I'm sorry, I was just remembering what had happened last night." Marcus scratched his head.
    "It's fine, just be careful taking medication sometimes, They can mess you up." She chuckled and walked out the door.
Marcus took a deep sigh and got up once again to go downstairs. He didn't hear any whispers or muttering, meaning nobody was talking about him anymore. He slowly and quietly came down the stairs, he could see Nathan sitting by the kitchen countertops with his head resting on his hands. He shot up when he heard a creek from the staircase.
    "Hey Marcus, how are you feeling?" Nathan smirked at him.
    "I'm fine, Nathan." Marcus glared at him with a cold stare and walked off.
Nathan was instantly puzzled by his approach, maybe he remembered. Marcus went into the kitchen when he opened every single drawer and cabinet looking for what he took that evening. He finally found the cabinet filled with medication but there were so many to go through.
       "How am I supposed to find these stupid pills?" Marcus thought as he scrambled through the prescriptions of medication. One by one he looked at every small bottle until he got to the very last one. It was buried all the way in the back of the cabinet where no one would be able to see. Marcus smiled, for what seemed to be the longest time since he had smiled. He finally found them. Nathan however saw what he was trying to do and stormed over to him quickly.
       "I suggest you give those to me, Marcus." Nathan aggressively snatches the pill bottle out of Marcus's hand.
       "Nathan!" Marcus yelled, "give those to me, I want an explanation." Marcus gritted his teeth as he tried to snatch the pills back.
       "You don't need an explanation, there is nothing to worry about, you're just fine—" Nathan said, but before he could finish, Marcus yanked the bottle out of his grip.
       "I heard you and Dad talking, So what was that about?!" Marcus grew angrier by the second.
       "That's none of your business Marcus, just give me the pills!" Nathan reaches his hand out trying to gain the pills back into his possession.
Just then, his father came out of the living room hearing all the commotion and arguing.
      "Hey! What's going on here?" His father raised his eyebrow in a puzzled look.
      "Oh you know what I'm talking about, don't hide it from me!" Marcus pointed at him with Anger in his eyes.
      "What? Hide what from you?" His father was good at hiding things since he was always the quiet one in the family
     "This is ridiculous! You know what you did!" Marcus was so angry that he slammed the bottle of pills on the countertop.
      "I'm going to see what these pills are and I'm going to make sure you both get what you deserve." Marcus pushed the two of them out of his way and left.
In frustration, Marcus started his car and drove to a medical center and his next stop....The Police Station. He entered the front door that slides open and rushed to the front desk where they prescribed medication for people.
      "Hi! Um, can you run some tests on this medication, I want to know what they are." Marcus said, pushing the bottle towards the front desk lady.
      "Yes of course, please wait here!" The lady exclaimed.
Marcus took a seat and waited a good 15 minutes before the lady came back with the pills. He quickly shot up and walked over to the counter.
      "So what are they?" Marcus asked.
      "These are called Ativa," The lady explained,
      "They can cause you to have illusions and hallucinations, take too much and it can cause severe brain damage which can lead to death," She continued, "who gave you these? pills like these went out of business years ago, now it's illegal!"
      "My brother gave me these last night and I've been seeing weird things in my dreams." Marcus confessed.
      "Well, I hate to tell you this but he bought an illegal product that can cause death, this isn't okay,"She sighed and handed the bottle back to him, "Take these to the local police station and report it, these shouldn't be sold anywhere at all."
Marcus nodded and left the medical center, started his car and drove to the Police station. Once he got there, he parked his car and ran up the stairs and opened the wide, glass doors. He ran up to the front desk where a man was typing on a computer, not paying any attention.
      "Excuse me!" Marcus shouted as he startled the police officer.
      "Oh my goodness! You scared me there man!" He said, putting his hand to his chest.
      "I'm sorry! Anyway I need to report something." Marcus caught his breath.         
      "Alright, let me get my file, follow me." The police officer said getting up from his chair and walking towards a room with the words, 'INVESTIGATION CENTER.' The officer opened the door and stood next to another colleague while a detective sat in the chair with a stern look on his face.
     "Alright, please give me your I.D for personal information." The officer demanded.
      "Alright then." Marcus agreed and handed his I.D to the officer.
      "Marcus Shultz?" The officer asked.
      "Yes, that's me." He nodded.
      "Now please, state your problem." The man said.
      "My brother and my father are trying to eradicate me by trying to lend me illegal pills" Marcus said, shaking the bottle.
      "And how do you know that?" The officer asked.
      "I overheard a conversation they had and they were talking about how many pills I was supposed to take and I took two the other night—" the officer cut him off.
      "What happened when you took the two pills?" He asked strictly.
      "Well I had a dream —more like a nightmare— and I saw myself in a casket at my own funeral I guess." Marcus shrugged.
      "Let me see the pills." The man said, holding out his hand.
Marcus handed him the pills and he turned the bottle looking for a date or what the name was.
      "Have you gone to any medical center?" He asked.
      "Yes I have, they told me those pills were named 'Ativa' and that they were illegal." Marcus explained.
      "Yes, ativa has been banned for quite a while now, how could your brother get such a thing?" The officer had a puzzled look on his face.
      "That's the one thing I don't know." Marcus stared at the floor hoping that they would get the punishment that was waiting for them, in a cell, for eternity.
      "Well Marcus, I'd like to speak to your family, please give them a call now." The officer continued.
      "Sure thing." Marcus sighed.
Marcus got his phone and called his mother first to come down to the station, she agreed and said 15 minutes or less for the wait. He then called his father, who also agreed thinking that he wouldn't get caught whatsoever. Finally he rang up his brother, Nathan. Nathan agreed, thinking he can get away with lying and accuse.
       "Alright, I called my family, they should be here in a few short minutes." Marcus confirmed.
Suddenly his mother popped in the door and minutes later his brother, then his father showed up.
      "We are here!" His mother exclaimed.
      "Thank you for coming, I would like to talk to all three of you individually, first your mother." He said smiling at the family.
Marcus left the room and glared at Nathan sitting all the way across the other side of the room. Nathan gave him a dirty look.
     "Thank you for coming to Whitney Shultz, is that right?" He questioned.
     "Yes that is right." She answered.
     "Can you please explain your son's situation?" The officer got out his file and was ready to write it down.
     "Well, Marcus and his brother were constantly at a war with each other," she explained, "they never really got along when they were younger and they still haven't. Nathan used to buy Marcus's medication since he has very bad headaches from time to time. I guess last night he bought a different kind, I don't know what it is but Marcus was panicking when he woke up this morning." She said.
     "Thank you Ms. Shultz," he nodded as he finished writing, "your dismissed, please send in your husband." 
     "Alright." She agreed and walked out, gesturing to him to go to the office.
He got up and put on his classic straight face and walked in.
     "Ben Shultz?" The officer asked.
     "Yes sir." He said with no emotions.
     "Please state what you think of this problem we have here." He said turning his page in his file and waiting to write.
     "It's nothing serious, Marcus was just overreacting and being dramatic as always. He's trying to get my son, Nathan in prison. How stupid and problematic is that?!" Ben said banging his fist on the table, causing the officer to drop his pen.
     "Sir, please don't do that, that was not necessary Ben." He said getting up from getting his pen back.
     "I'm so sorry." Ben said it as 'sincere' as he could.
     "Anyway, you were saying?" The officer said, asking for more information.
     "That's all I have to say for myself, I can excuse myself now—" Ben tried leaving but the officer stopped him in his tracks.
     "Where do you think you're going sir? I'm asking for more information and you go ahead and excuse yourself, you have no right to do that here." The officer got up in a very angry attitude, he was not having a pleasant experience talking with Ben.
     "Alright, I'll sit down." Ben agreed finally.
     "Now please, tell me what those pills were and where did Nathan get them." The officer demanded him for an answer.
     "I'm sorry, I don't know the answer to that question." Ben sighed in frustration.
     "I don't have time for your idiotic comments, tell me the truth or I will hand you over to authorities." The officer slammed his hands on his desk.
     "I gave Nathan the pills, Happy now?" Ben gave off an angry attitude towards him.
     "Now where did you get these pills?"
     "I got them from a friend of mine, he worked in the medical field, I forced him to give them to me." He confessed.
     "Ben, that was terrible of you, what made you think you can go and just give your own son pills that could nearly kill the poor man."
     "I-I don't know." Ben kept his straight face on but he started stuttering.
     "Ben, I'm sorry to tell you this but I'm going to have to put you under arrest." The man said, taking out his handcuffs and his assistant going up to hold his hands together.
Ben didn't say anything but he showed no emotions, and was completely silent. His own wife saw him getting taken out of the room in handcuffs. She broke down in tears as Nathan hugged her. From behind he could see Marcus. Nathan gave off an evil looking smile at Marcus.
     "Nathan, please come to my office!" Said the Officer from inside the investigation room.
     "I'll see you, in prison." Nathan bumped Marcus's arm and walked into the office.
     "Take a seat." He didn't even look at Nathan, just his files.
     "Alright, what do you want?" Nathan raised an eyebrow.
     "I want you to tell me the information you know." He said to him.
     "That's no problem officer." Nathan nodded his head in agreement.
     "It's not supposed to be a problem, I would've forced you to tell the truth." He gave Nathan a serious look.
     "Well, Marcus was just accusing me of trying to kill him with those pills! I would never do that to my beloved brother!" Nathan pleaded.
     "That's not what your father said earlier." The officer scratched his head.
     "What did he say?" Nathan questioned the officer quickly.
     "He said he's the one who gave you the pills to try to get rid of Marcus." The man tapped his pen on the table.
     "I-I well-" Nathan had a hard time coming up with an answer to top it off.
     "That's it my friend, you're under arrest for attempted Murder of overdose." The man said quickly, putting handcuffs on Nathan.
     "THIS IS ALL A LIE! PLEASE, IT'S A MISUNDERSTANDING!" Nathan tried to escape the handcuffs but was ushered to the downstairs prison room where he saw his father. He kept screaming and shouting at Marcus. "YOUR DEAD TO ME!" Nathan yelled. Marcus just stood there, just thinking.
     "It's finally over, I can live my life now." Marcus thought as a smirk grew across his face.
Marcus's mother came and hugged him as she went sobbing on his jacket.
     "It's going to be okay, mom." He said relieved.
Ever since that day, he had never visited his brother or father in prison, and he finally was happy he was off medication and that he would never let overdose get to him, or so he thought.

                          THE END....OR NOT.