Casey: Chap 3 Liability

I stared at the clock until it ticked to 3:15. The bell was always a few seconds off and when it finally rang, I was the first to leave the classroom with my coat on and my backpack slung over one shoulder. I walked hastily out of the building and down the front steps of the school.

When the doors opened, a cool breeze struck my face and a shiver went down my spine. I pulled the jacket closer to me and went down the steps, looking down at my hand. I ran into the back of a guy and looked up quickly.

“I’m sorry!” I said and looked up at him.

“Hey!” He said, furrowing his eyebrows when he turned around to look down at me. He looked to be six feet tall and had blond hair that was cut short.

“I’m so sorry,” I said and went around him.

I looked back down at my hand when I was out of reach of everyone else.

427 Acers Road

I frowned and looked at the road names around me. I didn’t recognize “Acers Road”, but I had about an hour to figure it out.

A guy walked past me and I touched his sleeve. He looked at me, then his sleeve, then back at me. He was Steven from my Health Ed class.

“Sorry, but…do you know where Acers Road is?” I asked. He looked at me with light brown eyes and then nodded his head.

“Yeah, actually. It’s about three blocks down,” He replied, pushing brown hair out of his eyes.  “Do you want me to take you there?” I thought about it and then shook my head with a small smile.

“No. I think I can manage a little cold weather,” I said. “Thanks though.” I waved to him and began walking down the road.

 

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I gritted my teeth against the leather strap, cursing obscenities at the damned “doctors”. I jerked against the straps that held me down, but a middle aged nurse shoved my shoulders back down on the steel table, a few strands of her blonde hair fell into her face.

I tried to change into a rabid dog, but the electric pulses began when the nurse let go of me. My jaw clenched onto the leather strap and I screamed. It felt as if I were hugging a lightning bolt.

The doctor switched the knob off and I took a gasp of breath. A younger nurse looked down at me and I slowly looked up at her. I wanted my eyes to narrow like they usually would when I was mad. I wanted to tell her that I wanted to kill her slowly, but the room almost looked purple instead of the pale grey that it was. Tears started to form in my eyes only because that was what typically happened during “testing day”.

I saw the young nurse look at me with pity, but she quickly snapped out of it. She placed her gloved hand near my mouth, a pill in between her thin fingers. I closed my eyes and tried to pull my head away, but rough hands grabbed my hair and forced my head back down. Another set of gloved hands pried my mouth open and the pill slipped onto the back of my tongue. Water quickly followed, making me gag and choke.

Throwing me in a wheelchair, they wheeled me out and to my bunk two halls down. A drop of water hit my hand and I slowly looked down. It was drool. My head fell back against the back of the chair.

The young nurse looked down at me. A flash of sympathy filled her face.

“It won’t last long,” she whispered. I stared at her for a long time, debating if I could even speak straight. Instead, I closed my eyes until we reached my bed.

The others had begun to fill up their beds as well, each having gone through the different methods of testing as well.

When the nurse got me into bed, she didn’t leave immediately. I looked up at her and she bit her lip.

She quickly glanced around the room and then leaned down next to the bed.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered then slowly pecked my cheek.

“Why,” I managed in a shaky voice. I slowly inhaled and pushed myself to lie on my back. There was so much more that I wanted to say to hurt her, but it wasn’t worth it. All I would be accomplishing was wasting my energy. 

My head rolled onto the pillow and all I could do was stare up at the top bunk. She left sometime after that. Not long after she left, Dumasani was wheeled in and thrown into bed.

I closed my eyes.

“Maybe we need to take up that offer, Aiden,” Dumasani whispered. I slowly moved my head over to him, unaware of the drool that had been collecting in my mouth. Shakily, I wiped my mouth with the uniform’s sleeve.

“Maybe,” I whispered back.

 

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Acers Road wasn’t but a few minutes’ walk. I rounded the corner onto Acers Road and looked around. It wasn’t anything interesting besides a few houses and a lot of trees.

Why was I doing this? It had been a little over a year and just when I thought I was over him, I managed to find myself walking on a strange road to a strange location all because two strange people told me that they knew Aiden.

I began to turn around just as I was about to pass the last two houses on the road, but a stick snapped behind me in the woods.

“Hello?” I asked as I whipped around.

A chocolate male Labrador came out of the woods, wagging its tail. I laughed nervously and crouched down, extending my hand to him. The dog cautiously approached me and sniffed my hand, keeping his golden eyes in contact with mine.

I smiled and he rubbed his head in my palm. He was a little bit bigger than the Labradors I had seen, but he was cute nevertheless.

“Hey,” I said to the dog in a soothing voice. His ears perked up and he looked down Acers Road at the multiple trees.

“What is it?” I asked, knowing well that the dog wasn’t going to tell me. “Do you hear something?”

The dog turned his head to me, wagged his tail and then took off at a sprint.

“Where are you going?” I asked, beginning to follow. The dog turned, looked at me and then continued his way. I jogged to catch up with him which of course made the dog begin to run.

I laughed as I chased him, hoping that the residents of the houses didn’t see me laughing and chasing a dog. They might have told my parents to up the dosage on my pills.

We passed by so many trees that it almost made me nervous. I felt the tingling of the pills making my nerves tell me to go back. I ignored it. I wanted to get the dog.

The dog turned a corner and I followed him around the curve. I looked and the dog was gone, but I stood next to a driveway that led up to a house. I opened my mouth and saw that the house numbers were lopsided, but it read, “427”. I took a step back, but I saw the dog come from the back corner of the house.

He wagged his tail at me and barked once.

“Come here,” I called, putting my hand on my knee and extending the other to get the dog to come near me. He put his ears back, jogged up the stairs and into a doggie door on the front door. I grunted and looked around. The house wasn’t sketchy, but it wasn’t comforting either. It seemed eerie, but I wasn’t sure if it was just the pills talking or if it was me.  

The sky was still light, but dimming time would come soon. I put my hands on my arms to warm up my nervous skin. I slowly turned around and began to walk back down the road towards the school.

“I’m guessing you’re Casey,” a male voice called from the house. I turned around and saw a man standing in a pitiful blue robe with socks and matching slippers on. He had extremely shaggy brown hair with dark eyes. He had a natural sleepy look, or at least it looked natural, and his face was softly sculpted with a tiny beard line on his chin. He looked to be in his late twenties.

“How do you know my name?” I asked, furrowing my eyebrows. He pushed the door open wider and threw a thumb back over his shoulder and behind him was what looked like a good sized living room. Inside sat the girl I had seen in the bathroom. She waved to me from behind the man.

“You taking the pills?” the man asked. I switched my eyes back to him.

“Yeah, she is,” the girl called.

“I wasn’t asking you, I was asking Casey,” the man replied, still looking at me.

“Um,” I stammered. The man cocked an eyebrow at me. “Yeah,” I finally said.

“Hmph,” the man grunted and then looked back at the girl in the house. She raised her eyebrows at him and got up from the couch she was sitting on. She came to stand in the doorway next to the man.

“And you’re the reason why Aiden is in Piston,” the man said bluntly. I took a step back with my mouth open. I couldn’t believe he really said that. The numbing sensation came to take over the anger, but I was too dumbstruck to fully notice. Was I really the reason why Aiden was in there? Was it really all my fault? A headache started to rise up and I put my hand to my head.

“Yep,” the man muttered. “Come inside, it’s cold out here,” the man continued, pulling the house coat closer to him. He walked into the house and the girl stood in the doorway waiting for me.

I looked back down Acers Road and then walked to the house.

Author's Note

Let me know if you get confused, see errors or see anything that could be improved :)