May 17, 2019 - 10:38 AM

Rheese Murphy

I knew I was starting to come down when I noticed how dry my mouth was, that, and the grinding pain in my knee. My eyes were crusty as I blinked through the haze, trying to remember where I was. The stained ceiling narrowed my options down to anywhere but the clinic or some half-way house. After a few seconds of sifting through my memories of the last few days, I remembered that we decided the motel would be the best place in town to be left undisturbed.

“Teddy!” My voice cracked as I spoke through the taste of whatever swill had dried on my tongue last night. “Hey, Teddy!” No response. “Wren?” No response from her either.

How convenient.

I rolled over on the bed and planted my feet on the motel’s carpet. It felt uncomfortably wet through the holes in my socks, like it was soaked. Or, more likely, covered in vomit.

Why the hell did I take my shoes off?

I groggily looked around the room. It was dark except for a hint of sunlight peeking through the thin curtains. The ugly floral print that lined the walls and the ancient TV in the corner didn’t do much to dispel the growing unease in the pit of my stomach. I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off. Standing from the bed, any leftover high still swimming in my skull cleared instantly when the pain in my knee came shooting up again.

Where the fuck is the rest of my stuff!

“Teddy! Where the f—” Just as I started to get annoyed, I stopped myself. The top of Teddy’s dirty mop of hair was peeking out from the end of the bed frame. “There you are... Teddy?” I limped around to the front of the bed, only to be faced with something . Teddy was laying there, covered in vomit and something dark and sticky.

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Is that blood?

“Teddy!” As I dropped to the floor at his side, my knee screamed in pain. I dragged his head onto my lap and tried to feel for a pulse. He was covered in blood from chin to chest, even if I did find a pulse, it might have been weaker than a half-hearted piss. “Wren, where the hell are you? I need you. Wren!” She had to be around here somewhere. After that score the other day, I doubted she would run with our stuff when there was enough for the three of us for like a week.

Oh shit. Did she OD too?

“Wren!”

Finally, my fingers found the right spot on his neck. Pressing down on Teddy’s throat, I felt the faint, slight pulse of his heartbeat.

“Oh thank God! Wren! Get the fuck over here, we need to get Teddy to the hospital.” I looked back down at Teddy’s pallid and hollow face. It was clear he already had one foot in the grave. “Hang in there, man. Just hang in there, alright?”

Where the hell is Wren?

I turned to yell for her again when I finally saw her standing in the doorway to the bathroom. At least a part of her. Her long pale arm was wrapped around the doorframe. I wanted to say something but the uneasy feeling had crawled its way up through into my throat, silencing my voice into a croak. It wasn’t a long before the uneasiness was justified as she stumbled into the room.

Somehow, she looked worse than Teddy. Bloody and bruised like maybe the two of them got into a fistfight last night after I passed out.

Did she do this to him?

Her eyes were hard to make out in the dim light of the motel room, but something in my gut told me she was not right. She moved like the swiveling head of a snake. Her gaze was as severe and heartstopping as always as it drifted toward Teddy unconscious in my arms, before it slowly worked its way up to me.

“Wren?”

Suddenly, her jaw unhinged and she belted out an ear piercing shriek. I watched on, paralyzed by fear, as she crawled onto the bed. Wren was a rabid animal, black blood spilling from her mouth.

I felt Teddy stir on my lap. Looking down, his eyes were open and bloodshot. Nearly black. From where my hand had frozen at his throat, I felt his pulse triple, speeding up to match my own. The sound of clambering footsteps was the last thing that I heard before Wren tackled me.

May 17, 2019 - 10:45 AM