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Tree
Someone’s in my room. My ears are ringing. Pain flares across my face, bringing tears to my eyes as I blink awake.
"What the fuck is this?" Is that Layla?
No, it's Nell, honey. I'm gone. The breath rushes out of my chest. "What?"
"You're fucking using? What is this shit, Knox?" Nell shouts, holding up a baggie of white dust.
"It's nothing. Leave it alone." I try to snatch it from her hand, but she pulls it back just in time.
"You're getting off this shit." She takes a backwards step towards the bathroom and I leap from the bed.
"What do you think you're doing? Just give it back to me." I’m faster than her normally, but not now. The lack of the drug in my brain makes everything sluggish.
"My sister is dead! You're tainting her memory with this? She loved you! She wouldn't want this for you!"
"She's not here! She fucking left me. I'm all by myself too, Nell! It doesn't matter what she would want because she'sdead!"
Another backwards step. She's going to flush it. That thought roots itself in the bottom of my stomach, sending vines down to my knees to weaken me and up through my throat as nausea. "You're not alone anymore. I'm here now. I'm not letting you do this." She's so calm that I know she's going to do it. She tears the baggie open and holds it over the toilet.
"Don't, Nell. Please!"
"It's over. She's gone. You have to accept that." She tilts the bag, dumping the contents into the toilet.
I lurch forward to grab it away from her, to save just a little of it, just enough to get me back to normal. I miss.
Nell flinches away from me, closing her eyes and cowering back into the corner. That hurts. The anger that roars through me feels like a solution. I have something I can grip onto and a source of energy that flares bright.
My finger points right at her face. "You…" I can't finish the sentence. It's on the tip of my tongue to spill empty threats, but we would both know I don’t mean a word of them. I slam my hand against the doorway as I stalk out. Thankfully I was so high I slept in my boots last night. It makes for a quicker exit.
"Knox!" she screams, following me down the stairs. "Where are you going? What are you-" She grabs my arm and digs her heels in, pulling me back from the front door. "You can't just go buy more! Knox, please!"
I give her my most menacing glare, expecting her to back away in fear again. This time, she doesn't. Her teary eyes aren't afraid of me now.
"Let me go," I tell her in a low, rumbling voice.
"No! You are not going to walk away from me to go find some dealer!"
I snarl as I shake her off and stomp out to the driveway. She holds the front door open as I straddle my bike.
"You're going to kill yourself!" If it wasn't for Knuckles holding her back, she'd probably be forcing her way on the bike with me.
I shake my head as I rev up the engine and throw gravel on my way out. She's halfway right. I'm going to kill, but not myself. My wife isn't here anymore to kick this kid’s ass herself, not that I'd have let her anyway, but it's my job to protect her sister now.
The trailer park she used to live in is just as shitty as the last time I was here. Rusty siding, half rotten lawn chairs, big dogs chained up and barking- it's your typical landing spot for those who live below the poverty line. Most of the people that live here are probably good people just trying to get by. Not the one who lives behind the door I'm kicking in.
It's dangerous to come to a place like this and kick in someone's door. These people may not have much, but that just means they protect what little they have. Guns are practically a requirement to live here. That's why I have my gun cocked, safety off, and finger on the trigger, pointing in front of me when the door falls down.
"Dude! What the fuck?" a young man shouts, hands raised in surrender.
"Your name is David, right?" I ask, aiming my weapon at center mass.
"Yeah. What's the problem? I didn't do shit, man!" He’s ugly, and greasy-looking. Nell could do better.
"Is there anyone else in the house?" I don't plan on getting stabbed in the back today.
"N-no. What do you want? I don't have anything! I got a little money. My girl took off with the car and all the money we had."
