Forever Dream — (Chapter 7) Spill That Texas Tea
Tags: Short Story, Fiction, Series, Forever Dream, Magical Realism

The girl is shivering but her body is hot to the touch. And cold sweat trickles down her chest but she’s flushed red. She’s writhing in pain, weeping for some semblance of relief. With her skin patchy and pale and eyes bloodshot, she looks all the more terrifying in the evening sunset. The tall windows of the apartment they are locked in cast a sepia shadow over her squirming body, making her look like some zombie coming back to life.

Hide sits on the opposite side of the big room, arms folded, left leg crossed over the right and a cold frown atop his brows. Silently watching the scene. The sight of her in agony doesn’t affect him so much as the screams. They echo off the walls and reverberate under his skin. She continues yelling for help and crying in pain for a long time and all he does is quietly watch her. He’s supposed to help her through this but he doesn’t dare move any closer to her than he already is.

Being in the same room is already driving him nuts.

After almost an hour of constant yelling and thrashing her limbs about, the girl finally closes her eyes. By the time she had stopped her voice had turned hoarse and her pillow was drenched.

Hide moves then. Slowly pulling his legs apart, he peers over the sleeping girl before pulling out his cellphone. He speed-dials number 9 and as soon as the call connects starts to whisper angrily into it, “what the fuck is going on, Kagawa!?”

“What do you mean?” Kagawa responds, clearly unaware of all the craps he’s been through.

“She’d been screaming her lungs out all day and literally — “ he spares a look at the sleeping girl and cusses under his breath before continuing his angry whisper-rant. “She’d been screaming all fucking day practically levitating off the bed in pain and literally just shut up when she fell asleep.”

“Okay… and your point is?”

Hide pulls the phone away to stare at the offending device and angrily bites his lip threatening the device with an air punch. Sighing, he brings the phone back to his ear and whispers, “my point, Dr Kagawa, is that what the fuck is going on with her? At this rate, she might die from screaming. Or the pain. Whichever comes first.”

The sound of Kagawa walking and then closing a door comes through the phone and then the man on the other line speaks, “she’s not going to die. As long as you remember to give her the methadone injections on time. And not unless she drives you crazy with her withdrawal enough for you to wring her neck or something.”

“This isn’t funny, you filthy ass-sucker. If she dies so do you.”

“How many times do I have to tell you, she’s not dying any time soon?” Kagawa drawls over the line, Hide can almost see him rolling his eye and scratching his ear. It makes his blood boil but he bites it down. He can’t afford to lose the man now. Not now.

“So, what? Is that it then?” Hide turns around to spare a look at the girl and once again the petty emotion of sympathy makes its presence apparent in his heart. “Am I supposed to let her scream until she falls unconscious only for it to start all over again once she’s conscious again?”

“I’m open to other solutions you have, Hide?”

“This is shit. Fucking bullshit, is what this is!”

Kagawa hums in agreement then waits for a second before asking, “has she eaten anything yet?”

“No.”

Kagawa sighs and thinks for a while, during which Hide continues watching the girl’s breathing stutter every once in a while. She stops breathing for a second or two then gulps before breathing normally for a while.

“When she wakes up next, get her to eat something,” Kagawa says after a while. “She’ll probably be easier to handle once she comes to.”

“Hey, Kagawa,” Hide says, still looking at unsteadily rising and falling chest. “She keeps breathing weirdly. Like… she stops breathing and then — “

Kagawa cuts him off humming in response. “It’s probably opioid-induced apnea. The meds I gave you should help with that too.”

“Alright…” He sighs into the phone and doesn’t speak for a while before voicing his other concerns. “Hey, what do I do when she has to take a shit or piss?”

“I could send a nurse over but didn’t you say the fewer people know the better?”

Hide turns away from the girl and ruffles his hair angrily as he grits his teeth. Pulling out a cigarette from his pocket he bites down onto it and lights it holding the phone between his shoulder and ear. Kagawa doesn’t fill the silence and it eats away at him all the more.

“Gosh!” he whisper-yells into the receiver, blowing white smoke into the air as he breathes out. “I can’t believe this shit! This better be fucking worth it.”

He hangs up after that and finishes his smoke by the open window before returning back to the sofa chair on the other side of the apartment.

The girl stays asleep for a few hours before she comes to and starts screaming again.