Garfield.
I woke up, sweaty, breathless, heart beating at supersonic speed. I could hear my pulse thumping in my ears. The horrific images of the recurrent nightmare playing in my head over and over again in rewind.
I sat up in bed, pulling my nine millimeter from underneath my pillow. The feeling of warm metal aganist my surprisingly cold skin felt nice. With the deadly weapon in my hand, I flicked the safety off and let my good eye probe around the room for anything...Anyone from my nightmare.
My heart was still beating at sixty a second, finger lingering still on the trigger, ears keen on listening . The only sound in the room was from the howling wind, blowing through the curtains. Damn it! I forgot to shut the curtains last night.
It was commical how scared I was of a stupid nightmare.
Certain that my nightmare wouldn't spark to life, I flicked the safety off and placed the deadly weapon in its rightful place. Under my pillow. I then took a moment to cast glares at the cloudy grey skies outside my window before stepping out of bed.
Tired, I dragged myself to the bathroom. First things first, empty my bladder then after a long mental debate wheather or not to take a shower. The proposing team won and seconds later, I was standing under my almost rusty shower head as cold water trickled down my body.
Taking a shower ended up being a good idea because I managed to scrub off some blood stain caked up in my finger nails from last nights errand. By the time I was stepping out of the shower,I was squeaky clean and smelling like a basketfull of citrus.
Looking at myself in the mirror, frowned at the image in front of me,I hated the new purplish bruises and my bursted lip. All from last nights errand.
I flipped up my eye patch and sighed hopelessly at what I saw. More ugly on me. I flipped back the eye patch and got my pain meds from the top shelf. Two pills down my throat,washed down by tap water, I glared at my image one last time and moved away to go get dressed.
"Morning Gar," I was greeted by a cheerful brunette with almond shaped eyes, pointed nose and a small mouth in a hello kitty apron. She was in the four by four tiny kitchen flipping pancakes for breakfast. Honest be to God,her pancakes tasted like heaven but I was in a foul mood from my nightmare. The smell just made me nauseous.
"Had fun last night?" She asked, with the same cherrfull attutude despite the heavy frown on my face. "Grayson won't tell me shit. Will you?"
I grabbed a pear from the tiny counter and took a large bite out of the crispy fruit while shaking my head at her. She frowned,pouting her lips at me,almost sad that I wasn't going to give her some juicy gossip.
Truth is,nothing exciting happened last night,unless you count, breaking someones skull, giving another a perfect headshot before getting tackled on the ground and recieving blows after blows on the head.
"Morning," Grayson enterd the tiny kitchen. He had just crawled out of bed in his sweats and black nirvana tee. "Something smells nice," He commented, leaning over to peck Vanessa's cheek before helping himself to some pancakes.
"Where to Gar?" He asked while chewing his pancake.
I shrugged, not feeling like explaining shit to him. He knew I hated when he tried monitoring my every move. Whatever happened to freedom of movement.
"Not talking?"
I shot him a nasty smile.
"What really happened last night?" Vanessa asked again, looking between Grayson and I. The cherry tone switched to seriousness.
"We had a bit of an issue," Grayson answerd, "Thats just it."
I Wanted to scoff at his choice of word a bit. Jesus Christ! We had a major issue, Grayson made the wrong call and there's definately going to be consequences. It irked me how he was sugar coating the details to his oblivious underage girlfriend.
"If I know something's up and you lied to me. I will kill you both myself," Vanessa threatened narrowing her eyes at both of us.
Vanessa may be underage and a bit naive but you'd be a fool to not heed her warning. Just like Grayson and the rest of us,( who you'll meet later) She's as dangerous as a Gabon Viper.
"Its not a lie," Grayson lied.
Cautious not to spill my truth to Vanessa and maybe bribe my way to her good books. I finished up my pear and walked out of the tiny apartment
Finally out of the apartment, I walked towards the subway station . As usual, the subway was filled with people from all walks of life heading to whatever destination. Some running away from their homes, others heading to their shitty low paying jobs and others having no destination in mind.
I found myself seated opposite a woman and her five years or so son, while the woman looked at me as if I had murdered her puppy the boy looked at me in awe. Bright wide eyes fixed on my face as he smiled dreamily. "Are you a pirate?" He asked.
"Wilson, don't talk to strangers ," Chided the woman sending daggers at me.
"I think your hair is nice. Like beast boy ," The boy ignored his mum and I mentally gave him points for being a rebel.
"Wilson!"
I shot the boy a wink and got up,heading towards the door as the train slowly came to a halt at my final destination.
The place I was headed to was right across the rail road and a lonely highway. It was surrounded by huge concrete walls,three dense rows of razor fences. There were outlook towers where armed police patrolled and reinforced steel doors with heavy security as one's only way through.
The place looked hunting and scary but I loved it none the less. I watched from a far away distant as a dull grey prison bus carrying convicted criminals into the facility. I knew for a fact, I might one day be one of them
Taking a deep breath,I shuffled my feet towards the steel doors and joined a long file of people waiting to go visit their loved ones,kids or tormentors locked up inside.
When I got to the first guards, they had me exchange my ID card with a pass card and signed my name and the name of the inmate I was visiting on a sheet of paper.
"Two hours," Stated the colonel.
Even though I didn't need someone to guide me to the visiting block. A red head warden was assigned to be my escort. I followed him down the familiar hallways till we finally came to a door with the word VISITING BLOCK written on it.
It was until I was seated at our usual spot: Table by the corner,did the escort leave. While waiting,I looked around, inmates hugging the people who visited for some the spouses were here just to shove divorce papers to sign or remind them of bills accumulating at home.
"Garfield..."
The man I had come to visit finally showed up, his greying hair had grown longer compared to when I saw him last and even though he was smiling at me, there was a flame of sadness and despair dancing behind his once shinny grey eyes.
Without uttering a word, I wrapped an arm around him as I tried to fight back a tear slightly angry that he wouldn't hug me back because of the cuffs binding his wrists and ankles . I pulled away and we both sat down facing each other
"Don't cry, Don't you fucking dare!"
"What happened?" He asked, referring to my bruised lip and knuckles.
I shook my head, pushing the sleeves of my hoodie past my knuckles. I didn't want him worrying over me.
"...Okay then how have you been?"
I nodded.
"What happened?" He asked in concern, eyes squinted at me, "You're not talking today, plus you're pouting,"
I straightened my face only for him to chuckle at my failed attempt to try covering up my distress. "You don't have to put on a brave face for me kiddo. What's up?"
"Do you think I'm fragile?" I signed and his face softened,hands gently clasping mine cautious not to press onto the broken skin.
"You're the strongest person I know. You beat the odds. Kid,if people think your fragile,let them, it will give you the upper hand when things get tough. "
"Like the story of David?"
When I was a kid,my favorite bible bed time story was the story of David and Goliath. My dad would read it to us, especially me before he tucked us to bed.
"Like the story of David," He repeated proudly. "Also always use the element of surprise. "
"Thanks dad,"
"How's Grayson?" The flame in his eyes burned brighter whenever he asked for my brother. The last time Grayson came to visit, he yelled at our father telling him how much he hated him. That was seven years ago.
"He's fine, still a pain in the ass," Dad laughed. "I'm sure he'll come around."
"I hope so,"