Chapter 18 #3
Although I hate that both Hazel and Joseph have to endure this situation, I’m thankful there’s someone here who cares about her well-being.
The gentle way Joseph speaks to her and touches her ensures me that he does what he can, when he can, for her.
Relief floods me. I’m thankful she hasn’t had to go through this alone.
But it doesn’t last long. The guilt won’t allow anything to replace it.
None of this would’ve happened if I wouldn’t have agreed to let Cash take her to begin with.
“I feel….” Hazel moans and leans forward, wrapping her arms around her legs and almost falling face-first out of the chair.
“Phil, get your ass out here,” Joseph yells as he holds Hazel in place.
By this point, everyone is staring at Hazel. Phil emerges from the curtain, his lips drawn in a taut line. He’s not too happy with the tone at which Joseph yelled at him.
“What?” he spits at him.
Joseph’s brows pull tightly together, and his jaw clenches. I swear I can hear his teeth grinding. Or maybe it’s mine. The muscles in my body twitch as I try to ease them, thankful that no one notices me wired up and ready to jump over the table.
“Did you give her another dose?” Joseph asks.
“So what if I did?” Phil challenges. His lids narrow as he folds his arms over his chest. “Looks like she needs another one.”
Joseph shoots to his full height, body rigid. His hands ball into fists at his sides. “You’re gonna fucking kill her!”
I glance at Hazel, still clutching her legs, wondering how much shit is pumping through her system and if she’s even aware that they are talking about her right now. She doesn’t budge as they yell at one another. The hair on my neck rises when their yells turn into screams.
Joseph grabs a vial off the table and slams it into the sink. Glass shatters in the metal tub, silencing the argument at hand. He grabs another vial, and pulls back his arm to smash that one, too.
Phil pulls a gun and points it at him. Dustin, Samuel and I lean back, our bodies ready to spring up and run. “I think you forgot your place in all this, Joseph. Don’t make me pull the trigger.”
Maybe it’s all the time they’ve spent down here lately, breathing in all the chemicals and not getting any sunlight.
Maybe it’s because he’s been trapped down here with a fucking gun-wielding psycho.
I don’t know what his reasons are for what comes next.
But Joseph looks Phil straight in the face and fucking laughs at him.
“You aren’t going to do shit. Want to know why?
” Joseph doesn’t wait for Phil to respond.
“Because your men haven’t learned how to make your drug yet, and because we both know that if you kill me, you’re not going to get your money from Cash.
” Joseph’s lips twist into an evil grin. “Go ahead, Phil. Pull the trigger.”
Phil’s nostrils flare, his gun hand shaking as we all wait to see what will happen next. Joseph may think Phil won’t do anything, but I’ve seen him kill someone for doing less than what Joseph just did. Chest heaving, Phil lowers the gun to his side.
“That’s what I thought,” Joseph says, and slams the vial into the sink, ending the conversation.
“Fuck you!” Phil storms toward the stairs with Dustin hot on his heels.
In the silence of the aftermath, Joseph turns to Samuel and I. “Guess class is over for the moment, boys.”
Samuel sighs and runs a hand through his greasy hair. “This shit keeps getting crazier and crazier,” he mumbles under his breath as he grabs a towel off the counter. “I’m going to shower.”
When the water starts up, I kneel down in front of Hazel.
Joseph watches me as I run my hand down her back, feeling how much more prominent her spine is sticking out.
She’s lost too much weight in a short period of time.
Whatever Phil is doing to her, he’s killing her.
I ease my hands around her face and lift her head up.
Her lids droop, barely revealing her eyes.
“Hey, hellcat,” I whisper, trying not to let my voice break.
Her mouth slightly tugs up in the corners, showing the depths of the cracks lining her lips.
“There’s my girl.” I force myself to sound happy about it, but my heart feels like it’s in a vice. I’m dying inside.
“Bobby.”
The sound of my whispered name on her lips is enough to bring a tear to my eye.
I wasn’t sure if I’d ever see her alive again.
I scan her face, and I have to keep my hands from balling into fists.
It’s not just anger I’m feeling. It’s happiness, fear, and despair.
My emotions blend from one into the next so fast I can’t figure out what I’m feeling until they’ve already passed.
But the one that remains steady in the background is rage. Unadulterated rage.
“I’m going to get you out of here,” I whisper to her. “Soon. Stay strong and hold on. Okay, hellcat? Can you do that for me?”
She smiles again, and her head bobs once. “Do you ever wish your dreams could be real?”
I grab her hand and place it on my face so that she can feel me and know that every second of this is reality. Her cold fingers mold to my cheek. “Every day,” I tell her. “But, today, one of them is.”