Poison Arms

It didn’t take me long to put away my clothes. I had a few personal items I brought with me, and I decided I would sit them on the nightstand after I rearranged my room. It was nice, don’t get me wrong, but there were a few problems. For example, I don’t like my bed being the in the middle of the room. It’s tacky, and it makes me feel vulnerable. I’m always scared something is gonna come out from under my bed. That was another problem. I took the frame off of my bed by myself and shoved all the posts in my closet, which was pretty big; too big for me. I put my night stand right in front of the window so that I could climb out easily if I needed too, but when I tried to move my mattresses to where I wanted them I couldn’t pick them up. I remembered Vic’s offer and then I started making my way down the hallway, peeking into the rooms to find him considering he never told me what door. Finally, I spotted him sitting on his bed with a guitar in his hand. He seemed to know what he was doing. I didn’t really think anything of it, but then I heard him sing. It was absolutely beautiful. I stepped back into the shadow of the doorway so Vic wouldn’t see me. He played a whole song perfectly. It was just amazing. Then I forgot about being quiet and my hand jiggled the door knob just a little. Vic snatched his head up looking around. I slowly walked in.

“I didn’t know if I should knock or not.” I said awkwardly standing in the doorway.

“Don’t worry about it, it’s cool. Need something?” he asked.

“Actually yeah.” I used the hand that wasn’t stuffed in my pocket to massage the back of my neck. “I’m trying to move my bed. Think you can help?”

“Sure. Lead the way.” He said.

I walked kind of quickly because I didn’t like people being directly behind me. I felt like they could surprise attack me at any moment. Anyhow, we got to my room and I pointed to my bed.

Vic sighed. “I’ll give it a try, but I can’t promise anything.”

I nodded. Anything was better than what I could do. I watched Vic as he easily lifted my bed and moved it to where I wanted it, which was against the wall. He may be a small guy, but he has got some muscle. You could see it in his arms when he picked up the mattresses; the veins popping out and the muscles flexing.

“Better?” he asked collapsing onto my bed.

“Much!” I said sitting on the edge of it.

It was silent for a moment, so I decided to speak up. “So, I heard you, uh, playing in your room.”

“Great. How bad was it? Scale of 1-10?”

“It was great. About an 8 in fact. You should try to sound more confident. You’re really good.” I said to him.

“Pfft. It’s just something I picked up over the years. It’s like a way to cope.” He said.

“Yeah. I get it. I sing and play piano sometimes.”

“Ooh, another musical guest, huh?” he said laughing.

“What? You’re the only one here?” I said in shock.

“Unfortunately. But, um, I’ve got to get back, so anything else?” he rushed.

“Yeah, any dinner plans? I’m kinda starving.” I said rubbing my stomach.

“We always have dinner between 7 and 8 o’clock.”

“Alright. Well, thanks for this.” I said pointing to my bed.

“Glad to help.” He said walking out.

I walked over to my bed and sat down arranging the personal items I’d saved to put here; a picture of me and Brittany, a family portrait, and an mp3 player. It was pretty late, almost 6, so I laid down and tried to take a nap.

Not even an hour and a half later I was woke up by a knock on my door. I rose up quickly and scooted back into the corner out of habit. I noticed it was Vic and he stepped into my room with a concerned look on his face.

“Hey man, you okay?” he questioned coming closer.

“Yeah. I do it because it used to wake me up at night, when I was a kid.” I said not thinking.

He cocked his head. “It?”

It took me a minute, but I figured no one here knew I was just released from a mental hospital, except Mrs. Kendra. So, I played along.

“Sorry. I’m still half asleep.” I cleared my throat.

“Oh...um. The food’s done.” He said pointing downstairs. I nodded my head and got up to follow him. Man that was close. It’s not that I cared about people knowing I just didn’t want Vic to treat me differently and judging by his previous reaction I got the feeling he would.

After dinner Vic invited me back to his room. We were sitting on his bed, and his room was like a dream room for me. He had worn out posters hanging on the wall, 2 or 3 guitars lying around, and a small electronic keyboard in the corner close to his closet. He was playing a familiar song on the guitar, which I recognized to be Iris by The Goo Goo Dolls. I was humming along to it kinda loudly, but I didn’t realize until he pointed it out.

“You seem to know it. There’s the keyboard. Sing!” he ordered.

I walked over to the keyboard and started playing along with his guitar. I looked back at him for reassurance.

“Go on.” He chuckled.

“And I’d give up forever to touch you cause I know that you feel me somehow.
You’re the closest to Heaven that I’ll ever be, and I don’t wanna go home right now.” I sang.

Throughout the whole song I kept looking back at Vic who’d give me an encouraging look which made me want to finish the song even more. When we finally did finish the song, I stood up and turned around. Vic was just looking at me.

“What are you looking at?” I giggled.

“Nothing. You’re just really good at that.” He said smiling.

I wrapped my hand around my neck and massaged it. “You think so?”

“Yeah. It was like beautiful.”

“Thank you.”

We stared at each other for a moment. That’s when I saw his eyes flicker like Brittany’s did that one day. They went from deep brown to black, then back to brown. I stumbled back a little. Vic lunged forward a bit like he was going to catch me from across the room. Then he started crawling at me. His body was twisting in unexplainable ways. I stepped back as he got closer and eventually bumped into the wall which knocked me out of whatever kinda of day dream, or should I say day nightmare, I was in. I blinked a couple times and noticed Vic still sitting on the bed looking very concerned.

“I gotta go. Ya know. Clean and stuff.” I excused myself and practically ran back to my room locking the door behind me. I went straight to my bathroom and turned on the shower. I stepped into the cold stream of water, not bothering to turn the knob and warm it up or take off my clothes even. I needed to wash this off of me. I just wanted the crazy to wash right off of me, but it wouldn’t come off. It was like I could feel it on my skin. I started tearing my clothes off and then I froze. Finally I came to the conclusion that I was stuck with it, so I got out of the shower and put on some clothes. Then with what energy I had left I wrote in my diary for the first time in 4 years.

Dear diary, March 14th, 2013

It’s happening again. I guess it never stopped. I don’t wanna go back there, ever. I think he’s coming after me again. I pray that he won’t get me. God please, keep me safe.

Sincerely Kellin.