Straying out of Sanity

There was blood, a lot of it. Not much else, just blood. It was allover me, the tiled floor, Mom, the cabinets, dripping off my knife and pouring out of the bastard's chest. My own chest was heaving, breath hard to catch with all this excitement weighing me down.

With his last gargle, a sad excuse for an attempt at a life giving breath, I smiled at him and stood from straddling his stomach. Thinking quickly I dropped the knife into the kitchen sink and glanced over to my brother, who was still sitting silently at the table, eating his bowl of Apple Jacks.

He smiled at me as I looked over at him and suddenly dark crimson started gushing from his mouth. Out of shock I took a step backwards, away from him. He blinked once, still smiling with all the blood oozing from his mouth, and a bloody tear rolled down his pale cheek. And then another. And another. And another before suddenly his eyes exploded with a cascade of blood.

My eyes shot open with a sharp intake of breath, half sitting up on the bed, clenching the sheets in my balled up fists. I then collapsed back onto the bed with a pain filled groan from the gunshot wound in my leg.

I lifted my head off the pillow it landed on and lifted up the blankets I was under to try and see my wound but it was too dark to see anything. I laid my head back down and settled with just feeling my leg with my hands, which wasn't one of the smartest things I've ever done. I quickly pulled my hands away upon feeling the shooting, stinging pain in my thigh.

"Emma?" I heard Mitch whisper from the other bed. I moved my head to look over and saw his dark silhouette half sitting up in the bed.

"Hm?" I whispered back.

"Are you okay?"

"…Yeah… I just… My leg woke me up, it hurts," I half lied to him.

"Do you need something?" He asked me, now fully sitting up.

"No… I'm fine, go back to sleep," I told him and he laid back down. I, on the other hand, sat up, careful not to hurt my leg further and stood slowly, all my weight on my left foot.

Slowly, I shifted my weight over to my right foot, testing how much weight I could support and figured I would barely be able to walk. I turned to look at the door leading to the bathroom, sighing before taking a hesitant step towards it.

It took maybe five minutes to walk the seven steps it took to get into the bathroom and close the door. I leaned up against the door, all my weight off my right leg again, for another minute before I turned on the light and half hopped over to the sink. I opened the mirror cabinet, hoping there'd be some kind of pain killers. After moving some stuff around I found a prescription bottle of Oxycotin and quickly grabbed it, popping the cap off. I'd never taken Oxycotin before to I only took one of the blue oval pills before turning the sink on and using my hands to drink a bit of water to help swallow the pill, purposely splashing some on my face afterwards.

I then returned the cap to the prescription bottle and replaced it in its spot in the cabinet. Upon closing the mirror door I caught my reflection and stared at it for a moment or two.

"You look like shit…" I muttered to my reflection and, having enough of the sight, sat down on the cold tile floor between the Jacuzzi bathtub and the door. I propped my left elbow on the edge of the tub and cradled my head in the palm of my hand. I tiredly glanced up at the digital clock hung on the wall and saw it was nearly four thirty in the morning. I let out a sigh and let my eyes close, figuring I'd get back up in a few minutes and try to get some more sleep.

I let out a tired sigh around a minute later, figuring that if I didn't try and get up now I'd fall asleep in the damn bathroom. I propped my head up a bit more, hoping the movement would wake me up a bit.

"Emma…" I heard whispered to my right.

"Hm?" I asked, yawning afterwards.

"Emma…" I heard again. I sighed, figuring it was just Mitch or Jay worrying about me.

"Yeah?" I asked, lifting my head up a bit and looking to my right. I froze instantly when I saw my little brother again, but this time there was no blood. I did, however, flinch when he smiled but there was still no blood. We stared at each other for a few seconds before his eyes quickly flickered behind me before resuming their stare. I furrowed my eyebrows at him and he looked back behind me and nodded forward, as if telling me to look too. I sat up a bit straighter and gave him a questioning look before turning to look behind me. I came face to face with my father, who was crouching in the bathtub behind me.

He was smiling sinisterly and instantly reached out for me. I screamed, backing away from him as quickly as possible, which didn't work out all too well because of my wounded leg. I fell to the floor, though I was already on the floor, and clasped my hands over my ears and tightly shut my eyes. I imagine I was screaming things like "No," and, "You're not real!" but whatever I was screaming it woke up Mitch and Jay.

"Emma?!" one of them yelled and the door opened, hitting me in my upper back.

Somebody grabbed me, either Jay, Mitch, my brother or my father, and I screamed something along the lines of, "You're dead, you're dead! I killed you! No! No! NOO! Get off! No! I killed you! Get OFF!"

"Emma! You're okay, it's not real! It's not real!" I heard Jay shouting and realized he was the one holding me. I opened my eyes as I quit shouting and saw that my dad and brother had vanished.

I sighed and collapsed into Jay, realizing I had yet another nightmare. "You okay girl?" Mitch asked me, his hand on my back in a comforting way.

"No," I answered quietly, doubting anyone heard me.

"Since when the fuck can you walk?" Mitch asked a few moments later to Jay.

"Since... Emma started screaming?" I could tell Jay was smiling even if I couldn't see his face. I chanced closing my eyes again, feeling safe in Jay's arms.

"What's going on?" I heard my sister ask as she yawned.

"Nothing, your sister just had a nightmare," Mitch answered her and I heard him walk across the cold tile floor onto the carpet of the bedroom.

"She's having nightmares again?" Laurel asked and the door clicked shut.

"Yeah, you're having nightmares again?" Jay repeated in a quieter voice. I opened my eyes again as he pulled back a bit so he could see my face. I let him out of my embrace and sat up, my back against the wall and my legs out in front of me. I didn't answer, nor bother looking at him. Across from me on the wall the clock now read 5:12 am.

"What happened?" Jay tried again.

"...I ... I killed two guys..." I answered a few moments later, my voice sounding rough.
Jay sighed, and ran his hand through his hair. "You're gonna be okay Emma," he told me, "They're dead and they can't do anything to you."

"It wasn't them..."

"It was your dad? And brother?"

I didn't answer and just stared at the clock, turning to 5:14 am from 5:13am. I heard Jay sigh again. "Your Father is dead."

"What about Aaron?" I whispered, more so to myself than Jay.

"He's a psycho who will be locked up in Arkham until he dies," Jay half smiled.

"He doesn't deserve to be there..."

"The kid watched his father kill his mother and then you stab his father to death while sitting back and eating cereal like it was TV! There's something fucked up in his head and I'm sure he-" Jay was cut off by the bathroom floor flying open; I flinched from the sudden movement. We both looked up and saw the man that had told me to get Mitch and go with The Joker earlier, the one with absolutely no manners.

"What the fuck is going on!?" He half yelled. Behind him I saw a few more guys, all looking grumpy as hell.

"I... I'm... I'm sorry..." I said meekly under his fury, my eyes downcast to my lap.

"You're sorry? You're Goddamn sorry? Well how about next time you wake me up I cut your fucking tongue out of-" The man was cut off by the sound of a gun cocking.

"Get the fuck out of the room," I then heard The Joker growl. I looked back up to see The Joker holding a gun to the man's head. He scowled; looking even more pissed (if that was humanly possible) but left the room with the other men who had come in due to my screams.

The Joker watched them all leave before turning to look down at me. "You okay?" he asked in a much less hostile voice.

I nodded slightly and said, "I will be." My voice cracked and made me sound so pitiful I almost wanted to scoff at myself.

Joker smacked his lips, standing in the doorway to the bathroom for a few seconds like he felt like he should say something more.

It took him at least five more seconds before silently leaving the room.