Children of Dawn

CC’s POV
June, 2nd 2003
“Holy shit CC! I thought you said this was a nice place!” Lauren said bitterly turning to face me. I was trying not to get mad.
“Look, it’s the best I could do, Okay?” I said, exasperated. She was fuming. Standing in the middle of the apartment that I had bought for her. Of course when I thought about myself living there it didn’t looks so bad. With her in the middle of it, I was seeing all the flaws. The water marks on the walls and then cigarette smoke stains on the carpet. She held up her hands in disgust and stomped through the living room and into the kitchen. I trailed after her, unsure of what to do. We were trying to move in together, her parents were abusive and my house was too full of kids to take her in. So we left after I found as good a place as I could pay for on my own. I was eighteen anyway, time to move out so one of the little ones could take my room to have their own.
Lauren was looking around the kitchen in disgust, and I was at a loss. One would think that she’d be maybe a bit grateful. I was trying not to get mad at her, but it was hard. She held up her hands palm up by her shoulders with her lip curled, waiting for some sort of explanation. I had none, I shrugged my shoulders and she dropped her hands to her sides with an audible slap. We stared at each other in silence for a long moment.
“Look babe, I’m sorry it’s not what you expected, but when the band kicks off I’ll get you something so much better,” I said softly. She scowled.
“Yeah right What band? You can’t even find a band that wants you to play drums for them,” She snapped. I was hurt. Maybe she saw it on my face because she turned quickly away. She acted like she was interested in the balcony that sprouted from the kitchen. I followed behind her as she forced the glass door open, it shrieked like a burning which. She took a step out onto the balcony tenderly, and I almost stopped her. She was looking out over the edge. I could hear kids laughing in the pool down below, they weren’t swimming though. They were using the dry pool as a skateboard park. I took a step out onto the balcony and the wood creaked, I convinced myself that it was okay for me to walk on it. Lauren turned to look at me, leaning back on the wooden railing. All of the animosity was gone from her face, instead she just looked tired. I was about to ask her to come away from the railing (it was making me nervous) but she started talking first.
“CC, I’m sor--” She started, and that was all she got out before disaster struck. I must have seen the old wood bowing before she felt it. I lunged for her, grabbing for her hands before the wood could break, but I was too slow. The exhausted look on her face turned to pure terror as she reached up to me to try to reach my hands, but it was too late. Our fingertips brushed, but there was no way of stopping her. I heard the kids below scream, and so did the landlady who was right next door on the other balcony, watering some plants. I didn’t look over the edge, I knew it was bad. I knew I had to get to her. I turned and sprinted through the apartment and down the cement steps. I leaped over the gate to the pool, as I landed my legs were shaking so badly that I fell, hard. I scraped up my knees and elbows but I barely felt it.
I stumbled to my feet. Some part of me noticed the kids all staring down looking into the pool. Some of them were crying, some of them were a sickly shade of green, some were staring at me in terror. I couldn’t understand why they would look at me in fear. I was a victim as much as they were. I barely got to my feet before I fell into the pool. Again I got scraped up, but it was the least of my worries. As I tumbled down I found myself in a warm sticky liquid. My vision blurred as I pulled my hands away, they were covered, stained dark red with blood. I made myself look. Lauren’s eyes were still open, but she was not alive. Along with the blood that was nearly gushing from her head bits of skull and brain floated around as well. My stomach lurched, but I held back. I looked up to the kids.
“Call for help!” I screamed. They all backed away, I must have looked like a crazy man.
“Do something, goddammit. She could still be alive!” I screamed, but I knew it wasn’t true. They did nothing. I put my ear to Lauren’s chest, there was no whoosh of air, and no thud of a heart. I felt a sob choke up in my throat, but before it could come out something else wailed. A lot of sirens. Cars screeched to a halt in front of the apartment building, then the landlady started shouting in her gruff smokers voice.
“He killed her! I watched him shove her right off the balcony! He’s a blood loving maniac, I knew there was something wrong with him from the moment I laid eyes on him. He’s in here,” She bellowed. My stomach dropped. She’d seen, and she was lying. Footsteps approached the edge of the pool. I looked up and saw multiple guns pointed my way, my hands flew up on instinct. I surrendered.
“Climb out of there now!” A cop yelled. I tried to get my legs to move so I could stand up but they’d turned to heavy rubber. They weighed a ton and were useless to stand on.
“I didn’t kill her! It was an accident,” I sobbed in a voice that was not my own.
“Yes he did! I saw him, and so did each and everyone of those kids!” The landlady screamed, she looked to the kids and they all nodded simultaneously.
“Get out of there or I’ll shoot, you sick bastard,” The cop yelled again. I tried my legs again. This time they managed to push me into a standing position for a moment, but then I collapsed forward again onto my hands and knees. I crawled to the sloping pool wall and then used it help me stand. I made an attempt at climbing out of the pool, but that was fruitless. I was about to fall back in when rough hands grabbed me under my arms and wrenched me onto the pool deck.They held me down and cuffed me. I couldn’t even begin to comprehend what was happening until I heard one of the cops.
“Take him to jail,” The cop demanded. My stomach turned. I was being accused of murder. The cop shoved me forward, I almost fell again. He pushed me out of the pool gate and to his car. I was stuffed into the back of the police car, the door slammed behind me. My ears rung and my brain had no thoughts, only pointless static. The officer got into the front and without a word to me started the car. It was no more than a few minutes before we were on a busy main road doing about fifty. My stomach brought me back to reality. My mouth filled with saliva and I could feel my stomach getting ready to heave.
“I’m gonna throw up,” I said.
“Shut up, no you’re not,” The cop sneered from the front.
“Yes, I am. I really am,” I nearly begged, I did not want to blow chunks all over his car. He turned back to look at me, and the cruiser drifted over the center line. Luckily the other car was able to hit the brakes or both the cop and I would have been dead, rather than just the cop.
I felt like I was being crushed, blown up, and sucked apart all at the same time. My face smashed into the seat in front of me and I must have been unconscious for the rest of the crash because next I was waking up. I was out of the car, lying in the road. My mouth tasted like I’d been gargling pennies, blood dripped down my chin. It took me a moment to realize that my hands were free. The cuffs had somehow been cut in the crash.
Run.
The thought hit me like a train. I was free, for the time being at least. As I got to my feet there was a massive pain in my shoulder and my arm hung limp. I resisted screaming in pain. I got to an awkward limping jog type thing and got across the road without being hit. We were on a bridge. I looked down. There was water below, deep water, and the bridge wasn’t all that high. I could survive that jump. I didn’t have time to think. Sirens were wailing again. I jumped. The water came fast and I got my body pointed enough that I didn’t die on impact, then I had to swim with one arm to the top. My lungs screamed, and there was a point that I thought I was going to drown and then I broke the surface. I gasped in the beautiful air. The water all around me was red, I didn’t know if it was my blood or someone else’s. That couldn’t matter though, I had to swim. I went with the current. I paddled along as best I could with just one arm. Eventually when I turned around the bridge was out of sight. I drifted on my back, letting the current of the river take me wherever it wanted. Then suddenly I hit land. I sat up groggily and looked around. My whole body was screaming in pain, but I had to find someplace to hide.
I dragged myself to my feet. I was in a somewhat wooded area. I limped slowly into the woods, cradling my hurt arm to my chest. It was dislocated I guessed. I searched for someplace I could sit down and rest, someplace hidden. Then I saw it. A big tree with its roots exposed, it made a sort of small cave. It was well hidden from any direction but the one I was coming from and looked just big enough for me to curl up in. I went to it, but before I went in I knew I had to try to fix my arm. I remembered someone, I couldn’t place who, telling me that it’s not like the movies. When you dislocate something you relocated slowly. I grabbed my limp arm and pulled, gently at first. Slowly adding more and more pressure. The pain was immense and I thought that I was going to pass out. More pressure, and then there was a pop and the pain faded slightly. I could move the arm again.
I held it closely to my body and shimmied my way into the tree root cave. It was the perfect size. I reached around with my good arm and pulled some rocks and sticks around me to disguise the hole. When that was done I decided that was it. I’d done all I could, if they found me so be it. If I died, so be it. I held my arm and without thinking about it I began to cry. I cried until I somehow fell into a troubled sleep.

Notes

Whew! It's been a while. I just had to torture CC, poor guy, he's having a pretty rough day. Anyway, please comment and let me know what you think. I appreciate it. Love you guys.