Children of a Lesser God

Chapter 9: Bad Choices Lead To Worse Mornings

"Uuuuhhhhhh, what the hell happened?" Laz asked himself when he opened his eyes. His memory was vague and clouded, like a hang over from a night of hard drinking. His body felt like he had been hit by a car.

Laying on the floor of his apartment, he could see the light coming in from between the curtains and knew that it was morning. He could only faintly remember that yesterday was friday so he knew that at least he wasn't missing school today. He also wasn't going anywhere for a while.

Laying there like a corpse that only occasionally blinked his eyes, Laz looked at the ceiling and couldn't help but think, what the hell am I doing? Did I really need to go and invite that trouble? I could have just come home and nothing would have happened.

But could he really do that? If life was a path, then every fork in the road was a choice.. He always believed that. Some would walk forward lifelessly, just striving to reach the end. Laz wasn't like that. He wanted to walk every path to see what was there.

This time, his choice led to a psycho. "Ah well," he figured. "You can't win them all."

He started to notice how glaringly bright the light was. It seemed like the little crack between the curtains was huge and it really started to blind him. He had to close his eyes and turn his head before he he felt the pain recede.

This however lead him to notice something else that was unexpected. With his eyes closed, he slowed his breathing and was able to hear a voice. It was his grandpa from downstairs.

"I hope he's ok, I haven't seen him since wednesday. Maybe I should go up and knock on his door? No, no, it's the weekend. Kids should relax on the weekend. Lunch!!! That's it. I can make him lunch. I wonder what I got to cook with?"

Laz knew that his grandpa was mumbling to himself. But for some reason, he could hear it as clear as if he was standing right next to him. It was strange. His hearing shouldn't be this good. His grandpa was normally pretty soft spoken, but his voice was always clear. If he wanted you to hear him, you would. That also means that when he didn't want you to hear him, you wouldn't.

Laz felt touched, even more so now after last night. He knew his grandpa loved him, even if there were days he wasn't right. Nothing would change that. Although he knew that as things progress, his grandpa would get worse, he would never forget this moment. After surviving something he thought would kill him, he became strangely warm towards the little things.

Changing his attention for a minute, he started to focus on other sounds. He was able to hear very soft sounds coming from down the walkway.

"Hey, what do you guys want?"

"Give us the normal shit."

"Two fifty, cash."

"Yeah, thanks."

"Yep, just text ahead next time. Otherwise, I ain't answering the door."

"Yeah yeah, forgot you wanted us to do that from now on. Why you live in this shit hole?"

"Cause it's easy to get to and no one cares about people coming or going. Plus I can move the big shit along with these easy deals. Business is all about location."

"Whatever works. Thanks Tony."

Laz heard the soft click like a door closing and then muffled footsteps. Opening his eyes slightly, he was able to see two shadows walk past his front window before turning to go down the stairs.

"Damn it," he said to himself. "Was that a drug deal? And Tony's place is at the end of the fucking building so how did I even hear that?".

Laz had questions but no answers. He knew he wasn't going to get anywhere by laying there either. With a super human effort, he was able to turn himself over and get to his feet, but just barely. His body felt like lead and his head was pounding in beat with his heart. It almost felt like it would explode. He made his way past the small kitchen area and turned into the bathroom. When he go to the mirror, he could not be more shocked at what he saw.

He looked perfectly fine, but that was the problem. His eyes had never been the best although he didn't wear glasses. He could make due without them as the problem had just occurred recently although he was thinking about visiting an eye doctor soon. It seemed like that was no longer needed even though he had no idea why. It was surreal looking at himself and everything around him. It looked like everything was in high definition.

He could see the cloudy bits of minerals in the small drops coming from the bathtub. He could see the texture of the fibers in the tissues. He could even count the individual strands in the brush of his tooth brush without even moving it.

"Seriously, what the fuck is this?" He thought again for the who knows what time today. After looking around and figuring out he wasn't just imagining it, he was somewhat excited. This was actually pretty amazing.

All of the sudden, the burning pain came back in a brief but monstrous wave. Laz struggled to stay on his feet while clenching his teeth. He grabbed at his shirt and ripped it off himself, looking at the spot that the pain was coming from. He almost passed out from shock.

There, on his chest, was a strange symbol. It was raised on his skin like a new tattoo and it seemed like it was thumping with his heart beat. With his heightened eye sight, Laz could make out that it clearly wasn't ink as it was completely even throughout.

The symbol looked like a large black leafless tree with a red full moon behind it. It was about the size of his fist and stood out distinctively against his pale white skin. He instinctively moved his hand over to touch it before another wave of pain washed over him. He couldn't stay standing this time as he legs collapsed underneath him. The last thing he remembered was thinking "fuck" as he bashed his head on the sink and passed out again.

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