Page 4 of Sour
Sane?
Florence scoffed. “Your Honor, are you insinuating that mental illness can only be present if something is visually noticeable? Because I can assure you that plenty of ‘normal looking’ people suffer every day.”
The bastard rolled his eyes. “Relax, counselor. You can argue such a thing in trial, but until the court can examine him to determine if such a claim is possible, I’m afraid?—”
I began to tune everyone out, staring at the yellow tattoo along my left hand. My finger traced the smiley face etched deep into my skin. It was a painful reminder of a better time. One without all this bullshit. I was growing tired. This was all taking too long. And every second without Koven was becoming too much.
I’m done waiting.
My fingers curled around the pencil I had hidden.
Since no one wants to take me seriously, I guess it’s time I prove to everyone here just how fucking insane I really am.
Florence argued with the judge as I slowly crouched around the table and moved closer. Everyone was too busy arguing and yelling to notice. “Ziggy Slater is a prime example of what untreated mental illness can morph into! He had a lifetime of undocumented mental—” Florence’s words halted as the tip ofthe pencil pierced through her windpipe. Nothing but gurgling noises and the smell of her rotten blood filled my senses. She opened her mouth to speak, turning to look at me. Her blood spewed from her shriveled lips and splattered across my face as the entire courtroom reacted to my bloodied smile.
Before anyone could even blink an eye, I turned and charged the judge. My body scrambled up and over the edge of the bench while he stared at me with wide eyes, shouting for help. It was both pathetic and useless. I swung the chain of my cuffs around his bald head, and they wrapped around his fat neck, forcing him to look down at me. “Sane? Really?” I pulled tighter. “You think after reading that grocery list of charges, I’m sane?” I laughed loudly before leaning in close. “Did you not hear the part where I ate a piece of my father? Poor Koven couldn’t handle it, vomiting all over the kitchen floor.” I licked his cheek as he quivered in fear. “He even tasted like the fucking pig he was!” The judge stared at me in absolute fear. I yanked him closer and smiled. “How’s this for crazy?” I asked through laughter. The judge opened his mouth to answer but I slammed his face down onto the surface of the bench with all my strength. His thick framed glasses crumbled from the impact as tiny shards of glass stuck into his eyes and face. Tears of blood rolled down his wrinkles as he tried to pull away, but his old ass was too weak and I was having way too much fun. I couldn’t help but laugh as I slammed his face down again and again, pounding it against the hard surface while he mumbled and whimpered. Blood poured from his broken nose and fractured mouth. He continued to scream and cry out in pain, but I didn’t stop. I only continued, ingesting the sounds he made, lost in the playful moment.
“Someone! Anyone! Stop him!” Ms. Willows frantically shouted as officers began to flood the courtroom.
I glared back at the woman. “You’re next, Ms. Willows,” I warned. Her face dropped at my words.
I turned my head and leaned in over the judge’s bench as I whispered into the old man’s ear one last time. “Still think I’m fucking sane?” He quivered in horror as I laughed. “I wonder if you taste like a pig too.” I opened my mouth wide and bit the side of his neck. The old man screamed in terror as my teeth sank deeper into his old, wrinkled flesh. His blood poured into my mouth and mixed with my saliva. I could feel his skin rip and tear, tasting his fear on my tongue while I pressed my teeth deeper. The sounds of his flesh squelching only fueled me. I wanted to inflict more pain and taste that fear as it swelled from his veins. I wanted it so fucking bad. But fate had other plans.
Before I knew it, numerous hands were gripping and grabbing me from behind, trying to force me away. I didn’t want to let go. So, I bit down harder and harder, until the very chunk of his flesh I held within my jaws ripped and tore clean from his body as they forcefully yanked me away.
The judge screamed and grabbed his large, gaping wound as my cuffed hands slid from along the back of his head, peeling a layer of his skin with them, freeing him from my grasp. I quickly clutched his gavel and stumbled back. Blood poured down the judge’s neck as it dripped from his flesh, the thick chunk still dangling from my bloodstained teeth. Despite the panic, Ms. Willows was shouting at everyone, ordering the cops around. God, she was fucking annoying the ever living shit out of me.
I turned and spat the bloodied piece of the judge’s throat towards the officers, blood and saliva spraying across their faces. They all behaved like frightened children, flinching and retreating in fear. Ms. Willows remained frozen, staring at me with wide and frightened eyes. “You know,” I spat. “I really don’t like your voice.” My head tilted with a bloodied smile. I stepped closer, playing with the gavel. Before she could move, I swung it hard, slamming it into her temple with a loud knock. I watched as Ms. Willows fell to the floor in pain. The sound of the impactto her skull was so exhilarating. So unexpected. And I wanted to hear it again. I raised my arm as I walked towards her, fully excited to hear the sound one more time. I slammed the gavel down, the second knock even louder than the first. A loud cackle broke from my mouth as I pounded her skull one more time, listening as a loud crack echoed through the room. It sounded beautiful.
I raised my arm again, ready to strike one more time. Officers crowded me as one shot a taser into my side. My body jolted and spasmed. My fingers tensed, and I dropped the bloodied gavel, stumbling away from Ms. Willows. I cried out, both amused and pissed. “It-s-s going t-to take m-more t-han t-that-t-t to s-s-sto-p-p me!” I licked my teeth as a second officer fired his taser into my chest. The surge and pain made me rupture into a menacing laugh. Despite my stubbornness, I fell to my knees. “More!” A third officer fired, and this time, I fell to the floor, incapacitated.
My body convulsed and rolled around. My shaking eyes wandered aimlessly until I noticed Ms. Willows. The district attorney was panicking, blood draining from her head wound and soaking her hands and that crisp, white blouse of hers. Her fearful eyes shot to me as I smiled through the electric pulses still surging through my body. She stumbled to her feet and rushed to the judge, clasping her hands around his blood-soaked neck as he bled out in his chair. “Get–get him out of here!” The judge shouted as they both tried to stop his bleeding. “I want him locked away!” His eyes rolled as he fell limp into Ms. Willows’ arms. The woman screamed, shaking the old man as he lay there, lifeless.
I smiled with pride.
That’s right, toss me away into the deepest, darkest hole. Just like you did with Koven.
My head fell back, and I noticed old Florence, now sitting on the floor and propped against her chair. Her hand and arm werecovered in blood as her fingers remained wrapped around the pencil in her throat. I could hear her wheezing as blood streamed from her mouth and rolled down her chin. “H–hel—p—” She struggled to form even a single word, her breathing slowing with each passing second. How pathetic.
My heart warmed as I watched her chest sink in and her life quickly fade away.
Say hi to my dad for me.
“Koven Carter?” I faintly heard my name as the voice repeated it again and again, but I didn’t respond. At least, not verbally. Somewhere in the abyss of my mind, I thought I did. “Koven Carter?” The loud shout made me jump. My eyes locked with those of the old nurse before me. “Koven, I’m assuming?” I nodded with a dead expression and an exaggerated glance as she placed a tiny white paper cup of pills in front of me with an audible groan.
“Ah. Another daily cocktail of drugs to fuck with my brain,” I teased in a low snarky tone.
The nurse didn’t find my remarks funny. Instead, she grimaced. “Hurry up now and swallow.”
That’s what he said.
I smiled at my internal joke. The nurse’s frown only dropped further. God, I wished I could just slap that miserable look from her old wrinkled face.
“Bottoms up.” I pretended to clink my paper cup, as if it were a shot of something more fun. The nurse still wasn’t amused.
With a gentle sigh, I shot the pills back and swallowed them without water. An odd skill I had mastered in my time here. The nurse watched me closely and motioned to my mouth. “Open.” I slammed the tiny paper cup down and opened my mouth, extending my tongue as the nurse ensured I’d swallowed every pill. “Good, now get the hell out of here. Next!”
I shuffled past and walked from the assembly line of people into the dayroom. Patients of every variation of crazy were sitting around. They were keeping their feeble minds busy with ridiculous picture puzzles, pointless conversation, or the endless static-ridden TV that played nothing but retro, black and white sitcoms nonstop during socializing hours. It was a depressing sight to behold, not to mention the state of the room itself. The walls were peeling, exposing the ancient lead-filled paint underneath. ‘Cause that was healthy.
