Finale
"You aren't going to strap me down or anything?" Adrian laughed. The mattress he lay on was without sheets of any sought; stained and eaten at the corners from age; but it was the cleanest one they had.
Ren was on his knees next to him, watching a small cube of white sizzle into liquid as he held a lighter under a spoon.
"Nope... the heroin should take care of that." He said without moving his eyes off his operation.
Vicky crossed her arms, more than a little bit nervous. She had been standing slightly behind Ren as if to not fully get involved in what they were doing. The sky outside was slowly melting into a dark paradise of white dots, and she had dressed accordingly. A pink nighty which she had complained to Ren about because it 'hugged her breasts too tight'. The skinny border-collie had simply chuckled and responded 'Well, we can't have it doing my job, now can we?' He had kissed her then.
Now, beginning to sweat at the sight of that needle, she rested her paws on Ren's shoulders. "Are you sure you know what you're doing babe?"
"Vic," Ren said, his voice low. "I was an addict a few year's back; this is one of the only things I know how to do."
The leopard bit her lip in silence.
After a small while of Ren's faint, metallic flicking on the tip of the syringe, he readied it in his paw and cleared his throat.
"You sure still you want to do this?"
Adrian felt his eyes drop onto the syringe... god that thing looked sharp. Filled with clear yet distorted liquid. Like how the air would look on the business-end of a jet turbine.
He swallowed his nervousness in a single gulp and nodded his greasy head.
Ren took a moment to look his brother in his pale green eyes, and for a minute, he almost didn't recognize him as Adrian. A rapist in a slow transition into a drug addict. His father. But as he blinked a final time Adrian was back in all his familiarity, back with all his wittiness and charm.
"Well... alright then..." He undid his belt from his own waist and tightened it around Adrian's arm. It looked like a black snake, cutting off most of his circulation. With a quick sigh, Ren parted the black fur on Adrian's underarm and found the vain, readying the syringe over it. A viper, ready to strike with its venom.
"Try not to flinch."
Adrian closed his eyes and winced. Sharp, cold, but quick pain.
The sheep-dog lay his head down - keeping his eyes shut - and he felt Vicky tuck a pillow under it.
"Lay on your side."
Woah, shit.... things are starting to melt now... ooh there they go...
"Huh?" Adrian said drunkly.
Ren bit his lip and did it for him, rolling his brother into the recovery position before he wedged a folded pillow against his back.
He patted Adrian on the arm.
"You know... just in case anything comes back up..."
Adrian couldn't figure out what that meant. His eyes were closed, and he was sooo tired... did it mean throw up? Or did it mean something ellslssssssssssssseeee..... ohhhh shiiiit..... the underside... of his eyelids... were amazing...
Yawn.
Did they always swirl around like that?... did they always look like ballet dancers made of fuzzy lights... like he was watching swan-lake through a colidoscope?... haha... colidoscope... what a dumb word... its like, colido? But scopes?... huh... wow that's weird.... Scope... hehe that's fun to saayyyy... scope... scope, scope, scope...
Hahaha... ammmm I chuckling? Nooooooo... chuckles are bad... bad like... bad like a... bad like skim-milk... that's a dumber... word. Skim... Skim, Skim, skuh... s-s-skuh... ski-im... sus, s-stuttering... stuttering s-skim...
Adrian's eyes slowly creaked open... crackling, old, tired... he almost had to peel them open from how much sleep had solidified against his eyelids.
He had done many things since he had joined the world again. He had seen kingdoms of dragons and superheroes melting like ice on a summers day. He had done back-flips in the warm void of space without so much as a sound... life was good... he had woken up a hero of his own little universe.
The sheepdog chuckled, his voice deeper than it ever had been...
He tried to stand up, and barely succeeded. His arms were shaky and frail, his body felt skinnier and his head felt lighter. A balloon full of expired helium tied to his shoulders.
He stumbled through the dark barn, smiling stupidly, to Ren's bedroom - which was another closed off section of the barn, except there were actual walls this time.
Aw... when he went inside, he saw them both sleeping.
A sheepdog and a leopard cuddled together, snoozing like a rejected phone-alarm...
They were both naked by the looks of it, sheets pulled up to Vicky's chest to hide the fun parts of her.
Ren was lying completely on top of the dusty duvet... curled into a naked ball of black and white as he cuddled around his girlfriend...
Protective and sweet, like Ren always has been... but god, that boy was just fur and bones. A curled pencil of a sheep-dog, truly.
"Heyy." Adrian giggled at the doorway, knocking on the wall lightly with his fist.
Ren turned his head and peered at him sleepily... before his eyes darted open and he covered his groin.
"Holy shit." He breathed; his words occupied with a typical morning voice-crack.
Vicky woke up too, and unlike Ren she smiled when she saw him standing there. She had always wanted a family... and after she had met Ren she always thought of Adrian as her own brother. He was, in her eyes.
Ren slipped off the bed and tried to put on a pair of pants but fell over.
"Ow,"
He managed to get them on, and then walked over to Adrian and pulled him into a hug.
The green-eyed canine smiled and wrapped his arms around his brother.
"Ain't you just cute?"
Ren chuckled and pulled away.
"Sorry about... catching us like this. We really weren't expecting you."
Adrian smiled in confusion.
"Huh?"
"Yeah, well... you've been asleep for like, an entire fucking week now... so we weren't sure when you'd get be getting back up.
A week.
Adrian's smile dropped so hard that it left his mouth hanging open.
His good mood cracked and twisted like a wine-glass stuck in a blender.
And there it was... the sudden feeling of utter terror drilling holes in his stomach... he suddenly felt like throwing up...
A whole, fucking week. Locked behind him in time in a bullet-proof case he couldn't break.
The otter's voice dug into him.
This stuff is called Dog-Nightmare...
One whole week... slipped away...
Get me an ounce of this stuff, and we'll meet up next week-
Out of time... nowhere to run...
for you to give it to me.
One week, alright?
They were going to fucking die. Skim. Adrian... dead... strung up corpses to advertise to the rest of the world what happens when you fuck with a cartel.
He had just killed both of them. Dead. Fucked. Gone like two bags of trash. Crushed and squeezed and compacted.
"Jeez, calm down dude. We've kept you fed and stuff." Ren laughed as he slapped him on the back playfully.
Adrian tried to talk but all that came out was a dull whisper.
"What'd you say?"
Adrian cleared his throat, panic pricking all over him.
"My... my phone, I need it."
Vicky reached to her bedside table and tossed the sheepdog a black screened device.
"Some guy kept trying to call you." She shrugged. "Some dude called... what was it?" She looked over as Ren for assistance, but he shrugged as well. "Skim? Or something?"
Adrian caught it and sprinted through the barn, out through the massive doors, into the night and into the driver's seat of his car.
He had left his keys in the ignition, so with a violent twist the engine made a dull roar. Ready. Ready to race into pitch-black country-side.
He called the racoon, but he could barely hold the phone to his ear; his paws were shaking so bad.