This Rotten World (Book 1) by The Vocabulariast Read Free Book Online

the stairs. When his maroon sweatpants disappeared from sight, she
turned her attention back to her husband, who was noisily rummaging through the
refrigerator, making grunting noises, and generally sounding disgusting.
    "Hey!"
    Jason
offered no response. His back was to her, so she couldn't quite see what he was
doing.
    "Hey,
Jason! What the hell are you doing?" she hissed, her arms folded and her
voice dripping with annoyance.
    Jason
turned around, chunks of raw steak hanging from his mouth. His wound had
stopped bleeding, and had taken on a blackish hue.
    "What's
wrong with you? You're going to get e. coli." The meat fell from Jason's
mouth and made a sickening slapping sound on the linoleum. Jason held out his
arms and began advancing on Katie.
    "Alright,
cut the shit. I'm not in the mood. I've got to get up in three hours."
Still he did not respond. She backed away from Jason just as he came within
reach of her. He lunged at her and for the first time, she noticed the wound on
his shoulder. His mouth opened incredibly wide, and the part of her that ran on
pure instinct brought her knee up into his groin. The effect was minimal, and
just as Jason was about to take a bite out of her face, she fell backwards. He
toppled over her and onto the ground next to her.
    Immediately,
she rolled onto her stomach, and began crawling away. Jason clumsily clawed
after her. She aimed a pink-slippered foot at his face, and kicked as hard as
she could. The force of the kick knocked him backwards, which gave her time to
scramble to her feet. She ran up the stairs, contrary to every instinct in her
body, and ripped open Kevin's door. "C'mon. We have to get out of
here."
    "What's
wrong, Mom?"
    "Just
get up. C'mon let's go." Kevin popped to his feet and followed after her.
They stopped at the landing to see Jason at the bottom of the stairs slowly
making his way up, tottering back and forth and using the wall for support. He
snarled at them when he saw them.
    "What's
wrong with Dad?" Kevin whimpered.
    "I
don't know," she said as she shoved Kevin into her bedroom. She closed the
door behind her and locked it. "Grab my phone. We need to call the
police." As Kevin pulled her phone from the charging dock, the wood of the
bedroom door shuddered. It wasn't going to last long.
    Kevin made as
if to hand her the phone, but she refused it. "Call 911," she huffed
as she began dragging her oak dresser in front of the bedroom door. It
shuddered again as Kevin dialed the numbers.
     

Chapter 12: Haldol and Bite Wounds
     
    Clara was
worried. The ride from the club to the hospital hadn't been much longer than 30
minutes, but Courtney was already babbling and hallucinating. The E.R. waiting
room didn't seem too busy, but as it usually goes with these things, even a
handful of patients seemed to be too much for the hospital to handle at once.
Clara had filled out the paperwork as best as she could, but there's only so
much a person can do for another person. Who the hell knows their boyfriend's
social security number? Psychopaths, and she wasn't one of those. Courtney
wasn't in much of a mood to be helping her answer the questions. Her first
attempt at asking him his social security number had led to an incoherent
string of numbers that ended after the sixth one. When she asked him if he
could repeat that, he merely shook his head no.
    She pressed
her hand against his forehead, and flinched at the warmth radiating from his
brow. How long could it take to get into the E.R.?
    Just when
she was about to go up to the nurse's station and begin making a scene, they
called Courtney's name.
    Clara
helped Courtney stand, which was a chore. He had lost all semblance of
coordination, and after they had taken two steps, Courtney toppled forward on
his face. He immediately tried to rise, but it was no use. He seemed like a newborn
horse trying to get to its feet for the first time.
    The nurse
that had called Courtney's name brought a wheelchair over. Together, the