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It was raining outside Addison Apartments. A dark, dreary rain that perfectly matched how Larry felt. He didn't sleep at all the night before. It wasn't just the sirens outside and constant footsteps of the police going from room to room that bothered him.
It was the memory of what he had seen in that apartment.
It made him sick to his stomach every time he thought about it. The blood spilling from Mrs. Sanderson's throat, the way her head cracked open against the coffee table when she fell, the crazy look in Charley's eyes. No sixteen year old kid should ever have to see something like that.
It was all his fault. If he'd never gotten himself cursed, his bad luck would have never spread to Mrs. Sanderson. Just him being in the same vicinity as other people was a hazard to himself and others. He was a walking bad luck charm.
Why did he have to play with those damn fireworks?! Sure he'd only been a kid, but he should have known better! His parents told him time and time again. But that was his fault. He always knew he was stupid. Stupid enough to light one and send it into Mrs. Gibson's window. That poor rabbit...
Now here he was, years later, and nothing changed. His life still sucked. School was coming up and he was going to be repeating freshman year for the second time. At this point he had completely given up on graduating. He wouldn't be making it to senior year anyway. Not with the plan he had.
He was alone in the basement apartment. His mother was working upstairs, mopping the floors. He knew her habits well, and she'd most likely be zoning out right now, probably mopping the same spot over and over. She'd definitely wouldn't be back in the apartment for another couple hours. Plenty of time to get everything done.
He was at rock bottom and he knew it. He'd contemplated this plan for a few months now, making sure everything would work out without a hitch. No one would be coming to look for him for a while yet, and by the time his mom got home, it'd would be far too late.
In just a few more minutes, Larry Johnson would no longer be in this world. That was just the way he wanted it.
His life had been shit ever since that day he accidentally killed the rabbit. Whatever god that existed out there knew he deserved to be punished, and they didn't hold back. His dad's disappearance was just the beginning of a long and twisting downward spiral. Larry had never doubted that his father loved him and his mother. But there was a little voice in the back of his head that would constantly tell him that his dad left because he wasn't worth it. Who could love a constant screw-up like Larry?
A couple days after Jim's disappearance, Lisa stopped talking. The police came and carted him off to juvie for two whole weeks. He fell behind in school and was harassed daily by the other kids and teens in the detention center. He'd been a little small for his age back then, and that made him a target. He was glad when his dad's genes finally kicked in and he grew several inches since.
After being released from juvie, his bike was stolen. That left him without a way to get to school. Usually, his mom would've taken him, but her depressive state after her husband leaving left her confined to her bed most days, just laying there in painful silence. Larry missed a lot of school that year, so much that he eventually had to take summer classes. He wasn't dumb, not by a long shot. But everyone in those classes, teachers and students, treated him like he was.
Several years of this had brought him to this one moment in time. He may have been thinking of it before, but Mrs. Sanderson's death was the last straw.
He was ready to end his life.
He didn't know what was on the other side. No one does, really. But whatever was there, he'd hoped it would bring him peace. And even if he was tortured in Hell for the rest of eternity, at least his bad luck would no longer pass on to the other people around him.
He had everything planned out. He'd taken some of his mother's sleeping pills from the medicine cabinet in the bathroom, and he had a bottle of booze on his desk to wash it down with. He'd nicked the booze from the corner store earlier that day. He didn't like the fact that he had stolen it, but it was the only way he could get his hands on alcohol, seeing as Lisa wasn't really a drinker and therefore rarely kept it in the apartment.
His plan was to swallow as many of the pills as he could then wash it down with the alcohol. Then he'd just wait until he fell asleep, hopefully for good.
His hand was shaking slightly as he unscrewed the cap of the medicine bottle. Why was he so nervous? He'd been planning this for ages, there was no reason to be so afraid.
Maybe it was because a part of him didn't really want to die. But the other part of him that did vastly outweighed it. He wanted this.
He tipped the pills out into the palm of his hand and examined them. It was hard to believe that something so small could be so deadly. He wasn't sure exactly how many he needed for it to be fatal, so he just decided to take as many as he could and wait. If nothing happened, he could just take more.
He clenched the pills in his hand as he turned on his stereo. His Sanity's Fall CD was in the player, it only had one song, Singular, but it was his favorite out of all the singles the band had released so far. The full album was due in just a few months.
He would never get to hear it. His favorite band would be losing their number one fan and never even know.
The song was playing, loud as always, the music coursing through the apartment. The ceiling above was thicker than the ceilings in the other apartments, so he was able to crank it as loud as he wanted. The only time he kept it at a decent volume was when his mother was home.
He made sure the song was on loop, then he cracked open the beer bottle. His eyes drifted from the pills, to the bottle, then back to the pills. Shouldn't he say some last words or something? That was a thing people did when killing themselves, right?
He sighed. Like anyone could hear him anyway.
He raised the bottle in a mock toast gesture, tilting his head back to swallow the pills.
Knock knock
He nearly dropped everything in sheer panic. There was no way his mom was home already! He quickly turned the stereo off, listening carefully. Maybe he misheard.
Knock knock
A muffled voice rang out from the other side of his door. Larry swallowed, answering shakily.
"Yeah...?"
"Hey, uh, Larry? Your mom said I should come say hi. I just moved into 402."
It sounded like a guy, maybe his age. It hit him instantly, he remembered his mom telling him about how 402 was expecting new tenants today. Of course his mother would jump at the chance to try to help him make friends.
Larry contemplated his options quickly. Should he just tell the dude to go away? No, he didn't want to be rude. Besides, the guy sounded nice at least. He decided he'd talk to him, hopefully it would be a quick conversation. He shoved the pills back in their bottle and hid them in his dresser, then opened the door that led out to the back area of the building and sat the beer bottle out there. The dumpster was nearby, it would blend in with the discarded trash. He then cleared his throat, acting as nonchalant as he could muster.
"Oh, hey. Come on in. Door's open."
There was always tomorrow, anyways. He could do it then. Just a simple, fast conversation with the new guy.
Yeah. Maybe tomorrow.
It took seven years for that tomorrow to come.