Beautiful, Deadly. - 4. Chapter 4

They got back to the dorm room, and aside from throwing a tantrum, Casey seemed fine. Alex hurried him into bed and made him drink some water. That was the only thing Casey accepted to eat. The dried fruits and the power bars he turned away. “I don’t want those,” he scoffed and hid from Alex.

Alex tried not to show his frustration. How could Casey not understand the magnitude of what was going on? Everything Izzy was giving him was making him sick. And all Casey would do was play victim when Alex tried to help!

Alex couldn’t help but feel a little hurt at that. He was trying to help, and Casey was going to hate him for it. And Izzy… he had been feeding Casey ideas. Telling him that Alex was bad, that he wanted to see his friend suffer. They were lies, but like the food, Casey was just going to gobble them up.

Casey had to be kept away from Izzy.

Alex tried to turn in for bed, but he could barely sleep. He listened for sounds from his roommate, waiting for the stomach pains to start again.

Casey was fine in the morning, though. He complained a little bit of a small headache, but that was all.

Alex knew that there would come a breakdown though. Izzy had said it had taken a long time for Casey to show up with those withdrawal symptoms. How long had it been; four or five days? It probably wouldn’t take so long the second time around. Alex was waiting for it to happen.

Casey went to his morning classes, and Alex spent the time on his computer. Despite what Izzy had said, Alex looked up drug symptoms. He read about how people could lose their appetite, not want anything but the drug. That seemed to fit. Just Alex didn’t know what drug Casey was on.

It had to be something only Izzy could provide. Maybe something he had made himself, or some altered kind of hard drug.

Alex scribbled down ideas from the computer. He didn’t need to know what the drug was, he hoped, in order to get Casey off it.

He wrote down some herbal tea suggestions, meal plans, suggestions on how to get someone to eat. Withdrawal was going to be long and hard, and Alex only hoped he could Casey back to normal.

It was Izzy saying it wouldn’t just work it’s way out of his system that scared Alex.

Casey returned from his classes, and Alex hopped out of bed. “How are you feeling?” Alex asked quickly.

“Hungry,” Casey admitted, putting a hand over his stomach. “I want some of those pastries.”

Of course he did. Alex sighed and ushered his friend into bed. “I’m going out to get some things from the store. Stay here, okay?”

Casey nodded and curled up in bed. Alex went back to the health market from the day before. He found the type of herbal tea that was recommended and grabbed a few other foodstuff off the shelves. Alex went back to the dorms and checked in on Casey. Next Alex went to the small dorm kitchen and made up the tea before taking the steaming cup back to their room.

He made Casey drink all of it, hoping that the tea would ebb away some of the bad withdrawal effects that were going to come.

Alex left for his classes after that, trying to tell himself everything was going to be all right. He managed to calm down some by the end of class. He went back to the dorm room and thankfully found Casey still in bed.

He was complaining that he wasn’t feeling well, but it wasn’t too bad yet. Alex tried to distract him any way possible.

“Why don't you help me with my homework?” Alex suggested playfully.

“No, I have my own homework to do. I don’t want to do extra,” Casey scowled and set to work on some of his assignments.

They worked in companionable silence, aside from the music Alex let play from his laptop. The two stayed up until late, where Alex offered a few fruits to Casey to eat.

Casey looked skeptical but tried to eat them anyways. He at least had some more sensibility when he hadn’t recently been on whatever drugs Izzy was providing. The drugs turned him into an oblivious, selfish child. Once everything had settled he understood that he wasn’t okay.

He ate one apple, and Alex left it at that. He had some pears and bananas stashed away as well, planning to get them all into Casey over the next few days. He still believed the philosophy that some food was better than none. He didn’t expect Casey to be famished and inhale the fruits… Alex just wanted him to eat a little bit, slowly.

After the eating of some fruit, they both made the trek down to the communal showers. They cleaned up before returning to the room. There, to Alex’s dismay, Casey threw up all of what he had eaten.

Alex sat by for the retching, listening to Casey sob. “It hurts,” he whined. “Sh*t Alex, if it makes this go away I want more…”

“No,” Alex stated firmly. “We’ll get you off it. You haven’t had a lot already, it shouldn’t be extreme. Last night was the last time, okay?”

Casey nodded and sniffled, staring down into the waste bin. Once he had stopped, Alex went through the motions of cleaning up. He made another cup of tea and took it to Casey, who drank it all.

He seemed to do fine with drinks, just not food.

Alex left Casey in bed and tried to sleep again. He gave up on that quickly, knowing it was hopeless. In the silence where he hoped Casey was sleeping, Alex tried to force his mind again.

He tried to picture that woman’s face, her words.

Never, ever accept food or drink from a… From a what? Alex strained to fill in the blank. It was on the tip of his tongue, but it wouldn’t come. Squeezing his eyes shut, he tried to recreate her in his head. Nothing worked. Another part of her speaking flittered through.

It’s all very addictive to humans. Not all will be nice like me, okay, Alex?

Alex wanted to scream in frustration. Why was this all he could get? He needed to help Casey! He replayed the lines over and over in his head.

Addictive. It was the food, and the drinks. There were no drugs in them, he realized. They were the drug, whatever made them different from human versions. Casey’s body only wanted that special food.

The next morning, Casey was starting to look pale already. Alex made another cup of hot tea and walked Casey to class. He picked Casey up from class afterwards and walked him back, making more tea. He made Casey promise to stay in bed while he went to class.

Alex went to class but hardly paid attention. He needed to work something out. The food itself didn’t seem to hurt, just the effects of not having any. Maybe he could pay Izzy for rations, that Alex could control and feed to Casey. But what about afterwards? Casey would be addicted forever. Alex wasn’t always going to be there.

After class Alex forced himself to go back to class. Maybe he could send Casey home. Either to Casey’s family or to Alex’s. Alex’s home was six hours away, with two parents that were home 24/7 and could watch over Casey if need be. All Alex would tell them was that it was drugs, and that would be that. Granted he might get dragged home in the process as well, but he wasn’t going to let Casey just waste away.

Alex let himself into their room, and… it was empty. He tried not to jump to conclusions. He waited five minutes for Casey to possible come back from the bathroom. He checked the kitchen, the cafeteria. No Casey.

Izzy.

Alex got into his car and wove his way through the traffic of downtown to Izzy’s building. The elevator ride up seemed to take forever, but Izzy’s door was unlocked. Alex checked around the place and saw nothing, only to hear noise from the bedroom.

Panic washed over him as he ran for that door, stalling just inside.

Izzy straddled over Casey’s naked body, bruised and cut. Casey let out another pained whimper, catching in his throat.

“What the f*ck are you doing?” Alex screamed and charged at the bed.

Izzy turned and swung his arm into Alex’s throat. Alex fell backwards with the force, coughing and hacking, his neck sore. Izzy pointed his knife down at the intruder, eyes deadly. “Stay out of this, kid.” He had his index finger extended out on top of the blade. His skin was sizzling with the contact.

“You’re—you’re hurting him,” Alex gasped out.

“Yes, and I won’t hurt you if you stay out of this. I don’t want to get involved in anything serious,” he paused. “So it’s best you just leave your… friend here. Otherwise it will be all the harder, come due time.”

“What do mean?” But Alex already had a bad feeling.

“He can’t survive without what I have to give him… and do you honestly think I’m going to supply him forever?” Izzy smiled cruelly.

Alex hauled himself up again, glaring at the man. “Give him to me.”

“He’ll come running right back, Alex.” It was disgusting to hear Izzy say his name.

Alex made another cautious attempt towards the bed, wary of the blade that followed him as he moved. Izzy stopped the blade, paused, and turned the blade on Casey’s back. Casey let out a yelp of pain as the knife stung his back, leaving a long gash.

Alex swore and pushed Izzy off the bed. Alex dragged Casey out and started to look for his clothes in the room. Izzy stalked over, putting his mouth into Alex’s ear. “You better get her to remove that damned protection pact, because I’m losing my patience with you. If she wants to stay alive, she’ll remove it,” he hissed angrily before leaving.

As Casey dressed, the blood from his cuts seeped into his clothing. Alex just stared after where Izzy had gone.

What protection pact?

He shook his head and got Casey into his shoes. Alex had to half carry him out of the room, where Izzy mingled around the kitchen. He tossed a pastry at Casey, who caught it eagerly. He stuffed the whole thing into his mouth in three bites, while Alex tried to stay calm.

Casey had gone through all of that for just one pastry.

Alex got his roommate into the car and back to campus. He needed to get Casey cleaned up without involving anyone that would ask too many questions. He washed Casey off in the showers, glad that most of the bleeding had stopped. In reality the cuts were shallow, meant only to cause pain and not to kill.

Alex didn’t know what to do at this point. “Did you let him do this to you?” he asked on the way back to their room.

“He said if I did what he wanted, he would give me some food,” Casey answered meekly. “I know I said I wouldn’t, but… I feel better now.”

Sure, he felt better aside from all the bruising and knife wounds. Alex scowled angrily and gave Casey two pills and a water for the pain. Casey went right to sleep.

Alex curled up in his bed, trying to sort things out. Casey was safe and in bed for now. Now he could try and think. What protection pact had Izzy mentioned? Alex shut his eyes, already feeling the dull throb of his headache starting.

Casey… on that first night, he had said Alex was glowing. Did that have anything to do with it? Not only that, but while Izzy supplied Casey with those drugs… he refused to give any to Alex. He asked maybe once or twice but he didn’t force it. He couldn’t be obviously giving Alex special treatment, so he had asked anyways.

That was as far as Alex got before stopping. The headache wasn’t at it’s worst, but he didn’t want to deal with it. He rolled over in bed, telling himself to call home in the morning. To ask Casey could come up and stay for the weekend.

Casey would hate him for it… for keeping him away from all the food and drink he liked so much, and it would make him sick. But it was better than dead.

In the morning, Alex walked Casey to class. He then called his parents, giving them vague details.

“My roommate’s gotten into some trouble. Can I bring him up to our house this weekend? It would be safer, and you guys would be there to watch him…” Alex explained.

“Why? What’s wrong?” His mother questioned. If she found it serious enough she would demand that Alex leave college all together.

“He got mixed up in some… stuff. I’m fine, but…” Alex trailed off. They would be able to guess that it was drugs or something of the like when they saw Casey.

“I guess,” his mother answered, though she didn’t sound confident. “He won’t go into a murderous rage on us, will he?” She tried to joke.

Alex didn’t answer. He wanted to say no, but how far would Casey go when he was in withdrawal. His mother stopped her attempt at joking, starting to take it more seriously.

“Alex, if he’s dangerous I don’t want him up here,” she stated firmly.

“He’s… not. He’s a good kid, mom. He’s just… some drugs… and I don’t know what he’ll do in withdrawal and… so far all he seems to do is get ill and not want to eat,” Alex told her quietly.

“Drugs?” his mother repeated loudly through the phone. “Alexander Owen Davis!”

“Mom, I’m not doing any!” Alex shrieked back at her.

They fought over it for another minute or two, before she agreed that Casey could come up. Alex thanked her and hung up, glad to have a more stable plan in action. Casey didn’t have a car, so the six-hour drive would be an impossible walk if he was that desperate to get back.

After class, Alex took Casey back to the dorm building. He dropped Casey off in another room with someone to watch him, and firm instructions not to let him leave. Casey was complaining that Alex hated him.

Alex left and went to his own classes. He maintained some focus in the class, but was glad when it was over. He picked Casey up and took him back to their room. Alex made some tea and forced him to eat a pear.

“Listen, tomorrow I can go out and buy a crock pot,” Alex said. He wouldn’t tell Casey about sending him off, though. “We can try and make your mom’s Maple-BBQ drumsticks this weekend.”

Casey shook his head. “I don’t want those, Alex. I want some food from Izzy.”

Alex sighed. “You can’t have anymore of that.”

Casey scowled at him. “Why not? It’s not hurting me, Alex. You’re just jealous.”

Alex wondered if that was what Casey thought, or something Izzy had fed to him yesterday. “Why would I get jealous? I don’t want to be fat,” Alex pointed out, figuring that was as much reasoning Casey could handle.

Casey frowned and didn’t reply. Sighing, Alex took his roommate to the showers. They cleaned up and went back to the room. Alex stayed up to work on some assignments while Casey slept in the other bed. When Alex finally finished his work, he managed to drift off to sleep.