Blood Rage Ch 4

Chapter 4

The Party

            That party was everything I needed. Me and Jerome spent most of the time talking to Fergus and Brad while Alison and Catherine were having fun playing a game of Who Would You Do? I may not call Brad and Fergus friends but they are still fun to be around, Fergus was an actor from Ireland and damn good one. He could spice up any night with an entertaining character or imitation, and he was the life of the party as well as Irish so he had a great sense of comedic timing. Brad was one of those assholes you can’t help but love. He’s a dick and sometimes you want to punch him but he’s still really damn funny .We had a few beers and laughed a lot, about half way through Alison and Catherine came over to hang out with us a bit. That’s what they said at least. Four minutes later Catherine and Brad were gone on an “errand”. That left me, Jerome, Alison, and Fergus who cleared out pretty quickly. He can read people pretty well and he knew as soon as me and Alison walked through the door that if we were to get near each other he should clear out for his own safety.

            I was still angry at her for earlier so I didn’t want to talk to her. She was still angry at me and so she didn’t want to talk to me. Jerome just looked at us trying to mimic the look Alison gives us. She promptly demonstrated it for him. He sighed and shook his head.

            “Are you guys really gonna do this now?!”

            “No idea what you’re talking about.” We both said in unison. We tend to think a lot alike, she’s not as angry or violent as me but she clams up the same way I do, same words and defenses as me. It bugged me when we spoke in unison, especially when I was pissed at her.

            “Alrighty then” Jerome said handing us both beers. “Here is what’s gonna happen. You two are gonna stop acting like children and have fun.”

            I glared at him. I was not in the mood for his crap and he knew it.

            “Now” He said going on “how this is going to happen is you Mr. Derrick are going to admit the truth that you have anger issues, don’t make me call your doctor. I have him on speed dial. And you Ms. Alison are going to apologize for getting in his face about something he can’t control”

            “What makes you say that?” She said darkly giving him my look. Damn. She gave him my look. As annoyed as I was with him I couldn’t help but to admire just how much guts that guy had some times.  He was right, I couldn’t control the anger very well and that wasn’t my fault. But Alison was right too, I needed to control it.

            I sighed and turned to Alison. “Look. I am sorry about the money. I can give you another piece out of my collection of personal work to sell.”

            She sighed and shook her head. “That’s ok. You’re not the only person I sell stuff for you know.”

            I left it there and decided to sell a piece on my own. I owed it to her and she was too stubborn to sell it for me now that she said I didn’t have to cover the cost.

            “And this is why you guys have me.” Jerome said. “I mean there is this, and also why wouldn’t someone want to be friends with ass like me?”

            “Because they aren’t assholes like you” I said laughing. Alison just looked at me, and gave me Jerome and I’s look as he walked off laughing his ass off.

“Because you know, you’re such a nice guy” he said sarcastically as he left

 I promptly caught up to him, stole his drink, and dumped it on his head. We were all having a good time after that until Sheridan showed up.

            Sheridan was a cop, a big cop, and today was his day off. He hated me for how I treated Jim and some of the other officers. He hated Jim as much as anyone else but Jim was still a cop, a badge brother as he called them, so anyone who messed with him had to answer to Sheridan and I respected that about him. Sheridan was not a good cop. He took the law into his own hands for his own reasons, and people around the station didn’t bust him on it because either they were scared of him or they owed him. His ends never justified his means. His ends didn’t tend to be very just either and I hated him for that. He was here for me, and he meant trouble.

            “I gotta go.” I said as I threw up my hood and started for the back door trying to get out before he started a scene that would get everyone at that party in trouble.

            Sheridan saw me leaving and caught up to me. He grabbed the back of my hoodie and yanked me backwards and to the ground. I was back on my feet in a couple seconds still trying to catch my breath.

            “I hear you have been intimidating my badge brothers again.” He said angrily.

            Sheridan was big, big enough to snap me like a twig if he got his hands on me. I had to get to my car.

            “Not my fault if they can’t keep their mouths shut.” I sneered at him.

            “Maybe you could take a class together.” He growled as he came at me. He threw a punch at my face and I dodged to the right and tried to sucker punch him since I couldn’t flip him. What? The guy was two hundred and eighty pounds of muscle! All I really did though was hurt my hand. I gotta stop fighting idiots, they start to rub off on me. Sheridan got me with a punch to the temple which sent me to the ground. Everything got fuzzy. I lost most of what Sheridan said in a haze all I caught was “Last time.” I looked up and pulled my eyes into focus. He was approaching Alison and Jerome was on the ground cradling his arm.

            “This is a warning to you Anderson.” He said as he wrapped his huge hand around her neck choking her.

He was going to kill her.

            My blood began to boil. I hadn’t felt like this since I tried to kill my father, but this was different. This wasn’t about me. This was about one of the only people in the world I ever cared about, and Sheridan was about to take her from me.

            Everything changed in that moment.

            It felt like something else was using my eyes, my teeth became pointed, my nails became claws, and my vision came back better than ever. I could count the fibers on Sheridan’s shirt if I wanted to. I felt like I did when I slit my father’s throat, reborn as a thing of beauty with a thirst for blood.

            I felt good.

            In a blur I was across the room and I effortlessly ripped Sheridan’s hand off of Alison’s neck and threw him across the room. At that moment I looked into his eyes and saw them wide with fear. He knew I was going to kill him, his eyes pleaded with me not to kill him as he scrambled to his feet.

 “Too late” I said with a voice that wasn’t mine.

I punched him in the gut sending him back five feet and knocking the wind out of him. I dug my claws into his chest and pulled him up off the ground. Screaming he tried to wrap a hand around my neck I dislocated that shoulder with one quick little tug before he could get it close to me. I wrapped my hands around his neck and gave a quick squeeze snapping his neck.

Bliss was something I had never known before; my family saw to that. Even while I was at college my past haunted me and saw to it I never had one moment of peace until now.

I liked bliss.

I needed to paint something.