Everything to Nothing (36 page)

There was no
reply so Bob squeezed Peter’s neck a little harder. ‘Okay?’

‘Yes!’ Peter
replied in a raspy, breathless voice.

Dragging him by
the neck he walked Peter over to his car and pushed him against it,
twisting his arm up his back, applying a lot of pressure that made
Peter wince in pain.

‘You ever, ever
come to this area again and I will rip you limb from limb. Savvy?’
Peter nodded. ‘Good. Now get in your car and fuck off!’ Bob quickly
released Peter and slammed his head into the roof of his car then
quickly stepped away from him and folded his huge arms across his
huge chest.

Peter turned to
face him. ‘This isn’t the last you’ll hear about this old man. And
as for you little drug taking slag, you’ll get yours!’ With that
Peter got in his car and screeched and sped away. After he had
gone, without saying a word to anyone, Sarah quietly closed her
front door and returned back to her bedroom.

Afterwards,
when the events were discussed by Sarah’s neighbours, she was
oblivious to them. She stayed hidden away in her bedroom, taking
the heroin, becoming more and more dependent on it, more and more
addicted. As for Peter he had to explain to his supplier how he had
managed to lose a few hundred pounds worth of heroin.

Chapter 27

‘You did
what?!’

‘Reg, I didn’t
do anything. I was burgled and some of the heroin, not all of it,
was stolen.’

‘Did you just
leave it round the house so any fuckwit could break in and steal
it?!’

‘No, of course
not. It was hidden away but they found it.’

‘Well it was
clearly not hidden well enough!’

‘Yes, I know
that now. Look, Reg, I’ve had the best night I’ve ever had. I’m
making you more and more money and I believe it is only going to
get better. Fair enough, this is a blip, a mistake, but a blip on
an otherwise unblemished record. I’m going to learn from it and
make you even more money, I promise.’

‘You promise?
You fucking promise? He fucking promises Kevin. Ickle Peter
promises!’

Reg took a deep
breath and was clearly trying to regain his composure. ‘It is just
as well you’ve been good so far otherwise you’d be in the river
sleeping with the fishes. I don’t usually give people chances,
usually it’s one mistake and…’ Reg ran his fist across his throat.
‘But, you’re right, you have sold a lot and I am pleased about
that. How much do you reckon was stolen?’

‘About three to
four hundred pounds worth.’

‘Let’s call it
five. That okay with you Ickle Peter?’ Peter nodded. ‘Good. Hundred
pounds a month for five months off your cut. Okay?’

‘That’s fine. I
promise it won’t happen again.’

‘Right, be on
your way. You working tonight?’

‘Think I better
had. Make some money to cover the losses.’

‘Good. Keep up
the good work, but preferably without leaving the drugs out in the
open where any idiot can steal them!’

‘Roger
that.’

Peter quickly
turned and left. He was very tempted to have his revenge against
Sarah and her neighbour, tempted to drive round to their respective
houses and put a bullet in each of their heads. But he knew that
would not be a good idea. He had already drawn enough attention to
himself and it would not be the smartest move considering the
number of witnesses present in the street last night. He decided to
take his punishment for mixing business with pleasure and to draw a
line under the whole affair and put it quickly behind him.

*

Sarah though,
could not put the drugs behind her, nor did she want to. She
quickly made her way through the few prepared syringes during the
rest of Friday night and Saturday morning, and then was left with
packages of powder that she did not know what to do with. She was
hoping that she had taken enough to overcome the withdrawal
symptoms but a few hours after using the last syringe, like a
vicious circle, the cravings started again, along with the cramps,
nausea and itching.

Studying the
packets of powder, she wondered how to turn the powder into the
glorious liquid that gave her so much pleasure and allowed her to
hide away from all the pain and misery in her life. Sarah looked
over at her computer and wondered if she could summon enough
intelligence from somewhere to operate it. Deciding she would have
to try, she stumbled over to the computer and sat down in front of
it.

She was still
dressed only in her lingerie and if one was to study her previously
unblemished skin, one would see that it was now very blotchy and
her arms, she had varied which arm she injected into, were showing
signs of heroin use. They were very red and bruised around the
injection points and, faintly, heroin track marks were beginning to
show. On top of this, her skin was red and cut due to her constant
scratching whenever the heroin was not flowing through her
body.

While she
waited for the computer to load, she scratched her arms again and
again until the computer finished its loading cycle. The computer
had a broadband connection so she was quickly able to load up the
internet and start searching for drugs that were in a powder form
with a light brown, tan colour.

‘Bastard. He
told me it wasn’t heroin!’ she exclaimed. ‘Never mind. How do I
prepare it?’With another simple search using a popular internet
search engine she quickly found the answer.

‘Simple enough.
Spoon. Piece of cotton wool. Some kind of heat source, matches? A
lighter! All in the kitchen! Now, I don’t want to kill myself here.
How much?’ Again, another simple search told her the answer.

So Sarah went
down the stairs into the kitchen, stumbling as she went down. From
somewhere a couple of brain cells collided and reminded her to
check on her mum. She quietly pushed open the living room door and
her mother was in her usual position. As long as she was still
breathing, Sarah did not really care, so she quietly closed the
door behind her and completed the few short steps into the kitchen.
Quickly she collected the items she needed and returned to her room
to prepare another hit of the powerful drug.

Consulting the
web pages she had found, she learned how much heroin to use and
then halved the recommended amount to ensure that she did not
overdose. Following the same method that Peter had, she placed the
heroin and water into the spoon and heated it up until the drug had
dissolved. Then she drew the solution into the syringe through a
piece of cotton wool. She checked the syringe for air bubbles as
the article on the internet advised her to do and the solution
appeared to be clear. So she fastened the belt around her arm,
making a fist to pump up the veins in her arm. When the blood
vessel was clearly visible, she slid the needle into her arm and
depressed the plunger, pumping the mixture into her body. Quickly
she drew out the syringe and waited for the rush to hit her.

She waited and
waited. She felt a small rush but it was nothing in comparison to
what she was used to. Cursing, and feeling frustrated, she prepared
another hit, this time using slightly more heroin. In total, over
the course of a few hours, she had five hits of varying strength
until she created the right mixture that gave a good, solid rush.
She stood up from the crouching position she had been in while she
was using the drug, removed the belt and slumped onto her bed.

Sarah had not
slept for a couple of days, nor had she eaten anything. As she lay,
if one was to look down on her and compare her body to a week ago
before she had taken the first drug, one would certainly notice the
weight loss her body had gone through already. She looked gaunt,
pale and had very dark circles around her eyes.

The drug rush
slowly subsided and she rolled onto her side, curling up into a
ball. Heroin causes insomnia, hence why she had not wanted or
needed to sleep for a few days, but heroin can also cause period of
oversleeping. Sarah fell asleep early that morning and did not wake
until a vicious stomach cramp ripped through her body in the
afternoon of the next day.

She did not
know or care what day it was. All she cared about was getting rid
of the cramps, itching skin and the thoughts of her mother drinking
herself into an early grave, and the thoughts of Peter with that
blonde. So she simply got up out of bed to simply cook herself
another hit to hide away from the misery that was her life.

Chapter 28

While Sarah was
sleeping through Saturday in drug induced unconsciousness, late
afternoon Saturday Michelle was starting to prepare for her date
with Simon. Michelle’s parents had already left for their
performance so she had the house to herself.

In every room
in Michelle’s musically orientated house, she had the radio on the
same channel so as she moved around the house she danced and sang
while she slowly got ready. While bathing she shaved all
potentially hairy parts of her body and enjoyed the Jacuzzi feature
of her bath.

After bathing
she showered and thoroughly washed her newly cut hair.
Unfortunately she could not quite afford the helicopter to London
so she had had to make do with a cut from a local salon. When she
felt comfortable and felt ready, she settled down in her bathrobe
to watch a re-run of the Formula 1 qualifying for the Melbourne
Grand Prix. Just as she had turned on the television, her mobile
rang.

‘Michelle, it’s
me. You ready for your night of hot sex?!’

‘Sally! I’ve
told you! Nothing is going to happen tonight!’

‘Hmmm, I’m
sure.’

‘Anyway, what
about you?!’

‘Oh yeah, I
can’t really see me losing it in the theatre!’

‘Fair
point!’

‘What are you
doing?’

‘Well, believe
it or not, I’m watching the qualifying for the Formula 1.’

‘Huh? Why?
Thought you’d be prepping yourself?’

‘I’m all
prepped. All I need to do is put my clothes on and I’m done.’

‘So why are you
watching the cars?’

‘Well, I was
thinking that this is going to be a once in a lifetime trip, so I
want to know something about it.’

‘Right, okay.
We’re not going to watch the cars you know.’

‘Huh?’

‘We’re going to
get some sun, get very drunk, go to the casino and blow a million
on black!’

‘Sounds good,
but I still want to know something about it.’

‘I’ll stick to
the champagne and blowing it all on black thanks! So what’s going
on?’

‘I don’t
exactly know. Some cars appear to be going round and round
Melbourne in a circle making a lot of noise!’

‘Sounds like
fun!’

‘Hmmm, yeah,
well, there’s a clock ticking down on the top of the screen. I
wonder if that means the

cars all have a
certain amount of time to complete the laps before they all explode
into a ball of fire!’

‘Erm, to be
honest Michelle, I doubt it!’

‘It would be
more interesting than this if they did! What was that about blowing
a million on black?! Which car does your dad sponsor?’

‘They’re a team
with British drivers I think, kind of silvery cars. I think the
name of his company will be on it somewhere.’

‘Oh, right!
Spotted one, and there’s the name of your dad’s company! That makes
it a little bit more interesting, but only a little bit. What was
that about getting very drunk?!’

‘That’s more
like it Michelle! I think we can leave the cars to my dad and we’ll
concentrate on champagne and royal princes!’

‘Ohhh, do you
think we’ll meet any royalty? That would be so cool!’

‘Almost
definitely!’

‘I hope so!
When is it? When do we go? How are we getting there? Where are we
staying?’

‘Slow down
there! When is it? I don’t know, but I’m at my computer so I’ll
google it. Hang on… Formula 1, that makes sense, Formula1.com. Erm,
races perhaps, yeah, here we go, calendar. Monaco… twenty-second to
the twenty fifth of May!’

‘May! That’s
ages away!’

‘Not really
Michelle, a few months.’

‘I’ll have to
go shopping!’

‘We’ll go
shopping and it will be my treat!’

‘Really?! Wow!
Thanks Sally!’

‘My pleasure.
You’re next question was when do we go. I imagine the Thursday or
Friday. How do we get there? In my dad’s jet of course!’

‘Oh my! This is
going to be amazing!’

‘And we’ll be
staying on his yacht right next to the track!’

‘Wow, wow, wow!
I wish it was May already!’

‘Well, so do I,
but don’t wish your life away honey,’ said Sally, remembering
something her mother had once said to her.

‘I know, but it
is going to drag and drag and drag! Oh no, what about our
exams?!’

‘I’ve checked
already. The dates for our exams don’t clash with this weekend so
we’ll be fine. We’ll just have to study extra hard before and after
and we’ll be fine!

‘Perfecter and
perfecter!’

‘Perfecter?’

‘Never
mind.’

‘What time is
it?’

‘Nearly
five.’

‘Nearly five?!
Shit! I was out on Storm for ages! I’d better go. Not even showered
or anything!’ Michelle faintly heard a bell ring which was Sally
summoning a member of her staff. ‘Right, I’ve really got to go. You
have a good night!’

‘You too!’

‘I’ll call you
in the morning, but not too early because I think you’re going to
be having a late night!’

‘No way! In bed
for ten, on my own!’

‘I think you’ll
be in bed for nine not on your own!’

‘Nope. Not
going to happen!’

‘We’ll see. I
have to go. The maid is here. Speak tomorrow! Enjoy!’

‘You too.
Bye!’

But Sally had
already gone and Michelle faintly heard her berating the
unfortunate maid before the line went dead. Michelle changed the
channel to MTV, bored with the Formula 1 qualifying, and watched
some music videos for a while until she stood up and went upstairs
to dress and apply a little make-up.