Short Story: Pills

She turns and toss beneath the blanket moss, staying close to the bus, hoping to get some of the heat emitted from its engines.

"Ares, God of War" she whispers under her breath, tracing the constellations with her fingers.

"Hey, Tina?"

With every effort left in the cartilage of her bones, she got up on her haunches. There was a Man In Denim Jackets.

"You're not asleep yet, are you?"
"I'm trying to"

Slowly, the Man in Denim Jackets glanced at her drawstring pouch near her jeans, as to not attract her attention. But quietly enough, he nodded before she could form words of accusations.

"You're not still keeping them are you?"
"Why not?"
"They're magic"
"So?"
"Magic sends people to hell"

Constantina Roger smirked and continued her attempts at slumber.

Man In Denim Jackets joined her, differing due to the presence of a pillow under his head. "Take off your shoes, Tina. You'll get nightmares from all of those dirt on your feet."

Shoe gazing, Tina laughed abruptly, "How long have I been on this hill?"

---

"She's in a coma"

Terence furrowed, twiddled his thumb, looking for forms of expression that would not make anyone write him off as worried.

"Oh", came out from his lips.

"How long 'til this junkie goes to hell?", said Terence's Girlfriend, under her breath.
"She's on...indefinite suspension, if you would like"
"No I DO and WILL not like"
"What?", remarked Terence at the lack of arrangement in terms of syntaxes.

Terence's Girlfriend blabbered on under the flickering lightbulb, whilst Terence tried his best to listen.

The truth is, Terence Roger, never loved his sister. Abandoned her after the death of Mr and Mrs Roger, until he received news that his only living relative was stuck in the grey area of this world and the next.

Terence Roger was also an atheist. "Come, let's go home. The hospital would inform us of any de...velopments"

"Just say death, Newton". Terence's Girlfriend rolled her eyes at the demeanour of her lover, fixing up her cocktail dress.

"I was just wondering, honey, does talking to Constantina render so many illogical consequences it automatically invalidates my stand towards empiricism?"
"...my God, Terence. I thought you hated her. Sigh, you know what I'm going to the car first. Will wait for you at home. Keys, please"

Terence inadvertently threw the keys at his girlfriend's face, and halfheartedly apologising thereafter.

He stared through the pane of the intensive ward unit, his sister almost lifeless. Not that she ever had much to live for.

--

"You just entered the hospital, Tina", said the Man In Denim Jackets

Apparently deaf to whatever was said, she went back to her attempts at reaching sleep.

Dear Diary,

This is weird. I was alone in my apartment as far as I remembered and now there's suddenly this man in denim jackets.

" I can read what you're writing by the way "
Annoyed, Constantina Rogers uttered, "Yeah, way to have a go at my penmanship. Who are you again?"

"I told you, I'm technically your Angel of Death. You see, you just had a seizure due to overdosing of methamphetamine", said Man In Denim Jackets with a nonplussed look on his face.

"On Christmas? Really?"
Suddenly, Constantina remembered Sunday school, and let out a cry of disagreement with the way her Angel of Death looked.

"You're not Death"
"No. I'm your ANGEL of Death. You see, because you entered purgatory from drug abuse, you're actually high and metaphysically torn apart at the same time"
"...woah"

She pulled out her drawstring pouch, and started ingesting barbiturates. "So..name?"

"Pilgrim. Call me, Pilgrim", as he was lying down on the grass, he took out a list. "I don't wanna be blasphemous, but after all I'm only a psychedelic souvenir, and not actually a creation made of light"

"It's okay, as you can see, I'm intoxicated". Finally giving up on pretentiously dozing off, Constantina Roger stood up on her numb legs (accidentally hitting them against the exhaust pipes of the bus). "Can you be my lover, before I go to hell I mean?"

A long sigh came out of Pilgrim's mouth. He took off his denim jacket, revealing a T-shirt that was torn, shabby, and covered with what looked like vomit.

"Your brother's here, and he wants to pull the plug"
"No he's not here"
"I meant outside, in the conscious world. You can't see him"

There was an empty look in Tina's eyes, "No...he's not here"

---

Terence sneaked into the dark room, whose only lights came from the digital display that showed how his sister was doing through numbers and pictures that resonated a sort of morbid video game.

"..hello, sister."

---

The bus started its own engine. For the first time that night, Constantina Roger felt scared.

"I'm sorry", she said, dawdling and trying to find composure, as she tried to figure out who she should say sorry to.

"Merry Christmas, pagan", waved Pilgrim without looking away from his list.

---

"Merry X-Mas, sister"