More Than an Echo (Echo Branson Series) Read Online Free

else to slip on in, but that’s what happened.
    “Yo. You the newest nut on the block?”
    Opening my eyes, I was staring at a girl about my age with fuchsia hair sticking up like little spikes from her head. Her head reminded me of a flower. “Excuse me?” I quickly sat up; the energy from her was practically knocking me off the bed.
    “I’m the Welcome Wagon for all incoming psychos. I’m Celeste. I’m a carver.”
    “A what?”
    “I’m here for carving up my body like a fucking turkey. And you are?”
    “Echo.”
    “Echo? Super cool name. I always wished I had a cool name, but my parents named me after my grandmother, which wouldn’t be so bad if she had one remotely nice bone in her body. What a bitch.” Celeste took a deep breath before continuing. “What brings you to our humble abode?”
    “I beat up a football player with my geometry book.”
    Celeste’s eyebrows rose and she took a step back. “No shit? Cool. I know a few football players I’d like to take a math book to. Why did you do that? You got violent tendencies? Tourette’s? Schizo? Manic depression?”
    “I thought he was going to hurt us.”
    “Oh.” She stepped back into the room. “Cool. Get to them before they get to you, I say. So, did you kill him?”
    “No.”
    “You going downtown?”
    “Downtown?”
    “Yeah. You know...jail. They get you for an A and B?”
    I shook my head. She had the energy of a half-dozen puppies and it made my head hurt.
    “Even better. So, how come you don’t come out? Scared of all the cuckoos out there?”
    “I keep having these horrible headaches and I just don’t feel like visiting, that’s all. How come you cut yourself?”
    “My version or theirs?”
    “Yours.”
    “My girlfriend wouldn’t come out so she dumped me. According to my shrinks, to cover up my broken heart I cut myself. You know, one pain replaces the other, and voilà, here I am. Wanna see?” Before I could say no thank you, she had her wrists and forearms in my face. “It fucking hurt like hell. That’s the point.”
    “You said you had a girlfriend?”
    “Yeah, but I’m not gay or anything, so don’t think I’m all, you know, hittin’ on you or something. I just liked her, that’s all.” Celeste squinted as she studied me. “You’re kind of normal, aren’t you?”
    Forty-eight hours ago I might have said yes. “I guess that depends on what abnormal looks like to you.”
    “Bummer. You know what happens to normal kids in psych wards? They go fucking nuts. If you weren’t a whack job when you got here, you sure as shit will be when you leave.”
    “Is there any way out?”
    “Out?” Celeste grinned. “Now you’re talking. I don’t know if there’s a way out, but it might be worth looking into. You stay here, and you’ll be drooling and twitching in no time. Take my advice and whatever you do, do not take any of the meds they give you. Here.” Celeste pulled a button off her shirt and handed it to me. “They always look under the tongue but they never check between your cheek and gum. Practice putting the button there in case they decide to start drugging you. Once the drugging starts happening, kiddo, you’re fucked. So practice, okay?”
    I took the button and nodded. “I will. Thank you.”
    “If you aren’t going to cooperate, then at least pretend to.”
    As I  lay there working the button around my mouth with my tongue, I turned Celeste’s words over in my mind. Normal people go crazy in the psych ward? That, I could believe. This place was unlike anything I had ever experienced in any nightmare.
    Little did I know my nightmare was just beginning.

    “So, I’m back to being a ward of the state again.” I was sitting across from Dr. Knowles when she told me what I already knew.
    “And how do you feel about that?”
    I shrugged. “Who could blame them? I beat a kid to a bloody pulp. At this point I am more of a liability than an asset. I’d get rid of me too.”
    Doctor Knowles’