Vein Fire Read Online Free

smug, chubby neighbor who was always talking down to him. The surplus of time they had in the institution allowed Matt to retell the story almost daily. After hearing it so often, Jared could have made it his own.
    In Matt’s first year at Oakmont, Jared became a semblance of a best friend. Had it been a different time, and a different place, Matt would not have befriended Jared, nor would he have spoken to him. He didn’t like him very much and he thought he was creepy. Among the few watchers living on the secure unit, it was slim pickings for a worthwhile conversation, so Matt remained Jared’s friend.
    Without anyone to push, Jared said he became restless. He devised a plan where he and Matt would save their pills for a few weeks, crush them up, and put them in juice to feed to one of the lunatics. Matt wasn’t sure about it. He had never killed anyone, and wasn’t certain he wanted to, but he played along, having an urge to make things ‘right’ or to get ‘even’ for the placement in Oakmont. He recognized that his thoughts were very different from Jared’s, who seemed to not value human life.
    For an entire day, the two sat and whispered about who they should choose.
    “Why are we doing this again?” asked Matt.
    “Because there are no ledges and there are no cinder blocks here, and this is what we do,” answered Jared. After a long pause, he inhaled with excitement. “It has to be Danny.”
    “Danny? He never bothers anyone.”
    “I know, but I’ve watched him and I’m certain it wouldn’t be a waste. Danny has no potential to ever learn to fly. Plus, we’d be setting him free in a sense. Because he’s a ward of the state and no one visits him, he’ll be stuck in here forever if we don’t get him out. Think about it—he doesn’t speak and he carries that pathetic rag of a stuffed bunny around with him.”
    Matt considered it, and nodded his head. “Danny it is then.”
    They picked Danny because they liked him, but also, he would be easy. He loved grape juice and would drink whatever they mixed in with it. Matt wasn’t sure what pills he was prescribed, but after he swallowed them once, he slept for two days and felt like shit.
    Matt figured they didn’t need to use all of the pills they had stashed, but it was Jared’s plan, so he went along with it. They crushed the pills between two shiny magazine pages until they were a fine powder. Jared saved his grape juice from breakfast, and they dissolved the pills in it.
    Jared only had to leave it in Danny’s room for him to find it and drink it. When he wondered out of his room again, Jared retrieved the cup, rinsed it out in the bathroom and tossed it in the trash where it landed among dozens of other similar cups. Within one hour, Danny returned to his room, sick. He lay on his bed, convulsing in violent seizures for several minutes.
    “Do you think he’ll swallow his tongue?” Jared asked as they watched Danny die.
    “I’m not sure, but I don’t think he has much time left.”
    Indeed, he did not. The death rattle they had never heard before became a symphony they’d never forget. Danny was dead. They snuck out of the sleeping area and went to the common room to play chess. The two boys were calmer than usual, almost satisfied.
    Danny’s body was discovered and the place was locked down. Everyone was questioned, but no one remembered seeing anything. Matt almost believed the administrator suspected him, but nothing came of it. He, after all, had just been playing chess in the middle of the day, in the middle of the week, of a typical month, in a place where one day could not be distinguished from the next.
    It took one week before the autopsy results came back and showed a high level of medicine in Danny’s system. Out of all the patients on the floor, Jared was the only person prescribed the pills.
    Jared was removed unceremoniously. Two orderlies held him down while a nurse thrust a shot into his ass cheek. He was limp when they