Free Apeshit by Iii Carlton Mellick

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    year, but his dad is making him. He’s worried that his dad
    will die while he’s away. He’s worried that he won’t have
    much time left with him.

    You need to be a man , Jason’s dad always says. You
    don’t need anybody in this life but yourself.

    Jason jumps out of the bed to the noise of a woman
    screaming.

    “What’s going on?” Crystal says as the screams drag
    her out of sleep.

    Jason runs into the hallway wearing just his socks
    and his whitey-tighties. Crystal follows him in her pajamas.
    They go downstairs into the living room where the screams
    are coming from. It is Desdemona. She’s in her pink bra and
    panties. Her face is dark red and her eyes are flooded with
    water, makeup running down her cheeks. Rick is holding
    her in his arms.

    Crystal goes to Desdemona but stops before she
    reaches her. Something else has grabbed her attention.

    She turns to her right and sees the body. Then she screams
    herself.

    “Holy shit!” Crystal cries. “What the fuck?”

    Stephanie’s body is limp on the sofa, the barrel of the
    gun in her mouth. The wall behind her is covered in blood
    and chunks of meat. A large section of her skull is missing.

    “Ohmygod, ohmygod, ohmygod!” Crystal cries,
    shaking her hands at the air.

    “I can’t fucking believe she did it,” Rick says.

    “What the fuck happened to her?” Desdemona says.

    After a few moments of panic and then a few mo-
    ments of silence, Crystal pushes Jason.

    “This is all your fault,” she says.

    “Me?” Jason cries.

    “You made her feel bad,” Crystal says.

    “No, it’s my fault,” Desdemona says. “I embarrassed
    her right before she did it. Big time. It wasn’t that major of
    a thing, but I think it was the cherry on top that pushed her
    over the edge.”

    “It’s none of your faults,” Kevin says. “You all know
    why she did it.”

    Everyone pauses. They know she has abusive par-
    ents. Not physically, but mentally abusive. They also know
    about her brother. It now seems obvious to them that this
    kind of thing was bound to happen sooner or later. They
    wish they would have been better friends to her.

    “What are we supposed to do?” Desdemona says.

    “We have to call the police,” Rick says.

    “Fuck that,” Jason says. “We’ve all been drinking.
    They’re going to arrest us. Or, worse, they’re going to blame
    us for her suicide. They might even think we killed her.”

    “Then what do you want us to do, bury her in the
    woods?” Rick says.

    “Why the hell not?” Jason says.

    Stephanie leaps off of the couch and screams out in
    agony. She grabs Jason by the arm and shakes globs of blood
    onto his bare chest.

    “What the fuck!” Jason says.

    He rips his arm out of her grip and she falls back onto
    the couch.

    “She’s not dead,” Crystal cries, going to her friend’s
    side.

    Stephanie is hyperventilating and her body is jerk-
    ing. She stares straight ahead but it doesn’t look like she can
    see anything.

    “What do we do?” Desdemona says.

    “We need to get her to the fucking hospital,” Crystal
    says. She turns to Jason. “You have to drive her there.”

    “I’m too fucked up,” Jason says. “Call an ambulance.”

    “Our cell phones don’t work up here!” Crystal says.

    Kevin takes out his cell phone and double checks.
    “Yeah, there’s absolutely no signal on this thing.”

    “We’re going to have to get her there ourselves,”
    Crystal says.

    “I’m not that drunk,” Kevin says. “I can probably
    drive.”

    “Let’s get her into the van,” Crystal says. “Quick.”

    Crystal and Rick carry Stephanie by her shoulders.
    Desdemona and Kevin hold her up by her feet. They
    can’t see where they are going as they stumble drunkenly
    through the woods, trying their hardest not to drop the
    wounded girl.

    “How the hell is she still alive?” Kevin says. “The
    back of her fucking head is gone.”

    “People survive shots to the head all the