Aaron Read Online Free PDF Page A

brothers had to deal with so much, and finally they were able to start living somewhat normal lives, despite their psychotic brother. Aaron left more than half of his sandwich on the plate, but finished his soup, tipping up the bowl and drinking it. He hoped that would appease her almost constant need to feed him.
    “Mom, I’m going to go lie down for a while,” Aaron told her as she took his dishes to the counter near the sink. The combination of all the pills and omnipresent suffocating depression made Aaron feel tired, lethargic. Some days, this tiredness allowed him to finally escape for a few hours in the dreamless sleep of a midafternoon nap. On other days he would just stare restlessly at the ceiling or the TV, even the very idea of sleep eluding him.
    It started off as most of his dreams did, with that last debate practice. Juliette was the captain, but Aaron was the best on the team. They were trying to get other students involved, since it was the beginning of the term, trying to get them engaged to see which ones would make the team that year. Aaron always helped out with recruiting because the debate team was important to Juliette, and Juliette was important to Aaron. That night, the topic that they pulled from the list was euthanasia. Juliette was on pro and Aaron was left with con. It didn’t matter how they personally felt about the topic, they still needed to put together a concise, effective strategy for debating the issue. Juliette explained to the assembled students that voluntary, active euthanasia was about people deciding how they wanted to live and die. The government should not be able to legislate a person’s free will if they weren’t injuring another party. Denying a person the choice of ending his own pain and suffering was unfair and cruel. These were valid points, and Aaron knew that arguing them would not win him any favor. His explanation of the cons of euthanasia was on a different level. By actively taking the life of a person, especially one who is in inexorable pain, one could not know if the consent given was voluntary. A person with substantial wealth could be murdered with no legal recourse. Even assuming the absence of foul play, a mistaken diagnosis could end someone’s life needlessly.
    By the end of the debate, Aaron and Juliette had been furiously hurling facts and arguments at each other with such voracity that other students discussed the possibility of intervening. That’s just how Aaron and Juliette were, passionate and competitive. Friends since grade school, they knew exactly how to push each other’s buttons and what their next line of defense would be; they made a hell of a debate pair.
    The dream skipped around—the walk, the van, the screaming, the pain, the blood.
Aaron shot bolt upright in bed, the scream caught in his throat. His bedroom was dark, which confused him further, and then he heard the doorbell ring. The men were there . They’d never been caught, and they were there. The men that had hurt him, had killed Juliette, they were there to finish the job. The men would kill his family like they had killed Juliette. Without thinking, without stopping to consider that his attackers would hardly ring the bell, he vaulted out of bed and practically fell down the stairs. The sight at the front door stopped him in his tracks. Intellectually, on some level, he realized that it was just Allen and his date, but Allen wore his letterman’s jacket, just like Aaron had been wearing that night. His date wore a sweater and jeans, her auburn hair falling straight down around her delicate face, reminding him of Juliette.
    The flashback hit without any warning.
Juliette screaming.
Juliette begging for her mother.
Juliette begging Aaron to make them stop.
Juliette covered in blood.
The man’s breath on the back of his neck.
The knife slicing his face.
The blade cutting across his throat.
    “Mom!” Anthony screamed as Aaron fell to his knees on the living room carpet.