Caustic Read Online Free PDF Page B

read the first line, and found that I was chilled to the bone.
    I want my sister dead. She did this to me. It’s all her fault.
    I quickly turned the page, as if the poison would leak off of it, and into my system, killing me right on the spot. On the next page, I found journal entries about what she had been eating, and if she had been taking her meds or not, and then I saw name, a guy’s name. Ellis Waters.
    She had a written his name everywhere. Clearly, it was someone who was important to her. As I skimmed through the pages, I found more and more entries with his name. Talking about what they discussed in group, having lunch together out in the grass one day, and how every night she thought about him before she went to sleep. If Leia was an addict, Ellis was her new drug.
    I found one entry to be particularly enlightening.
    Ellis had to talk at group today. But I could tell he didn’t want to. He was fiddling with the scars on the outside of his arms, the ones his father gave him. Before he disappeared. Sometimes, I wonder if Ellis killed him, for hurting him and his mom. But the next guy she found, well, he wasn’t very good, either. He would beat Ellis’s mom mercifully. He told me once he considered killing him, just to get him to stop. But he wasn’t fast enough.
    Today, he told us about how his mom’s boyfriend killed her, right in front of him. How she forced Ellis into the closet, and shut the door, but he could see through the slats. How she tried to fight against him, but it didn’t matter. He beat her until she stopped moving, and, then, when she asked for help, he broke her neck. Just took her face in his hands and SNAP. Ellis couldn’t even sit down while he told the story. He paced the entire time, scratching his arms like the secrets were just pouring out of his skin. By the time the therapist made him sit back down, his old wounds had opened up. I saw the blood and skin underneath his fingernails as he scratched incessantly. She called for a nurse to come clean and bandage him up, but they took him to the infirmary for the rest of the day instead. I asked my group counselor, Oliver, if I could go see him, but he said that he wasn’t taking any visitors. I wasn’t surprised. I wouldn’t want anyone to see me like that either.
    I should tell Ellis how I feel about him. How I know that we’re both not crazy, that we’re both here by mistake. I’m going to tell him soon. And, then, I’m getting the hell out of here, and taking him with me.
     
    There were plenty of entries after that, talking about how she and Ellis were making plans for after they were eighteen, and they could check themselves out. But, it seemed like Ellis was a little bit older than Leia, and when he turned eighteen, he left her. She still had six more months before she could check herself out, but I knew that she stayed in additional year and a half. I guessed that they had stopped talking. But this was the only journal of hers I had, and he was the only person that she mentioned multiple times. So, Ellis had to be important. He was the next step on the path to finding her.
    I pulled out my cell phone and started looking for him on Google. Thank God for technology. It only took me about five minutes to find that he was the head cook at a restaurant about two hours from here. I was already far enough away from home. Another two hours north would guarantee that I wouldn’t be going home tonight. I quickly texted my mom to explain the situation, and told her that I would find a hotel. Luckily, I had packed a bag just in case this happened. I couldn’t be sure how much information I would get.
    I shoved all Leia’s belongings back to the cardboard box except the journal. I got out of the car and slid back into the front seat, putting the journal of the passenger seat, a constant reminder of where I was going, and why. Now, if I only knew what I would find when I would get there. Then, I would have something to prepare for,