Chronicles of Jonathan Tibbs 1: The Never Hero Read Online Free PDF Page B

powerlessness were a storm in Jonathan’s thoughts, a single need made itself known. It surfaced in him like a prisoner escaping, tearing off the door to his cage, and brought with it a tranquilizing rage. One question became more important than everything happening around him.
    “How do I know you?” asked a steady voice.
    Jonathan was surprised to recognize the sound of his own anger in the question. The syringe stopped. The stranger tilted his head to look Jonathan in the eyes. In the light cast from the man’s iris, Jonathan saw the slightest curve of a smile break the man’s lip. Gone as quickly as it had come, the stranger's face became heavy again.
    “You should not,” the man replied.
    The force behind the syringe began again, and though he never stopped struggling, Jonathan felt the needle pierce his skin, the foreign liquid pump into his vein. The hands that had been taut with the effort of resistance began to feel feeble. His body went slack, his feet going limp as they hung above the floor. His vision blurred, then went black as he lost the strength to keep his lids from shutting.
    From within the darkness overtaking him he heard the stranger speak.
    “I’m sorry, Jonathan. This was never how I planned us meeting. You aren’t prepared, but you must bear this.”

CHAPTER FIVE
    SATURDAY | JUNE 18, 2005 | 05:45 AM
    THEY sat silently in the hospital waiting room. Collin, still wide eyed, stared at the plain white wall across from them. Beside him, Hayden sat with his head bobbing above his knees as he studied the blood on his shoes. He’d been stroking the hair on his lip since they’d sat down twenty minutes ago.
    Losing the staring contest with the wall, Collin returned to reality and slapped Hayden’s hand to remind him to stop fidgeting with his beard.
    “I can’t get it out of my head,” Hayden said.
    They hadn’t spoken about it, not since sitting down. Both had felt so useless in the house. They had managed to call 911, but only after a considerably long delay. The police and ambulance had shown up and taken Jonathan immediately to the hospital.
    Hayden had wrapped him in a towel. Jonathan had been a distant stammering mess before he’d gone damn near catatonic, and all they’d been able to think to do for him was put him in a towel. Collin still shivered at the look Jonathan had had in his eyes, like his friend had been trapped in some infinite loop as he desperately sought to work something out in his head, but was so traumatized he couldn’t make sense of anything. When they had tried to ask him what happened, he could hardly speak.
    “I don’t, don’t know. Hospital. Gotta take me now,” Jonathan had mumbled, without really looking at them, his eyes darting around the room like a cornered animal.
    Playing it back now, hearing Jonathan’s confused and frightened voice in his head, Collin’s skin went cold. The image, the way his roommate clutched at his chest, unable to stop shaking, to get control, Collin wanted the whole disturbing memory wiped from his mind.
    They had taken Hayden’s car and followed the ambulance to the hospital. The scene at the house had sobered them, though they likely shouldn’t have been driving. The ride was short and they had hardly spoken in the car. Their communication had been limited to the exchange of worried glances as Hayden tried to call Paige on his cell phone. She hadn’t picked up.
    “Should we try her again?” Hayden asked.
    “No, she probably won’t see her thirty missed calls till her and the Meathead wake up,” Collin said.
    “Should we call his mom or something?” Hayden said.
    Collin had thought about it for a moment and then responded “I don’t have the number, do you?”
    Some more time passed before Collin asked the question they were both thinking.
    “What the hell could have happened to him?”
    “I don’t know,” Hayden said. “There was so much blood. I didn’t think a person could lose that much blood.”
    “He