Martyr Syndrome
That Afternoon

Crystal returned an hour or two later, bragging about her enrollment. She said everyone at the college was checking her out, saying she looks hot, and stuff like that. I wasn't sure how much of it was true. I didn't care.

Now that the threat had returned, I needed to escape again.

Get her talking.

About what?

What else? Herself.

I don't get it.

You think darkness is your escape, but you've just traded places. She gets to be the fun, interesting student and you're stuck being the decrepit baker.

So...?

So get her to talk about how much she had to do and she'll remember that she's the old person and you're the kid.

It was worth a shot. I walked out to the reading room, and Crystal was making out with Kal. Delaney was seething. Oh-hoh-hoooh, it was GROSS.

Never mind, just grab his keys.

I crouched low and snuck behind the armchair where my grandma had ensnared her handsome attendant, like a witch who'd cast her spell on a prince. He was... maybe enjoying it? I don't think anyone could really tell at this point. Adults are weird. Nabbing the keys from his belt loop, I placed them into my pocket. As I started to move away, Crystal's sharp nails dug into the side of the chair, and snagged the black dog's fur scarf from around my neck. Kal sat up, and she looped the fur back around his neck and pulled him in for another round. With the bizarre obscenity and warm scarf behind me, I went for the front door and started trying keys. There must have been, like, twenty. I could see them around the corner, but not through the wall that separated the rooms. Just as I turned the lock, I noticed a small handbag next to the reception desk. It looked a lot like Daisy's. The truck parked on the sidewalk also looked like hers. That was odd.

Is she here?

I didn't see her anywhere. Delaney glanced at me, knowingly. She said nothing. Like she'd rather let me leave than have me ask questions. I took the working key from the ring and pocketed it, then tossed the rest at the armchair where my grandma and Kal were just finishing up. They looked around and found me, and Crystal glared at me with eyes like daggers.
"Where's my sister?" I asked.
"Who?" Crystal narrowed her eyes and bluffed in front of everyone, pretending not to know.
"Daisy. Your granddaughter. Where is she?"
"I haven't the foggiest." Crystal retorted.
"Then why is her truck and purse here?" I countered.
"Could be anyone's. Why don't you go for a walk? You seem to have got the door already."
I looked around the room. None of the others were saying anything, they were just looking down at their laps. It hit me – Crystal wasn't just jealous of me, for being in a prep school. She was jealous of our whole family. Of Becker, for having money, and of Daisy, for growing up under it. Of both of us, because Becker wasn't her daughter, and maybe even because she never had one. Who exactly was she related to, anyway? Who's mother was she? Daisy's father, or... HEY.
"What did you enroll in, Grandma? At Community College?"
"Nursing, of course. Better to take care than be taken care of."
"You ever have any kids, Crystal? How exactly are you my grandmother again?"
"I told you to go for a walk, Dryce." Crystal was stern.
"Is there a specific reason you listen to racist smog radio, or does it have something to do with the father of your child? Who is your child, exactly? Can you remind me?" I dared a glare into her eyes.
She shyed away. "I don't have a child. You're from a cousin, or- a sibling of mine. That's all. And I can listen to whatever I want."
I stepped forward. "It's funny, because Daisy said I was mixed. My father was something like Italian... and black. But my mom's all kinds of Greek and European, and you're French. So who's that black Italian?"
She said nothing, only stared at the wall beside me.
"You ever meet anyone like that, Crystal? You ever... have a baby with someone like that?"
She squinted at me, and gritted her teeth into an angry, wet-eyed grimace. "You're wrong, whatever you think. You're just wrong. Now get out of my sight."
I frowned at the corner of my mouth, but I was satisfied. I couldn't grin just yet, though. "I'm just looking for my... sunglasses." They were in my backpack.
"Why don't you check your backpack?" she responded.
"I think they're in your room. If you check for me, I'll just stay here."
Cautiously, Crystal got up, and walked to her room, flipping sheets haphazardly. I ran to the back door for the yard, and Delaney stood in my way. Kal stumbled in too, wiping his mouth.
"You can't go back there right now, kid. We're, uh... remodeling." he slurred.
"You mean like my grandma just remodeled your face?" I jabbed.
He started to look sick, and ran to the bathroom. You could hear the puking from anywhere in the building. Crystal heard it too, and tended to him as he knelt over the toilet bowl.
"There, there..." she cooed. He puked even harder.
Delaney stood firm and held me back. I looked up at her and asked, "Do you like him?"
She stammered. "Th-that's, like... none o-of your business! Okay?!"
I calmly stated, "If you do, then you should stop letting her have him."
She turned red and looked over at the bathroom. I handed her a cookie from a nearby plate of them. She bit it in half like it was alive and marched over to Crystal, and started screaming at her. I didn't have my recorder on at the time, because the battery was dead, so I can't recall what was said. Rest assured, it was a soap opera and a half.
I left through the back door and found myself back on the porch. The greenhouse had black sheets blocking the transparent walls. I ran back inside for the key ring and unlocked the greenhouse door. Inside, someone was tied to a rolling chair with a bag over their head, just like the Strings did to me. I pulled the bag off and Daisy was fast asleep sitting up. She snored loudly, and I tried to shake her back to consciousness with no luck. A bottle of sleep-inducing cold medicine had been discarded on the floor. Yeah, maybe Crystal needs those courses. I used whatever strength I had left to drag Daisy's chair out of the greenhouse and up the small ramp to the porch. The wheels were uncooperative, but I managed. The fight between Crystal and her attendants had moved to her bedroom, where Delaney was ripping down Crystal's bed canopy.

Good girl.

I rolled Daisy over to the front door, and she started to come to. She was hazy, but I helped her into her truck and put her purse on the back seat. As I got into the passenger's side, she started talking, slowly.
"Dryce, where... are we?"
"Shady Acres. We were gonna visit-"
She passed out again, and her head careened into the steering wheel. It went: HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONK. I pulled her back up by the shoulders and strapped on her seatbelt. She hung from it and snored, then woke up again.
"Are we at the retirement home?"
Not a moment later, Crystal and the two attendants ran out onto the front lawn, kicking up leaves.
"Daisy dear, it's not safe for you to drive!" Crystal screamed.
"Granda... ma?" Daisy drawled.
Delaney and Kal held her back. She thrashed against their grip.
"GOD TOLD ME... HE TOLD ME TO TELL YOU THAT IF YOU DRIVE, YOU'RE GOING TO DIE!! OKAY?! I'M JUST TRYING TO SAVE YOU!!"
Daisy shook her head and tried to get her bearings. "What the fuck is this shit-show?"
I dug my hands into the seat and tried not to shit my pants out of anxiety. Oh, this was stressful.
"GOD TALKS TO ME... HE TALKS TO ALL OF US!! HE SAYS... WE NEED TO LOVE ONE ANOTHER, OKAY?! AND WE NEED TO BE A FAMILY!! I NEED TO TAKE CARE OF YOU!!"
Crystal yelled and preached as loud as she could. This was embarrassing just to watch. Then she headbutted Delaney's chin, and Kal tackled her to the ground. Delaney's tongue was bleeding, and she went inside crying. Crystal struggled on the ground.
"I HEAR VOICES, VOICES... I HEAR GOD'S VOICE NOW!! HE SAYS... HE SAYS... he says Dryce is going to hell for being mixed, because of a mistake I made... so long ago. I can't let him end up like my son, Tanner. I can't let him drag the rest of us down from his cesspool of degeneracy and-"
Daisy glared at her, angry like I've never seen her before. She was fucked up, but she was mad about it, and a lot of other things.
Crystal pulled herself together, as if by pull-string. She spoke calmly, her voice rippling gently through the air. "Be the example you wish to set... for the Lord challenges each of us with temptations, and gives us what we think we want... but there are always strings attached. Though we may feel like we've been walking in the desert our whole lives, a false oasis must be denied, or we might drink from a mirage, and our mouths will be full of sand."
Daisy seemed to sober up, and turned her key in the ignition. She looked at Kal, and he shook his head. Sometimes, it was better to just cover your mouth and run. She drove off, me in the passenger seat.
"Do I have to live at Shady Acres now?" I asked.
"No, Drye, you don't. You're staying at Hawkins. When Crystal said you were with her instead of at school, I drove all the way here just to pick you up. Then those... idiots grabbed me and she must have dosed me with that cough syrup. It would have taken the whole bottle- urp." She belched, and held her guts. "That psycho tried to poison me."
"Same here. She made me swallow her chewing tobacco... after she chewed it." I held my gut too, in sympathy.
Daisy held my shoulder with a free hand. "I'm sorry she put you through all of that."

As we rounded the block, three police cars were driving in the opposite direction with sirens blazing. Delaney must have called them. We pulled over to the side of the road, so Daisy could catch her breath and get her bearings.
I asked, "Is Grandma going to be okay?"
Daisy shook her head and shrugged. "We tried to set her up, and she was more than a handful from start to finish. She fought with the attendants, bullied the other residents, always had to have her way or else. If they press charges, she'll have the Rock Bottom Hotel. If she's lucky, they won't. And she'll have to find herself a place. I'm not taking care of her anymore, not at the cost of my own life. She's clearly more than capable of stringing something together." She took a deep breath, and let out a sigh. "Besides, I think you're the one we should be worried about. And me, I guess. We're both fucked up from dealing with her, and I think we each need some time to recover. Don't you think?" She smiled, pained and knowing.
"Yeah," I nodded, and looked out the side window. I thought that confronting an abusive person was going to be neat and tidy, like a hero saving the day... but all that happened was a big, jumbled mess of shit, puke, drama, and old pizza. There really wasn't any way to cut down her web of control without getting some of it stuck to you, and the best we could do now is let her set it up somewhere else.

Down came the rain...