Forever

Ian

    I couldn’t keep myself still after Roman’s call. My mind was swirling, wondering what the hell had happened with him and Kenzie. Something wasn’t right. I could feel it, a horrible gut feeling that things were going to get bad, thrashing all throughout me. The feeling was all too familiar even if I had only felt something similar to this once before. I glanced over to the shattered frames on the walls and the ones I had managed not to destroy and just flipped over. 

    The last time I had this feeling had been the day my mother left. It will be three months since then in just a couple of days. 

    Something bad had to be happening to them, I can feel it. It was nearly one in the morning, what the hell had they gotten themselves into now? 

    Roman was somewhat of a troublemaker but then again all of us were, most of the time excluding Kenzie. The only time she would be getting in trouble is if she were with one of us and we were doing something that would get us in trouble. Or when she trespassed into any of the new construction properties. Not for any particular reason, the girl was just weird and like to check up on the progress of whatever they were building. But it was still enough to get her into trouble sometimes, though she played the innocent card and everyone fell for it. 

    Roman’s trouble was mostly at home. Nearly every time he was in trouble it always went back to his father. Either his father was beating his mother to a bloody pulp once again and he had gone to intervene, only to have his mother turn on him. Or his father had started in on him once again and he was doing everything he could so he wouldn’t kill him. Most of the time he went to the park and got drunk off his ass and was a public nuisance until the cops were called. Or if he was really angry, he’d go to a car park and took out his anger on some innocent people’s cars. Smashing them to bits and pieces was his way of letting off steam.

    It was either take a bat to those cars or take a bat to his father’s head. And the last thing I want is for one of my best friends to go to jail, at least for murder. Vandalism, I could handle. Besides between him and Turk, Blake and I had busted them out of jail more than enough times, for vandalism. Or in Turk’s case, possession and fighting. 

    Still, nothing was adding up. Roman, for once had dropped that cocky tone he always seemed to have when he talked and sounded legitimately worried. It was rare that he let his guard down for anything. Even in the worst of situations he managed to keep his guard up and be a cocky bastard about everything. That was how he coped, by pretending nothing could hurt him. It wasn’t exactly healthy but who the hell am I to judge him on the way he deals with his s**t?

    I’m not exactly a good influence. Hell none of us are. Not that we ever claimed to be anything but what we are, we’re not saints, but we aren’t devils either. We’re just human. Some of us a little more jaded than the others, but human nonetheless. Not even Kenzie could claim the saint title, though she was the closest any of us would ever get to it. 

    What the hell is taking them so long? 

    Only a few minutes had passed since Rome and I had spoken but I could already feel the anxiety building up. A sense of dread kept bubbling up in my chest. No matter how much I tried to push it down it just kept coming right up. Nothing I did was getting rid of it, it only seemed to be enhancing it more and more. 

    At some point I just couldn’t stay seated anymore. I found myself pacing all throughout the living room. Maybe I should’ve cleaned up a bit? I quickly picked up the few t-shirts I had dumped onto the couch from the past few days. Then went on to clear up all the empty water bottles, beer and soda cans, and empty wrappers of all kinds from the coffee table. It was better than before though still not the exceptional cleanliness that we expected from Carter. But he was borderline OCD, the guy couldn’t really help it. 

    After an eternity, but in reality only was only about seven or eight minutes, there was a knock on my door. I nearly tripped over one of the game controllers on the floor. f*****g Eric, always leaving my s**t everywhere. 

    My heart stopped in my chest when I tugged the door open. There were Rome and Kenzie, paler than I had ever seen either of them, gripping onto each other. Kenzie was looking around all paranoid, not that I could blame her, she looked like something out of a horror movie. And Rome, well he just looked scared out of his mind. The only time I had ever seen him look like that was when his dad beat on him the first time. That was a rough day, for everybody. 

    I was speechless. As much as I wanted to say something, no words were coming out. Instead I just shoved both of them inside, making sure there was no one watching before slamming the door shut and locking every lock I possibly could. If the blinds hadn’t been shut, I would have been obsessively closing those too.

    Kenzie and Rome just stood there and stared at me still anxiously holding hands. 

    I took in a deep breath. “Anyone want to explain what the f**k is going on?”

    I looked at horror story Kenzie. “Why the hell are you covered in blood? Are you hurt?” 

    What if it was her blood? That thought was a lot more frightening. I quickly grabbed her, turning her around and looking her over for injuries. None that I can see. 

    An even more frightening thought wormed its way into my head. What if it’s not her blood? That was somehow even worse than her being hurt. 

    “I’m okay, Ian.” Kenzie sighed, pulling away from me. 

    We were lucky that Rome, of all people, was at least somewhat level headed in the moment. He turned Kenzie over towards the stairs. 

    “Kenz, why don’t you go wash up. I’ll catch Ian up on everything.” He said. 

    Kenzie just nodded and headed upstairs. This wasn’t unusual, all of them had stored clothes for themselves here or at Carter’s house. As the oldest we kind of felt it was our responsibility to watch over everyone else. So our houses were always sanctuary for everyone who needed it. Even before my mother had just callously left this place had been filled with my friends. Now it was nearly always empty and I tried my hardest not to ever be left alone in here. Though it didn’t always work out that way.

        Once Kenzie was out of sight, Rome turned on me instantly. He ran to me and instantly gripped me into a hug. “It’s bad, Ian, really bad.” He was shaking.

    “Rome, come on, you need to tell me what the hell happened.” I said trying my very best to control myself.

    Rome took a step back, collapsing onto the couch. “I got a call from Kenzie not too long ago.” He began. “She said that she needed my help, she called me Roman.” s**t, that was bad. Kenzie was the one who got everyone else to call him Rome, she never called him by his full name. Ever. 

    “I got to the shop and there was blood everywhere. Diana, you know the chick that works with her, she was dead in a corner. Her neck was all black and I swear she was almost blue.” What in the hell? 

    “And then there was some guy lying there, dead, in a pool of his blood.” He sighed running a hand through his hair like he usually did when he had too much going on. It was one of his frustration quirks. 

    “Who was he?” I somehow managed to ask.

    Rome shrugged again. “I don’t know, some stranger probably just came in for a hair cut or something.”

    I sprang up from the chair I had plopped onto. “Then how the f**k did those two end up dead?” Rome was quick to shush me, simply pointing upstairs. Right, Kenz. 

    “How did they end up dead?” I had managed to whisper that, lowering myself back onto the seat. 

    “Kenzie said he was attacking Diana and wouldn’t stop so she stabbed him with a pair of scissor.” Rome spat out. I could feel my blood turning to ice in my veins.

    “Kenzie, killed the guy?” My mouth felt drier than should be humanly possible. There was no way in hell this was happening. Any of us killing someone sure, but not Kenzie. She was the good one. She was the one who was supposed to be above all the stupid s**t we did. She was the one getting us out of trouble whenever we managed to screw something up. She wasn’t supposed to be the one in trouble.

    “Of course not!” Rome growled, glaring at me like he was ready to start swinging. Knowing him if we hadn’t been friends he probably would have swung on me. 

    “This is Kenzie we’re talking about here, Ian.” He glared at me. “Do you really think she’s capable of killing someone?” 

    I shrugged. Honestly, I really didn’t know what to think. She was covered in blood, Rome had found two dead bodies, and Kenzie herself had admitted that she had stabbed the guy with scissors. What the hell was I supposed to think? Not to mention that guy was attacking her coworker. Maybe she felt the need to protect her. Or even just protect herself? Maybe it was just a survival instinct on her part? She was probably afraid that the guy would turn on her and try to kill her next.

    The look on Rome’s face told me I better keep my thoughts to myself. “What happened then? And how did those two end up dead?”

    He shrugged again. “Kenzie says he had killed Diana then turned on her. He was about to kill her when apparently she closed her eyes when she opened them again the guy was dead on the floor.” My face must have looked some type of way because he was back to glaring at me.

    “I know it sounds crazy, Ian. But this is Kenzie we’re talking about!” He stood and began pacing in front of the coffee table. “She would never lie to us.”

    I sighed. He was right. Kenzie would never lie to any one of us. Anyone else, but not us. Most of the time she was lying to get us out of whatever problem we had managed to worm our way into. But no matter how hard I tried I couldn’t recall a time where Kenzie had ever lied to us. 

    “You’re right.” This was one hell of a hard pill to swallow. “But that still doesn’t explain how that guy ended up dead.”

    Roman scoffed the sound nearly animal in nature. “The bastards lucky that he was dead before I got there. If he wasn’t I would’ve killed him myself.” 

    I didn’t doubt him. “You would’ve had to share him, we all care about Kenzie. We all would have wanted a piece of him.” 

    Roman snorted but that cocky smirk he always had on his face was finally back. Good, at least we were getting somewhat back to normal. If Roman was threatening to kill someone then things were getting better, as morbid and inappropriate as it was given the situation. 

    “The only question is what the hell do we do now?” He asked and for once I didn’t know what to tell him. “Cops are going to be after her soon. Before we left someone came in and they screamed and ran out. It’s only a matter of time.”

    s**t! “And as soon as they realize Kenzie works there, her innocence won’t really matter anymore.”

    That was the downside of being friends with us. We got into so much trouble we had sort of built a reputation for ourselves. The only ones who never really got into trouble were Carter, Blake, and Kenzie. They only got into trouble because they were associated with us. And because they were associated with us a lot of other people judged them based only on that fact. Most of the time it wasn’t really a problem, but right now, it was a major problem. 

    Roman just stared back at me gravely. We needed to leave. We needed to get out of the city as fast as possible without causing too much of a fuss. And we all needed to go. The cops around here wanted nothing more than to get their hands on us most of the time. A suspicious murder was like the cat getting the cream for them. They would find a way to pin it on all of us. 

    Its safe to say we weren’t really popular with our local police force. Ever since we went on a bender and set two cop cars on fire we haven’t exactly been their favorite people. Plus our own personal run ins with the boys in blue. Turk and Roman were usually the first suspects though. James, Eric, and I weren’t too far behind them however. We were just as bad as they were, we were just a lot less vocal about it. 

    But now we needed to run, as fast as possible and as far as we could get. Any time we wasted here in the city could be a death sentence to any one of us.

    “Call everyone!” I barked out. I stood rushing over to the spare room that was once my mothers. “We need to get out of the city now.” 

    “Out of the city?” Roman questioned in disbelief. I can’t blame him for the lack of faith. 

    No matter how much s**t we talked about leaving the city or how much we wanted to leave, we never did. We talked a big game about actually leaving, but when it came down to it we always chickened out at the last minute. 

    “You really want to wait around for them to come after us?” I couldn’t mask the condescending sarcasm dripping from that statement. 

    Rome as usual took it in stride, ignoring the tone and focusing more on what I had actually said.

    “You really think they would come after us?” He sounded defensive. He would be, out of all us Rome was the one with the most...dislike for the cops. Actually, he and Turk would probably be tied for that spot. 

    I nodded, stopping just outside the door to my mother’s former room. “Once they figure out that Kenzie works there they’ll be on us faster than we’ll be able to blink. Regardless of what we think, they’re not stupid, it’ll take them about half a second to link all of us back to whatever the hell it is that happened at the shop.”

    Rome groaned, running his hand through his hair once again. “And then they’ll be out for blood. Shit.” 

    I pointed at him as I walked back into the room. “Call everyone tell them to get their stuff together, we’re leaving in less than an hour.”

    I barged into the room, not sparing Rome or any of the things in that room that would remind me of my mother. That was another can of worms I did not need to be opening up at this moment. There were a few suitcases she had left when she up and disappeared. She left a bunch of her s**t behind actually. She was probably in too much of a hurry running away to grab all of it. 

    I shook myself off that runaway train. Now was the not the time for me to be straying into those thoughts. I pulled out three suitcases mechanically moving back out to the living room and avoiding even a glance at my surroundings. The door slammed harder than I had meant for it but at least I was out of there. It was a hell of a lot harder to ignore the thundering in my chest though. 

    Rome was still on the phone as I dropped the suitcases on top of the coffee table. I gestured to him and he nodded instantly. It was funny how talked so much about leaving that we had actually planned it out, in a manner of speaking.

    We always talked about where we would go, how we would get there, if we had to keep a low profile or not. Erik, ever the master planner, had come up with several different plans. Exactly what the plans were no one but him actually knew. They were usually too elaborate and none of us had the attention span to put up with a three hour spiel of what hair color would suit us best should we need to get new identities. He was brilliant just didn’t know how to get to the point fast enough not to bore people. 

    As I passed by the window a quick flash of vibrant blue color but the second I turned back around to it, there was nothing there. I scoffed. As if this night couldn’t possibly get any weirder than it already was. Still I made my way upstairs, ready to grab some of my clothes and probably Rome’s if he hadn’t finished warning everyone. And check on Kenzie. Poor thing was probably a mess with everything going on.

    I found her in easily enough standing in the middle of the spare room everyone kept their stuff in. She was dressed in clean clothes the bloody shorts and shirt she had worn were balled up in her hands as she stared blankly down at them.

    “Kenz?” I could feel myself hesitating at the thought of disturbing her. But I’m sure the last thing she needed right now was to be in her head. 

    Her head instantly snapped up and her shoulder tensed up. Yeah, she was definitely a little more than shaken up. But she tried to smile, only it was the farthest thing from a smile that I had ever seen.

    “You okay?” It could’ve punched myself in the face for asking that out of all things. 

    She shook her head, her wet hair sticking to her cheeks at the movement. “No.” She whispered, glancing back down at the bloody clothes she held. “I will be, just not right now.” 

    It was the sanest thing I have heard all week. I nodded before walking over and giving her a quick hug. She probably wouldn’t have appreciated prolonged touching after what she had been through that night. 

    “We’re leaving in less than an hour, getting out of the city. Rome is calling all the guys they should be getting here soon.” I told her. But she made no movement or motion of acknowledgement. “There’s a suitcase downstairs, pack some clothes, we should be leaving in about an hour. Make sure you pack those too. We’ll burn them once we get farther away from the city.” 

    She simply nodded bleakly before going over and beginning to pull out her clothes. I just left her to it, this was probably the best we were going to be getting from her for a while. But as I was walking a horrifying feeling began to build in my chest. Flashes of fire and red walls as winged shadows danced all around began to creep into my mind. My heart began to race, whatever the hell was happening now, it was going to come back for us. 

    “We’re all going to burn.” I whispered to myself before heading into my room and beginning to prepare my bags.