Love Like A Delinquent (Remake)

{ Chapter 21 }

[ K a t ]

It had been an accident. Neither of us where supposed to find out. But when you put two teenagers in a shitty hotel and tell them not to turn the tv on, they don't listen. When we arrived at the motel, we were told that we were going to stay the rest of the night until we had to go to the nearby airport. We were going back home, whether that was a safe idea, I didn't know. But anyway, we were going home andz there were a few rules that we had run by us.

Number one, no phones. We weren't aloud to phone, text, whatever of the sort. Number two, we were never to be alone, particularly Hunter and that was understandably the only rule that we were okay with it. Number three, no media. We weren't aloud to watch tv, use our phones to acces the news, nothing. 

So that's exactly what we did.

Chris was talking on the phone to the Police or some other authority about our safety, Lisa was freshening up in the bathroom and me and Hunter were sat on the couch staring at the blank tv. So, of course we turned it on.

Now I understood why we weren't supposed to do so. Because as soon as the news came on, there he was. John Storm. We all knew what that man, monster, was capable of. Rape, abuse, murder, neglect. But now something inside of him had seriously snapped and he was going out of his mind to get his son back.

3 dead. 

They were a family, living not too far away from our appartment in Virginia. A happily married couple and their teenage son, all hit with a bullet in the head before their house was set on fire. 

If that wasn't sickening enough, it wasn't even John that had done it. It was Harry Scott, an 18 year old nobody. He was homeless, didn't have anything going for himself and he did this; shot and killed 3 people for John. 

We saw his statement on the news, saying how John had found him years ago, desperate and in need of somewhere to hide. John found comfort in him, I guess. He' just lost his son and wanted someone to fill that hole, so that's what Harry did. He was manipulated into John's state of mind, saw John as his hero, his dad even. So almost 4 years on, when John asked Harry to do one last favour for him, he did.

At first I didn't understand. I mean, if someone tells you to go and kill 3 people, you say no. Then Hunter told me just how convincing and manipulative John could be. I guess it made sense though, he converted his own wife to neglect her child. And I assumed that Harry had multiple problems anyway, and John took advantage of that.

When arrested, Harry only had one thing to say. That he did this for John, that John wanted him to kill a family with one son because it was just like what he had tried to do all those years ago. To say that Hunter wasn't safe, that his Dad was finally coming to take him home.

And of course, having to take all of that in, in less than 3 minutes, was completely overwhelming for the both of us. At first we just sat there, not knowing what the fuck to say. And then it happened. 

Hunter stood up, walked silently over to the tv, picked it up into his hands, and smashed it against the wall. In a split second Chris was running through, dropping the phone and looking at a pale faced Hunter. He didn't look like himself. I didn't even feel like myself. It was so surreal.

"You know, don't you?" Chris had said, low in his voice. He didn't need a verbal answer before Hunter was lowering himself to his knees, lip quivering and legs shaking. He pressed his back against the wall and pulled his legs up to his chest, his face hitting his knees as he let out the terrified whimper that broke my heart.

I don't know how long we sat there at his side, giving him gentle touches here and there and giving endless lines of "it's going to be ok. You're fine. We're not gonna let him hurt you."