Kevin Died

36. The Final Stance

36. The Final Stance

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The tension lingered in the air as I watched Travis marveling at Luke's body.

Kyle began roaring with laughter, despite the fact that he looked like shit from our fight. "Surprise, motherfucker!"

"What the hell is this?!" I asked.

Travis looked at me. "This? It's exactly what it looks like."

I shot a glance at look who was not moving. I feared the worse.

"You're in on this."

"Duh."

Sayora held tightly onto my arm. The situation had just gone from bad to worse and I had no idea what to do now.

"I imagine you have even more questions," Travis said, "but trust me, you already know the answers to them."

I said nothing at this notion, because nothing I could formulate in my mind at the moment made sense.

"I'll help you," Travis continued. "Remember that day at lunch? That same night we had gone to the church? You and I had a conversation, regarding our parental situations. Do you recall what it was that I said about my mother?"

"That the one time you'd met her she wasn't happy to see you," I said. "So?"

"So," Travis continued, calm and almost relaxed, "who exactly do you think my mother is?"

"You're not saying..."

Travis scoffed. "I don't think of Mariana as much of a mother these days. The bitch will get what's coming to her."

"But Kyle said he lied about there being another kid--"

"Kyle's a liar," Travis said. "This has been nothing but a web of lies in our little game. Plus we couldn't have you demanding who the other child was. I wanted to reveal that myself. Just so I could see the look on your face."

"So it's you," I said, coming to terms with it. "Raymond's your father and the story Kyle told me about Mom and Dad separating for a year was true."

"Isn't it a compelling story we've all created together?" Travis said. "I go to your school. I hang out with you. I become your friend. And all the while you were clueless as to who I was."

"Raymond was in on this the entire time," I said.

"Not entirely, we can't give my dad too much credit," Travis said. "The house that Kyle attacked us in was my dad's. He had this grand plan of moving here without all of you knowing and slowly convincing Mariana to let me be apart of her life. After that night, he knew that you and I knew each other, and I had to reassure him that I hadn't told you anything regarding the family, and fabricate as if it were truly a random break in and not part of the plan Kyle and I had. He wanted to tell you and your father everything, too. A noble man, my father is."

"And you couldn't be happy with that?" I asked. "You'd rather kill and torture people?"

"By that point, I had long decided that I hated Mariana and wanted her dead. I couldn't have cared less to have a mother figure. Though, Shawna would be a nice addition to the family. Dad seems to like her a lot."

"Don't tell me she's in on this, too," I said.

"No way. Can't risk too many people being involved. She's clueless."

"This took a lot of planning," Kyle added. "Two whole years in fact. We had almost everything calculated precisely."

"Two years of holding a grudge," Sayora said. "Must be tiring holding on to so much hate."