𝐂𝐑𝐔𝐄𝐋 𝐒𝐔𝐌𝐌𝐄𝐑 - kiara carrera¹

𝒍. 𝒈𝒊𝒓𝒍 𝒈𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒎𝒂𝒅

"Yeah, he pointed a gun at us!" she went on, taking her hands off Kie and running a hand through her hair, looking in between all of her shaken friends. "Now, we're gonna make that fucker pay!"

"Hold on. You're not actually going to kill his family, are you?" Sarah quickly double-checked.

Tatum shrugged. "I might," she admitted without thinking. Everyone looked at her like she was mental. "But not while you guys are there - y'all couldn't survive prison for being accomplices to muder."

Pope rolled his eyes at the girl, his little facial expression gaining Thomas' full attention. "What's the plan, then?"

𑁍𑁍𑁍

"I'M GOING BACK ON ANY PROMISES I MADE ABOUT NOT KILLING HIS FAMILY."

Tatum nipped her arm, feeling fidgety when she realised Barry had stolen all her weapons. He'd stolen the gold, too, but that wasn't her priority right now. She needed those things. Most kids have stuffed animals or blankets they were attached to - Tatum Quinn had her weapons. Without them, she was a twitchy, anxious...Pope. Without them, she had more anxiety and awkwardness than Pope fucking Heyward.

Her left leg bounding up and down on the floor of the van, John B sighed. "Tate, you're not actually going to kill his family."

"Watch me," she snapped, excessively playing with her hair. "I'll grab his little sister, gut the little bitch, cook her into pasta and serve it to the scumbag for dinner."

In the space of minutes, that girl had gone mad. Everybody in the van had witnessed Tatum's sudden and impulsive mania before. Sarah and the fire, the others when she almost killed Rafe, Thomas his whole life. Over the smallest and most random things, she would lose her head and run on nothing but get her darkest thoughts. She needed help. Soon.

Worried for her girlfriend's health, Kiara placed a hand on Tatum's thigh, causing the left one to stop bouncing and the right one to start.

Before anyone had a chance to stop her, she jumped out of the van and made her way to Barry's small trailer she spent a lot of her childhood in. Whenever their dad was at work and Leroy babysat the twins, he'd take them to the drug trailer and do a few lines, then leave them there with no food for the rest of the day and night. He was a good babysitter, though - Tatum couldn't lie - he was the first person to introduce the girl into the amazing world of weed at seven years old. And she hadn't left it since.

She knew exactly where Barry stashed his dirty money - the duffelbag at the top of his wardrobe. Ignoring the footsteps that landed in the hallway, she slung the whole bag around her shoulder.

"Tate, you need to calm down and think for a moment," Kiara told the girl calmly, resting her hands on her shoulders.

Tatum began to shake her head. "No, no - I need to...I need to take it."

"Tatum -"

She continued to mindlessly shake her head and went back outside. Kiara watched her go with a frown; she didn't know how to help, and it broke her heart to see her girl go this way.

"Tate, what the fuck?!" shouted Thomas as his sister shoved past everyone. When she tried walking away, he pulled her back. "What the fuck are you doing, Tate?"

She blinked a few times, her eyes wide but tired. Like she was possessed. A little drunk, too. "I'm taking...Taking the money for me and you. Because that bitch took everything. And then...Then, I'm gonna come back and shoot his little sister dead."

"You're crazy!" screamed Sarah in panic, because she was the only one to truly recognise the girl standing in front of them. Because she was the only one to have a reason to fear her. This girl wasn't Tatum, the giggly, upeat person who would do anything for her friends. This girl was a Quinn, the same person that stuck a gun in her face and burned her house on fire with a cunning smirk on her lips. This girl had lost her mind.

"Don't call her that!" Kiara shouted at her best friend, running out of the trailer and staring at her girlfriend in desperation.

"You know what happens when you rob a drug dealer, right?" asked John B softly, calmly approaching the girl.

"I'll kill his sister," she repeated again with a nod. In this moment, there was a concert full of people in her head, all screaming and shouting over the top of each other, and she couldn't deal with it anymore. She grabbed the back of her scalp and tore open the stitches Kiara had sewed in only last night.

"Tatum, what the hell?!" hissed Pope as blood ran down her body.

JJ Maybank was speechless. Actually speechless.

Thomas dragged a hand over his mouth. He shook his head at their worried friends. "I'll take her home," he assured them, after having dealt with her outbursts for years now. "When she gets like this, she needs some strong pain meds to sleep it off."

He wrapped his arms over his sister's shoulders, who was now screaming and pounding at her own temples.

"I think there's something wrong with her," whispered Sarah, earning a glare from Kiara. She raised her hands in defence. "I don't mean it nasty. I just mean - well, look at her." She threw her arms out at the girl, who was walking away, a trail of blood following after her. Thomas was basically carrying her at this point.

"She should use that money for therapy," joked JJ, trying not to get emotional about it all. It hurt him to see her this way, because he knew it wasn't her. Not really.