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Twenty-Nine | The Day I Ran Away

SOTC: Dust It Off by The DØ

"CALIX AND ADA, GRAB THE FIRST AID!" Polly shouted, cradling Basil's limp head as her left had shoved a white towel growing red by the second up his unrecognizable nasal cavity and swelling eyes. "Damen, get Eros and Felipe away!"

Felipe wailed out incoherently, crouching in on himself. Eros screamed at the top of his lungs like the world exploded as Damen ripped him from the table and dragged him and Felipe down the left hallway.

"Calix— Calix talk to me, where did we put the kit last time?" Ada's eyes were wider than a doe's.

"I don't fucking know," Calix whispered.

BANG!

Achilles cracked the air with the sound as he stumbled through the door, exuding a dog's breath as he grasped his shaking hands and knees.

"WHERE THE BLOODY HELL IS HE?" Polly screeched.

"H-He.. took.. off.. in... the— car," Achilles wheezed, clasping his stomach. "I— could- couldn't catch him.. in— time."

"WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR ZA WEDDING?" Maria screeched.

"SHUT UP, DICK SUCKING STILT LEGS!" Ada shrieked from the closet as Calix catapulted stuff out of it.

"I'm..go..na.. k-hill.."

Basil's eyes fluttered open as he groaned those mumbles out, rolling his head sideways.

Polly clasped his face. "Basil, Basil it's your mother, talk to—"

"BLAHUAGH!"

Projectile vomit spewed all over the floor from his mouth in a putrid red color, the inking solution searing into the cracks of the floor like poison.

"CLARA, CALL THE HOSPITAL!"

But even before Polly's cry, I unfroze from my daze and erratically flipped through a phone book, swearing under my breath as I deciphered the Greek letters and words Dad taught me in 2017.

"WHERE THE FUCK IS IT?" Ada screeched at Calix as he slammed another shoe into the wall from the closet.

Calix popped out of the closet, barring his teeth. "I DON'T FUCKING KNOW, ADA!"

"Okay, okay, okay," I whispered as I dialed the number on the cord phone next to it.

"This is the Dionysus Crisis, may I hel—" The woman sounded British.

"I'm calling from the Christakos beach house, one of the family members was attacked! We need hel—"

"We've tracked your location and we're sending a team with the best equipment right now. You're going to stay on the line with me and answer questions. One second." I could make out the lady yelling, "We've got a medical situation from a government member, HIGHEST CODE!"

"Miss, what's the highest code?"

"It's an attack on any member in House Agate, Josephine, or Christakos, and a very high treason crime," the woman explained swiftly. "What is your name?"

"Clara Stratton."

"What is your relation to the family, Clara?"

My words projected out at the speed of Eminem. "I'm the right hand of Xerxes Christakos for the Russian deal."

"Who is the victim?"

"Basil Christakos, ma'am!"

"Clara Stratton, what are Basil Christakos's injuries?"

"His nose doesn't look like his nose anymore and he's puking and there's blood mixed in it!" My explanation sputtered out faster than motorcycle exhaust— or Achilles shouted for the Gods as Basil retched another bloodbath than three seconds prior.

"You said he was attacked. Can you identify the attacker?" the woman asked.

"I— I don't know," I got out after an unintended pause.

"Then we will question the victim upon their physical stability. I have gotten word that medical help has arrived."

"THEY'RE HERE!"

Not a second later, Polly screamed it as a mob of what looked like EMTs shouted medical terms I didn't understand and swarmed Polly and the boy whose orbs now convulsed to the back of his skull.

"Goodbye, Cla—" the woman started but I already slammed the phone back in its place.

"EVERYONE OUT OF THE KITCHEN!"

Calix, Ada, Achilles, and I dropped whatever we were doing and ran out of the kitchen upon more EMTs shooing us in exclamation. All of us split up like chickens with our heads cut off. My feet carried me up stairs I didn't recognize until I swung the door open to a bathroom and locked myself in.

I slammed my back against the door, hyperventilating as I gripped my face and slid to the floor. Cries escaping from my lungs muffled themselves. Stabs of agony shot into me in the rapid energy of bullets. It was everything toppled into the other in a suffocating torte of self-destruction.

It reminded me of the day I ran away.

In these next three chapters of flashbacks, the truth you've all been waiting for comes out.

You'll finally find out what happened to Dad... and Mom.