Provoke Fate

Chapter 10.

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Words: Whether written or said, hold a lot of power that we often under-estimate.

I was glancing outside my bedroom window when my door was knocked for the tenth time today.

"Come on, Ri! Please open up?" I wasn't knocking anymore; it was Maya's small fists banging the door.

"Three days Ri! Three freaking days, and you're still in your room?!"

I wasn't planning on answering her rhetorical question no matter how much I wanted to.

"It can't be that bad right? Please let me in? I brought your favorite snacks, see? Royz cakes and Honey Buns." "I'm practically begging here! Your mom is worried sick! I mean I think she is; she's not talking much either..."

"Ri. I have important news to tell you." It was Nate. A desperate Nate.

"Please don't make me sleep out here again. I'm worried." Maya said on the verge of tears.

I almost felt guilty. I looked back at the silver chain in the box that I held, and I remembered it was all a lie. My life was somewhere else. I didn't belong here.

There were some muffled voices behind the door then, "Open the fuck up Ri. I'm giving you five minutes then I'm coming in," an angrily desperate Nate.

I sighed then placed the book back in the box. I placed it in the suitcase and zipped it. I walked towards my door where the mummers were still going on. I closed my eyes, inhaled, then abruptly opened it.

May almost fell over, but Nay caught her.

With a blank look on my face I asked, "Where is Mother?"

I was answered by a huge hug from May. "You're alive! Hallelugha she lives!"

My hands were on my hips. It took a lot not to hug her back. I reminded myself that this was necessary; I had to do this; there is no other way.

With that in mind, I grabbed her arms and detached her from my stiff body. "I asked a question."

"No need to be grum-"

"She's in her room," Nay interrupted her. I looked up and found him looking at me with a bland look on his face. "Well? Are you going to stare at each other all day or - ouch!"

May pinched him. "Don't be rude, you ass! Can't you see she's still...?"

I walked back to my room and grabbed my packed suitcase. They were too busy arguing to notice I was standing in front of them agitated. "You're in my way."

"Nay, just because you confessed your love for her-"

"I did not co-"

"Yeah right! Now the bloody world doubts if you're gay or not and wh-"

"My sexuality is none of your-"

"The hell it is! I had bloody fe-"

"GET OUT OF MY WAY!"

They both went silent and looked at me surprised.

"You two can take this somewhere else or you can stay, i don't care. I'm moving out."

With that I bumped May's shoulder as I walked away. " ' Told you to get out of my way." I mumbled.

"Hold up! What is wrong with you!?"

I didn't pause at her question. I walked towards Mother's room. Just before I turned the corner I heard them arguing.

"Let go of me, Nate! I will kick you if you don't let me go this instant."

"It's okay, she's fine just let her do this alone okay?"

"Do you know som-"

I reached my mother's door and rudely opened it. "I'm leaving." I announced.

She was writing in one of those journals. Again. She delicately placed her pen on the desk and removed her glasses before standing up to face me. "Where will you stay?"

"That's the first thing you're going to ask me? You're not gonna ask me why, or forbid me to from going or-"

"I know it's not my place anymore."

"The hell it isn't! You're still my mother! And, and your supposed to protect me." My voice cracked at the end. I wanted to run to her and cry on her shoulder, but I couldn't. Everything had changed.

"I still love you. That much hasn't changed." She had lacked emotion on her face and in her voice.

"I- I don't understand what is happening Mama."

"Yes you do Kai, you just need time." With that she turned and picked up an envelope from her desk. "Take this. It's money to help you settle in. If you need more, just tell Nate. He'll help you out."

I took it and placed it in my jeans-pocket. "Nay? What does Nay got to do with this. Does he know?"

"You have to leave now Kai."

"But Ma-"

"Now."

That was it. I angrily picked up my suitcase and walked out of her room fuming. I quickly got out of the house and slammed the door behind me. I got in my car and drove to school.

I wished I had never opened that box.

I wish I had never read that letter.

I arrived and parked my car in its usual spot. My plan was to apply to be a border in the school. I switched off the engine and immediately got out. The sooner I settled in, the sooner I would settle in and think. I opened my back seat to take out my suitcase when a screeching sound from a car paused my movement.

It scared the living daylights out of me so when I looked around I didn't acknowledge much. I saw maybe four cars, all black. I heard gunshots echoing everywhere in the parking garage. I was dazed and confused, but I remember hitting the ground. Everything happened so fast. One moment it was peaceful, the next gunshots were blowing my eardrums. I looked up to see who saved me from a possible death.

"Another sticky situation in seems?"

"Oliver?"

"Hiya, Princess."

"What do we do?"

At that moment, a black sports car pulls up two feet away from my head. I didn't hear it coming because of the bullets still being shot into the air.

"Get in and stay down."

I followed his instructions: I got into the car and sat in ball on the floor of the backseat with my hands over my ears. I sat there thinking about Maya and leaving her behind. And Nate and what he has to do with Father's box. And Mother. How she didn't try to stop me.

Before I knew it, the shots stopped firing. I counted to thirty before raising slowly and only high enough to see out the window.

I don't know what I was expecting to see, but there was a lot of blood stained on the tan concrete. My car is the only car left in the garage. I see a man at the entrance of the garage. He stood there, at ease. With a black hoodie and ripped up jeans on his calm body, and a gun in his hand, he stood there looking at me. But he wasn't looking at me. He was looking at Oliver. He stood in front of the passenger door, blood on his face and hands.

I gasp at the sight. The man across the way slowly lifted his arm and yelled something. I couldn't understand because of my lack of hearing due to loud gunshots.

Oliver didn't say anything in return. He just lifts his arms above his head.

This was a new nightmare I would soon experience night after night. It was another nightmare that I wouldn't explain to Maya, a nightmare that will keep repeating in my mind until I know he's okay.

The man pulled the trigger, and the bullet pierced its way through Oliver's stomach.

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