Lost & Found

Twelve

Antonio swallows thickly but pushes it away. He places his hands against his hips and knits his eyebrows close into a frown. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

Dustin takes a small, hesitant step forward. "Don't play dumb with me, you were the one who did it, it wasn't one of my friends."

"That's not true, I can't believe you would assume something as ridiculous as that." Antonio sighs, rolling his eyes a little to avoid eye contact.

Dustin points to the man in front of him. "You were driving and dad was sat beside you. He told you to do it, he told you to crash the car and you did," he replies, taking another step around the bed closer to Antonio, "You tried to kill me because of what? Why did you crash the car?"

"I didn't want to do it! He told me to, he had been threatening me for weeks, I didn't want to do any of this." Antonio replies before slumping forward and exhaling loudly.

A silent moment weighs down on the room as Dustin blinks a few times as Antonio's words settle into his mind. He stares at his brother as he looks down to his feet briefly before looking around the room. When Dustin breaks the tense silence that enveloped the room, Antonio brings his attention back up, looking sadly to the smaller man.

"Any of what?" Dustin asks with his eyebrows together.

Antonio points around the room. "This. The playing along with his games, it's killing me, all of this is killing me."

There's a brief pause as Dustin folds his arms over his chest. "Have you been lying to me?" He questions, his voice significantly lower than before.

The taller man swallows the lump in his throat down, avoiding eye contact for a moment before he looks Dustin in the eyes and nods slowly. "Yeah, I'm not your brother," he replies before gazing to the side at the door before back to the shorter man in front of him, "And he's not your dad."

"Why?" Dustin asks, his face scrunching up in confusion, "Why did you do any of this?"

Before he can reply back, Curtis' voice can be heard belting from downstairs again. "Antonio, now!" He shouts before the sound of his footsteps can be heard walking out of the living room and into the kitchen again.

Antonio sighs and looks to his feet.

"What does he want?" Dustin questions, looking at the door and bringing the man's attention back up from the floor.

There's a quiet pause before Antonio speaks up. "He wants you." He replies blatantly.

Dustin just furrows his eyebrows together and Antonio takes it as that he wants to know more so he continues.

"He wants to kill you." Antonio clears up.

"In like the metaphorical sense?" Dustin asks.

The taller man shakes his head. "No, in the sense of if you go down there, you're gonna die."

"Why?" Dustin wonders, the question just rolling off his tongue at this point.

Antonio just shrugs. "Because the guy didn't do it in New York."

Dustin turns his back and walks over to the other side of the room before putting his hands through his hair as he turns back to face the door. "I don't get it though, it just doesn't make sense."

"Get out." Antonio quickly says, staring at the slightly shorter man blankly.

With furrowed eyebrows, Dustin looks back up. "What?" He asks, his voice sharp and confused.

Antonio repeats himself. "Get out," he says, gaining an odd look from Dustin, "Go back to New York before he comes up here instead."

Dustin swallows and steps back toward the man inside the bedroom with him. "Why would I do that?"

"Because if you don't, he will come up here and kill you, simple as," Antonio replies, his face straighter than he had ever seen it before, "Get out and go back to New York, live your life there like this whole thing never happened."

"Why are you helping me?" Dustin questions.

Antonio shrugs subtly. "I'm setting things right, as right as they can be anyway. You go and he can kill me instead."

There's a pause. "I can't let you do that."

"Well, what do I have to live for anymore anyway? But no matter what's gonna happen, you need to leave this house right now and run, get a cab, take the car, do whatever but you can't stop moving until you get to New York and if you don't leave within the next minute, I'm shoving you out that window myself. Now go."