!!ᵉˣᶜᵘˢᵉ ᵃⁿʸ ᵐⁱˢᵗᵃᵏᵉˢ ᵇᵒᵒᵏⁱᵉ!!
𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐧𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭...
——
kayden laid awake, staring at the ceiling as he listened to yamari's soft snores. He felt the same feeling in his stomach that he did the last time he was here. sighing, kayden slowly got out of bed, being careful enough to not wake yamari up.
he quietly made his way downstairs to the kitchen, turning the light on and going to the fridge to get him something to drink. as he grabbed his water bottle he heard footsteps entering the kitchen too.
"you know, i tried everything to get you away from my child. nothing seems to be working, which is crazy, right?" mrs. jackson spoke as kayden slowly closed the fridge.
he really didn't feel like dealing with the older woman. she for some odd reason made him feel very uncomfortable all of a sudden.
"uhm.. i'm finna go back upst—" kayden mumbled, watching as ms jackson opened the door. he furrowed his eyebrows as he watched someone, maybe even the only person who'd ever put fear in his heart besides his mother. it was kj's father.
"yo, y'all onnat freaky shit. watch out." kayden said as he was about to walk past him. before he could even take a step, kj's father pulled out a gun.
"make a sound or move and yo' ass is grass." he said, aiming the gun at kayden.
kayden was visibly shaken up, it was like he was frozen. maybe he should've listened to kaizen this time. he knew kaizen wasn't able to handle losing his younger brother. hell, kayden wasn't ready to leave his brother either.
"i gave you plenty of time to step away. you've ruined my sons life, now it's my turn to ruin yours." ms jackson smiled, before she walked out of the home. there were two gunshots that went off, kayden closing his eyes as he felt himself hit the ground.
kayden gasped for air as he looked down at his stomach to see blood rushing out. he knew he had got shot somewhere else and while he was trying to find where, it started to get harder for him to breath. his eyes filling with tears while frantically looking around for something to help him.
he couldn't think straight, the only thing being on his mind was brother. the one person he knew that he could run to if he ever needed help.
"ka— kai— zen.." he choked out as he reached up to grab his bleeding neck.
yamari and his father rushed downstairs as soon as they heard gunshots. yamari's eyes widened at the sight, his father rushing over to kayden to help him.
"yamari go call the police!" mr jackson yelled as he turned kayden onto his side, all while covering his wound. yamari listened and immediately ran upstairs to grab his phone.
"kayden, keep your hand right there, ight? stay calm, you gon be aight." mr jackson instructed kayden as he grabbed two kitchen towels, holding them to his wounds.
it took what felt like forever for the ambulance to get to the house. the door was busted wide open, paramedics running in to see kayden laying on the floorz
"we gon call yo brother as soon as we get you in the ambulance, i promise. he gon' meet you at the hospital, ok?" mr jackson informed him as he backed away to let the paramedics through.
"name and age?" a woman, she looked so familiar to kayden. she reminded him of his grandmother. ms alice, she had the same features as her. it spooked him out a bit but it made him feel safe.
"kayden gaulden, 15." mr jackson spoke as he held onto his son, not wanting him to see his friend laid out like that.
"okay, kayden. we're gonna need you to stay calm." the woman spoke as they finally got kayden up onto the stretcher. they rushed him into the ambulance, yamari & his father not being too far behind.
"he's having trouble breathing." her coworker spoke as he worked on the younger.
"aye, we're losing him!" she yelled as kayden's eyes rolled to the back of his head.
"kayden." kayden heard a very familiar voice, and it startled him. his eyes opened slowly and he seen his father standing beside him. words couldn't express how confused kayden was at the moment.
"am i dead!?" kayden questioned his father, looking up at his father. he looked over to see himself flatlining as the paramedics rushed to revive him.
"you will be if you don't breath." jay spoke, looking down at his youngest son.
"i- i can't, da." kayden stuttered, looking back up at his father.
"don't ever say you can't, you know ian raise y'all like that. what i always tell y'all?"
"we can do anything we put our mind to." he sniffled as he felt tears about to fall out of his eyes.
"alright then, put yo' mind to staying alive. you gotta breath for me, dooda."
"d-da, i'm scared, i-i ca-can't! help me, da, please!" kayden cried out as he reached for his father. jay simply shook his head, stepping back slightly.
"i can't, this something you gotta figure out on your own. you can do it, i promise you, you can. you don't have much time left, son." he spoke, as kayden shook his head while tears covered his face. "look at me. copy my breathing. 1, 2, 3."
"breath out. 1, 2, 3–"
"you got it! keep going, dooda! let's go! let's fucking go!"
kayden's eyes opened as he gasped for air. he looked around the ambulance, trying to find his father but he was no where to be seen.
'he was here, he was just here.' kayden thought.
"keep taking those deep breaths, we're almost there." the man paramedic told kayden.
"m-my b—br-o-" kayden tried to get out but was interrupted.
"you're not supposed to talk, baby. i'm sure your family's on the way." the woman said.
kaizen jumped up out of his sleep, looking around his room to see zyaire asleep right behind him. he took a deep breath as he felt his chest start hurting.
"what the fuck?" kaizen mumbled as he held onto his chest.
"phat, what's wrong?" zyaire asked, sitting up alongside kaizen.
"i don't know." kaizen shrugged as he looked looked over at zyaire. he rubbed his eyes, looking at the clock to see it was 2:00 in the morning.
"whatchu' mean, youn know?" zyaire mumbled, turning on his lamp.
"i don't know what's wrong. my chest hurts, it's weird." kaizen said, leaning his back against the headboard. he then started to get an uneasy feeling. something was happening and he needed to find out what it was.
"you need me to go get my mama? she should be up." zyaire asked him as he was about to get out of bed.
"no, i'm fine." kaizen shook his head at the older.
"you sure, phat?" zyaire questioned him just to make sure.
"yea, i'm good. i just need to see if kayden's okay." kaizen mumbled as he reached over to grab his phone. as soon as he grabbed it he got a call from yamari.
"hello?" kaizen answered, feeling his stomach turning slowly.
"kaizen, you gotta come to the hospital!" yamari said frantically, kaizen clearly heard he was panicking.
"what happened?" kaizen asked he put the phone on speaker so zyaire could hear.
"kayden— he uh, he got shot." yamari stuttered. kaizen and zyaire paused for a moment before they immediately jumped up, both rushing to put on their clothes.
"what hospital yall at?" zyaire asked as he grabbed his phone and keys off the desk.
"okay we on the way." once yamari told him and then hanging up the phone.
"i knew something was wrong, i fuckin' knew it." kaizen frantically spoke as they both ran out of the room and downstairs to alert the others.
"ma, we gotta go to the hospital." zyaire told his mom who looked at him confused.
"for what? what happened?" she asked as she grabbed her keys from the counter.
"kayden got shot." he informed them.
"kayden got shot?" ace's head popped up from the couch in the living room.
"we'll follow y'all." she said as kaizen and zyaire ran out of the front door.
——
at the hospital
——
they finally made it to the hospital and ran in ss soon as they found a park. kaizen searched the waiting room for the jackson's, eventually finding them sitting down in the back of the room. "where my brother at?" kaizen questioned the man as soon as he walked up to him.
"they said he's in surgery, we don't know his condition at the moment." mr jackson sighed as he stood up out of his seat.
"how did this happen, how the fuck y'all let him get shot!?" kaizen jumped right to the point, wondering what the fuck they were doing for anything to escalate this quickly.
"we don't know what happened—" mr jackson tried to explain but kaizen wasn't having it at all. he just didn't understand how he didn't know what happened but kayden was clearly in his care. unless the two kids ran off without supervision, which kaizen doubted highly.
"we talked about this, mane! not even 24 fuckin' hours ago, I told you, I fuckin' told you!" kaizen yelled as he started to pace around the waiting area. "if he die, i swea' ta' god i'm on y'all ass fa' the rest of my fuckin' life!"
"what you mean you don't know what happened?" ace asked the father and son as him and zyaire stared them down.
"we don't know, we woke up to gunshots and s-seen him on the floor!" yamari exclaimed as he wiped the tears off his face.
"i promise you, we would never put him in danger like this. i keep my guns locked up inside my household, i don't play like that. if we knew everything that happened, i promise you, we'd tell you." mr jackson said.
"where was yo' wife?" zyaire mugged him once he noticed that she wasn't there.
"you think my wife did this?" he asked, zyaire and ace looking at him as if he was stupid.
"well, no shit. the bitch ain't like kayden ass anyways. ion know if she pulled the trigger, but i know for a damn fact ha' ass had something to do with this." zyaire shrugged.
"i'm sick of y'all accusing her. she isn't a bad lady once you get to know her. i don't think she would do something like this." mr jackson waved zyaire off, as he looked around the hospital. he was thinking of a reason as to why she would.
"i do and when i find out who helped ha' ass, it's up."
zyaire nodded his head him before he walked off to tend to kaizen.
"kaizen, baby, i'ma need you to breath. you're panicking. he is going to be okay." zyaire's mom spoke as she held onto his hands to stop him from pacing around.
"i should've been there. i shouldn't have trusted them with him. i- i knew she didn't like him, i knew."
with the history kaizen had with hospitals, it made his panicking worse. he lost two of the most important people in his life at this one hospital. he remembered both of the days that he lost his father and grandmother on two different occasions.
"kaizen, you are not about to sit here and try to blame yourself. not around me. you didn't know what could happen, whatever went on in that house wasn't your fault. ok?"
"ok."
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!‼️excuse any mistakes ‼️!
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Q&A
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