D E V I N
"Devinthia!"
Graizen yelled after me, as I pulled away from him. He quickly stormed after me, his hand wrapping around my arm. Fire and electricity engulfed me at his touch, but I quickly brushed it off. I yanked my arm away from him, as his silver eyes met mine.
"You don't know anything about my mother. You weren't the one who found her dead with a gun in her hands and a bullet in her head."
Graizen simply crossed his arms, a blank expression on his face. He could tell I wasn't done speaking yet.
"It's been the hardest year of my life. I've finally come to peace with it. She was hurting, she was mentally sick. Nobody could've saved her. Not even me."
I looked at the ground as I said this. His eyes didn't leave me, I could feel them burning into my skull.
"You know, you aren't a very good listener, Devinthia."
He smirked, as I tilted my head up towards him. I ignored his comment as I pushed on his chest, causing him to lightly stumble back. He had a smug look on his face. Humor was present in his eyes as I boiled with anger.
"Stop following me! I will not hesitate to call the police if I ever see you again."
He let out a laugh as I turned away from him, crossing my arms together. I could hear him chuckle behind me as his loud footsteps made his way to his car, quickly driving off. What does he find so amusing? He just claimed that my own mother was murdered.
He took me back to the worst time of my life, and he finds this funny?
My head was going to explode. I needed to calm down. I sat next to my mother's gravestone, leaning my head against the cold surface of it. My body erupted in small waves of sobs as I held my head in my hands. I thought I had finally healed from her death. It was the hardest thing I've ever had to go through, and I still go through it every day. There is so much she still hasn't seen me do. There are so many things I still need my mother for.
A girl will always need her mother.
It isn't easy to hear that she was murdered. That she was taken away from me in such a horrible way. This whole year I've been questioning, why? I've been questioning how I missed that she was in pain. I've been so angry with her for taking her own beautiful life. It can't be true. She couldn't have been murdered. I grabbed my phone, dialing the number of the only person I could count on. He picked up after one ring.
"Jax?" I quietly said, my voice barely above a whisper.
"Where are you? Why did you get in Graizen's car? Did he hurt you?"
"I'm at the cemetery, because I'm an idiot, and no."
I quickly answered all his questions. Jax sighed deeply into the phone. I could tell he was having an inner battle with himself. He wanted to be angry with me, he wanted to take his frustration out on me. But, he couldn't. He has a soft spot in his heart for me. Jax always will.
"I'll be there in ten minutes."
~*~
"Murdered?"
Jax coiled back in shock as he gripped the steering wheel. His eyes remained locked on the road as he took in everything I just told him. I stared blankly ahead of me. There was no way this could be true. A person would have to go through great lengths to plan a murder staged as a suicide. They would have to have an insane motive to orchestrate that.
Why would someone want to murder my mother?
Who?
My mind can't even fathom the whole story Graizen had conjured up in his mind. I don't know anything about him. I put blind trust in this man, and he's been stalking me for who knows how long. His reasoning for any of this is beyond me.
"He's been following me, Jax. Following me. He knows where I live, he knows where we go to school."
I ran my hands through my hair in frustration as my heart was practically beating out of my chest. It felts like the walls in this car were caving in as I held my head in my shaking hands. I could see my mother's eyes behind mine, the dead look in them. I could hear my screams for her, the endless cries as I was taken away from her body. My mind felt trapped by my subconscious as that day repeated in my head until I felt haze surround me.
"Devin, there's something you need to know."
Jax let out a deep sigh as he focused his eyes on the road. My eyes scanned over him, as I noticed something was off. He looked on edge, sweat forming at the nape of his neck. Whatever he was about to tell me, it was big. I wasn't ready to hear whatever he was about to say. Everything I thought I knew was crumbling to pieces around me. The foundation I had built up this entire year was crashing to pieces of broken glass, cutting into my bruised skin. I could practically hear my heart beating in my chest as I stared at my best friend. My rock. The one person who has pulled me out of this dark abyss they call life. The one thing that pulled me out of the deepest ocean, just as it was about to swallow me whole.
"I haven't been completely honest with you, about anything."
My head felt like it was about to crack open, not ready to absorb any more information. It felt like my whole life was already an entire lie. Jax can't be another hoax, another piece in this game against me. After everything, he had to be real. The bond between us had to be real. Jax took his eyes off the road as he turned towards me, gloss forming a small layer over his eyes.
"Graizen is-"
Jax's words dissolved into thin air as the sound of shattering glass filled my ears. The broken pieces around me mirrored what my mind looked like at this exact moment. My head slammed into the window beside me, as I felt as if my body were floating. The air around me became tense as I suddenly found it hard to breathe. My head jolted towards Jax, who was unconscious beside me. A sickening crack echoed through the small space of the car as his head collided with the steering wheel. His eyes opened as his skull cracked in two, sending a shock through the deepest parts of me. I let out a piercing scream as I reached for him, only to be thrown back as the car rolled into a tree. Ringing filled my ears as I realized we had finally stopped moving. I opened my eyes, as my vision blurred. Jax was covered in blood, his chest unmoving. His eyes were open, staring hauntingly into me. Tears soaked my face as I took in his lifeless body.
"Jax! Wake up!"
My arms violently reached for him, as pain shot up my leg. I turned towards it, my leg stuck between the seat and the door. I tried to push the door back to its unbent shape as hard as I could, but it was no use. My leg was trapped. I froze in utter fear as flames erupted from the back of the car, slowly moving towards the back seats. I gasped as I tried to open my door, only for it to be blocked by the tree.
"Jax..."
I cried out, realizing our fate as I stared at his body. All the color was drained from his face. I shook my head, not wanting to accept that my best friend was dead. We were going to get out of this, alive. I yelled out in pure agony as I tried to pull my leg out from the broken metal of the door. Adrenaline was coursing through my veins as I pulled at it until my body gave up. I held my head in my hands as sobs began to rake my body. My eyes once again fell on my best friend, who hadn't moved an inch. His eyes were still snapped open, gazing into my soul. Sobs erupted through my body, rapidly reaching the surface as I pounded onto the door beside me.
He was dead.
His eyes were as lifeless as my mother's were, his body as stiff as a corpse. I shakily shook my head, as an agonizing scream fell from my lips. The fire had now reached the entire back half of the car, only a few feet back from out bodies. I was sweating from the heat of the fire, I could practically feel the flames on my body.
"Wake up, god dammit! Wake up!"
My voice was a broken mess of cries as I pounded my fists into the window. The fire was tauntingly behind me, grazing at my skin. I sank into the passenger's seat, ready for the flames to swallow me whole.
Within seconds, I felt the car being pushed from the tree as my door was pulled entirely off. My eyes widened in shock as silver eyes came into my view. I was speechless as Graizen reached across my body, pulling me out of the car. I resisted as I shook my head, motioning towards Jax.
"N-No... Jax! You have to get Jax!"
With the last bits of energy I had in me, I fought off Graizen. I pounded at his arms until my fists felt numb. He didn't seem the least bit affected as we moved further and further away from the fire. It was no use as he ran to his car, gently setting me in it.
"No! You have to go back!"
"Not even a thank you?"
I didn't even process his comment as the entire car went up in flames. Everything around me faded away as I fell forward. Graizen's arms caught me as I screamed out, my hands reaching towards the direction of Jax. I sobbed as Graizen brought my head into his chest, encasing me in his arms. My body felt completely detached from my brain as I collapsed into the arms around me. I felt nothing as my tears soaked his black shirt, as my cries grew quieter and quieter.
"You have to prepare yourself for what I'm about to tell you, okay?"
I lifted my head from his chest. "W-What?"
"Jax isn't dead, Devinthia. It takes a lot more than that to kill one of us."
I didn't process a single word he said to me as I saw Jax's figure emerge from the car. I felt the entire world around me blur as a stared at Jax in shock. He was dead. Right in front of my eyes, he died. Yet, he was right in front of me. His eyes full of life, his face no longer drained of color.
"Been a while since we've crossed paths, brother." Graizen smirked to Jax.
I felt everything fade away as darkness surroundedme.