THIRTY-FOUR BLOODY-HANDED
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They finally stopped when they made it to a safe place, all panting and out of breath. Norman was quite the athlete and even he was struggling to catch his breath. The nerves made everything worse and he had a feeling the sensation of his throat tingling and closing up wasn't from the running. Leaving John B behind was one of the hardest things he had to do in his life so far.
As they stopped a recollected, the heard the sound of a plane passing overhead, JJ recalling, "There goes our gold."
"Fuck!" Pope exclaimed with a sort of anger Norman had never seen from the boy as JJ and he began throwing things around the garage they were in. Pope was normally the mediator or the calm one of the group and it was strange to see him began to lose control. Norman was fairly sure he was right behind them on the losing control front.
"Pope!" Kiara yelled, trying to get his attention.
The boy, however, was unattainable as he grabbed a baseball bat and began bashing at whatever was in his path with unabashed anger, "God damn it! Fuck! Shit! Shit! Damn it!"
They all flinched as they watched -- none of them wanting to get in the way of Pope and his target which as of right now was a poor old microwave. Norman honestly couldn't blame him. Pope had thrown away his merit scholarship for this and yet here they were with their hands empty of gold and missing one member of their group.
"Pope!" Kie tried again. The boy threw an old metal trash can, but this seemed to be enough for him as he took a break to seemingly catch his breath and hopefully calm down, "Pope! Pope."
The boy calmed down, sitting on a bench and beginning to regain his composure. JJ shrugged, "Yeah, dude. I was wondering when this was going to happen. Here you go, Chief."
The boy reached into his backpack and pulled out his JUUL and Norman scoffed, unsurprised that this was his solution.
"Seriously, JJ?" Norman chastised, "Your solution right now is weed?"
JJ nodded, "Uh, yeah, pretty much. A little weed never hurt no one."
"JJ-" Kie began, but the girl was seemingly at a loss for words as she just shook her head.
"Relax, Kie," was all the boy offered as reassurance. However, reassurance from JJ was never to be expected.
The girl was still unimpressed, saying, "You know he doesn't smoke."
Wordlessly, Pope reached out and grabbed the JUUL. This honestly didn't surprise Norman that much considering he would probably go for some weed right now, too. Times were tough, who could blame them, really? A little escapism never hurt anybody. However, Norman knew he couldn't -- not when he was this worried about John B.
"Well, maybe not until today," was all JJ said with ease.
Kie was obviously frustrated with the boys, arguing, "Yeah, well what is that gonna help?"
"Just leave 'em be, Kie, we're all fucked right now," Norman sighed, though he normally would take the girl's side this was definitely one of the more trivial things for her to get upset about. Considering how much his fingers were itching to get his hands on his phone to call John B, he would probably ask for a hit right now if Kiara wasn't already giving him a total death glare.
"You don't get it, Kie," Pope sighed, "I lost my scholarship. Walked out in the middle of the interview. Every-- it's gone, it's not gonna happen."
"You did that for us?" Kie asked, her expression softening and Norman hoped she was beginning to understand. The last thing they needed right now was for the group to be fighting. Not when things were this bad.
Pope shook his head as he stood, "No, not for us. For nothing."
"I'm here for you, Pope," JJ reassured as he stood up and wrapped his arm around the boy, patting him on the chest, "Welcome to my world, okay?"
"JJ--"
"What, Kie? He's right," the boy argued, "It doesn't matter anymore."
"You don't have to do that," Kie began to continue pressing the matter as Pope began to take a hit but Norman stepped in front of her, placing a hand on her shoulder but giving her a moment to push it away before he pulled her into a hug.
In her ear, he said, "Kie, there are way, way worse things to worry about right now than whether or not Pope smokes weed. Just drop it, okay? We should be worried about John B, not stupid shit like this."
"Of course, you're only worried about John B right now, it's always about John B," Pope scoffed as the two pulled apart and he shot a look their way, "What do you guys even care?"
However, any responses were cut off as Pope noticed someone approaching them. They all turned and there was John B, but something was off. The boy looked as if he had seen a ghost. Clearly, they were missing something. That was when Norman noticed the blood on his hands.
"Dude, dude, you good?" JJ exclaimed as they ran over to him.
"What happened? Are you okay?" Norman asked, words leaving his mouth before he even had a second to think about them. All he was worried about was making sure John B was okay and that the blood wasn't his. However, he knew if the blood belonged to someone else that was probably a much bigger problem.
"Is this yours?" JJ asked as his hand gripped John B's wrist -- the boy having yet to even speak a word. There was nothing but this dazed expression on his face.
"Whose blood is it?" Kie questioned, concern lacing her voice. All traces of the earlier argument were gone as for the most part they were largely worried about John B's safety and whatever the hell had happened after they left. Obviously, it was nothing good. The sound of a siren approaching in the distance set off a warning in Norman's mind. Something terrible had happened.
Pope looked John B in the eye as he asked, "Hey, you okay, man?"
"John B, are you okay?" Kie asked again, but it seemed to be falling on deaf ears as John B wasn't even responding to them.
Norman reached up and rested a hand on the boy's cheek, getting his eyes to meet his as he asked in a soft voice, "Baby, what happened? Please, talk to us."
The moment was interrupted when a police car whipped around the corner and the five of them got the message that this was not ideal and they all ducked to hide. Norman kept an arm around John B's shoulders as they ducked behind planks of wood, not wanting to let the boy go ever again. The car disappeared down the street and they were able to relax a bit, but everyone was still clearly unnerved at the scene.
Breaking the tense silence, Norman's phone rang. Normally he wouldn't have answered it, but it was Alisha and if he ignored a phone call from Alisha on purpose she would murder him.
"Shit," he cursed as he accepted the call and pressed the phone to his ear, "Alisha? What's going on? I' m kind of busy right now."
"Norman, trust me, this is way more important than whatever you're doing right now," the girl spoke over the phone, but the usual jokiness and humor was completely depleted. Serious wasn't even the right word to use -- her voice sounded terrified. Norman was able to pick up on it the moment she said his name. Norman could count on one hand the number of times Alisha had ever addressed him by his real name. He knew right away something was up.
"Alisha, what's wrong?" he didn't beat around the bush, knowing that she was about to spill some shit. As he spoke, his eyes darted to everyone's expectant faces, hanging onto every word he said. Without telling Alisha, he moved to put the phone on speaker so the others could hear, "Alisha?"
The girl took a deep breath and it almost seemed like she was crying. It was clear how choked up she was when she spoke again, "My dad just got called into work on an emergency. He's a fucking desk jockey, he's never been called in. Ever. He's worked for the department since I was fucking born. He's pissed, he, he- he freaked the fuck out, like I've never seen."
"Lish..." his voice was edged, clearly trying to get her to spit it out, "It's very important that you tell me as soon as possible. What. Happened."
"I-I didn't hear much when I was listening in on the call, but someone's dead. They're calling everyone in because they-they don't know what to do. The deputy is freaking out."
"Who? Who is dead?" Norman asked, but judging by the look on John B's face he had a sickening feeling that he already knew. He was pretty sure they were going to figure out who that blood had come from very soon.
The girl breathed in deeply, trying to keep her voice from cracking. "I think... I think it's Sheriff Peterkin."
The boy didn't wait for any discussion from the group, "Stay put, we're on our way."
that's right bitches Alisha is BACK because I missed her anyway shit is about to go DOWN for these last two episodes! I genuinely can't believe this story is almost over (and almost to 40k reads like damn) considering it hasn't even been up for two months! It should be finished in the next two weeks if my depression doesn't kick my ass and make me lose motivation :)