Caught In Between

XIII. The War

I feel better now that I've been able to officially say bye to Ty. Obviously, I'm still not okay with the fact that my brother is dead, but I'm starting to accept it more now. I was finally able to sleep throughout the whole night without waking up every hour. I guess getting closure really helped.
After getting ready for the day, I walked downstairs to the kitchen and took a seat at the island. Dad was already in the kitchen and he was actually cooking breakfast. He's usually already gone, so it's unusual for him to be here making breakfast on a Thursday morning.

"What're you doing here?" I ask him.

He turns around from the stove where he's making pancakes. "I have something important to talk to you about."

"Okay." I expect him to start talking, but instead he turns back to the stove and continues flipping pancakes. "Are you gonna talk?"

"I'd like to talk about this over breakfast. It's a big announcement." He sighs. Something in the way he says 'big announcement' makes it sound like this will be bad. Shit.

"Okay..." I trail off. I am very confused right now. He continues flipping pancakes while I get my phone out. There's multiple texts from Asher asking if we can talk. I miss him. I don't respond to the messages though. I know I'll see him at school and I can't complicate things with my father right now. Especially not since Ty just died. I see a text from a group chat with Nat and Abby. Nat asks how I'm doing and I reply with a simple "I'm better today." She's asked me that question everyday since Ty died and the days I did answer, she got the same answer. Today, though, I'm being honest. I continue texting Nat and Abby a bit before I see Dad put the pancakes on two plates and sets one plate in front of me and the other on the table next to me. He takes the seat next to me and passes me a fork and a glass of orange juice. I put my phone down and turn my attention to him. "So what's this big announcement?"

"Last night, I declared war with the Silver Snakes."

I dropped my fork onto my plate. This is not what I was expecting. "What? What does this mean?"

"It means the Bloodhounds are officially at war with the Silver Snakes."

"Why? But what does that mean?"

"They are responsible for Ty's death. It's time to put an end to this feud that's been going on for generations. I've had enough of our shipments getting stolen, but Ty's murder is the end of this. We're officially getting rid of those fucking snakes, especially the Cobra." The amount of disgust and hate in his words when he says 'cobra' scares me. If only he knew how close I am to the Cobra. Or how close I was.

My heart rate picked up at the mention of the cobra. He's not gonna kill him... is he? He can't kill Asher. He's innocent... I think. "War? How many people are gonna be killed?"

"Hopefully there will be little to no casualties on our side, but like I said, there needs to be an end to this. The war ends when the leader of the Silver Snakes is killed. When the Cobra dies, the war is over." Asher. When Asher dies the war is over.

"What if he doesn't die?" My voice is irregularly high and shaking. I can't help but to think of how horrible this will turn out. There is no winner in my eyes. No matter who kills who, it will hurt me either way.

"Then the war ends when I die." No winner in my eyes.

Before I have a chance to reply or calm myself down, Cam walks into the kitchen.

"Another thing, Brooke. I don't want you to ever be out of anyone's sight. I don't know if anyone even knows about you on the Silver Snakes, but I don't want you getting hurt too. I want Cam to take you to school, walk you to each class and never really leave your side much. I'll pick you up this afternoon. Don't trust anyone right now. You never know who's hiding something." He's very right. I never know who's hiding something and I wish at this time I did know the truth.