The Lost //✔️// [DEVON SEQUEL] BOOK 2 [DISCONTINUED]

• Jodie •

Devon stalked into my room and tossed my coat at me, he tugged his own on and motioned to the door.
"Come on, we're going to catch us a Jodie."

"What? I thought-" I sputtered but Devon raised his hand.

"Don't question it. Get your coat on, we're going. I'll meet you in the car." He slammed the door just a little too hard for my liking.
I gritted my teeth and pulled my coat on, pulling my hair out from under the hood. I didn't want to follow him, I didn't want to do what he said, but... I wanted Jodie.
I needed Jodie right now.

I grabbed my bag as I hit the bottom step and locked the front door behind me.
Devon started the engine up as soon as I slipped into the passenger seat. I looked up and huffed- then I screamed.
"Fucking hell." Devon whined, holding his ear.

"WHY THE FUCK IS HE IN THE CAR?" I shouted, turning to face a very forlorn looking Isaac.
"DEVON!" I turned my head sharply to look at him.
He wasn't looking at me, pulling an awkward expression, all he did was shrug and pull out the driveway.

"I fucking-I'm gonna murder you, I swear to god I'm going to get a knife, I'm cleaving you up and I'm throwing you into a...sausage maker! And I'm going to feed you to the dogs!" I yelled.
Devon just smirked, even Isaac chuckled.

I couldn't believe it. Since when we're they pals?

•

We spent the entire car journey in silence, after two hours, we pulled up at an awful, run down apartment building.
Two high-rise blocks with plumes of black smoke billowing out of pipes at the sides. Moss grew and curled around the windows, green dust was smattered over them.
It was truly awful.
I grimaced at the smell that hit me when I got out of the car.

Devon and Isaac mumbled between themselves and Isaac walked away and around the corner.
Devon approached me and I punched him straight in the arm. He glared at me, "What was that for?"
I frowned.

"What was that for? You prick! What's going on? You didn't want anything to do with Jodie, then suddenly Isaac shows up, you shoot him and you're best buddies!?" Despite me keeping my voice down - because god knows who's hanging around here - it echoed between the two buildings and down the damp and dirt slick alleyway.
Overflowing dumpsters. That was the cause of the smell.
Hardly any light shone into the alley, but I could still see the fat, ditzy bodies of flies and fleas hovering around over them.

"It's not like that, Aria." He whispered, "But frankly, I think you can wait- I don't know how many more twists and turns your sensitive little self can take." He gave me an incredulous look before hopping up onto the bonnet of his car.

I didn't comment. I didn't know what to say.

"Sheesh, trouble in paradise huh?"

Devon shot up off the bonnet and we both turned to face the direction the voice came from.

Jodie, in low rise sweatpants and a moth-bitten tank top leant on the frame of the doorway.

"Hey bitches." She smiled, flipping her still pristine auburn hair over her shoulder, "Long time, no see."

My heart was pounding.

•

Jodie lead us up a cold hallway, doors that practically hung off the walls did little to disguise the noise coming from inside the apartments.
A lot of arguing, crying babies, loud televisions and sex - lots of sex noises. I cringed against them.

It was truly no place to live - for anyone.
Jodie unlocked the door at the very end of the corridor, it was covered in grime and squeaked terribly on its hinges as it opened.
The apartment itself, shockingly, was just as bad.
It didn't stink - to her credit. The kitchen was also super clean and fully stocked. Everywhere else?
Jodie really let her lifestyle go.

She didn't even give off the same happy girl lucky attitude she so effortlessly emanated last year.
I blinked to stop the burning in my eyes - I'd been living in the lap of luxury compared to where Jodie had been. She was all alone too.
My heart broke for her.
She's such a sweet girl, and didn't deserve any of this.

Such is the lifestyle of gangs.

"Welcome, to my very, very, very humble abode." She sniggered, walking past me to shut and lock the door behind Devon.
Even Devon looked upset over her circumstances.

"This is where you've been living? All this time?" He asked, blowing dust off a shelf that was ultimately disused aside from the bag of marijuana on the end.
I pursed my lips and swallowed... hard.

Jodie laughed aloud, "What? You say that like this isn't something to brag about." She handed me and Devon a can of beer each and threw herself down on the sofa, "look, my tv has three channels, my ceiling leaks - free shower! - and if I'm very lucky, I don't sleep because I am kept up my the enthralling sounds of my neighbour beating his wife." She sniffed and spat into a bucket catching - sure enough - the ceiling leak, "Guess what? He's beat me up too." She lifted up her arm and revealed a nasty purple bruise covering the back of her arm.
Looking very similar to a hand print.

"Jodie- if I had known-" Devon began.

Jodie bore her teeth and lobbed her can of beer at his head. Devon ducked just in time and the can hit the wall and burst into a shower of liquid.
"HOW COULD YOU HAVE KNOWN DEVON? HOW?" She got to her feet and stormed towards us.
"I waited you know..." her voice began shaking, "After everyone had either died or ran I waited. In that house, staring at the dead bodies on the lawn, waiting for someone, anyone, to come for me." Tears filled in her eyes and ran down her face, "...not even harr-" she sobbed, "not even Harrison could believe it when you didn't come back." She took a long, quivering breath, "-he waited for months, then... he left."
"I've been all alone for nearly a year. I've been all. Alone. I've done that before, okay, I've lived alone before but never...never like this."
"And you two- I can practically SEE the tension between you two! People died for you, you bitch-" she turned to me and pointed an accusatory finger.

"Jodie- please-" I walked towards her with my hands out, she smacked me straight across the cheek.
I was too stunned to move.

"SHUT UP! SHUSH! JUST SHUT THE FUCK UP YOU PSYCHO FREAK!" She grabbed handfuls of her hair and screamed, "People died trying to save the girl you loved-" she turned her attention to Devon, "-we did everything for you two! Things wouldn't even have escalated to the point they did if you hadn't have meant anything to each other-"
"-and you go and fucking fall out. In the grand scheme of things, guys, your problems are petty compared to the rest of us."
She slumped back in her seat and threw her head back, wiping her tears off of her face with the back of her hand.

"I need you to get out." She finished.

"Jodie please, we came here for a reason, we need you back." Devon attempted to reason with her, but she didn't hear it.

"Please." Her voice was a barely audible croak.
She was broken. She was angry. She didn't mean any of it.
That's what I kept trying to convince myself of.
She wasn't in the right mind.

Devon swore under his breath and unlocked the latch, he held the door open for me and I raised my hand.
I pulled out a notepad and pen from my purse and wrote down my number. Along with my note I left her whatever money I could find in my purse.

I took one last look at her. She was crumpled up on her sofa, shaking, crying silently.
My heart snapped in two right there.

Nothing is still the way it was.
Jodie was the happiest out of all of them... god help us if we can find the others.
How difficult will they be?

If they're even still alive.

•

Jodie is back!

•

©️//®️