2AM

02. Pay for my Funeral

'If not now, when?'

❁

Do you ever have that tight sensation in your chest? Where it feels like there's a clamp on your chest, and you can't break through? No?

Well lucky you then.

For one I was out of breath from running so much. Two, I almost smashed my head into a stop sign. "Whoops sorry buddy". I panted out leaning against the sign. Three, Jared was still running after me. That fast son of a bitch.

I need to brush up on my insults.

Slowly regaining my breath I hear heavy footsteps slapping against the pavement putting me on high alert. I slowly got back up and rushed to hide behind a run down pet shop. Oh the memories. This is where I got my first goldfish and—me being the irresponsible person I am— dropped it right when I got out the store....in the storm drain. I had my first pet fish for a total of five-minutes. Internal head thwack.

Peeking out from behind the stone wall there were 3 dark figures all with their guns out, and none of them had the figure of my lovely pal Jared. These men were all built taller than the cop. Carefully manoeuvring around the bins I looked up from my feet and spotted a fire escape ladder.

I could hide up here until it's clear to go.

Silently standing up making sure to not make any noise, I pulled the ladder done quietly even if it was pretty loud from the parade going on. As my mother says, 'you can never be too careful.'

I finally made it to the top after falling almost three times. So inviting. Crawling to the edge of the roof I perched myself on the edge and watched them. I know creepy stalker alert. Stop bashing me before I bash your head in the concrete.

I wasn't quite sure what they were doing but they were an odd bunch. Squinting my eyes I noticed they all looked like the 'brooding coat hangers' from earlier. Brooding coat hanger #1 had a serious look on his face. He looked like the leader who was on high alert. Diverting my eyes I glanced at Brooding coat hanger #2. He had an amused smile on his face while annoying #1 by flicking his ear every five minutes. The last of the bunch, Brooding coat hanger #3 was quiet and kept his focus on the ground. It was like he was counting something, by the way his lips were muttering under his breath. Was he counting the lines in the pavement? Counting down seconds? How many steps he walked?

The last guy reminded me of one of Caden's friends when we still lived in my old hometown. Again, I couldn't see much but he didn't look anything like the sweet kid my brother was friends with after we left. He had totally opposite features from what I remember. He used to count under his breath while walking, and if he ever got an uneven number he would get frustrated. It was quite adorable if you'd see it in person.

Sliding down the ledge after turning around my eyelids began to become heavy. I guess I hadn't been getting much sleep since there've been a lot of thoughts swarming through my big ol' head. Some of them including Carter now being the same age as Caden when he passed away and how my birthday was just around the corner....and so was the 12th anniversary since Caden and Papa never walked back into our little home.

Knocking the depressing thoughts out of my head I fell asleep on a roof of a building trying to remember for the life of me, the name of the sweet boy who hung around my brother all the time.

There was a stinging pain right in my neck. It was like when you bent your neck too low when you were on your phone. Slowly slipping out of subconsciousness and opening my eyes I realized I was still on the roof and that stinging pain was coming from my neck laying on the edge of the rough concrete.