☄. *. ⋆ LOST LIVING, J.W

NINE

CHAPTER NINE
beyond the murder.

RUBY AND JAKE SAT beside each other at his dining room table, both in a state of shock as they awaited for the arrival of the investigators.

"Jake." A detective walked in, her hair pulled back with slick gel, "I'm Detective Evans. This is my partner, Detective Peyton. I think you're in the same class as my son."

"Devon." Jake mumbled, his leg bouncing up and down beneath the table.

The woman hummed, pulling up a chair between him and the red headed doll, "that's right."

Ruby swallowed, feeling the opposite detectives eyes glued to her, she shifted uncomfortably under his harsh stare.

"Look, Jake, your uncles on his way over. I cannot imagine what you're going through. You sure you don't wanna see the grief counselor?"

He shook his head no, his fingertips lightly tapping on the table as he gulped, "no, thanks."

"Okay." The detective sighed, "I just have a couple questions, if you're up for it. Is that okay, Jake?"

The men opposite of him slid a recorder towards him, the light flashing indicating that it started recording.

Jake glanced at him, then glanced at the girl sitting beside him as he reached for her shaky hand underneath the table.

"Did you know there was a break in at the school last night?"

"No." His voice was horse, crumbled tissues lying in front of him.

She nodded, "No real harm done. The funny thing is, the only thing missing was a doll."

"Your teacher said it belonged to you, Jake." The other detective gestured to the red headed doll sitting up right in one of the chairs.

He stayed silent.

"I caught your act at school today. You're incredible."

"I'm sorry." Jake sputtered, swallowing again as he glanced down at his hand intertwined with Ruby's, "I shouldn't have lied, I've never done anything like that before."

"Don't worry." She interrupted his nervous ranting, "you're not in any kind of trouble. I just wanna get something straight. So you broke into the school in the middle of the night alone just to get your doll."

Before he could respond, Ruby immediately jumped in to cover him.

"I was there." She caught the attention of both officers, squeezing his cold hand beneath the table top in reassurance, "he needed to practice for the talent show. We couldn't do that without the doll."

She softly nodded, the front door being pushed opened had everyone at the dining table snapping their heads over at the noise.

Juniors father came hurrying inside, Jake scooting his seat out as he launched himself into the man's comforting arms.

"It's alright." Logan rubbed his back in a comforting manner, whispering sayings to the boy as he attempted to smooth out the situation.

A black body bag being rolled out to the front door had them all gawking, Luke's eyes peeled opened as they stared right at his son, making the boy horrified.

They zipped him up, soon the freshly deceased corpse was out of their sight, for good.

"I'm sorry." Jake cried, his blurring eyes flickering to his new guardian.

"It was an accident. It's not your fault. Are you okay?"

He only cried more, shaking his head no as his chin fell to his chest.

"Was he drinking?"

"Looks like it."

Logan nodded, wrapping an arm around Jake's shaking shoulders, "thank you."

Jake turned to grab the toy, his face scrunching up with guilt as his eyes landed on his best friend, who stood there with a pale face, her own eyes tearing up.

The boy glanced at his father with pleading eyes, "please."

"Let's go. Both of you." Logan directed both teens, if the mood wasn't so depressing, the two would be bouncing up and down with happiness.

But it was true. Jake couldn't survive on his own, especially not without Ruby by his side, she was his constant reminder that everything will get better.

AUTHORS NOTE <3

i missed u!!