Alice

caught

The final set ends and everyone starts packing things up to bring them to the buses. August and I help Patrick carry most of his drum pieces.

"Mikey, would you rather be the drummer of a band or the front man of a band?" August asks, randomly.

"Drummer, definitely. My vocal chords are shit, and my voice is high as fuck." I say.

"Kellin Quinn has a high voice, he's still a great singer." August says.

"Yeah but that's because he did years of vocal training." Patrick says.

"And he doesn't have to worry about people calling him a girl." I add.

"Fair point." August says.

We talk back and forth until we get to the bus. We load in the drum pieces and Patrick says, "I think all that's left is the snare, we don't all have to go for that one thing."

"I'll go, I'd like to use my newfound freedom from babysitters." I say. Patrick nods.

"I'll let Spencer know. Go have fun, kid." He says. I turn and start running back towards the venue. I turn back for just a second and see August walk away as Patrick gets on the bus.

The walk from the bus to the venue is longer than you would think. I'm definitely far away from the bus, but the venue lights are still in the distance. We can't park too close because of the possibility of fans breaking into the bus.

I feel slightly on edge as I walk past my brothers car. It's the only one left in the lot. Usually venue security leaves before the bands do, according to noah.

I get past his car and start to relax again. It was a mistake to drop my guard as soon as I did.

My brother grabs my arm and violently turns me around to face him. "I know who you are, Alice. You aren't fooling me with your stupid "Mikey" game. I know what you did to mom and dad, and you bet your ass I intend to make you pay for that." He says. I notice the knife he has on his leg.

Play dumb.

"I have no idea what you're talking about, get off of me!" I shout. I hope someone can hear me, but I don't think they can. All I can hope is that Spencer is looking at the tracker and noticing that I stopped.

I can call someone.

"Don't play dumb with me, Alice! I'm not stupid, I know its you!" He yells. I try to dig my phone out of my pocket and call Spencer.

Before I can hit the call button he rips the phone out of my hands and throws it on the ground, stomping on it repeatedly until it shattered.

"Please! Let me go!" I say.

"Not. A. Fucking. Chance." He says, "I'm going to take my sweet time with you. You took away my entire family."

"I am your family" I try to say. Playing dumb didn't work, he's psychotic.

"SHUT UP! YOU DON'T KNOW SHIT ABOUT MY FAMILY! All you were was a toy, you were nothing to us! Dad just wanted a play thing, that's all you were ever meant to be!" He says, taking the knife off of his leg and pointing it at me.

Suddenly, something inside me just flips. I'm no longer looking into my brothers eyes. I'm looking at a man who ruined my life, who saw me as less than human my entire life.

He pulls his arm back to try and stab me, but I'm able to break away from his grip and slide out of the way. Something else takes over, and I rip the knife out his hands, turning it around and stabbing him in the stomach.

The betrayal in his eyes burns into my mind. I stab him again, this time higher. I hear him wheeze and start breathing heavily.

Again, in the side. Again, the same place. Again, again, the years of abuse blind me and he doesn't fight back.

I come back to reality to see my bother, dead on the ground in front of me. I'm holding a knife and I'm covered in blood. I try to count the stab wounds, at least the ones I can see.

I see just one, right between his shoulder blades. The blood on his shirt flowers outwards and makes me shiver. He's lying face down in a pool of his own blood. There are small cuts on his arms, I assume from him trying to block the knife.

Honestly I thought I would be scared, sad, and guilty. Instead I'm just scared.

I didn't know I was capable of that. I didn't know I could ever fight back.

I hear distant foot steps and look up, afraid that I would be blamed to defending myself. To my relief, its Spencer.

"Michael Charnas, do you have any idea how worried I--" he runs up to me, stopping when he notices the blood and my brothers body. It's only now that I realize I'm shaking.

"I'm sorry, I don't know what happened, I mean I do know what happened, he tried to attack me and I just--" I start to panic. I feel my chest start to tighten and it gets harder to breathe. My hands feels numb and so do my legs. My heart feels like its about to stop.

"Hey hey, its okay Mikey. Give me the knife." Spencer says, slowly taking the knife out of my hands and dropping it on the ground. The clatter of the metal against the pavement makes me flinch. It reminds of the sound of Spencer's knife hitting the hardwood floors when I first met him.

"I was so scared, I didn't know what to do, I just took it from him and then I couldn't stop, he was barely fighting back, I don't know why I couldn't stop." I feel the tears start to roll down my face. They burn against the cold air, leaving cold spots where they run down my cheeks.

"It's okay, Mikey. You're okay. Are you hurt? Did he hurt you at all?" Spencer asks, holding my shoulders and examining my face for bruises. "oh kid..." he sounds so sad.

"No, no, he just grabbed my arm." I say. I notice a large bruise starting to form where he grabbed me. It's still relatively fresh, but its already purple and blue.

"You're lucky he broke your phone, that's what made me come look for you. Let me call someone, it'll be okay." Spencer says, taking out his phone and calling someone.

"Hey Justin. Situation. Mikey's brother is out here and I need you.... I didn't call Patrick because last time I asked for Patrick's help with something like this he screamed at me the entire time... no, I wouldn't ask you if I didn't have to, you know that. I'm calling you for Mikey's sake... Mikey is two fucking feet away from me Justin... okay, good."

"He'll be here soon. Probably quicker than I was." Spencer says, keeping his hands on my shoulders in a comforting way. I'm still shaking, and I can feel tears burning down my cheeks even more now. My eyes start to burn and sting from tears that haven't fallen.

Spencer pulls me into a hug and I just cry as I hug him back. We stay in that silent hug for what feels like an eternity, Spencer making small circles on my back to comfort me.

Despite the fact that he killed my parents and kidnapped me, I feel safe around him. I've never felt safe around anyone the way I feel safe around Spencer.

It makes me sad to think that Alice never got the dad that Mikey has.

I hear footsteps again and Spencer lets go of me. I see Justin run up, holding a duffle bag.

"Mikey, kid, are you okay?" He asks, dropping the bag and trying not to look at my brother. I nod, wiping the tears off my face.

"Oh kid, you just wiped blood on your face." Justin laughs slightly.

"Oh, oops." I say, laughing slightly. Funny enough, it kinda lightens the mood. I take a deep breath and try to relax my shoulders.

Justin takes a rag out of the duffle bag and wipes my face, then my hands, then my arms. He takes a stack of clothes out of the bag and hands them to me.

"You have to change, and quickly. I took those from Chris so they should fit, the pants may be a little too long but they should fit. I have a pair of boots for you to put on too. I know you like those converse but they gotta go now, canvas and blood are an impossible combo." Justin says.