Burning Sage

Chapter 17: Black Ice

Landon couldn't stop laughing, "Oh my God Sage... can you turn around and lift up the back end of your hoodie?" Him and Hope both stood and watched as I dried my hair in the mirror.

"In your fucking dreams." I threw the towel on the floor, "We're not staying here. Not with Maple haunting me."

"Then where are we goin?" Hope asked as she ran her hand through my hair, "Back to Hampton? Borin ass Hampton." She galled.

"It's the only place we know. Not like we have a choice." "Only place we know my ass. I know tons of places. I've lived in Mississippi, Georgia, Maryland, and now bum-fuck North Dakota."

"Yeah Sage, let's go down to Tennessee." Landon chimed in, "Imagine if we went to Dad's old place." "Not a chance in hell Landon. We're going back down to Hampton. It's only an hour drive from here."

"Ehh, I'd add another hour on, ya know the roads are horrible. All the black ice."

"Well Imma go get the baby." Landon walked out of the bathroom and zoomed down the stairs, "We're taking it, right?"

"I mean..."

"Ohh you can't be serious." Landon snarled, "You kill your pregnant girlfriend of eight months, now this? I mean it's a fucking infant Sage."

"If I wanted a kid then I'd have one. Makes no sense carrying around a baby that isn't ours. Do you know how hard it is to take care of one of these things?" I walked out of the bathroom and looked down at Landon from the top of the stairs, "Do you have some titties for him to suck on? I sure as hell don't."

"Well if all you're gonna do is be horny in the shower, I think you owe it to that baby." Landon watched me and Hope come down the stairs and into the kitchen with him, "Don't be selfish."

"I'm not selfish I'm just stressed the fuck out Landon. Please just shut up."

"Aww c'mon Sage I think he's right. Little baby don't need to freeze and starve like that. Look, I bet theres somethin in the fridge for him." Hope opened the fridge and dug around, "Baby better like apple sauce."

"Fine. Go get the baby Landon. And we're not taking that semi truck. We can take Maple's grandparents' truck. Think it's in the garage."

"Ok." Landon grabbed Hope's bag off the table and went on his merry way. "Wait wait wait." Hope panicked, "My bag, I forgot about it. I got my clothes in there, lemme go change into something that ain't soakin wet."

Hope put the apple sauce in her bag and took it upstairs. Landon looked up at me with a cheeky grin, "What has gotten into you?"

"Um, I'm, um- alive. I'm thankful to be alive." I stood there in the kitchen, Landon's brotherly eyes bearing into mine. "You killed Maple dumbfuck."

"Look, I didn't kill her. Hope's the psychopath." "Mmm, and that's why you thought it be a good idea to fuck her in the shower." Landon stood there with the same moxy as my mother, "You need to keep that thing in your pants. That's what mom would tell you."

Hope came walking back down the stairs with some dry clothes on. She threw me a pair of pants in which she thought I could fit. I couldn't fit, it wasn't even close. "Well it was worth a try. I don't know what it's like to have a dick but I could imagine a thong ain't no count." Hope looked down at my crotch, and Landon smacked my ass.

"Y'all are weird." I took a long, therapeutic sigh, and groaned, "Are y'all ready to go? Ready to never see this place again?" "Sure am!" Hope purred. And then we walked out of the kitchen and into the spacious living room. Rustic artifacts and valuables decorated the place. None of it caught my eye. But just as Landon and Hope grabbed the keys off the key rack, and walked through the door, I noticed a lonely picture of Maple sitting on the coffee table.