Promise Me Something

EIGHTEEN

***Liv's P.O.V.***

I really don't care what I wear. I have to find Kian. I put on light blue jeans, black Vans, a grey flat top hat, my favorite Venice Beach singlet and a black and white checkered flannel over top. "Jc!" I call running down the stairs.

"Coming!" I hear him yell faintly from the kitchen. I run out the door before I even see him.

"Go to a more central part of town. I'm going to walk round the streets, maybe check out a few parks or whatever." Jc nods and grabs his skateboard.

I quicken my pace to a run and start off down the street. I quickly come across a park but there's no sign of Kian anywhere here or surrounding.

I continue running and find another park. I walk over to the playground and see some kids on the swing set. Ignoring them I look around the area and see a small ditch with a river running through it. I follow the river up to a small forest. In a more central part of the forest there's a track of messed up leaves leading down to the river. What lies at the bottom of the trail brings tears to my eyes and forces me onto my knees. Bloody and only slightly breathing is Kian. I drag myself over to him and notice the stab marks in his hands and shoulders and a large bloody line going from the top of his spine to his waist. The visible spinal cord makes me sick. What kind of disgusting creature could such a thing to a person like Kian?

I turn him over as softly as I can but he still winces in my grasp. "Kian? Kian, tell me you can hear me." His lips quiver and his shaky, bloody hand touches my face gently and pushes my hair out of my face. I feel a warm tear drip down my face and onto his. He wipes the other tears that pour down my cheeks. I hold his hand in my own before I push forward and hug him, sobbing into his blood red shirt. He strokes my back and I hear his ragged breaths near my ear.

"I was dying anyway." I pull back slightly when he says this.

"What-do-you-mean?" I say between sobs.

"I was going to tell you this morning. I don't know what's wrong with me but I know I'm dying. I can feel it." His eyes are looking straight into my own.

"What does it feel like now?" I ask him.

"I feel like a balloon slowly losing air but I don't feel pain at all." He puts his hand under my chin.

"What do you want me to do? I can call the police." I reach for my phone.

"No. Listen closely; I've only got time to say this once. Only tell the boys that I'm dead. Don't tell them where I am and don't have a funeral for me. Take my camera and film a video. Say that I have gone but will never return. Tell my fans not to worry about me. Then, I want you to keep it up every Saturday. Every Saturday a new video will go on my channel and you'll be sitting in my chair and smiling at the camera. Reply to the comments but don't say what really happened or answer comments about me because when you leave me today this will be the last time you see me or speak of me." He pauses to take a deep, ragged breath. "I used to know a kid who was always scared to write or say something about someone they loved or watched on the Internet because they thought it would come true. They never spoke of someone not posting a video and they never wrote stories about the person dying cause they were so certain that what they said or wrote would become reality. Be mindful of that. Do me a favor: Stay with the person you truly love and don't say yes to just any boy. Promise me something if you love someone you tell him. Even if you're scared that it's not the right thing. Even if you're scared it'll cause problems. Even if you're scared it will burn your life to the ground you say it and you say it loud...Then you go from there. Now leave before someone gets worried. Good luck Liv Porter Lawley and I have never loved someone more than you in my whole life. You're my twin. My other half..." Watching my twin brother say his last words is the most painful thing I will ever have to watch. It's like listening to a speech when the speaker has an intense stutter. It's long, dragged out and painful.

As I watch his eyes roll into the back of his head and feel his chest stop moving I somehow stop crying. I wipe my cheeks with a bloody hand and stand up. I walk back the way I came until I come across the playground. There aren't any kids there this time and the only sound is the light wind rustling the leaves.

I feel my phone vibrate in my pocket. I pull it out and read the text from Jc.

From Jc: Couldn't find him. Am at home.

I put my phone back in my pocket and begin the short walk home.

I arrive back at the house in just under ten minutes. I twist the door handle but it's locked. I knock three times and wait for someone to answer. I hear footsteps inside the house and the door click. It swings open to reveal Ricky. "Liv are you o-" He starts but I quickly interrupt him.

"Hi Ricky. Remember how we were talking about that Netflix date and sleepover last night? Well I'm going to go get my onesie on and I'll be in your room in ten." I can hear the slight monotone in my voice.

"Umm...Ok?" I push past him and walk up to my room.

When I close the door behind myself I go into my closet and pull out my Charmander onesie. I leave my hair down and put on the hood. I go into the bathroom and wipe the blood off my face and arms with some scrunched up toilet paper. I grab the bloody clothes I was wearing and bundle them up. I take them down to the laundry and put them in the basket. I walk back upstairs and down the hall to Ricky's room. I pass Kian's room on the way over and shut the door quietly. I continue down the hall and knock on Ricky's door. I feel robotic. Looking straight-ahead, hardly blinking, speaking slightly monotonously, walking in straight lines and feeling nothing.

Ricky opens the door wearing his Pikachu and lets me in. I walk in and sit on the left side of the bed.

***Ricky's P.O.V.***

"What movie shall we watch? Perhaps The Chosen? Hey I heard that has Kian Lawley in it. Wouldn't it be cool to watch that? Or maybe a Jim Carrey movie? Did you know that Jim Carrey is one of Kian Lawley's favorite actors? Ace Ventura is one of his favori-"

"Liv stop!" I grab Liv's shoulders and look her in the eye. "Liv...What's wrong with you? What happened out there today?"

"Nothing Richard. Perhaps you'd like to suggest a movie?" She never calls me Richard nor does she ever speak in such a formal way.

"Liv...Tell me what's wrong. I won't tell anyone else unless you'd like me to." She just looks at me. She stared straight at me for about two minutes without blinking once. That's when her eyes started to fill with tears.

She threw herself at me and practically screamed into my chest. "He's dead Ricky! Kian's dead. He died beside me and I watched him lie in the river and die!"