RUN!

29. Seigfreid

Song: Seigfreid by Frank Ocean

   "Hi mum," I greet weakly as I step into the living room. Mum looks up from the magazine she was reading and beams at me.

"You look like you got hit again but at least you're standing," she aptly observes.  I let out a loud groan and collapse next to her.

"Is dad coming home tonight?" I ask. Mum's lips stretch into a thin line and she shakes her head.

"Don't you think he's been working too much lately?" I tilt my head at her.

"Well he's got to get enough to send you to England."

Poof. There goes my mood. With everything happening with Avery I had hoped my parents had gotten over sending me to England.

"Anything to eat?" I ask, not ready to argue with her.

"There's noodles in the microwave. You should try to get some rest before the cops come around–"

A knock on the door cuts through mum's sentence. We look at each other for a second before she stands up and walks to the door.

"Who is it?" She calls.

"Good afternoon ma'am, we're from California Police Department." A thick, deep voice booms from behind the door. Mum opens the door immediately to reveal a tall, dark and quite heavy looking man and a smaller white lady behind him.

"Welcome," Mum greets them. The man nods at her slightly before letting his gaze slide to me.

"You must be Adonis King," he speaks.

"Yes sir," I confirm. Darn it, I've gotta wait a couple more hours for my noodles!

||

   Detective Shawn and his partner Lola are quite quick to cut to the chase. After the formalities of asking about my wounds he dives right into the questions.

"Did you see anything like the color of the bike or the plate number?" He asks, looking right at me. I have a feeling that if I even tried to lie he'd catch me right in it.

"I couldn't see the color but I'm pretty sure it was either black or grey because it didn't stand out. It was night you know," I remind them.

"Yes yes. How about the number?"

"There was no number. I'm pretty sure of that."

Lola grunts. "You were shot at twice but it's pretty clear that the biker never intended to cause permanent damage. It's more like a warning. Adonis, do you have any issues with anyone?"

Next to me mum fidgets, she's probably thinking about what I told she and Mrs. Chan.

"I don't know for sure but I think this has something to do with Avery."

"Avery Chan?" Detective Shawn raises a brow sharply.

"Yeah. The thing is...I found her phone. It was broken and maybe even useless but I still took it. I was planning on fixing it you know, see if there's something valuable in it."

"But?" Lola supplies.

"But it got stolen the very night I found it."

The officers glance at each other and for a moment I wonder if they doubt me. That wouldn't make much of a difference to me though.

"Where did you find it?"

"Declan Jones' beach house. But Declan didn't know anything about it, only Damien. He was there when I found the phone."

"Do you think Damien might have stolen it?" Shawn inquires.

"I don't think so honestly, he didn't even know Avery. I do think it's fishy that Avery's phone was in Declan's house."

"Yes, that is fishy. When he was interrogated he made it pretty clear that he had nothing to do with her. So why would her phone be there?"

"He was obviously hiding something," Lola mutters under her breath. I consider the two detectives quietly as they added things up. In one Swift movement Detective Shawn stands up and regards me.

"Thank you very much for your time and honesty, we may have to come back another time," he says.

"Of course sir," I nod quickly. They start walking towards the door and mum follows closely behind them. She murmurs a good bye to them and doesn't turn back around until they've left the driveway.

"Why didn't you tell them about the note?" She hisses at me the moment they're gone.

"I still got the message across without telling them about the note. Besides it's pretty much useless, they never found it."

"Adonis I'm not comfortable with you deciding what is and what isn't useful. You're an 18 year old boy not a cop!"

"Now now mum, I don't want us to fight over this. I'm going upstairs to rest, please wake me up for dinner." I push myself up with little effort and nod slightly to my mother, who's looking at me like a hawk monitoring her prey. When she makes no move to object I proceed to climbing the stairs up to my bedroom and boy what a relief it is when my eyes land on my bed.

  The events of the day spin around my head like I'm reliving them; the interrogation, sitting with the lacrosse players, Jordan...Jordan. Well, I guess I'll deal with that later. For now...I collapse on the bed and feel my limbs grow weak.

For now I'll sleep.

||

  I wake up in a flash but it's not the scent of food that startles me up nor is it my mum knocking on the door. I whip my head at my beat up Samsung and groan loudly. That continuous ping is so loud that it literally walked into my dream and demanded that I wake up! Who on Earth could be texting me so repeatedly!?

   In one Swift motion I grab the phone, ready to give it straight to the cause of my problems but my entire being freezes when I see the last message.

He's quite bipolar. Flips like a switch

It's Damien. Damien's the one texting me. Hurriedly I unlock my phone and go straight to the message. He's sent me 10 messages in the space of 3 minutes.

Hey, sorry I couldn't see you today.
Sorry about your arm.
I hope what I'm about to share to you makes you feel better, idk y it would tho.
Declan's pretty chill around Jessica, brother goals yg?
But when he's with his friends he goes alpha mode.
There's hardly anything he says that they don't do. Pretty controlling.
No one's objected yet so I don't know what he would do if someone chooses not to do what he says.
Oh and he practices a lot so he's pretty hefty, even for a lacrosse player.
Idk tho, those rumors about him binge drinking...are they true? I haven't seen him swallow a drop since.
He's quite bipolar. Flips like a switch.

   By the time I'm rereading the last message my eyes are so wide they could probably fall out. He's online so I text back real quickly.

Hey! Thanks a lot, I'll be sure to forward this to Sandra. I don't know if she'll be able to write everything though but her articles are pretty steamy. Could you get more info about his exercise pattern?

  I don't give a fuck about his exercise pattern but I'm playing a role here. Damien doesn't reply so I drop my phone and make a beeline to Avery's diary on my table. Her entries are short and cryptic but it's pretty clear that he is someone she's scared of. Someone she trusted? Someone...controlling?

  It's hard to believe but it takes a lot of my mental powers to go through Avery's diary. For some reason I dread the next pages like a child dreads a visit to the dentist. I don't know if I want to know everything in this book but I'm going to have to read it all if I'm to get anything substantial, like when this whole thing started. With that in mind, I take a sit on my bed, breathe in...and flip the pages.