A Little Death

XIX

The phone rings. I look at the table, still on the couch where the phone is kept. Joshua swears under his breath, in a sleepy voice. I pat him on the chest from inside his hoodie and tell him to pick the phone up.

'Who the fuck is calling me right now?' He blinks hard and shuffles a little. He stretches an arm into the sleeve and outwards to the table while I put my head to his neck, shading my eyes from the light.

'Who is this?'

'HEYY J-MAN WHAT'S GOOD-' I hear Kristin's voice shout off my eardrums. The phone isn't even on speaker. 

Joshua yawns, 'Hey Kris, what do you want? It's 7 in the morning.'

'See, I tried to call Skye but her phone is probably dead because she isn't replying. Can you, like, give her the phone?' I hold my hand out of the neck hole of the hoodie and he hands me the phone. 

He then puts his hand on my head that's barely poking out and puts his own head on mine. It feels warm and nice and I never want to move from here.

'What?' I ask Kristin with full intention to make sure she knows she woke me up.

'Sheesh, no need to be rude. See,'  I am now fully awake. I get up and out of the hoodie. 'We'll talk when I'm over.' I frown. 

'Well, I'll send you my address.' 

'Oh don't worry, I already have it. I tracked your location some days ago.'

'When are you gonna be here?' Joshua furrows his eyebrows at me. He mouths a what happened at me.

I nod at him, telling him to wait. 

'I'm already here.' There's a knock on the door. Curse her for making me move from the very likable position I was in, sandwiched between him and his hoodie. I walk to the bedroom to find myself a t-shirt. 

He gets up to unlock the door and Kristin laughs nervously as she comes in. I hear Joshua complaining to her about why she would possibly choose this time and what could be so important. I come back out of the bedroom, clothed. Kristin looks at me, and laughs even more. The cackles get more and more nervous as they go on.

'Is the reason for your visit to report your brain rot?' Joshua asks her, listening to the manic laughter coming from her and she glares at him. 

'Tomer. He called.' His gaze darts to me then back to Kris.

Fuck.

'What?'

'Skye, your dad... Alright, you're gonna have to sit down for this.' She tells me, eyes clouded with worry. I take a seat and she goes on. 

'So, you know how they've been planning to overthrow your dad somehow? Looks like they succeeded. Tomer said he tried to send a death threat straight to you, but he couldn't, some sort of barrier. He threatened me and everyone on our side. He said that if you want Frank back,' she grits her teeth, 'you AND Joshua are gonna have to come visit him. He says that he'll spare your dad's life if you turn yourselves over to him.' 

What a petty little man. I know I shouldn't have gone and attacked him, this happened because of me, I should've thought of the repercussions that this would have on my dad. 

What the fuck was I thinking?

How could I be so fucking selfish?

What is WRONG WITH ME?

If I hadn't done this in the first place, Dad would be okay. Someday we would meet up and sort it out together. We would sit down and talk about it. I'm such a fucking idiot. I should've known this could've happened.

I don't even know why I did this. Actually, I do. For my own fucking selfish, narcissistic needs. For him to apologize to me first.

Like it even matters now. 

Now I've put both me and Joshua in danger. I promised myself I wouldn't let him get this involved. I bite my lip, as I feel like barbed wire is being wrapped around my throat and my eyes start to well up. Kris notices and sits with me and wraps me up in a big hug.

'It's gonna be okay. I'm here for you.We'll fight back. I know you can take down Tomer's ass.'

I try to stop my voice from quivering, 'but- the whole mafia is against me if he's really in control.'

'You have more allies than you think, and you know that. You think Frank's friends and your family don't already have a plan? You know them better than that, Skye. You have no reason to worry. I love you.' Kris comforts me and I wrap my arms around her. She wipes away the few droplets coming out of my eyes. She looks up towards Joshua and nods. He nods back.

Joshua's POV

'Are you sure you wanna do this?' Skyler asks me for the millionth time. I understand her worry, but she's underestimating me way too much.

'Yes, I'm sure. And if you ask me this ONE MORE TIME, I will come home and shag your brains out after we beat this dude's ass.' She looks at me with her eyes, bloodshot from crying and her nose red. She fastens the knife to her thigh, her gun in her pocket. Her backpack is filled with weapons I didn't even know existed. She gives me and Kris a few.

We get in the car we rented for the night. I sit in the driver's seat, and Kris sits in the back seat, trying to hack the systems. 

Skyler, on the other hand, has decided to take her bike there. She zips ahead of us before I even turn on the car. I hurriedly shove the key into the key hole and step on the gas. About an hour of driving and we're here. I see Skyler slow down in front of me and she parks her bike in the bushes. She looks back and sees us.

I get out of the car, the headquarters are about a quarter of a mile away. Kristin gets out of the car with her open laptop still in her hand. She's typing something and I see the screen flash green and red on her face.

We walk with hurried steps towards a small shack next to a large building, passersby wouldn't know THIS was the entrance to the building, and for most people walking in for the first time, they come out with their lives entirely changed, or they don't walk out in one piece. Still, with this information, I turn the handle. Skyler grabs my left hand and clenches it tight. 

We walk in.