Inside the Shadow

Chapter nine: - Inside The Shadow POV: Zachariah

When arriving home from seeing Mairi at the hospital, I immediately kicked off my shoes and headed towards the kitchen. Despite the exhaustion I was swimming in, I was also extremely hungry. I opened the fridge and found some humus in the back, and I came across some pita bread and took a seat at the dining table. Opening them both up I started scooping it into my mouth trying to satiate my appetite so I could finally get some much-needed rest. I unlocked my phone and began to scroll through my notifications hoping to see one from Mairi even though I had just seen her in a loopy state and without a phone. Instead, there was a message from my father saying 'Kun amna hunaka. Uhibuk Zakaria,' which meant, 'Be safe out there. I love you, Zachariah.'

With all that happened in these past twenty-four hours, it would show why my dad would send me such a message. The amount of trouble I caused throughout my childhood that my dad seemed to always make up for, whether I destroyed something, stole, or what I did or was involved with led to someone being hurt was astounding. Mairi now being the one that I betrayed was not the only time my or my friend's behavior was reckless. A few years back, in Freshman year, a few friends of mine and I went to our first high school party where it was expected to have kids who were at least Juniors or older, there being a couple of super seniors. That being the case, most of them were intended to be drinking and groups were to be smoking Mary-Jane in the bathrooms.

When we first walked up to the front porch we were stopped by one of the oldest guys in sight, him almost not letting us in because we probably all looked like a lost group of babies trying to crash a party back then. However, the house was my best friend Arron's, and his older sister was the one actually throwing the party. Arron came outside after the older guy, to lead us inside. As we entered the smell of alcohol was strong and the music loud, fueling our adrenaline rush even more as we were taken to the kitchen for some beers. We all toasted, clanking our cans together in celebration not knowing the chaos that would later ensue.

Further into the night, there were more troublemakers in the crowd than before, and my clan was all blasted hanging out upstairs in the hall in front of the double staircase blocked by the ledge railing. Arron and one of the other guys named Frank were play-fighting as if attempting to imitate a couple of Mortal Kombat characters in a battle. We all laughed along as the house was still pretty crowded and the two of them kept bumping into strangers, one of the people being the girlfriend of Jax; The toughest senior in the school. His girlfriend was bumped so hard that she landed roughly on her knee and spilled her drink over Jaxs shoes.

"Oh shit." Was all I could manage to say as we watched Jax approach Frank, the one who knocked his girl over by accident, and he grabbed Frank up with the collar of his shirt. We all stood there and watched in a drunken stupor as he was lifted up and leaned against the stairwell railing to where if he fell it would have been a few feet before he would end up at the bottom set of steps. A few of us guys came forward to attempt to calm Jax but to him, we were nothing but a few prepubescent punk kids. Jax's girlfriend managed to get a grip on his free hand and influenced him to let Frank go.

You would imagine that after that we would all go our separate ways after an event like that but no. Instead of getting away unscathed, Frank turned back to come face-to-face with Jax once more and decided to punch him right in the nose. All of us bystanders took a few steps back gasping at the sight. Jax in a daze clenched Frank's arms and half threw him to the side sending him flying towards the railing. Jax, realizing how physical this had gotten, stepped away before he even knew how severe the damage he caused was. Our group all rushed over to Frank who was now knocked out cold and leaned over against the bottom half of the railing, the only source of protection from being thrown down the staircase by Jax. As we approached Frank, I shook him gently hoping it was going to wake him. Rather than him coming too and us all leaving, I noticed that there was a gash on the left side of Frank's head, blood dripping down leading to a stain forming on his white Nike Tee.