Pieces Part 1

Dream

Not this place again.

I slowly craned my head up to the sky. My vision was darkened by the tall shadows of the building above.

Not any building, either. I recognized its yellow bricks and Victorian finishes. That today, for some reason, was lit up by flashing sirens.

"Hey, I'm in front of my apartment building," I murmured. I'd just woken up, but I was fatigued. Sucked dry of energy. And as I became more lucid about my surroundings, it made sense that I felt this way.

This was the scene of my arrest.

Loud, piercing cries invaded my train of thought. I glanced to my left to see Amber, who shouted my name from the top of her lungs.

"MOE! MOE!!" Her scarlet cheeks flared with each call. I noticed her hands were gripping something tightly—something I'd seen before.

"...Is that my trinket?" I gasped. I strained my eyes to see the object better. In the haze of death, tears, and anger that surrounded me, the remembrance should've been my one flicker of clarity.

If only I could run to Amber and find out what her palm held. I didn't want anything to do with this unrest—the flashing cameras, the hurls of threats, and the cold, bruising metal that was being slapped onto my wrists.

"Son, you are under arrest," the sergeant boomed emotionlessly. I remembered his vacant voice. And everything that followed his pronouncement.

Amber's brother broke past the caution tape as expected. His spectacle distracted the officers, so I slinked out of their watch and headed for an escape.

You'll never escape Tina's death.

A knot of dread burrowed into my chest, but I chose to ignore it. Now was not the time to mourn. I knew what being back here beckoned me to do, and I had little time to think twice.

Ignoring the trespasser's howls for his jacket, I pumped my calves as hard as possible to bolt away. Everything around me whirred into a blur, except for one thing.

I knew I saw something. Or should I say, someone...whichever was the case, it wasn't like I could stop. I needed to run now, and there was no chance in hell that person was here.

Nor would I ever be able to reverse my or Tina's fate.