After Midnight

Chapter 21

I stood impatiently next to Barry as he dug through his files and mumbled curse words every once and a while.

"I swear I just had it", He mumbled.

"Barry, what are you looking for?"

"Everything", He pulled out all his files and looked through them one by one."I can't find any of my files"

"They're literally right there"

"I'm not talking about these. I'm talking about the ones I actually need", He opened another drawer."The ones we need"

"Where'd you have them last?", I asked, walked around him and started searching too.

"I put them in here", He said. He was opening all of them one by one. I stopped looking when I saw him freeze. I looked up at him and walked over to see what he was looking at.

"What?"

He was holding a piece of paper with sloppy handwriting on it.

"They took everything from me", He whispered.

"What is it?"

He handed me the paper and I felt another one under it.

11:59 the paper said. I looked at the picture under it of a man with a knife in his chest and a gun next to his head.

"Who-who is that?", I asked softly. He sat down and closed his eyes.

"That's my dad", He gripped the edge of his seat and hung his head down.

I looked up and stared at him for a few seconds before I walked over to him and held his hand. He didn't look up at me so I tugged on his hand. He stood up and I hugged him around his neck. He hugged me tightly and buried his face in my neck.

It hurt me, knowing that he might not cry.

"You can't be here", He said and pulled away from me."You can't be around me. They'll kill you too"

"They wanted me dead from the moment I moved here"

"It started when you found me"

"It started when Dane found out", I held his hands."Not when I found you"

"Why do you think they killed all those people, Arin?"

"Because they're murderers"

"No..", He shook his head lightly."Because they were all close to me"

"That's not-"

"The only people they have killed are my entire family, my best friend, my girlfriend, the only other friend I've ever had, and now they're after you and Dalton. Ever asked yourself why? Because I'm getting closer to both of you"

"They're after Dane. You barely know him"

"They only hurt him once. As a warning, so he wouldn't tell anyone"

"But-"

"That's the way it will always be, Arin. This is about hurting me, and if you and Dalton just walk away, then maybe they'll leave you alone"

"They're not going to leave us alone. Not now. We already know too much"

"I don't want them to kill you", He whispered."You guys are all I have left"

"So we fight back", I held his hands tighter."Thats all we can do"

He shook his head."Please.."

"You can't get rid of me that easily"

"I don't want to hurt anymore"

I shook my head."I can't just leave you"