How To Kill a Songbird

Chapter 35: Someone Taken, Someone Died

"MORGAN!! SOPH! GENTRY! JOHNSON!! WHERE ARE YOU?!" I called out as I was trying to feel my way out of there with my hands due to the smoke hiding everything over two feet from me. I finally reached a clearing that was in the center of the smoking destruction. All the grass was black like tar and all the trees that could fall were already down on the ground. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the person standing there.

It was a younger version of me rather than the clone from hell. She wore a thick oversized army jacket. It swallowed her whole. I used to wear jackets like that to hide. She wore a Marvel shirt and jeans. She wore dirty beat-up sneakers from Ecko. The shoes she wore reminded me of the ones I had as a little kid back in 2011. Now, they don't make them anymore. She looked to be 15 years old. She wore dirty, thick-rimmed glasses and had braces on her teeth. She had bangs. I wore bangs for the longest time since I was very little. I am glad I grew them out when I was 16 years old. They looked terrible. They were thick curtain bangs.

"They aren't here," the younger me responded. She twitched her neck a bit like something from a horror movie. "They left because you weren't good enough. Even your best friend and your new girlfriend. No one likes you and everyone hates you."

"Asher, that is not true," I started to say before this younger version jumped me, tackling me to the ground. I just barely was able to keep her from mauling me. This version of me was angrier.

"You are not good enough! That's why your dad hates you. You are such a fucking pussy. You gave up on yourself. You gave up on me," my younger self snapped at me.

"What the fuck were you talking about?!" I kicked her off before getting back on my feet. Suddenly Soph was there. She was standing by the younger me. The younger me circled around my best friend laughing.

"You gave up on your mission, Asher. Justice for what Harlow did to you. Now she is one of us as penance for your betrayal," the younger me laughed.

No! God no! Not her!

"WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU DO!?" I demanded.

"All hail, my lord and savior James Dean William Joesph Harlow," my best friend smiled. "Down with the House of MacArthur."

I shot out of bed, woken up by a shrill scream. I noticed that Morgan was trying to wake me up too. Her hand was on my shoulder. She had to have been trying for a few seconds because she hadn't gotten up yet to check it out herself. I realized who was screaming. It was Soph. I quickly got up and grabbed a robe from the bathroom. I threw one to her so she could cover herself up enough to help me. I was stumbling slightly. I saw on the bathroom clock it was 3 am. I was still high from the weed I took to sleep.

"What's going on?" I asked as I wrapped myself up.

"I don't know," sighed Morgan. She wrapped the robe around her. "I just woke up."

"I am going after her," I yelled as I ran out of the room.

She suddenly stopped when I ran out, "Ash, wait it might be a trap!"

I didn't have time to worry about the consequence. Those few seconds could mean life and death for my best friend. I was hauling ass down the hall to Soph's room. I ran down the hallway. I almost ran into the wall before turning in the new direction.

"Ash, don't be stupid! Wait for me!" Morgan called out. I couldn't wait. It was now or never.

"You know me, honey," I called out to her from across the house. I reached for Soph's bedroom doorknob. Soph's screams were almost overstimulating on their own. "I am stubborn and pigheaded. That's the same as stupid."