One by One

Chapter 8- Guarding Faith

As we drive away in silence to my mother's house, I try to think of all the possible places my mother could have hid that thing. The thing that held so many lives and had such power to change it. This wasn't any drive, this was proof, this was a story, and this was victims that never got justice. I wasn't going to let it happen. I curse to myself as I pull up in front of my mother's house. It wasn't the same as before. I sob thinking what they did to my mother. Her potted plants were thrown everywhere. The red door was kicked open. I fear to think about what they did here. What they did to her.

"What now?" William asks, breaking the silence. They look at me and I look back at the house.

"We scour what they've not, in hopes of finding that goddamn drive is what we'll be doing now", I said. I wasn't going to give up. I wasn't.

The house was torn to bits, not literally but there were shelves thrown to the ground. Glass was everywhere, I believe my mother put up quite a fight. I tried thinking about the different scenarios that could have taken place and I'm brought back to the realm when Will suddenly asks whether or not I knew where the drive was hidden.

"I don't. My mother never had the opportunity of telling me", I mutter, disappointed and feeling stupid for not asking her earlier.

"Okay, well. Do you at least know how it looks like? Or maybe how old it is?" Devon asked.

"No... I've never seen it before. It's at least 9 or ten years old, maybe older," I said, guiltily.

"Okay, well, I would know what it may look like. Collect all the pen drives you can find in this house, then bring it to me. I'll know whether or not it's that old", Will said, and we complied.

We scoured the whole house, turning it even more upside down, this house didn't hold that much. It was really simple, I believe my mother didn't want to make herself to comfy here. I would understand since she was always on the run. We only managed to find 5 pen drives and all of them were not as old as we thought they were. Will started up his laptop he stuffed in his bag and checked all the pen drives hoping there might have been some clue whatsoever or at least something. It wasn't that easy. All the pen drives either contained nothing or was corrupted. I tried to think back. Have faith she said. I had to have faith. Faith. Faith. She had faith in a lot of people. She had faith in me. She had faith in the nurses back in the mental w-. Oh my god. The pen drive is with them. She trusted them. They trusted her.

"I know where it is", I said, finally breaking the intensity. They stared at me, waiting for my answer. "No time. Come, quick!" I said, grabbing my bag I opened the door and left the two boys to gather up their stuff. Faith.

"Okay, where are we going now, baby?" Devon said, as he got into the passenger seat. I started driving away before I could answer.

"Mental hospital", I said, and with that the boys nodded in approval. This wasn't going to be easy.

Devon put his hand on my thigh and squeezed when I looked over to his saddened look. I felt awful, causing him so much pain. The ringing of my phone made me flinch. I looked over to its screen and realize it was Deborah. "Deb? What is it?"

"Hey Brady? There were people at my door just a minute ago, looking for you. I told them I hadn't seen you all day and well that I didn't know where you were". She says over the phone and her panicky voice makes my stomach churn. I sigh out a breath of relief, but start worrying. If they know who my friends are, they ought to know Frank and Georgie too, I can't let anything happen to them. Oh lord.

"Thank you Deb. Call Luke and the rest for me, will you? Tell them to get out of their houses and tell them to gather at one spot away from everything okay?" I said.

"I will, stay safe okay? I don't know what's going on but I have faith", she said, and with that I push on the brakes so hard Will flies out of his seat and hits his head on the roof of the car.

"Um, ouch?" he whimpers and rubs his head.

I ignore Will and get back to Deb. She has it. But why? How?

"Deb, I'm coming". With that I am driving, no, more like speeding my way to Deb's house. Where I'm going to have more questions that are going to need more answers to.

It was late in the afternoon before we reached Deb's house and I was worried. My mother, whose been kidnapped from her home, is now in the hands of ruthless, merciless people she's been running away from all because of me.

"Hey Deb, you have a lot of explaining to do", I said, as I plopped myself down on her couch. The boys look to me in confusion. "Brades, explain to me what we're doing here again", Dev said, as he plopped himself down on the couch.

"Deb has the pen drive", I answer.

"But why?" Will asked, standing up, arms crossed, revealing his muscular veins. If that's even what it's called.

"Look guys, I'm not as young as you think, I'm 25. Back when I was younger, your mom made me watch you're every move. Made me protect you. I had to be really careful with who I was. That's all I've been doing all my life, giving my life to you but with the circumstances as it is now, I understand it's time to stop hiding since they've taken your mom," she said, biting her fingernails.

"So all this while, you've been my what, guardian angel?" I asked, smiling at how my closest friend has been yet another person who's said she wasn't what I thought she was.

"Sort of, depends on what you take me as. I'm still pretty much gay though and you're always going to be my closest friend," She smiled. I smiled back. After all these years, all the lies, the deceit that has been spoon-fed to me now lay on what people called a silver tray. My silver tray was nothing but rusted metal. That was how I felt.

"Well then, since that's taken care of. We are going to rescue my mom, but I need to do a few things before that's possible. I kind of have a plan but I need everyone to be in this," I said, leaning forward. As Devon put his arm around me and squeezed my shoulder, I knew I wasn't alone. Even after the treacherous past I've been hindering away from, I was never alone. I had people, I had friends, I had him, and it was now or never that I ended this, once and for all. I needed to be who I truly was, I needed to do what I should have, I needed to save the people I love. They can't save me forever, it was my turn. I wasn't going to turn away now, not now. Not after all those years of me being weak.

I'm not the girl I was.

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HI guys! Sorry for the short chapter, I have a lot of people over my house and hadn't had the time to post up anything. I've been posting up unedited chapters, so if you somehow see that I've updated but not posted anything, its me going through my errors. I'm so sorry for any inconveniences caused.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter! I mean come on, I bet you didn't see that coming XD

Alright, have lovely weekends y'all and yes, ill be posting up another chapter maybe sometime later, feeling generous today :p