wild and running || a.b. (series on hold)

Chapter 34

**im changing the spacing! let me know if this is easier to read than block style**

I get out and dry off, wrapping the towel around me. I stay facing the opposite way from Clay. "Do you have any clothes?" I ask him. He laughs, "You can turn around. I'm dressed." I turn around slowly to look at him and he smiles, running his fingers through his damp hair. "Sorry. I didn't bring any." I say apologetically. "No problem. I'll get you some."

He comes back with a large white shirt and some boxers he steps out and I slip them on. It smells like his cologne.

I walk back to the living room where everyone is sitting on the floor. Clay brought tons of  pillows and blankets down. I see that Marie is now up and everyone is talking happily. I sit in an open spot in the circle. "So when did you and Marie meet?" James asks me. I raise my eyebrows, "First grade when she pushed me off the school yard bleachers." Marie starts to laugh causing everyone else to also. "Yeah. She was pretty violent. We also fought over Popsicle sticks. Michael Jackson was both of our husbands." 

Marie and I laugh at our memories. "What about you and Clay?" James asks.

The familiar memory catches my mind.

I walked to the carpool line with my new, fancy rolling backpack. There was a boy standing next to me that I've recognized. He must be in another class of my grade level. He turned and looked at me. The first thing I noticed was his eyes. His eyes were blue. Not the ordinary sky blue, or the small indigo flowers that spring up on the side of the road. His eyes were blue like the sea, crystal clear blue - shimmering and crashing and churning. Looking I to his eyes you could hear the waves crashing against the shore, see the foam flying into the air.

His eyes were blue like that warm wool sweater you put on when the wind blows a chill into the air - comfortable, warm, and familiar.

His eyes were that kind of blue.

I stood frozen, amazed by the beauty of them. "Hello." He smiles. I smile back with a small wave. We stand in silence for a little while. "You make religious bookmarks?" I asked him. He nods. I always see him on the bleachers drawing things for people. 

We chat for a little while longer until we are one of the last few waiting for our parents.

One of the teachers comes and gets all of us, bringing us down the street where there happened to be a crash-

"Ivory?" James asks.

"School." I reply shortly. He nods, "Cool."

I bring my knees up to my chest and place my head on them. Clay rubs my back gently, messing with my wet hair.

"How did you and Clay meet?" I ask James. He looks up at Clay and he stops running my back.

JAMES (yes I'm switching POV cause I can do that)

"How did you and Clay meet?" She sweetly asks. My heart drops. I should have seen it coming anyways. Clay makes eye contact with me and sends almost an imaginary wave of strength toward me.

I take a deep breath as I begin to explain.

Crash.

I sit up in my bed, awakened by a loud disturbance coming from downstairs for my small home. A sharp shriek rings through my ears and I switch on my bedside lamp. More screaming and yelling is heard causing my heart rate to pick up in fear. I grab my baby blue blanket I've slept with for the past eight years and slowly open my door. I hear my mother screaming and multiple things being thrown around the room. My father yells something I can't make out. 

With each step I take the sounds get louder, sending some unfamiliar sort of terror up my spine.

They definitely aren't arguing.

Something isn't right.

"DEREK!" My mom screams, the sound his earsplitting and full of pain unlike anything I've ever hear before. I get on my knees and peek around the corner slightly. 

I see to average sized men standing with knives. One is leaking a dark Crimson as my eyes lead to my father on the floor. Commotion stirs with my mom but I can't seem to take my eyes off of my father.

That's my father.

His blue button up work shirt is ripped, letting me know he had just returned home from the office. Blood seeps out in unbelievable amounts on to our white carpet, painting it a shade I've never imagined of seeing. 

He isn't moving.

My eyes flash to my mum, her blonde hair flying as she kicks and screams to defend herself from the man holding her back. It was blurry and strange, almost as if the whole world decided to go into slow motion. The man standing near my dad -

The man who stabbed him,

The man who stabbed him in the heart -

Walks over to my mom. With one swift movement he drives the knife through my moms chest. She screams, falling to the ground near my father. 

He stabbed her with the same knife that he stabbed my father.

My blood boils and my fists clench, tears fall from my eyes in thick and constant streams. 

"Did you get the jewelry?" The bigger man sternly asks the smallest one. He holds up a large back, surely full of my moms most precious items.

The two men bolt out of the door. As soon as I hear it slam I run to my mother who is sobbing on the floor, holding her chest as the same crimson drops on to the carpet.

"MUM!" I scream. Her body is trembling and quaking as she reaches out to my father. She goes to touch him, but takes her hand back like it would have burnt her hand to touch his skin.

"Get mummy the phone, love. Everything is alright. Quickly, please." She coos as I drop to my knees by her hair. I jump over her and all of the broken glass and wood spread across the floor. The front door is still wide open as cold air and light rain fall in. I grab the house phone and run to her. She dials the police explaining that there was a break in and she had been stabbed, the criminals are on the run.

She drops the phone and reaches over to my father once again, tugging gently on his shirt collar. "D-Derek w-w-wake up..." She whispers. 

My father's face is pale, lifeless. His eyes were still open, their lovely shade of bright green had come to almost a brown. 

I look over at my mum. Her eyes are slowly starting to shut. "Mum." I sob. I glance over to the hallways with the stairwell and see my blue blanket peeking into sight. I hop up and quickly grab it, running ro lay it over her.

"Thank you, James. I love you." 

"I love you more." I say to her while I look back at my father and grab his hand, ice cold, and I also grab my mother.

"God, please help-" I began to pray but freeze as I feel my mum's grip loosen. My head darts up as I hear sirens coming to my house. 

I standing the doorway as the freezing cold air hits my raw face, raindrops cutting into it like glass. Multiple police cars and ambulances drive in front of my house. Tons of people immediately start getting out of cars.

"HELP! PLEASE! MY PARENTS ARE DYING! PLEASE SAVE THEM!" I scream while running through the rain. An officer with fairly light skin and blonde hair grabs a hold of me and pulls me into his arms as I tremble and gasp, unable to breathe or possibly even see. He picks me up and opens the door to his car, turning the heater on and laying me back as I felt sudden dizziness and nausea. I fell on to the seat, my eyes closing and body going numb...