Ted&Nancy with Jim

Uh oh

We drove and drove out into nowhere in the night. I looked at the time it was almost midnight. There was darkness around me, darkness within the hearts of my kidnappers and darkness inside of me, but every time I close my eyes the fire that I created is the only light in my life. I don't know what is gonna happen next but I think of my best friend who is probably dying right now, but I hope he's dead so he doesn't have to suffer longer. My best friend who I've known since the 6th grade, played football with, and did everything together with is dead because of me, because of them. I hate those two hags. Ted, who never seems to run out of energy and Nancy, who is sleeping doesn't care about how I hurt or who I hurt. They deserve to be lit on fire, not me. I still blame myself. If I was never born Matthew and others who've died could've had futures, careers, spouses, kids, but it's a Pipe-dream now. I can't stop thinking about it. I think either my guilt or the beer is getting to me so I had vomited what ever was in my body and just passed out.
***
"Get up already," I heard after being thrown to the rough ground, giving me more pain thanks to concrete. I was hoping with all my heart it was just a dream. Nope, Nancy dragged me out of the car to wake me up. It was the beginning of the morning near a bunch of stores in what looks like the middle of nowhere and I start to miss my father's wake up calls now that Nancy's are way worse.

"You got crap all over the backseat, and you're gonna clean it."

I just remembered I let out my angst on their backseat. I would consider it payback, but I have to clean it. "Oh yeah and you got blood on the side of the car, like I wouldn't notice."

"Do you have some soap, or a towel I can use?" I asked.

"Nope. There's a convenient store nearby, though."

"Cool, I need some cash for-"

"I'm not giving you any money," Nancy interrupted, "You get it anyway you can."

I breathed in and let out a breath. I glare at the ground since I know it's foolish to glare at Nancy even when i hate this woman. I walked in order to save my energy because I knew she meant stealing it. I passed the gas station we were near and went past another before going into a small convenient store. I saw a little bit of everything and the shopkeeper said something to me in Spanish and gave me a single glance and had his full attention back at the local news that was on on the TV. Great, can't ask for help. Just had to take French. Despite that, the distraction made it easy for me to slip what I needed out of here. I went through the aisles to see if there was any soap.

I first laid my eyes on bottles of water that was near me so I casually took one. I went through the aisles to find at least something to cover the smell, but no luck on that. I paced all the aisles, then saw liquid soap. Good enough. It wasn't far from the napkins one would have at a party. i remember I have the $20 Nancy gave me so I could use that. I collected the things and carried it to the counter, placing it in front of him. I was home free until I heard,

"Breaking news!" It was the TV above me, "A local house was set on fire during a party last night," Crap, I felt my heart beat more intensly and looked around looking very suspicious, "Nearly 17 people are dead and more are in intensive care or injured." I didn't have a single item scanned since he was looking at the TV. As long as they don't know it's me I should be- "The leading suspect is Jimmy Smalls," then I froze at the sight of my yearbook picture which made me make eye contact with the shocked and scared looking shop keep.

"¡Oye!" he shouted, but then looked at me in utter surprise. "¡El asesino! Voy a llamar a la policía!" I barely understood that but I had pulled up my pants and picked up all of the things in a haste and ran without paying while he was dialing the phone. I ran out of there with the unpaid items bunched in my hands and ran off past the stores, losing my breath as I saw the car get closer to me as I ran.

I saw Nancy in the driver's seat and Ted asleep in the passenger seat. I had dropped everything on the ground and opened the car door, threw everything in the backseat making it bounce around and getting in yelling, "Drive, drive, drive!" Nancy then looked back at me and smiled. "What's the rush?" She asked. "The store owner is calling the cops!" She then dropped the nice old lady act and stepped on the gas speeding us away. I was physically relieved, but I was mentally exhausted. "Nancy, I need my phone." I said.

"Not happening kid."

"Seriously, we're wanted by the police for the fire, I need to see if the news knows any info about us."

"No, any info about you! I'm an innocent old lady, but I suppose you can use your phone after you clean your mess."

I want to hurt this woman badly, but unbuckled my seat belt and reached for the water bottle and then poured it on the vomit. I reached for the soap and squeezed it over as much of the wet mess as I could see.

I grabbed the paper towels and dab all over the mess. I had to use more and more of it as I cleaned more of the mess, but after half of it was used I had gotten most of the mess.

"Okay Nancy I cleaned the mess," I announce.

"Okay, let Ted find your phone. Ted wake up!" She smacked his face, waking him up. He was confused as he rubbed his face grumbling something under his breath as usual.

"The kid needs his phone. Get it from my purse please." He picked up her purse from under the seat and dug through it until he picked up my phone. Once he handed it to me, I saw it was at 10%, but I quickly unlocked it showing my mom and dad blew up my phone. Ted was holding it so I couldn't see what it was so I went on the local news channel's website and the first thing I saw was my yearbook photo with the headline Local teen, Jimmy Smalls is confirmed for arson. I clicked on the page and scrolled for info. It's telling me stuff I already knew, but says I was last seen near a gas station outside of town but nothing on Ted and Nancy. I turned off my phone and gave it back to Ted. I slap my hand over my face and sighed

"I hope this will end soon."

"It will," Ted said. That was not comforting.