Shadow's Within

15 : On the move.. again!

The warm air feels cold. My arms covered in blood, dripping wet into the lifeless corpse. The shot has made a mess. The reaper bits and flesh has exploded into my clothes. It's disgusting, both sight and smell.

I glance back to mom and see her becoming weaker than she did before. I check her temperature and it's higher than just seconds ago. This is bad.

I carry her over my shoulders and hoister her towards the door and down the stairs. I rest her on the couch. Chase is still unconscious, so I give him a good punch to wake him up. He jumps straight bolt at the immediate cause of pain, looking confuse to the surrounding atmosphere.

"What.. happen?" he asks.

I point him to the right. "Reapers. Two of them. Down unconscious, upstairs dead"

"Dead?" he rubs his eyes.

"Yeah, kill her, shot in the head"

He didn't respond.

After he gets up on his feet, he realizes the full catastrophe of the situation, looking down on mom, blood smearing all across her clothes.

"Wait! What happen to her?" he almost shouted.

I grab him by the shirt and pulls him closer. "QUIET! Don't shout, she's in no condition to be hearing you shouting like a little girl"

After he calms, I release and he sits down beside me. "I'm sorry. Didn't mean to shout."

"It's fine"

"So what happen?" he asks again.

I sigh. Letting out a pall of breath. "The reaper upstairs. Shot her cold blood just for her own excitement"

Much to the situation, I knew it's just a matter of time before people would be coming, hearing the sound of the gunshot.

I purse my lips. "Tch. Grab the key! We're getting out of here"

"Where?" he asks quizzically.

I'm holding mom over me, getting her to stand. "Anywhere... we can't stay here long... people would hear the gunshot.. police going to come"

"But she's in no condition to walk far" he said.

"I know!" I shout. "But I can't leave her here, she'll be dead in a few hours" I point over to the kitchen. "Try searching for some medicine over there. There's got to be something we can use to slow her pain. Any painkillers, antibiotics would be great"

"Got it" he hurries to the kitchen.

I try talking to mom. "Hey mom, you okay?"

Her eyes flip open, barely. "I'm.... here" I can hear the pain in her voice.

"Any luck on the medicine?!" I glance behind me. Chase is creating a loud commotion in the kitchen. A quick banging sound and clinging noise of pots and plates crashing together.

"Not yet. There's a bunch of medicine for hemorrhoid tho.... Wait! Yes. Got some painkillers here." He sounds please.

"Great!" I said. "Now let's get moving, the neighbors had to hear that gunshot and already call the cops. By my estimation, the cops are already own their way. We have 10 minutes' tops."

The whole situation is a profound mess. One disarray to the next. I check for anything that I could use but the only feature that enthralls me is the collections of photos lying deserted on the coffee table. The pictures scatters all around; the picture of my families, our families are now a complete disaster. I took a handful of the pictures and shove them into my pockets.

Chase returns from the kitchen with a generous amount of medicine and the car keys.

We hurry through the living room, down the set of stairs and into the eerie night. We march past every house and cars and discover every light of the house in every direction of the pavement has been lighted up. It's as I fear; they heard the gunshot.

The journey took only a couple of minutes before we arrive at the green Chrysler I stole two days ago. I pluck the car door open and immerse myself into the car before gently inserting mom into the seat. I command Chase to rev up the engine and asks him to drive the car. I prefer staying at the back seat, holding mom.

"We ready?" I asks.

"Yeah" he musters.

"Get a move on!"

Chase stuck his feet hard on the pedal and we drove away from the house that I grew up in. The blaring sound of the police sirens echoing through the night sky as we fall away from the ambiance.

I glance back one last time to see the house where I know I'll never be coming back. Tonight is the night I, we say farewell and move forward in our lives.