Kayden Van Din
The feeling sunk in. Kayden had just been slapped in the face with reality letting her know just how dangerous this was. She could feel unsettling guilt knot up in her stomach. Watching Logan clutching his best friend like a precious treasure, only sent her into a fit of tears.
Eryn looked at her with eyes that flickered between sadness and hatred. "What's your problem? Chip a nail?"
Kayden shook her head and remained quiet. She was trying to not let Eryn get under her skin. Kayden felt nothing but sadness for the disappearing boy who was still crying heavily and yelling at the sky. Kayden knelt beside him and put a hand in his shoulder. His face was buried in Darwin's neck.
"Leave me alone." His voice cracked from the angry tears. Kayden didn't move. She layed her hand over Darwin's knee. He was frozen solid, his limbs still and dangling. Kayden took her hand away in shock from the cold.
"Leave us alone!" Logan screamed this time, clutching Darwin's body. Kayden backed up. When Logan screamed, his eyes flickered from that curious blue to a violent red. Eryn started inching away beside Kayden.
"Us?" She whispered, worry laced in her words.
Kayden and Eryn seemed to forget all the spite between them as their hands latched together and Logan rose with Darwin's body still hanging in his arms. The tears were thick on his face but his features were tired. His skin looked stretched too thin to be real. It lay raw over his bones that seemed to stick out even more. He looked almost as if he wanted to cry, but he didn't. He only stared at us with red, gaunt eyes that seemed to lose the wonder they held before.
"Logan," Kayden said, trying to offer sympathy for the boy, "I know this is hard, but we'll get through."
A hard, scoff came from the lanky boy's lips and he stared at Kayden with a glare that spread throughout his body. His sharp, spindly bones seemed to absorb the hatred in his eyes. His nearly invisible arms and legs captivated his mystery and only deepened.
"Yeah. You'll get through it just fine. He wasn't your best friend. He wasn't your everything." The last word came out as nothing more than a sad whisper. Logan shook and looked like he'd crumple to the ground again. He managed to stay upright and glared again, this time at Eryn. "And don't think I've forgotten what I said earlier." With that he began to walk. Kayden had no clue where they were headed, but she wasn't about to question him. This only gave her time to think. Time for the open air and bitter silence to sallow her thoughts and let them roam around her head for a while.
She tried to avoid thinking about her brothers, but images of Norman and Brannon's dead bodies reeled inside her skull. They scraped at their confinement, setting off a stomach-wrenching headache. She silently begged her thoughts to leave her. For her brother's voices to quit swirling around in her mind. She could hear Norman so well she nearly fainted. He was so young and innocent and pure. Kayden felt nothing but guilt. While it wasn't her fault, she knew the police were looking for her. Another, more violent, thought pierced through Norman and Brannon's words.
How many people had Shadow killed?
What if there were more? What is murders committed recently had her name on it. At that, she wanted to rip her hair out and scream until her throat burned and her heart stopped. It wasn't her fault, right? A question that continuously played in her mind. She couldn't stop the thoughts from bulleting in her head. She couldn't stop any of it, true or not, from ricocheting against the fragments of bone that encased her brain. She couldn't help it. She couldn't stop it.
