Estranged [Completed]

Laying Low

Later, they dumped the truck in a ditch and hitched a ride in a taxi. Kalei had donned a pair of sunglasses and a sweatshirt they pilfered from the truck, and they found a baseball cap to cover the healing bullet wound on Josh's head as they propped him up between them, claiming he was just passed out drunk when the taxi driver looked at them questioningly. The cabbie didn't seem to approve of a drunk thirteen-year-old, but it was better than telling him it was a temporarily dead thirteen-year-old.

Kalei was grateful for the sweatshirt, but the glasses had been at Jenna's insistence. "Xamic made you famous, honey. The driver gets one look at your face, and everyone goes nuts. You shoulda seen the news when you chased Xamic down that interstate. They have experts on you now." Jenna had given a short laugh as she pulled Kalei's hood over her head.

For the most part, though, the taxi driver wasn't overly concerned with Kalei's attire, or with their "passed-out-drunk" friend. He only had eyes for Jenna's half-exposed melons. Once they arrived at a grimy motel, Jenna pouted her lips, invented some sob story about losing their wallets in last night's fun, and the driver grudgingly let them go for free after a quick peek at the items of his affection.

Kalei stayed in the parking lot with Josh while Jenna worked more of her magic on the motel manager, probably sharing more than the brief flash she had given the cabbie, and soon they were climbing the stairs to their new room.

Kalei couldn't even look at her sister. She was ashamed of what Jenna had done, and even more ashamed that she had let her do it.

Once Jenna opened the door, Kalei immediately found the nearest bed and dumped Josh into it. Kalei knew this hotel. She had done guard duty for a number of crime scenes at this place. She had only seen the interior of the rooms in passing, but nonetheless, it was odd to see the cheap, garish furniture sitting neatly in their places. Usually, they were tossed about the room, or half covered in someone's blood. Almost like a recovery room, except the wreckage was ten times cheaper to replace.

As it was, a pair of twin-sized beds covered with red leopard print sat pushed against the wall, a small, wooden nightstand between them. A gaudy painting featuring a large, well-endowed woman in a cocktail dress overshadowed the drab lamp on the table, and on the opposite wall stood a pasty green dresser with a fat, cracked television on top. A door at the back led to the bathroom, but Kalei's nose told her she had no interest in investigating. The main room already smelled like sex and vomit overlaid with the sickening tang of artificial citrus. She had no desire to know what the bathroom smelled like. Instead, she plopped down on the second bed while Jenna found a short armchair near the door to fall into.

The girls sat in silence for a moment, taking a deep, mental breath after the mayhem of the afternoon. While the furnishings were distracting enough to take Kalei's mind off things, they were almost painful to look at. So instead, she found herself looking at Josh, lying perfectly limp on the bed where she had dropped him. She noticed that his head hung off one edge of the bed, and his arm was twisted in a painful angle beneath his body. Kalei leaned forward and straightened the boy out, berating herself for being so careless.

Jenna remarked, "Dumbass is slow to recover."

"Whatever. He'll wake up soon. "

Jenna kicked her feet up onto the bed and leaned back in her chair, eyeing Kalei. "So what is this? One minute, you're all, 'I'm gonna kill the Estranged!' and now you're savin' 'em? What the hell?" Jenna pulled her hands forward and started counting out on her fingers. "We've got Terin and all of frickin' SWORDE after us, Franklin's pissed, who the hell knows what Xamic is up to, and now we're playin' babysitter to some dumbass kid? Shit." Jenna flopped her arms onto the armrests. "So what now?"

Kalei looked back at Josh's body. If it wasn't for the bullet-hole in his forehead, or the fact that he wasn't breathing, he could've been just another teenager, passed out on a Saturday afternoon after a late night of video games. As it was, she knew what he was. She knew he was Estranged. But when she asked herself why she bothered to take him along, when she asked herself what they were going to do next...

Kalei replied, "I don't know."

Jenna pulled her feet off the bed and leaned forward. "I'll tell you my plan." She pointed at Josh. "I'm gonna get rid of this punk-ass kid ASAP. I can't stand the immature little son of a—"