Identity - Rewritten

Chapter Two

August 2008

Eva's attention is immediately caught by her front door as she approaches, the hinges obviously busted and the door sitting crooked in the frame.

She stills for only a second before rushing forward and pulling the door open, eyes drawn to the movement in her field of vision– her bedroom door has been haphazardly thrown open, and through the doorway she can see a few people, clad in black, exiting via her window. She catches only a glimpse of two blurry faces before they disappear out of the window.

"Hey!" she yells, rushing toward them, before she trips over something in her path, tumbling onto the floor. She looks back at whatever it was, planning to glance for only a second before getting a look at the burglars, when she takes in the body beneath her legs and the dark, pooling blood beneath it.

It's then that she screams.

"Oh my god, oh my god," she repeats, scrambling over to the body and cradling his head in her lap. The tears are out before she can stop them, and she can't do anything but look at the vacant eyes and bloody face and keep screaming.

"Wake up!" Eva screams, shaking him, but she knows it will do no good. There's a bullet hole in his chest. He's already gone.

Eva curls herself over his body, screaming and sobbing, hot tears dripping off her chin as she stares at him, eyes re-filling every time she sees his open, empty eyes.

"Junior!" calls another voice, but Eva doesn't flinch. She doesn't know how long she's been sitting here, cradling his head in her lap, but she knows she's been caught in a cycle of wanting to close his eyes and hoping to see them register her face for an eternity.

Eloise drops onto her knees next to them, and Eva can hear her sobbing, but as much as she feels the need to comfort the girl, Eva can't bring herself to let go of Junior, to move, to accept that there are any moments to come after this one.

Her bright, happy, beautiful brother is dead, and she can't look away from his cold brown eyes as they stare up at her, entrapping her in her spot.

"Eva?" Eloise asks, from the other side of Junior's body. Her voice is panicked, but she sounds like she's a million miles away. Eva couldn't call back to Eloise even if she wanted to; her voice is stuck in her throat, like a caged bird that's lost its will to beat against the bars.

Instead, her brother's girlfriend leans down, shakily pressing her lips to his for a moment before resting her head on his chest, shoulders shaking as she empties her tears on his shirt.

Junior looks serene, Eva realizes, even more so than when he slept. A day ago, she would have given anything to see him look this carefree, for his demons to have left him, but now she knows the horrors that can come from idle wishes.

"What happened?" Eloise cries.

Eva shakes her head, pushing the dark hair back from her little brother's forehead once again. She finds the words to say, "Robbery gone wrong, I think," but then trails off, voice dying in her throat.

"Oh God," Eloise chokes, voice as detached as Eva's mind.

Eva looks away, back to the open window. It wasn't supposed to end like this, her little brother dead in her arms. She was supposed to protect him. It was supposed to be her first, always.

After a moment, Eloise's fingers trail toward Junior's eyelids, but Eva smacks her hand away before she can touch them, the sound of skin on skin echoing through the small room.

Eva says nothing, finally lets out a broken sob– at the slap, at the eyes, she doesn't know. She doesn't know anything anymore. Taking care of him, getting him out of this shitty life, had been her one and only goal for so long. And now all of it, everything, has gone to waste, because he's dead. He is here in her arms, cold and bloody and dead. And she can't fix it.

Her gaze focuses back on the window, eyes narrowed, as Eloise dissolves into tears beside her.

.....

Sumiko is asleep, and for once Jasper couldn't be more thankful for it.

He hovers at the end of her bed, observing her quietly as the blankets rise up and down with her gentle breathing, her eyelashes closed and blocking out the world. She doesn't look peaceful in her sleep, not like he expected, but she does look... neutral. Not carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders, as she usually does, but not serene, either. He's almost disappointed by this, but then again he supposes untroubled is better than more of the same.

Sighing, Jasper glances to the window before looking back to her, feeling as though he'd taken all the weight from her and put it on himself. He's here to see her, one last time, and he hopes that counts for something even though she's not awake for it. But it had to be like this: she'd never let him go if she knew he was planning to leave.

Jasper isn't an idiot– he knows that Sumiko has feelings for him. That much has been obvious for a while. He doesn't feel the same way about the girl who's nearly four years his junior, but he does care for her, even if only as a friend. If she looked up at him with her dark, pleading eyes and asked him to stay, he would.

She will always mean something important to him.

But Jasper can't stay, not anymore. He won't go as far as to say that coming here in the first place was a mistake– he got to survive a few more months, to learn how to defend himself, to make a friend– but leaving is long overdue. He isn't safe here.

She isn't either, but his attempts to convince her of such had fallen on deaf ears. And as much as Jasper wants to save her, there's nothing he can do for her now.

The only thing he can do, as much as it pains him, is save himself. If there's one thing he's learned, it's that you never give up. You keep on surviving.

No matter the cost.

Jasper paces around the side of the bed, setting a note on Sumiko's pillow He'd made countless drafts of it before settling on, I'm sorry. I hope you'll understand. Please, get out while you still can. J.

He can't tell her where he was going: that's too dangerous, and there's no guarantee Ryo won't find the note. He just hopes she'll take his advice, before it's too late.

Then again, maybe it already is.

Jasper looks once more at Sumiko, smooth skin and raven hair, before stepping back and pacing toward her window. He opens it and carefully climbs out, into the night.

He doesn't look back.