Kidding Me

Chapter 10

  The next few hours were so deep and explosive, I lost my ability to react and quite possibly to ever be shocked or feel guilty about anything again. Nothing could undo or outdo this guilt. Ever.

Which may not turn out to be that long anyway, so... Fun.

  "JASPER!" Hope and I chorused, he'd said he would be down in the lounge 5 minutes ago, so we had spent some time getting to know each other.

   Jasper had never really talked about his sisters.

"We've never been that close" Hope explained

    So now I learn't that Bunni, who was six, had recently broken her leg. He never mentioned it, not once. Also, Hope and I were very similar, but the opposite, if that makes sense. It doesn't, but hear me out. We both never knew one of our parents, my was my mum, but hers was her dad. Same but opposite.

   However, as time drifted, mercilessly on, Jasper still hadn't appeared. So I stormed, mercilessly, up to his room.

   The scene that greeted me ever so kindly, was one I hadn't seen in years. Scratch that - ever. Jasper never cried. Not ever. He got depressed and ate ice cream like some love-sick teenage girl after a break-up. Instincts of protection quickly accumulated, subsiding my anger as I found myself kneeling next to the half-hyperventilating boy.

   "Jas?" I whispered tentatively.

   "M' ," He replied, as his bright blue eyes flung open and he tried to compose himself.

  "Jas," I repeated, "You gonna tell me what's wrong?"

   "M, I was gonna tell you, I swear, I just never had a chance to bring it up,"

   "What? Jas, What are you talking about?"

  "Well, I ... Can you call Hope up, I K-Kinda need to tell her too,"

   After persuading Hope it wasn't a trap and it was safe to come up, she settled in a blue chair and Jasper started his stuttering again.

   "Would ya' tell us already!" Hope shout-whispered after a minute or so.

   "Okay. Basically, I've. I..." He fumbled. "I kinda got a failed kidney."

   Recalling the silence, the horrible truth is, it wasn't even half as bad as one to come, an hour or so later.

  "Jasper," Hope asked finally, "You're not gonna die are you?"

   Jasper laughed nervously, "No, No its not that serious at all. Loads of people have problems with their kidneys. I can easily have a transplant."

   One minute followed to digest.

   "Jas, if loads of people have these problems then there's got to be a big waiting list." I didn't really want to know the answer, but I had to ask, "How long do you have to wait?" 

   "Oh you know, like, 2 years..." He said very slow and nervously now.

   If you don't what to know the answer don't ask the question. Simple.

   "2 years!" Hope and I chorused (for the second and very last time, I might add. We would defiantly never agree again).

  "No, no don't worry. That's the thing. I've been waiting a year and a half and a, a donor came up last week."

Silence. Again.

   "Why didn't you say?" Hope. I knew Jasper would have his reasons and I didn't particularly like dwelling on the past anymore, so my burning question was:

   "Will there be a big operation? Will it hurt you?"

   Jasper was sprawled over his single bed that was pushed up against the corner of his teal blue room. He never liked the blue. 'To steriotypical' he said.

   "I don't know." He gasped at last. "To any of your questions."

   Hope, who didn't seem like your typical girly-girl (which maybe why I thought I liked her), at that moment, stood up and did an uncharacteristic hair flick. As if to proclaim her annoyance. It wasn't her place to be annoyed! But in that moment I suddenly saw it... The light reflecting of the shine of the metal. The blond streaked with gold that leaped out against the black of her clothes.

   Needless to say I screamed.

   Hope and Jasper both throwed me a quizzical look as I started backing up away from the devil in black. I could feel my eyes widening involuntarily as I started to shiver and my breathing became as quick and sharp as needles threading and tightening themselves round and around my ribs. Breath. I tell myself.

   "M."Jaspers voice brings me back to the room. Oh, how I wish I was somewhere else. Anywhere away from that thing. "I know its a lot to take it," Murderer. I think. "But its only one op', it'll be fine." 

Oh, right, he still thinks this is about his kidney thing. 

   "No, Jas, its not that," I stutter,"It's...Er, yeah, I just need some time to take it in."

   He didn't need to know.

   I returned downstairs only to realise it had followed me. Now looking back, I have no idea how I didn't see it before. The beautifully evil glint in the eyes - the same eyes that stared my father down in his last moments. The last eyes he ever looked into.

   "What do you want?" I spat accusingly.

   "To know why you suddenly flip back there." She replied innocently.

   "Oh, you know. I tend to lose it a bit when I work out who murdered my father." My cheeks were burning red as my fury grow with the tension in the air.

   She sucked in a breath.

   "You.

   "Hashum."

   "Yeah, and who are you? How'd you know my Dad, huh?"

   "I am Hope Ithiel." She said as if it explained everything.

   "I know your stupid name, but how did you know my Dad!" I was near shouting but I didn't want Jasper to hear.

   "You really don't know? He never told you? Ha, of course he didn't. He was to ashamed! And so he should be, he went to the grave in shame and deserved to too."

   She what?!

   "W-what did you say?" I stammered.

   "You heard me. He deserved what. he. got!"

   No. She didn't just say that. Wait, of course she did. She's a cold blooded murder. This is nothing for her. She's stating simple facts from her mad, messed up mind.

   Now it was my turn to to mess up madly.

   I dived at her.

   I didn't know what else to do. Forming a sentence was near impossible due to the rage pulsing through my veins. Murderer. Murderer. That's all my thoughts consisted of. I swear, if anyone had told me that was hypercritical, 6 months before, I would have recommended a doctor for them; but in that moment, I was so out of control it was like being drunk, that I would have done it to her. To Hope. Hope would have just about earned it. Eye for and eye, tooth for a tooth.

   I'm so sorry.