42nd Country Road

The Gone Boys

I woke up to the sun, shining off my face. I thought about Jack. I sat up straight and rolled off the bed.

"Mark," I called.

"Ev, what is it?" he said, peeking out from the kitchen.

"Where's Jack?" I asked

"Jack is fine he just got back," He replied in a comforting voice. I breathed out an okay. Mark pulled me into a hug. I rested my head on his chest listening to his heartbeat. He was still alive. Jack was still alive. I was still alive.

"I'm stressed, Mark," I said through a whimper.

"Why is that, baby?" Mark replied

"I don't know, I-I..." I started to cry.

"Come on," He said, ushering me upstairs to the bed. I crawled into it and he crawled in next to me, pulling me close to him.

"You're going to be okay, I promise," He said. I nodded slightly and fell back asleep.

I woke to a gunshot. I sat up and the dark woke up in me. I ran downstairs. Steven was sitting next to the window shaking, his fake gun in hand.

"What happened," I said, my voice heavy.

"Y-you're crazy," He said shakily looking at me.

"I asked what happened, are you going to answer the damn question or not?" I said glaring over at him.

"U-uh," He stuttered, "The FR and Reunion are fighting, this happens a lot here,"

"I see," I said, "And you think that fake gun is going to protect you?"

"It's all I have," he said.

"Do you have kitchen knives?" I asked, "never mind I'll find them myself," I wandered into the kitchen and found the largest kitchen knife I could. I walked out and his face grew in fear.

"Are you going to kill me?" He asked

"No of course not," I said chuckling at his stupidity, "I'm going to get you a bigger gun," I ran out the door throwing the knife, hitting the first man I saw in the chest. He fell and I grabbed his gun off of his lifeless body. I cocked it and shot it, clearing out part of the battle ground. I walked back inside the house and handed it to him.

"Careful, safety's off," I said.

"Thanks," he said. Mark came down the stairs, Jack trailing behind him. They were both gone.

"You're all crazy!" Steven said

"Crazy, yes, irrational, no," I said.

"Morning pretty," Mark said

"Morning, handsome, Morning Jack," I said

"Morning pretty," Jack replied

"Do you want to hear a story?" I asked

"No" Steven snapped

"To bad you're going to hear it anyway," I said, "Before this all happened, the guns, the chaos, the darkness... I was normal. She was normal. We all lived in a house, similar to this one. We were all happy. Then society decided to clamp it's jaws around us, and strangle us until we had no other option to do this!"

"You're scaring me," Steven said in fear. I had him in a corner now.

"Look, Steven, I'm not going to hurt you," I said looking deep into his eyes, tracing every step he's taken.

"Are you sure?" He said. A tear rolled down his cheek.

"Look handsome," I said, smiling, "He's crying,"

"Pretty, don't test the boy to much, He's not ours. He's not Ethan," Mark said. That name hit me like a brick. The normal rushed in and slammed me to the ground.

"Steven, go up to your room and lock the door, take the gun with you," I said. Steven ran upstairs gun in hand and slammed his door shut. I put my head in my hands and turned around to the gone boys.