SUGAR AND STEEL

Chapter 9

    Two days later, Kai sat in the stained passenger seat of an early 2000s Toyota, bag of clothes and toiletries in the backseat. Sami sat in the drivers seat, calm (almost unnervingly so) despite the heavy traffic.

    “Where exactly are we going? I mean, Texas is pretty big.” Kai asked, and he watched a smile stretch across the face of the ravenette.

    “You’ve never been to Texas, have you darlin’?” Kai wondered how it was that obvious. “Because Texas is a lot bigger than ‘pretty big’.” Sami shot the boy a glance. His cheeks flushed pink as the cotton candy he reminded the psycho of. “And to answer your question dolly, we’re goin’ to the middle of Jesus Lane.”

    Now Kai had heard of Jesus lane, and he wondered what made his psycho want to go there. “What’s there?” He asked. He had to start somewhere.

    “It’s where I grew up,” Sami grimaced. “Unfortunately. But I thought it about time to pay may father a visit. After all, it’s been a while.” Kai nodded as if he understood. “It’s okay to ask questions you know, if I don't wanna answer, I’ll let you know.” That smirk was back on the psycho’s face.

    “Okay, then why are we going back? You obviously don’t like it there. And why take me to visit your father?”

    “Because dolly, I need your help to kill him.” Kai was momentarily shocked, blindsided by such a bold statement. “I want to take off his mask.” And suddenly, it was a bit more clear. The events in the alley came back to him, and he wanted to know what Samu's father hid behind the mask.

    “You see, he used to hit me around. I was never a good enough church boy for him. I never lived up to my name. I don’t know how much you know about the Bible, but Samuel was God’s servant.

    “Anyways, on top of that, my momma died givin’ birth to me, so my father kinda hated me for that too. When I was about thirteen I think, yeah that sounds about right, he decided he wanted another kid, but my momma was dead, I killed her remember? So he adopted a little girl. Her name was Sarah, she was probably about eight when we got her.

    “Sarah was always the good kid. Went to church, dressed all pretty, always polite, sang in the choir. She was really good at art too. Liked to draw.” Sami seemed momentarily lost in remembering the little girl.

    “When Sarah was about twelve, yeah I was seventeen, so twelve, she entered into an art competition at school. She and I were always really close. One day she came home and showed me her piece for the show. It wasn’t done yet but my god it was good. It was of me, I was with another person, kissing. It wasn’t done, but she told me that the other person was going to be dark and scribbly, supposed to be my anxiety and my dark side.” He smiled. “She asked if I thought she could win and I said yes. It was really good. I still have it, remind me to show it to you later.

    “But then my father came home and he saw the picture on the table because Sarah went to the bathroom and left it there because he wasn’t supposed to be home for at least another hour. And all he saw was me kissing what seemed to be the outline of another boy, god forbid.” Sami chuckled darkly. “So he hit me till I passed out on the kitchen floor and when Sarah came out of the bathroom, he hit her too. But he hit her one time too many- she was smaller than me and he was angry, and while I woke up, she didn’t.

    “He FUCKING KILLED HER, and he just told the rest of the town that fell down the goddamn stairs, and they all believed him. Because the pastor, a man of god, would never kill his own daughter, right?” He laughed maniacally, and in that moment, Kai was angrier than he had ever been. Angrier than when that drunk driver hit his parents, angrier than when his best friend slit his wrists and left Kai to find him. He was pissed, because his pretty little psycho was hurting, and it was this man, this man in a mask, that did it.

    “So I’m gonna cut off his mask dolly, and I’m gonna need your help to do it.”