The Last Tour {COMPLETED}

Chapter Twenty-One: Truth is Out

Chapter Twenty-One

Truth is Out

When Jade woke up, he was lying in his bunk on the tour bus, wearing a gray sweater he didn't remember putting on.

At first, mild confusion came over Jade, and he was not sure what was going on or what had happened last. But then, slowly, it came back. Sitting on the roof of the hotel, looking down at the street below, shoving off the ledge, then...then nothing.

Am I still alive? he wondered faintly. Stretching out a hand, Jade touched the low ceiling above him that set his bunk off from the one above it. His sense of touch was still here. Jade closed his fingers into a fist, then pulled himself up onto his elbows. He turned over onto his stomach and drew back the dark blue curtain that shielded his bunk from the narrow hallway on the bus.

The large vehicle was moving. That was obvious. The whole thing shook slightly from time to time. Quietly, Jade looked up and down the hallway. No one was in sight. Carefully, the teenager let his feet down onto the floor. He pulled himself up onto his feet, then gasped sharply and fell against the base of his bunk. Drawing in sharp breath after sharp breath, Jade grabbed onto the nearest bunk divider and pulled himself back up, balancing solely on his right foot.

"You can't walk on it, Jade," a voice said from somewhere, and the eighteen-year-old turned instantly, wobbling with his surprise, to see Rudurhans Kakaya standing just outside the bunk hallway, peering in, his shoulder leaned up against the wall.

God, fucking hell—no, what happened? I must still be alive! Jade's mind began racing. Had he dreamed up going to the hotel roof? How could he have survived that fall? Had he changed his mind last minute, gone back to his room, and drugged himself so deeply, he didn't remember? Why did he remember shoving off?? Panic welled up in Jade instantly, and falling back against the bunk divider, eyes wide, questions began to break from his lips like a flood. "What happened? Where am I? What—what's going on?"

Rudurhans stepped quickly over to Jade, and silenced him with a shush, then took Jade's arm, and supporting his left side, led him out of the bunk hallway. He walked all the way to the back of the bus and sat Jade down in one of the foldable sofas there. He shut the small door that led into the space, then sat down himself.

Jade was in tears, now. Pain in his knee and pounding confusion in his head were completely overwhelming him. Jessie was sitting nearby, he saw through his tear-blurred vision. No one else was in the room.

"You're on the bus going home," Rudurhans answered his question from before in a hushed voice. "Almost everyone else is asleep right now, so unless you want them to know about your incident on the roof, keep your voice down. Because you would be the one breaking the news to them."

"They don't know?" the question broke from Jade's lips automatically, but was immediately followed by several others, as disjointed as the first. "What happened? How—how did I get here? Why can't I remember—"

"Jade, you almost jumped off the roof of a forty-one floor building," Jessie broke him off. Her face was pale, and her expression silenced him. "No, you did jump off—Rudurhans caught your hood."

"H-how?" Jade asked faintly. Panic, confusion, and shock were still flowing too strongly in him to realize it was time to start denying everything.

"What were you thinking, Jade?" Rudurhans asked suddenly.

Jade looked up at him with wide brown eyes and stared at him dumbly for several seconds. Then, swallowing, he made his very best attempt at blaming the situation on something else. "I—I was high."