Because Of The Journey.

25.

"So she hasn't contacted you?", Blacky asked as he was taking me to his favourite chill place. I don't know where it is but we were about 2 miles away from home. "Nah, she hasn't". "Chris said if I want to see Nicole alive, I must find her" I said looking out the window. "Find who? Nicole? Who's Chris?", "Blacky I told you about this last week, your ass is getting old yow". "Nah youngin' you only told me about the two planets, guys with guns but you didn't mention a Chris" he said being smart.

"Why you calling my friends planets?" ,"They are named after planets aren't they? Plus I love planets and my favourite is Mars" he said smiling. I smiled to myself actually thinking about it.

Yeah I guess there has to be an explanation why they were named after planets. Planet 'Venus' is named after the Roman goddess of love and beauty, as the second-brightest natural object in the night sky after the Moon.

I could say that Venus was beautiful and had love for everyone even though she was an ass at expressing it. Planet 'Mercury' is named after the Roman deity Mercury, the messenger of the gods. I've been saying that Merc' is an angel with an invisible halo, but I won't dare say that to her because we wouldn't hear the end of it.

"Why Mars specifically?" I asked Blacky out of curiosity. "Mars carries the name of the Roman god of war and is often referred to as the 'Red Planet'. I grew up as a Blood, you know" he laughed "I hated blue back then, I still don't really like it but I tolerate it now." He then stopped the car and smiled at me. "We here" he said.

I immediately got out of the car and took a good look at my surroundings. I saw heaven yow, it was green everywhere. The sky was a mixture of pink and orange with a tint of blue of course. There was some kind of dam which had beautiful flower trees all around it. The only sounds you could hear were of the birds chirping and the trees being blown at by the wind.

It definitely was a peaceful place to be. I mean a place where you can just be surrounded by nature and feel the warmth of it.

"You like it?" Blacky asked. "I like it? Man, I love it! How the hell did you find this place? It's beautiful" I said still looking around. "Let's go find a place to sit and I'll tell you all about it".

"You've never heard of the Great Smoky Mountains before?", he asked as we were now sitting on a bench with a waterfall near it. "Nah, I only heard of the Great Kilimanjaro" I said looking at him. "Well that's great enough" he said laughing.

"My parents used to bring me here when I was young. Everytime they tried talking some sense in my head about me leaving the trap. They were geniuses I could say because at the house when they would start talking about me leaving trapping and maybe find a decent job for myself, I would just walk out. But here, they knew I had nowhere to go besides the car and I wouldn't hear the end of it until we got back home. "

"Are they still alive?", I asked. "Nah, they both got murdered by our rivals. Worse thing my little brother witnessed every bit of it, they shot his legs that left him paralyzed for life. Sad right? One would think I'd stop after that but nah, that was only the beginning." He looked up at the sky and released a huge sigh.

"I had to do everything I could to make sure my brother was set, had to pay his therapy sessions because the whole thing left him traumatized." "He didn't blame you for all that happened?" I decided to ask. "At first he did but later on I guess all that changed. He's 37 now, got a whole family and we are closer than before."

That made me smile because most people would lose hope and just want to die because of a life changing incident. At least Blacky's brother saw that there was a lot more to life than to sulk about something you just didn't decide upon yourself and have no power to change.

"What's your real name?" I asked squinting my eyes and looking at him. He laughed laying back on the bench. "You really want to know?" he asked. "I mean, yeah" I said. "It's Monarch", "Damnnnn! That's a beautiful name", I said actually thinking about it. "So you like butterflies?" I asked yet again. "I knew for sure you were going to ask that. Most people when they get to know my real government that's the first question they ask, nah I don't like butterflies. But my name means sovereign head of state, a King."

"So you from a royal family?" I asked. "Nah youngin', I wouldn't have had to trap if that was the case" he said smiling. I nodded laughing a little realizing how dumb my question was. Maybe not dumb but still.

"You talked about a person named Chris, yeah? What's her story?" he asked. "She's the one who killed Venus, Mercury's ex girlfriend and the one who said if I want to see Cole alive I must.." he cut me short and finished of the sentence "find her", "Yeah, exactly that." I said. "Christina Simmonds" I head him say in a whisper. "You know her?" I asked a bit confused.

"You got school tomorrow?" he asked avoiding my question. "Yeah I do, you know Chris?" I asked yet again. But he still avoided the question. O-kayy. "You surely need to rest, let's get going", he said walking to the car.

I was so confused but decided to let it slide because I didn't want to annoy him. I then got up and followed him to the car.

- 18❤.