Bruises ~ Jiara // obx

13 - Butterflies

Pope POV

My mind was racing as I approached the Chateau and for a second I simply stopped to admire the place we had grown up in. The radio which I had been struggling to get to work for the last 10 minutes suddenly spluttered to a start. Great, just as I had got back. The news caught my attention as the splutters turned to words, and in seconds I was listening intently.

'Death of kook teen found on the street a week ago not being treated as suspicious after a week of research.'

A lump formed in my throat as I pushed the button to switch it off. I should be relieved, right? But was it even my fault? Closing my eyes, I allowed my mind to drift back to the events of the night the previous week.

Flashback

The night air was chilly and we were completely surrounded. It seemed that there wasn't going to be an easy way out of this. Rafe had us outnumbered by a long shot, just as JJ had rightly pointed out. There was a brief moment of silence and I could tell that Rafe was quickly losing it, before the maniac launched himself at me sending the both of us crashing to the gravel.

"POPE!" I heard Kie scream and was able to writhe my way out of Rafe's grip before my fist collided with another face, someone I knew was acquainted with Rafe yet I hadn't talked to personally before. Just another stuck up Kook. He growled as his hand coiled around my ankle and tugged me down with him. A pain spread throughout the left side of my body as my head smashed against the ground, disorientating my vision. Through blurred sight, I found the strength to launch myself onto the attacker, who was slightly smaller than myself and a little more on the slim side from what I could make out in the dark. For a few moments we wrestled around on the ground, before I found a surge of adrenaline and punched him square in the jaw, completely knocking him off his game. That was it. A strange feeling was taking over me as I continued my reign of punches and kicks, to the point where the kid was barely fighting back. It reminded me of the day we went to collect the Phantom and got jumped by Rafe and that drug dealer, and I couldn't seem to stop myself from attacking Rafe. It was as if all the fury I had ever built up inside of me was exploding at the surface. Eventually, a little voice inside my head was whispering for me to snap out of it, yet I kept going until I was left breathless on the ground, and the other guy had long lost consciousness...

My memory was foggy and I couldn't quite figure out what happened after that, but I was sure the kid was breathing when I left him. But then again, I couldn't exactly recall leaving him. I simply remembered blanking out briefly and waking up a little while later, then making my way back to the Chateau, completely unaware of what had just happened. It was a strange night. I also recalled feeling terrible about it for days, after I gained back some recollection of what had happened. It had never really been in my nature to get into fist fights; John B and JJ were usually the ones caught up in scraps like that. The events of the last few months had changed me. But right now wasn't about me, so I had to move on. The death wasn't being treated as suspicious, and I wasn't even sure that I was the exact cause, so I had nothing to worry about, right? Yet deep down I knew that this newfound guilt that had become infested inside of me would remain forever, a scar reminding me of what I did.

Kiara POV

"Pope, where you been?" I shouted at the boy in the car, who, from what I could make out, seemed a little ... out of touch. His head didn't raise as I called him - it simply stayed drooped to the ground and his facial expression told me he was deep in thought. I hoped he was ok. It took for me to walk up to the car door and bang on the window for him to even take notice that I was there, before he turned to me, a panicked look spreading across his face.