Right Behind You

Chapter Sixty-Three: Ghost Town

"Some day we gon' set it off, some day we gon' get this off

Baby, don't you bet it all, on a pack of Fentanyl
You might think they wrote you off
They gon' have to rope me off
Some day the drama'll be gone, and they'll pray, no, oh, no
Sometimes I take all the shine, talk like I drank all the wine
Years ahead but way behind, I'm on one, two, three, four, five
No half-truths, just naked minds, caught between space and time
This now, with the world in mind, but maybe some day

I've been tryin', to make you love me
But everything I try, just takes you further from me

Oh, once again I am a child
I let it all go, of everything that I know, yeah
Of everything that I know, yeah
And nothing hurts anymore, I feel kinda free
We're still the kids we used to be, yeah, yeah
I put my hand on a stove, to see if I still bleed
Yeah, and nothing hurts anymore, I feel kinda free."

-Kanye West ft. Kid Cudi & 070 Shake (Ghost Town)

Andrei:

Returning back to the home I had spent the majority of my life under the servitude of both my father and brother used to bring me feelings of dread, unhappiness, pain as I remembered the things I went through as a child, what I had to protect my sister from, seeing my mother hurt and in pain every day my father took a breath. That home was a golden cage, I had anything a child could want, but in reality, I was emotionally poor. Lacking the love, respect, the bond that I always wanted to form with my family.

That house used to represent the fragmented mental state I was always in.

Living day to day, just surviving.

Kae arriving at that house had been my saving grace; I didn't know it then, but she came in and turned my life upside down. We both had hurt from our pasts, but we learned to put that behind us and do better for each other. For our future and what we wanted to come from our tragedy.

I think the world had a funny way of working.

Either way, I was grateful where I was currently at now in my life. Finally taking a stand for myself and doing what was best for me and my happiness. Kae was my happiness and my soon-to-be wife, I was excited to start a family with her; I don't think I remember the last time I was excited about something.

So now when I looked at the home, I couldn't help but smile. I smiled because this would be the last time I would return home. I would say goodbye to it and my past once and for all, start over fresh. I had accepted Omid's preposition working for the Tavana family; it was a no-brainer, I would be an idiot to reject what he was offering to me. Regardless if I had been offered a chance to redeem myself with him, I would happily follow Kae to the ends of the earth if it meant I got to be by her side.

We had made a pit stop on the plane, dropping Sabien off back to her home in South Carolina she had taken off time from school and work to be with her sister and her family but it was time for her to return, so she would be gone for the time being. The group and I had then made our way to Atlanta to drop my brother off in the wake of the destruction that Omid had wrecked on the Bravata.

I was curious to see what was left of the place I called home.

"I didn't think we would be back so soon," Nikita said beside me in a solemn tone.

We stood outside the front door looking around for any possible sign of people still being here. There were no guards around anywhere and I doubt there would be, if they were smart and treasured their lives they would be in hiding, making sure their affiliation with the Russian mafia was no more.