Organized Chaos

Chapter 10 Decisions

            When we got downstairs, Joey kept his promise and begged Zach for his famous chips and salsa. The poor boy had no options. Joey was inconsolable without food and Zach was just tired. But with my help, we were able to make a whole batch of salsa and bake some homemade chips.

            Eventually, the four of us ended up on the couch. Austin and Joey had fallen asleep. I was sitting across from Zach. No one had spoken in about two hours. Grief and confusion ran deep in my veins. I still had no idea what I was going to do about Black. I had honestly half a mind to sneak out and face him myself. But like Zach said, it was suicide.

            Elizabeth and Lily were also on my mind. They died trying to protect me. I couldn’t have that happen to the three boys still with me. I had to find some way of stopping Black. And before I knew it, that was the winning argument. My friends came first.

            I looked over at Zach. But he chose that moment to look over at me. Our eyes locked. He had his walls back up and only one emotion made its way to me. Fear.

            “Zach, what’s wrong?” He waited so long to answer, I thought he’d fallen asleep.

            “Liv, I’m scared you’ll run off in some insane act of protection and throw yourself at Black. He’s kidnapped you more times than I can count. And you’ve already snuck out once. Heck, I’m scared to fall asleep because I think you’ll take off once I’m out. Olivia, I don’t know what I’ll do if something else happens to you. I don’t know what I’d do without you. Period.” By then his voice had become a whisper. Tears were beginning to leave trails down his cheeks. My heart broke at the thought of me doing exactly what he feared I would. So like a good – or bad, depending on your perspective – friend, I lied to comfort him.

            “Zach, I’m not going anywhere. I’m going to stay right here with you until I come up with a better plan for Black. Okay?”

            He hesitated. He wasn’t sure whether to believe me or not. At long last, he spoke. “Liv, I want to believe you. I want to trust you. But some part of me says I can’t.”

            He knew me too well. We may have only been around each other for a couple years, but we’d grown closer than I had with some of my other friends. And this was where it came back to bite me in the butt. I just hoped it wouldn’t be with something this serious. Fate was funny that way.

            “I won’t do anything irrational or impulsive, okay? I will try to find out logical answers to find a way to stop him, okay?” Zach seemed to be too tired to fight me. The dark circles under his eyes made him look like a ghost. He gave in with no further protests.

            “Liv,” Zach started. Man, my nickname was popular tonight. The voice and eyes he said it with almost made me change my mind. “Can we just go to bed now? I’m exhausted and you must be, too.” I nodded. He needed the solace sleep would give him from his thoughts. I needed him to sleep so I could make one, and possible all, of his nightmares become his horrible reality. I hated doing it to him. I really did. But I desperately needed to protect him. I’d already lost two of my friends to Black; I wouldn’t risk losing more.

            As Zach got up to garb us some pillows and blankets, I sprawled out on the couch. He returned a couple minutes later with my favorite pillow of his, a pillow for himself, and blankets for each of us. Tossing me the pillow and a blanket, he let me have the couch and chose the recliner to sleep on. Positioning myself with the blanket, I tried to get into a convincing sleeping façade.

            As soon as Zach was asleep, I was going to sneak off yet again. But this time, I had no way of knowing if I was going to come back or not. The thought of that scared me, but my drive to protect my friends was stronger.

            Light snoring and easy breathing told me that all the boys, most importantly Zach, were asleep. It was now or never. Without a second thought, I threw the blanket off of me and walked up to the door. A strong emotion of nostalgia hit me and I turned around to face my three best friends in the whole world.

            Zach was curled into a little ball with his head between two pillows. Joey was stretched out on a couch, his hair already messed up. Austin was sitting on the second recliner; his head fallen forward onto his chest. I decided to leave them a goodbye note.

            With tears prickling behind my eyes, I went in search of a pen and a piece of paper. Writing in ink made it all seem so permanent. As I watched black liquid sink into the page, my tears finally fell.

To my boys,

I will always love you.

Please don’t worry about me.

~Liv

            My heart broke as I forced myself to turn away and head back out the door. Hopefully, they were all way too tired, and wouldn’t wake up for a couple more hours.

*          *          *

The night was pitch black. I had no idea where I was. All I did know, was that I’d been walking for hours. When I left the house, I wasn’t sure which direction I should’ve headed. On a whim, I chose north toward the forest and main interstate. Now here I was, wandering around the trees in the middle of the night. I was pretty much prey for anything that might have wanted me.

            A voice interrupted me from my confusion. I’d know it anywhere. The voice that haunted me in my nightmares. “Well, well, well.” A twig snapped behind me. “Little Olivia is out for a midnight stroll. Oh, but she hasn’t brought anyone with her. Shame. No one will know what happened until it’s too late.”

            I turned to face Black. “What do you want with me?”

            “I was going to train you to be my assistant. But seeing as you’ve eluded my capture, you’ve irritated me. I’ll just have to kill you.” With that happy thought, everything around me melted into darkness.