Masked (now an EBOOK on Amazon)

Chapter #20

                                                  CHAPTER #20

Being stuck in the rain with someone is not as romantic as you would think it to be. In this case, that someone is Ray. After a long day of literally, blood, sweat and tears, he was going to drop me off at home. Two things; firstly: it was after 9:30 p.m. and Sky would probably be worried sick about where I was. Actually, nah. Not really. That leads me to the second thing: my phone was almost dead and there was no signal here. Well, we were in pretty much one of the deserted parts of town.

Why, you ask? Searching for Noah had led us here. Scouring the whole town for any traces of him for all these weeks had led us to something today, finally. I had always had a feeling Noah was alive somehow. We had lucked out when Noah's best friend Adam had agreed to talk to us. I wanted to get to the point but then, he was the only one who said he would talk to us, so I decided to just talk for a few minutes and then get to the main part. I asked him how he was and what he had been up to all these years. Okay, I hadn't expected a straight answer but I just had to ask him anyway. He gave me a look as if to ask 'what's wrong with you'.

"What do you think about me being in jail for two years? Think I'm guilty?"

"No, I don't. I don't mean to be rude but why are you here?" he asked.

"I wanted to talk to you about Noah. I need help with all this; it's still a mystery. The other day, I saw this guy with the same skull tattoo and a ring that looked exactly like Noah's. I know thousands of people would have the same tattoo but I can tell when he's around. I get this feeling. I may be wrong about this but I'm thinking' I'm hoping I'm not."

"You're not wrong," he whispered.

"What?"

"I have to tell you something..."

I waited for a minute.

"I think you deserve an explanation after you lost your brother and had been framed for his murder. I can't imagine what you've been through. But you need to know... Noah's not dead," he whispered again.

"I'm sorry, what?" I asked. He then asked me if I ever saw Noah's body. I shook my head imperceptibly.  

"I saw him once. In some deserted part of town a little while away from here."

"Did you guys talk?"

"No. I was too shocked to see him. I must have made some sound by accident because he looked back to see me. He had a mixture of grief and happiness on his face. I wanted to talk to him, ask him how he wasn't dead and what he was doing here but he just turned away and ran. I never saw him again."

I knew I was crying because Ray was holding my hand and my vision grew hazy owing to the tears streaming down my face. I somehow then asked Adam,

"When was this?"

"A month or two earlier," he said, tears in his own eyes.

"Hey! What are you kids doing here?" I heard someone shout.

I turned around to see two big, burly men coming to us. I looked at Ray and he mouthed 'run'. So I did. I'm guessing Adam knew them because they had stopped coming after us. Then I heard a crash as I saw Adam running towards us; those two men on his trail. So he didn't know them after all. The three of us ran until we reached a dark, deserted alley. We stopped for a minute, trying to catch our breath when we heard their voices again. We started to run again. After I don't know how long, we stopped running and I just collapsed on the ground. Ray and Adam were standing, looking out for anyone. A few minutes later, they saw that there was no one and were about to sit down when I heard the sound of something heavy. I sat up, alert looking for any sign of activity. There was none. I looked to my side to find Adam gone and ray knocked out on the ground.