[We Are Legion]

Words Spread like Fire

The sun was beginning to set, have I really been asleep all day? Last nights adventure was just that, an adventure, I wasn't sure how tired I felt until I collapsed as soon as I arrived home.
My parents were always out taking different jobs here and there to keep us going, we weren't struggling but we couldn't do anything super fancy, I don't let it trouble me,
"Joey dear?", my mom walked into my room, a worried smile as usual,
"You slept for 10 hours this morning, did something happen", the disguise and mask was under my bed, still covered in grime and muck, probably not the best idea to talk about what went down last night.
"I was out with friends last night, sorry", I said through my teeth,
"Well, I'm sure you're hungry after going into hibernation like that, pasta for dinner",
Dinner was always basic, but mom always found a way to make it better somehow,
"Your Father is out for a job but I'm sure he'll be back soon",
The TV blared in the background, it was pretty much just for news at this point, it was the only thing it could barely show.

This just in, an officer reported three adolescents seemingly fleeing the scene of the site of a drug deal, which was reported to the police anonymously earlier that night,

I went stiff, no way, no way they saw us. I glanced at the broadcast, the picture was blurry but I could still recognize it immediately, it was all of us, carrying a shot Susie. Frank running ahead. Who took it? The officer outside, damn it, Damn it! I had a feeling Frank would be pissed at this. We're really just falling back on the disguises now,
"Joey I need you to stay home tonight, with these ghetto criminals wondering the streets we can't take any risks",
I was speechless, every spoonful of pasta was a different thought, wondering how we could get ourselves out of this jam. Susie's text pulling me back into the light.

SuZ: need to come to your place asap, talking about the news

"Mom, can I have Susie over here? You trust her right?",
"Sure sweetie, It's not like she's a serial killer",
She almost was, the thought kinda shook me.

"Hey Joey", Susie ran inside before I could even open the door properly,
"I've got a lot to say, we have to keep it from Frank",
She grabbed my hand charging me into my room, where we spent many nights on the roof looking at the stars. I got her a really nice moleskin notebook one Christmas by sacrificing hours of my life at a low end job I couldn't keep anyway, it was nice to see her flicking through it's decorated covers,
"Right, the thing that really pops out, the news story",
"I don't think it'll be a huge problem", I started, "the picture can't frame us",
"That's the problem! We noped out of there as soon as it got bad, how much crap did we touch in that room?", her rant only got more panicked as it went on,
"I mean, I got shot! There's probably blood everywhere, Julie's too. Oh shit, they're probably analyzing it now", Susie went like this occasionally. She would start to panic and have a full on attack. It's not good, no way in hell, but it gets less scary when you know how to deal with it,
"Susie! It's OK, I'm here, you're here. The moon doesn't rise without the suns helping hand",
"The, the moon, doesn't rise without, without the suns helping, hand.",
We both took a deep breath.
"Thank you Joey, helping me out of an attack is something you're super good at",
"I'm not good at it, I can only do that on you",
"OK! OK, yeah we left loads of evidence lying around there, including Julie's unconscious mom. If we're gonna catch this guy we can't do it under police surveillance",
"Yeah obviously",
I thought long and hard, the only way out would be risky but probably worth the shot.
"Susie, what if, what if we got Julie's mom into the loop?", she was understandably shocked,
"What? No. Why? That can't be good, it won't be good",
"I know it's not but what other options do we have? We can't just magically clean up the evidence", the silence was deafening,
"You're right, it might be our only chance, but Frank's going to go into haywire mode",
"That's why we don't tell him. It'll be better if he doesn't know, then we can tell him when we catch the guy",
She nodded, closing the moleskin before lighting back up again, but not in the good looking way I usually saw her do. Something much more sinister,
"Joey, Frank said some scary shit last night, while you were with Julie",
"What? Anything important?",
I got the gist of where he went, apparently he was curled up in the other end of the hallway, muttering to himself, seemingly unaware that Susie was with him.
"He heard you talking to Julie, about you thinking something was wrong with him, and said something about how he was going to kill you for this. It was insane, and it wasn't even just you. He muttered about how Julie ruined him, how she got in the way of his plans and toyed with his heart. They looked so good together",
"Look, something is definitely wrong with Frank, not even a question this time. We just have to be extra careful to stay on his good side and follow his orders, get Julie in on this too", I sighed,
"God we have to keep so much from him",
"It'll be fine", Susie said trying to keep a level head as she stood up,
"It's kinda late so I'm going to jump into bed",
"You actually stayed awake for the whole of today?", I asked,
"Yeah my body doesn't really let me sleep like that", she spoke sadly, "I know last night gave it every reason to knock me out but I guess I'm tougher than I look", she laughed before waving to me and walking out the front door. The sun helping the moon rise, at least it'll give me time to think about all the new stuff I gathered today. Everything was so insane, I wasn't expecting to have to hide so much from someone so close by, he's probably going to figure it out eventually. After all. Words spread like fire.