A young teenager sighs broodily as he begins moving boxes through his stepfather's garage. As part of the deal of him being allowed to use the garage to build a motorcycle, he has to help clean it.
"How much shit did your ex leave?! Jeeesus. Like. What was she? A pack rat or something?" The teenager lets out another groan.
"Hehheh, now, now, don't worry. All of this is either going to be thrown away or burned."
"A bonfire?"
"Yes, a bonfire."
"Yeeees."
The two go back to moving bags and boxes with a few moments of silence. The son accidentally knocks a tower of papers over and they all go flying everywhere.
"Go-"
"Language," the stepfather cuts in a warning tone.
"-lf fudge. Golf fudge." The teenager looks shyly over at his stepfather.
He just rolls his eyes and says, "Okay, while you clean it up, I'll take your boxes out to the fire pit." He takes the boxes from his stepson as the stepson begins to pick up the fallen papers. The son was stacking the papers when he stopped mid motion to look at two of them.
Both have "WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE" printed boldly at the top of them.
One has a dark skinned young man with short brown hair and blue eyes winking at the camera with a large, white smile painted upon him. The poster says that he's Cuban and in the photo, he is nineteen.
The other photo is of another young man who appears to be the same age as the Cuban. He has dark violet eyes and a snarky smirk upon his face. He has a black mullet.
Their names aren't listed, but they do apparently work as a duo. "Partners In Crime" is listed under both of their aliases. And their crimes, oh where to begin. The two robbed every bank and store from Virginia to Texas. They've murdered dozens. And the obvious, resisted the police. They've stolen several vehicles. They're wanted for about a dozen other crimes.
"Lance McClain and Keith Kogane."
The stepson jumps slightly at the suddenness of his stepfather's voice
"Could you not! You know, give me a heart attack?!" The son glares at his step father. "And how do you know their names anyway? They aren't on these papers."
"Their names were released to the public after their death."
"These two are dead?"
"Yes. They had a good run though."
"Can you tell me what you know about them? I'm interested now."
The stepfather laughs. "You are so much like your mother."
"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Its story time. Tell me about these two."
"Okay, okay. Where to begin? I guess I'll just wing this." The stepfather breathes in and then begins to speak.
"About ten years ago, two young teenagers of ages seventeen appeared out of nowhere and started with small stuff, breaking into convenience stores and no name town banks over all of Virginia. They slowly began doing more extravagant crimes as they moved down the coast and inland. And boy, did they put on quite the act. Their crimes were works of art, some say. They caused quite a bit of noise and gave the cops a fun game of chase before they got bored and moved on.
On their fifth major crime after Keith's eighteenth birthday, Lance McClain proposed to Keith Kogane as the police were shooting at them. The two had hacked into the city's speaker system, the television and radio stations, and weather forecast center to have this broadcasted. The proposal was a joyful surprise to Keith. The entire city saw Lance get down on one knee and ask Keith to marry him. Keith was teary eyed and at a loss of words as he got out a breathless yes. Lance looked like the happiest man alive as Keith threw himself into Lance's arms. And remember, during all this, they're in the middle of a high speed chase with the cops shooting at them. Lance had hired a friend of his to drive them around the city so Lance could propose. Keith usually did the driving as Lance would shoot at the tires on the police cars. Lance never missed a shot and Keith could drive any vehicle and still get away from the police.
Two months later, three bank robberies after, they were both wearing white tuxedos. They hired their friend to drive them around again and this time they also hired a priest to wed them in Tennessee. They even had their best man there and some of their friends, though they all wore masks so no one ever knew who any of them were. Lance also made sure this was broadcasted. As their wedding vows, they went along with how any marriage vows would go, and then they kissed after the priest gave them permission, but after the seal of the kiss, they both turned to the camera. Keith said, 'You'll never take us alive,' and Lance finished with 'Death will do us part.' Then Keith threw a bouquet of white roses and it landed in the blood of a fallen police officer.
The tale of reckless love was known by everyone in the country. But no one ever catch or find them. Every time the cops thought they were on their tails, the two would disappear and end up five feet ahead of everyone. The two were criminal geniuses. The states from Virginia to Texas were painted red and blue. Their paper faces flooded the streets. They had set fire to every bank and store that they robbed. The sky was filled with black, suffocating smoke everywhere they went.
The day of their fall, the day that they finally got cornered, will be remembered as the day the young love died. Their final moments would have been heroic, had they not been criminals.
That day, their luck ran dry. One convenience store owner was being robbed. He was terrified out of his mind, but he wasn't going down without a fight. The moment they entered his store, he tapped a silent alarm that alerted the cops right away. As they lazily walked down the store aisles, grabbing a few things here and there, they continuously threw loving pickup lines at each other. In that moment, they actually looked like the nineteen year olds that were in love with each other that they were, not the two teenagers that had been forced to grow up too fast and driven to madness. They were just two innocent kids in love. The store owner almost felt guilty. Almost.
Not minutes later, sirens could be heard down the street. By this time, they had put their items back and neatly organized the shelves. They jumped for a moment, but both gained the same sad smile on their face. Before they stepped out of the store, they thanked the store owner, who was confused as hell. They each took out a handgun and intertwined their fingers. From the counter, the store owner could see that the guns were empty. Keith tossed a crumpled piece of paper to the side. The two shared a long and loving kiss before stepping out the doors.
One cop shouted, 'Put your weapons down!'
Keith and Lance raised the empty handguns as if they were going to start shooting. Their movements unwavering and stanance firm. Next thing the owner sees is the couple falling to the ground, blood flowing from the right sides of their chests, and smiles on their faces. As they lied there, bleeding out, they turned towards each other and touched their foreheads together. They were never captured alive." The stepfather finishes.
The stepson stares in awe. "What was on the paper?"
"Read for yourself." The stepfather picked up an old, crippled piece of paper with two different writing styles on it, one in red ink and another in blue.
Blue: Hello finder of our final message to this mad, mad world!
Red: Lance. Really?
Blue: Yes, Love. Really.
Red: Okay, whatever Dork.
Blue: Aww. But I'm your dork. ;)
Red: LANCE. Just… Let's get this done, okay?
Blue: AWWWWWWW. YOU'RE BLUSHING! You're so adorable~
Red: LANCE. PLEASE, SO HELP ME GOD.
Blue: Okay, okay. Fine, cutie~
Red: Why do I even bother?
Blue: You love me~
Red: Yes. I do. Can we finish this so we can just go and be normal nineteen year olds before… you know. Please? I just want to spend more time with you before we…yeah.
Blue: Okay, Okay. Anything for you, Mullet.
Blue: So! Dear Reader, this is our final message to this mad world. Yes, we've done terrible things and deserve everything that's coming our way, but we were forced to be adults when we were only fourteen. Neither of us had families and the system wouldn't take us. So we both dropped out of our freshman year of high school. We tried finding jobs, but no one wanted two fourteen year old dropouts.
Red: So we resorted to becoming pickpockets and minor shoplifters. We tried picking back up on our high school education, but they wouldn't accept us back. No one would give us jobs, no school would accept us, and the orphanage system couldn't take us in. So we stuck with the world telling us to get jobs and finish our education, but no one would help us. So we did the only thing we could. Steal to survive. We started dating when we were fifteen.
Blue: And I proposed to him when he turned eighteen and we got married not long after.
Red: Ahem. As the months passed, we got better at shoplifting and stealing to survive. And we got bored. We kept getting told how were disappointments of society, but you know what? We're disappointed in society for forcing us in this statement. Eventually, somewhere along the way, we both finally snapped and said "Fuck it".
Blue: At the age of seventeen, we became nationwide criminals. Nobody tried to help us, so why should we obey its rules? Haha. I really do wish that there had been someone that had stopped telling us what a disappointment we were and actually did something to help. We would have gotten more time. Nineteen years, it just isn't enough. I wish I could have just been teenagers with Keith. Argue over stupid shit. Waste money on gifts for each other that we didn't need. Cuddling while watching bad movies. Sneaking whisky from the cabinets. Motorcycle rides down empty highways. Cooking together. Walks in the park. Nights spent stargazing and whispering secrets to each other. Complaining about the amounts of homework our teachers would give us. I had wanted that. I wish we could have had that.
Red: But instead we were forced to be adults at the age of fourteen. Our childhood was stolen from us and now we won't get to live to see our twentieth. We could, but we don't want this life. We don't want to be forced to our wits end and steal and kill and… we don't want it. So for our last few hours of life in this world, we're just going to be lovesick nineteen year olds.
Red and Blue: Goodbye. Please don't let what happen to us happen others.
"A….Are you the store owner?"
"Yes. Keith Kogane and Lance McClain died outside of my store. I made a website and posted all of their newspaper articles on it, what happened throughout their lives, the videos of them, and a picture of this letter and pictures of them on it." The stepfather smiles. "It's a tragic story, really."