Zeke took a long drag from his cigarette as he leaned against the pillar on the porch. He stared somewhat dazedly towards the street. It was way too fucking bizarre not to see a car drive by, or even someone coming out of their house to pick up their newspaper from the gutter of the road. Or to not see someone delivering the newspaper at all.
"Fuck..." Zeke muttered, steadily allowing the smoke in his mouth to escape from his lips. He had nearly half an hour's worth of thinking done by now. And there were at least three things he was sure of. One-Stan would never leave him, two-neither would Casey, and finally three-his parents were definitely not coming back from Europe. Of course he had known the last part for a while now.
Zeke broke free of his thoughts hearing the front door open behind him. Turning around he saw Stan peeking out of the house looking a bit lost.
"Um..Casey's...well, he kinda left.." Stan said softly. He braced himself for the explosion he knew was coming.
"Fucking what?!" Zeke nearly screamed. His forgotten cigarette fell to the ground as he stormed passed Stan. He began to search through the house not entirely believing that Casey had gone like Stan said. He stopped when he felt the slightly shorter male's hand on his arm.
"He went to his house, Zeke. He wanted to get some things, that's all." Stan explained relaxing only when he saw Zeke's shoulders slump.
Zeke let out a huff of relief before his expression turned to one of slightly less concern. "We need to put a beeper on that kid." he muttered pulling Stan outside to his car to drive to Casey's house. He really wasn't that surprised that the boy had slipped away. He knew if Casey had his heart set on something nothing short of both Stan and himself holding him back would stop him.
Stan slipped into the passenger's seat tossing the keys to Zeke letting him drive this time. He made sure to buckle his seat belt and settled in as Zeke drove out of the drive way onto the road. It wouldn't take long to get to Casey's house, he just hoped Casey didn't find anything he shouldn't see.
Meanwhile,
Casey was just arriving at the front door of his home. He had seen his parent's car in the driveway, so they must have gotten home before...
He shook his head dislodging the stomach twisting thought before turning the knob of the door to see if it was locked. The knob turned willingly and Casey pushed the door open peering inside. He couldn't see anything or anyone alive or otherwise so far.
There was still a small flicker of hope in his eyes as he started climbing the stairs to his room. Maybe they had survived. Stan had.
Casey reached the top of the stairs and tentatively went to his room. The door was ajar just as he had left it. And so was everything else in his room. Casey couldn't help but feel a little bittersweet about this. He took a deep breath and got a duffel bag from his closet to begin putting things he would need inside. He needed some of his own clothes for one. Not that he didn't like the smell of Zeke's.
Casey soon collected enough clothing and other items he needed. He slipped the weighty bag's strap over his shoulder before looking around his room for anything else that struck him as necessary. His eyes fell on some of the photo's he had taken. There was at least one of Stokley there on his wall, he had managed to make her smile that time. A sad smile pulled at his lips as he carefully pulled the picture from the wall slipping it into the bag as well. He took another of his photos of Delilah, he had taken it when she was smiling as well. It had been a day where she had been acting a bit nicer to people.
Casey turned leaving his room to go back down stairs but stopped. The door to his parent's room caught his eye. He shifted as he stared at the door as if it was going try to eat him at any moment. He slowly walked towards it and turned the knob pushing it open ever so slightly. Nothing. He sighed and went into the room, he felt as though he was invading his parent's personal space by doing this. He picked up a framed photo of his parents on their wedding day, he smiled softly setting it back down. Another photo drew his attention. Within the frame was a photo of his parents hugging each other as they smiled and between them, in their arms was him. He was a little younger in the photo but it was him smiling brightly as he stared up at his parents.
Casey didn't realize he was crying till his vision blurred. He sniffed wiping his eyes of the tears as he carefully tucked the photo into his bag. He took a moment to compose himself before heading down the stairs. He stopped a moment seeing something out of the corner of his eye that made him look towards the livingroom. He saw what looked like his father's jacket, and it was moving! Casey practically dropped his bag and rushed towards the livingroom. His heart sank when he got there seeing the jacket was hanging on the coat tree and it was moving because of a soft breeze through the open window. He looked down feeling completely defeated again. He froze though as he saw bones laying on the floor, not just bones but skeletons. Two of them.
Casey's already broken heart plummeted to his stomach. This was what was left of his parents...
His trembling legs gave out making him fall to his knees as tears welled up in his eyes. He let a choked sob escape from his throat unable to tear his eyes away from the skeletons. He trembled as his body was racked with sobs. He couldn't even hear the slow footsteps coming up behind him until he felt a soft hand on his shoulder. Casey jumped up whirling around to see Zeke and Stan standing there. They both wore looks of deep concern.
All Casey could do was look at them for a moment before looking back down at the remains of the only family he had. He put a hand over his mouth trying to hold back more sobs. He didn't believe he could feel any worse than he did in that moment. His heart was broken and throbbing, his throat was tight, he couldn't stop shaking and his stomach was in knots.
Zeke frowned seeing what Casey had found and moved over to the smaller male. He wrapped an arm around him leading him gently out of the house to the car. He was met with no resistance from Casey as he sat him in the back seat buckling his seat belt for him.
Stan put Casey's bag in the back of his car looking up at Zeke. He knew there were no words needed right now. He slipped into the back seat with Casey knowing he would need as much comfort as he could get. He nearly felt his own heart break at seeing Casey's normally vibrant blue eyes red with irritation and the tears that stained the soft skin of his face. He was half tempted to try to say something soothing but everything that came to his mind would only make it worse. He wrapped a gentle arm around Casey's shoulders and placed a tender kiss to the top of his head.
Zeke parked the car in the driveway once they reached his house. He climbed out tucking the keys in his pocket as he opened the door for Stan to help Casey out. He hated to see the little guy so depressed and even though his parents gave Casey a hard time usually, he knew he loved them. He let Stan guide Casey back into the house. He frowned and took the duffel bag following them in. It was definitely time to leave the town. And leave it for good.
