Chapter Fourteen: A Night Out
My date was great with Jake after we got passed my tattoo. I knew he was still curious, but that moment just wasn't right to unload all my baggage on him. We did a few more jumps before packing up and hiking back to his car. He made some amazing pasta for us for dinner and we had a great rest of the night. When he drove me home he walked me to the porch to say good night. It was so perfect that before he could leave I leaned up and gave a kiss to his cheek before opening the door and going inside.
I smiled as I drove, thinking about how great the night had been and how I hoped we would do it again soon. I pulled into the Chesney driveway and climbed out with the pizza I had run to Port Angeles to get. The door was thrown up before I could climb the front steps. Brandon grabbed the pizza box while Amber grabbed my arm and dragged me into the house and into the currently empty kitchen.
"So… How'd it go?" I smirked at Amber's eagerness. She was practically vibrating as she bounced, wanting to know about yesterday. I thought over what to say, dragging out the time Amber had to wait. She was quickly growing impatient.
"It was great. He was a total gentlemen, even cooked pasta for us." I smiled as Amber smothered a squeal.
"Are you two going out again? Did you kiss? Did he announce his undying love for you and beg for you to run away and marry him?" Amber rattled off questions faster than I could try to answer them. Each question sounding like she was imagining some dorky romance movie between Jacob and I in her head.
"Amber… Amber!" Amber stopped talking as I put my hand over her mouth.
"I don't know. He walked me to the door and I kissed his cheek. No, this is real life, not a romance."
"What do you mean you don't know!? Didn't you guys talk about it?" Amber seemed to be running off again in her head and I hurried to stop her train of thought.
"No, we didn't talk about it. I imagine we'll talk about it the next time he comes to the diner." I let Amber ask a few more question before declaring that we need to get some pizza before Richard, Dustin and Brandon ate it all on us. Crystal and Ashley gave me a smile as Amber settled on the couch next to her twin and I pulled up a yellow beanbag that had been in the corner.
"Alright." Brandon began as he stood up in front of the blue screened TV.
"I got The Fog, Batman Begins, Lords of Dogtown, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Robot." Brandon held up the cases for each movie as he read the title.
"How about we start with the childish movies and end with the serious horror movie. They're more interesting in the dark." Richard chuckled. We all agreed and Brandon popped Robot into the player and retook his place in the recliner. We all had a good time as we relaxed in Brandon's living room and gorged ourselves on pizza, licorice, popcorn and soda.
Most of us ended up camping out on the living room furniture once The Fog finished playing at 3 am. We were too tired to safely drive home and with the risk of hitting someone coming home from prom Brandon offered to get us a couple blankets. Thankfully his parents were totally fine with this, Mrs. Chesney even made breakfast for us all in the morning before sending us off to our own homes. I called Jack and let him know what had happened and calmed his panic attack before I left to go home. Sonas jumped on me the second the door opened, she was so happy to see me. She licked my face causing me to laugh as I tried to get her down.
"You couldn't call last night?" Jack asked angrily leaning against the small wall that blocked the kitchen from sight.
"I didn't realize how late it had gotten til the movie got over and saw a clock. I didn't think you would appreciate a call at three in the morning." I shrugged, kicking off my shoes. Jack sighed and pushed himself off the wall, arms crossing over his chest.
"I was up anyway. Worried about you, Deen."
"There was nothing to worry about. I was completely safe." Jack still looked upset.
"Are you sure? Just because nothing has happened since we've got here doesn't mean that we're totally safe. I was up all night talking myself out of driving over to that house and seeing if something had happened to you. You're the only family I have left Aideen! I don't care what time it is! I need to know that you're safe! I may not really be your brother, but I'm still your cousin. I'm family and I want to make sure your safe, just like I promised Aunt Alana." I felt tears prick at the back of my eyes as Jack mentioned mom.
"I'm sorry Jack." I threw myself at him, hugging him as tight as I could. Jack sighed tiredly before slowly wrapping his arms around me, hugging me back. Tears slowly began to fall down my face as I thought more about what Jack had said. He was right. I should have called, should have known that he would be worried. I had just gotten caught up in being able to feel safe for the first time in years. Jack was only this way to protect me, I couldn't blame him for that.
"No, I'm sorry, Deen." Jack hugged me a little tighter before pushing me back a little to look me in the eye.
"I know you can take care of yourself, you always could. I just… I over reacted. I started thinking like the over protective cousin that had to watch out for you every second of every day. You have a right to go out with your friends and be a carefree kid every once in a while." I shook my head.
"No, you're right. I should have known to call. Even if it was three in the morning. I got caught up in everything and I stopped thinking like a person on the run. I won't happen again Jack, I promise." I vowed. Jack gave me a small smile before pulling me back into a hug. I let Jack comfort me for a couple seconds before pulling away and wiping away the tears.
"I have to get ready for work." Jack nodded.
"Annie asked to meet me for lunch so I'm going to run a couple errands before meeting her." I nodded. I already didn't care for this Annie. Jack really seemed to like her and she had already hurt him more than any other past girlfriend had. The last one had cheated on him with one of his closest friends, but Jack seemed more upset about Annie refusing to be his girlfriend than he ever was over the cheating skank and his friend.
"Alright. I'll see you later." Jack gave me a smile before he scooped up his keys and headed out the door. I listened as his car pulled out before taking the dogs out. I hooked their collars to their ropes and walked back inside to shower. I caught sight of my face as I pulled my shirt off. My eyes were puffy from crying, but other than that I looked good.
The bags had disappeared from under my eyes and they had returned to their bright blue, my hair was once again it's bright shade of red that caught everyone's attention. The biggest thing that I noticed was that I actually looked like a regular happy teenager, something I hadn't been in so long. I smiled at my reflection, but the smile dulled as my eye caught on the scar behind my ear. My hand absently rose to run my finger down the scar as far as I could reach.
I remembered the night I got the scar well. That night is permanently ingrained in my memory like my own name. Jack had already been in the gang for about three months. He had tried to hide it from me, tried to save me from becoming involved before I ever had the chance. I followed Jack one night when he snuck out to make a deal. He had been acting strange since he had gotten his 'job' and the long straight cut had appeared on his arm, I wanted to know what had caused the changes. If something was going to take Jack, it was going to take me too. I had followed him about eight blocks to a pier near the port. Jack had been meeting up with three other large guys that I soon learned were the Tony, Sam, and another high end dealer.
When Tony punched Jack in the face I couldn't stay silent anymore. I gasped and fell backward into a crate, creating a loud bang that caught the attention of the guys on the pier. They found me huddled against the crate as I shied away from the guns they had aimed at my head. Tony had smiled when he realized what he was looking at and slowly leaned down so he was looking at me face to face.
"What are you doing out here, little girl? Shouldn't you be home instead of snooping around where you don't belong?" Tony had taunted as he raised my chin with the barrel of his gun to get a better look at my face.
"What to do with you?" Tony had murmured as he stood back up and glared down at me like I was some pest that he needed to rid the world of.
"We can't have her going around telling the cops what she may have heard. We need to get rid of her." The high end dealer had insisted as he clutched his gun tightly in his left hand that had a long flame tattoo that probably started somewhere around his elbow, but ended at his knuckles.
"Shut up! If I wanted your opinion I would have asked for it!" Tony had yelled and I tried to curl in on myself more, trying to protect myself.
"She could be useful. She did sneak up on us and we didn't even know she was here till she hit that crate." Sam had coaxed quietly. Tony's cold eyes had raked over me again, trying to assess me with his eyes.
"Bring her to the warehouse. I'll make my judgment there." Tony had said coolly before uncocking his gun and tucking it into the waist band of his pants. Sam and the tattooed dealer each grabbed one of my arms and hauled me from the ground. They dragged me back down the ally to a car and forced me into the backseat before Sam and Jack climbed in the front and tattoo hand climbed in another vehicle with Tony.
The warehouse they brought me to had at least another thirty people inside that all stopped what they were doing when they noticed Tony enter the room. Jack was the one to hold on to my arm as I was dragged toward a back room, I looked up at him scared, but he refused to look down at me. His face remained a stone mask of indifference as we walked through the warehouse and into a back room that held little more than a desk that Tony sat behind while Sam leaned on it.
"How much did you hear?" Tony demanded as he folded his hands in front of him. I swallowed hard, fighting the dryness in my throat so I could speak.
"I didn't hear anything. I was too far away." I could barely choke the words out as my throat threatened to close off my airway. Tony set me with a level stare, staring straight into my eyes, searching for any hint of a lie.
"How did you know where we were going to be?"
"I didn't. I snuck out and stumbled into the crate right before you found me." It wasn't a lie. I just wasn't going to tell them that I had followed Jack. I didn't want to put him in anymore danger than he already was.
"If you weren't at the pier to eavesdrop, why were you there?" Sam asked uncrossing his arms from over his chest and planting them on the desk as he leaned forward toward me.
"I love the piers and my mother won't let me go at night." Again, not a total lie. Mom never wanted me out after ten, the streets became even more dangerous then and I did love coming to the piers to gaze out over the water and to watch the waves in the moonlight.
"We can never know for sure that you didn't hear anything so I'm going to give you a choice. We could kill you right now or we can do initiation." Jack's grip on my arm almost became painful with Tony's ultimatum. I sucked in a sharp breath.
"What's initiation?" I whispered.
"Now, now. You have to choose first. The harbor or we go back out into that room and you become one of us." I only had to think about it for a second before I realized that I really didn't what to die and become a nameless body the harbor.
"I'll join." I said quietly. I didn't dare look at Jack. I didn't want to see if the mask had broken away or if it was still in place. I knew that if I made it out of here that he would be beyond pissed with me. Tony smiled smugly while Sam nodded, seeming like he didn't care one way or another.
They took me back out to the room full of people and my initiation began. They simply beat the shit out of me till I could barely lift my head with the pain. As they beat me I wondered if death would have been the better option. At least that would have been quick. When they finally stopped I simply laid breathing heavily on the cold cement floor. I saw from the corner of my eye as Tony walked toward me and squatted down. He grabbed a handful of my hair, yanking me upward to look him in the face. He smirked as he looked into my eyes.
"She's still got a fire burning in her eyes. We'll see if it can survive this next part." Tony let go of my hair as he motioned to someone out of my range of sight. They moved to my side and pushed my chin away from them before moving my hair out of the way. Before I knew what he was doing he pressed the heated blade of a knife behind my ear and dragged the burning blade til it reached my shoulder blade. I screamed, causing some of the men to laugh as more tears fell down my face. The agony of the burning and cutting, added with blood loss finally allowed me the mercy of passing out.
Who knew that roughly two years later I would still be wishing that I had chosen death that night. Who knew that decision would lead to the death of so many. I had known it would change my life, but not to this extent. Who knew that even though I had chosen life, I would still have to be faced with death from the same man that had granted me my life that night, that he would be holding the scissors that could cut my string of life at any moment he decided.
Death would have been easy, so easy in comparison, but since when have I taken the easy road out. I wiped the tears that had started to fall again and straightened up in the mirror. I'm a different person now, I've changed in personality and in my name. It was time to move forward completely and leave the past in the past where it belong. I know I'll never be completely free, but I could always hope and there was always tomorrow for the world to tilt on it's axis again and set everything right.