"Hemmorhage"

(In reference to the Fuel song. lyrics featured in this are from "Walking Dead" by Z-Trip f. Chester Bennington (from Linkin Park))

"How do WE KNOW he's dead?" Bobby asked his brothers, sister, and Sofi.

"I don't know--" Angel started, but was interrupted.

"Exactly. And until I know what went on, we can't assume anything. Alex," He said, going over to the helpless-looking young girl, putting his hands on her shoulders, "What happened?"

She was silent. "Alex, what happened out there?" His voice was raising now. "Alex! Alex tell me something!" He seemed stern, but looking at his face, you could tel it was full of fear. Alex started shaking, and, crying more, turned away, covering herself with her arms even more. "Oh God, Alex. Oh, Jesus, I'm sorry." He pulled her closer to him, and hugged her. "I just, I need to know what happened. I'm scared, Alex. I need my brother. Eventually, you know, you've gotta let us in."

She sniffled, and backed away from Bobby, resuming her position, not that she ever really moved much. She sat, leaning her head against the wall, and kept her knees close to her body. Bobby stood back up, turned to look at his family, and said, "C'mon. We can't force it out of her. Not right now. We'll, we'll have to wait."

They filed out of Jack's room, leaving Alex there. She breathed deeply, and squeeze her eyes shut. Tears flowed out the corners. "What id he do?" She whispered. "How could this possibly seem right? That he should be taken away from his life, his family. From me. This ISN'T right. I just, I just want Jack back. If I could get him back, I wouldn't question it I--...I would just accept it. But that can never happen, I guess, can it?" She took another deep breath, and stood up. At first her legs felt weak, and she had to lean against the wall briefly for support, then stood upright before walking out of Jack's room, and going downstairs. She stopped at the bottom, and everyone, all sitting in the living room, turned to look at her, eagerly.

"They came..out of nowhere..I-I don't know who they were. Just, they told him something about a guy..." She explained what happened as best she could. It was hard for the others to hear, and hard for her to recall it. "And I checked his pulse. I didn't find one. He wore this til the end. I wanted to keep it, to have something of his. Anyway, I came to and, he was gone. I figured maybe they took him. Clear evidence, proof of kill, I dunno." All the compsure she had while she was explaining, now she fell apart. "I just want him back." She started to crack, you could tell, and so she ran upstairs, into the bathroom, and they knew she was crying, and then heard her throw up. There was sience throughout the room, and tears, confusion, sorrow.

Upstairs Alex brushed her teeth. Then she turned on the water to its coldest, and splashed it on her face until she was almost numb, hands and face. Then she turned on the hot water in the shower, stripped off her clothing, hesitantly starting with Jack's black and grey sweater, and climbed in. She soaked under the showerhead and sobbed, tears running down her face, mixing with the water.

a month later

It had been awhile since they had lost Jack. Everyone had mourned, and still did, though slightly less. Alex still cried at night, sometimes. The police still couldn't prove he was dead, though. He was just another missing person, a poster amongst many other poor souls on a bulletin board at the police station. Everyone still mourned. Alex, Kat, the Mercers, and yes, the members of Spares, too. They WERE Jack's best friends, Deacon, Tyler, and Will. Once Deacon came over, to see how Alex was doing. He came in (he never knocked, he knew the family well, and he just wasn't the knocking type) and was greeted by Sofi.

"Hi Deacon," she said from the couch.

"Hey, Sofi, Angel. How is Alex?"

"Better than last month, by far. But still not too great. It's hard. On all of us." Angel said.

"Yeah. Don't I know," and with that Deacon went upstairs to see Alex. She was in Jack's room, wearing his sweater, strumming his guitar. She'd learned more by now. "Hey, Kid."

"Hey Deek."

"How you doin?"

She just shook her head and shrugged, looking down.

"Yeah. We've all taken this pretty hard, kid. He was my best friend since junior high. And our band's lead singer, and damn could he play guitar." He slightly, sadly smiled at the memory of his good friend. She smiled a little too, she hated to think of him as just a memory, but had no choice. But she did like when people talked about him, why they miss him, his good qualities.

"Alright. I'm gonna go. I'll see you later, Kid."

"Bye, Deek. And thanks."

"No problem, Alex."

He walked away from the doorway and to the stairs, when he heard something. A guitar. Alex wasn't too bad. She was no Jimi Hendrix, not exactly Carlos Santana, but she wasn't horrible. She started to sing:

"I'll take your love (take your love),

I'll take your hate (take your hate),

I'll take your desire,

I'll take the world, when it turns on you,

I'll set it on fire"

She was actually a pretty good singer. Better than anyone from the band, and she'd be better than hiring anyone else. Deek went back to Jack's doorway. "Do you want to be our lead singer?"

"What? But, that was Jack's job."

"But he can't do his job anymore. But you can. And it'll be better than having some stranger replace him. Trust me, this is truly sincere and not just a last attempt at making my band famous. This is for the sake of my friends, the guys, Jack, and you."

"I don't know. I'd feel like I was replacing him. But I'd only do this FOR HIM. I can write songs, too."

And so over the next few weeks, about a month or two, probably, they had performed locally. Fans of the band liked Alex, she wasn't Jack, though, which is fine. She didn't want to be. She had written a few songs, and all about Jack. She didn't really consider herself much a part of the band, and really didn't call herself lead singer. She couldn't help but think she wouldn't do this forever, that this was temporary, but how was she supposed to leave the guys hanging?

One night was especially bad. The guys, Mercers, that is, went out for drinks, and took Sofi, for some reason. Kat was wokrking her shift there, so they could guarantee a discount. Family discount. Yep, this came in handy. Alex wasn't feeling good, soon they would have a gig, opening for a semi-famous band called Vengeful Icis. Despite the difference in spelling, the 'gang' had made previous humorous references to this being an omen. Anyway, that evening, Alex was in bed, dreaming. Tears streamed out of her closed eyes, and she twitched a little, and shook a bit. She was sweating too. She woke up, wiped her eyes, and got out of bed. This was all too much to handle. Her mind just couldn't process it all anymore. She went to the fridge, pulled out a beer, opened it, took a drink, and grimaced in sadness. Then Alex went into the bathroom, opened the medicine cabinet, and pulled out sleeping pills. She poured out a handful into her palm. She took another drink and just stared at what she had in her hand. Hesitantly, she held her hand just above the bottle of pills, and tipped her hand, watching the pills fall back into it. She stepped back, until her back was against the wall, and slid down. She sat there on the floor, and wept. Alex may have been sitting there for a few minutes, maybe an hour, but eventually the front door opened. They were home.

"Alex. Alex!" Jerry called.

She couldn't respond. The only thing she could do was make a sort of gasping sound.

"Alex!" Bobby ran to her, his brothers behind him. He dropped to his knees next to her. Her face was stained with tears and smeared mascara. She breathed in short gasps, and made no eye contact, or any acknowledgement of the brothers' presence whatsoever. She just sat there, shivering. "Alex..." He brushed her hair out of her face, and her eyes finally met his. The second they did she broke down. She started sobbing. She fell into Bobby's arms, and she did a heartbreaking sort of scream-slash-groan, muffled by Bobby's shirt. He stroked her hair, and held her. She was like his baby sister. He didn't know what had happened, not totally, but he knew why. His baby brother. Jack. Now Jack was gone. Alex was alone. But she wasn't. Bobby was here. She had three brothers here with her. HER brothers, as faras anyone here was concerned. Bobby would try to be a better big brother to her, never to replace Jack, no one could, but more understanding. She would not go through this alone. Bobby felt this too. And it was time he made them pay for what they did. To Evelyn, to Jack, and to the rest of them. They wouldn't get away with this.