Six
I readied the house just in time. The cops called shortly after I'd gone through the house, making sure there would be nothing to connect this to Mars. I hid Mars in our basement, praying there'd be no reason for the cops to search there. He trusted me completely. I told him that I'd come back for him as soon as I got everything straightened out with the police department. I freed my siblings and went over the new version of the events of the night. Jennifer especially wasn't happy about the lying, but eventually her desire to have it all be over with prevailed and she agreed to my story.
When the cops called I told them I killed Dennis and Kevin, and it seemed within minutes the entire police force was in our house. I went through the night's events with one of them, bending everything to exclude Mars. There was no evidence in the house to suggest anyone but Dennis and Kevin had broken in.
We were all taken to the hospital, and we spent the night there with dad. The doctors said that he'd live. The next morning I left the hospital early and without telling anyone. I went back to the house, having to duck under the yellow police tape that surrounded the entire structure. I found Mars sleeping. He looked so beautiful there, alone and peaceful in the dark and the cold. I woke him and he smiled a child's smile, happy to see me. Happy to see I hadn't betrayed him and that I'd come back for him just as I said I would.
I drove him to a gas station at the edge of town. I knew he could get a car and not get caught. He'd done it before. I gave him the name of a motel in LA, told him to get a room there and to wait for me. I told him I didn't know when I would get there. I hugged him and kissed him, I couldn't let him go. Even though I knew I'd see him again, knew we'd be together, knew our story would have a happy ending, I couldn't let him go. He was too perfect. I drank in his scent and tried to memorize his face. Letting him go that day was one of the hardest things I ever had to do.
I went back to the hospital. No one even seemed to know I'd been gone. Soon after I arrived everyone began to wake up. Dad even woke up that day. He was so relieved to see all of us. He didn't even ask to know what happened. He didn't care. None of them did. They were all just so happy that they were all alive, they didn't care about anything that had happened and they wanted nothing more than to forget it all.
For the next couple days I repeated my story several times and filed an official report. By the end of the week my father and my siblings were allowed to move back into the house. I stayed for a few more days, then left, telling them I had to get back to school.
I never went back to school. I never could have after what I'd experienced. Mars had freed me during those few hours we'd shared, and I could never go back to my life. Mars made me who I wanted to be. Nothing could ever be the same again.
I didn't go back to school. I went back to Mars. When I met him at that motel he smiled that same smile, as if the entire time I'd been gone he'd been telling himself over and over that I'd come back, part of him knowing I would, and part of him always doubting it. But I did come back. I returned to him and I never left him again. And he never left me. Instead, we left together. Together we both left behind everything we'd ever known. Together, we moved on.