THIS IS NOT PART OF THE STORY, BUT A BULLITIN THAT I PLACED ON MYSPACE. I urge you all to read this though I know only a fair few will spare it a passing glance as they skip on ahead to the chapter.

I Dedicate this chapter to Sierra Fauver, R.I.P.

On Saturday, March 3, 2007 a seventeen year old girl got in her car w/ her friends and boyfriend. They were under the influence of drugs and alcohol.
Sierra' s boyfriend was the driver of the vehicle. They were doing 85 in a 35 zone. It was snowing and the wind was fierce. Visibility was nonexistent.
What went wrong I do not know and I'm sure there are others out there who will correct me on this but the car skidded out of control and slammed into a utility pole.
Sierra's neck snapped. Some say she died instantly but I do not know and I will not go into the gruesome details. She was the only one who died in the crash. Her younger sister is rumored to have not left her bed since the accident and has made her self sick (a freshman while her sis was a senior and would have graduated this year).
I am sorry to say that I did not know Sierra personally. She was only a face in the crowd to me. I wish I could have known her better. She was described as an all around nice person but I would not know.
Her death is a new awakening to all of us at J.A. High School. I like to think of my school as a tight nit school. We were all completely blown away by her sudden death. It was like losing a family member.
Gym class, first period.
The announcements come on and the entire gymnasium is deathly silent. A pin could have dropped and it would have sounded like an explosion. A senior girl is sobbing brokenheartedly. Several sophomores are teary eyed, myself included.
The principal speaks in a weary voice, informing those who did not know that one of us has died. One of our number has left us forever. An angel has spread her wings and taken to the heavens.
Yesterday at school was the longest saddest day I have ever experienced in my 9 years in this beloved district. Students whispering in somber voices. Teachers bunched together, looking frightened. Kids joking halfheartedly with one another.
Sierra's death was the most discussed topic in all of the high school, sad as it sounds.
A memorial is going to take place in the gym for Sierra on Wednesday during school hours.
As teenagers we like to think of ourselves as invincible, nothing can hurt us or touch us through these emotionless shells we place around our true feelings. I myself am that way. Sierra's death is proof that we are NOT invincible. We are human and that accident could have happened to any one which is why its so scary.
I keep playing it over and over in my head. That could just have easily been me or one of my friends. But it was Sierra; a girl I didn't know but was much loved in our school, a volleyball champ.
I will not break into a lecture about how bad drugs and alcohol is and is the reason we take DARE classes. I'm pretty sure everyone knows the dangers of these substances and yet...good people like Sierra do them. Why? Why is it that we take such an unnecessary risk? A stupid one at that? Why? To prove that we are invincible? Or because we think its cool? To prove something? Well let me tell you, is it cool when your dead?
A life could have been saved if someone had just been responsible. The next time you think of driving under the influence or riding with someone under the influence please, reconsider.
That is all I have to say.
Please don't take offense if my facts are incorrect.
Rest in Peace Sierra, a true J.A. Pioneer if there ever was one.
God bless your friends and family.
Helps us through these difficult times.

Our flag is raised at half mass to you.

…And now the chapter, a small reward for reading my bulletin and passing on Sierra's memory.

Chapter Two

Rage Consumes and Destroys

"Zack, Mom-Mom…sh-she-s-s dead,"

His only response was to blink blankly at his twin. Cody dissolved into a fit of hiccoughing sobs and impulsively yanked the pillow Zack was resting on out from under his neck and clutched it to his face.

Zack cocked an eyebrow not about to fall for Cody's waterworks and drama. He may not have been the brightest crayon in the box but he wasn't that stupid for Christ sakes! Like he'd fall for that whale of a tale. All this for one refusal to answer the phone? Get real!

"Ha-ha-ha, Cody. Your hilarious. A real comedian. You should work with Larry the Cable Gu-"

Cody fixed him with a bloodshot look. Disbelief was etched into his features as the tears continued to fall.

"Zack o-our mother is dead and all you c-can do is laugh?" he choked out. His breath hitched piteously in his chest as he clung desperately to the pillow in a white knuckled grip.

"Your-Your serious?" Zack stammered, his voice suddenly small and weak and wavered beyond control.

Carelessly tossing his MP3 Player aside he leapt off the couch and dove for the dropped phone. Clinging to it as though it was his last life line, he shouted into the receiver, begging someone to hear him, to tell him this was just some cruel joke created to teach him a lesson.

The line was dead.

The officer had hung up.

Overcome with a rage he could not feed, he heaved the cordless at the wall where it shattered. Shattered into chunks of plastic and a tangle of wires. He should have stopped there but he didn't. His rage consumed him like a hungry, devouring fire does a forest, licking at his insides and pushing him past reasonable thinking. A red alarm went off in his head pleading him for him to act rationally. He merely shrugged it aside.

Breathing heavily and blinded by red, he numbly tore viciously into the thing nearest him; The kitchen table. With a strength powered by rage, he flipped it, sending Cody's books flying and papers sailing. It thudded heavily to the floor, looking like an absurd beetle, struck dumb with its legs stuck straight up in the air. He kicked at the chairs, throwing one at the wall where it gave a satisfying crack of defeat and fell, crippled to the carpet.

Zack attacked the corner kitchen next, ripping open counter doors and spilling their contents all over the linoleum. He tossed cherished China and eating utensils left and right over his shoulders, destroying everything his trembling hands touched. The jars containing flour, sugar, and baking soda met the floor and their fate with a despiteful shove.

Pots and pans clanged as they ricocheted off walls and furniture. Packaged goods and canned foods became airborne as Zack yanked them from the refuge of their dark, dusty cupboards.

Cabinets empty, his hands automatically reached for the drawers. He didn't hesitate as he recklessly plunged his fist into the steak knife drawer, pulling out a handful of cutlery and not giving a damn that Cody was kneeling within spitting distance of his intent, threw the lethal knives into the air.

Cody knelt, immobile, watching horrified as his brother demolished the suite, breaking valuables and shredding pictures on the fridge. He could only watch as Zack struggled through his grief in the only way he could without looking like a sissy.

Tears left tracks down his twins cheeks as he used the last of the plastic plates for Frisbees, the kitchen in complete disarray. Slightly satisfied, Zack stumbled into the portion that was their living room, kicking skittering cans and fragments of broken vases. Blinded by hot tears, his foot slipped on an offending can of Campbell's Chicken Noodle soup and he fell, slashing his hands on shards of glass. He didn't cry out or even wince as he staggered upright again, brushing his bloodied hands on his jeans.

"Zack,"

Cody softly called his name but Zack was deaf to all but the anguish, filling him, drowning him. His bleeding hands moved over the wall, groping for picture frames and hurling them into the air. His right hand roved over a photo with a delicately carved wood frame. His mother had purchased it a year ago when they had taken a trip down to Tennessee. Carey was still pondering what to put in it when they had driven past a fifty foot, stair case waterfall. She had reversed and ushered the boys out of the van. Several families were already clambering over the large slippery rocks and playing in the clear knee deep pool while the water cascaded cheerfully in the background. Carey paid a man, standing tentatively at the rocky shore, to take their picture while they slashed one another in the silver-blue water. She later blew it up to accommodate the frame.

That week down in the hill-billy hills had to have been the happiest memories he could draw up. And now it would never happen again. Carey, his mother, was dead. His childhood was dead.

He destroyed the picture, frame and all. Tore it from its nail and stomped on it even as a sob escaped his lips.

"Zack!" Cody cried despairingly.

"Please stop," he whispered, fresh tears dampening his cheeks.

Zack pivoted away from the wall and stepped menacingly towards his twin. The finger he pointed shook like a leaf in a high wind.

"You-y-you-this is-s all your fault!" he screamed.

Cody stared at him, hurt and bewildered. He didn't say anything though; He knew better. To answer would enrage Zack further more. It was best to remain silent, no matter how hurtful his words were and to just let him burn out. Let his rage fizzle and die as Cody knew it would.

"Y-you sh-shouldn't of ans-answered the phone! If you hadn't then-then this would never have-never have happened," even to his own ears, Zack knew he sounded foolish.

Cody's lip trembled as he stared tearfully at his brother.

"Oh, God…," Zack moaned, wheeling away. He savagely kicked the wall before collapsing at it's base, huddled in a ball, forehead to his knees.

Cody, always overly sensitive to others pain and grief was torn from his position beside the couch by Zack's heartbroken sobs. He uncertainly curled his arm around Zack's shoulder and was surprised when he leaned into his embrace.

"I'm so s-sorry, C-Cody," Zack gulped, pressing his face into Cody's shirt.

"It's not our fault. It's not our fault," Cody whispered forcefully as a fresh wave of grief broke over him.

Zack, after a spell of heavy tears and throat catching sobs, released Cody and sat back, too drained and too sick to do much else besides stare through sore eyes at the disaster he had created. Cody swiped at his eyes and cleared his stuck throat. A sense of loss and hopelessness washed over the pair of them simultaneously but it was Zack who voiced aloud the question neither wanted to think about.

"What's going to happen to us?"

To be continued…

This was a rather difficult chapter for me and its been a devastating week (as mentioned above) so reviews will really be nice right now. Thank you.

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