Once again a knock, awaken Jethro. He looked around for the bottle, he found it and held it up to the moonlight, the thick liquid was still there, he sighed. I didn't take any of it… he put the bottle back in his bag, and got up and stumbled towards the door. He fumbled with the knob and got it open finally, Aeris was standing outside, with a pink robe on.

"Aeris? W-what ya doin' here?" He asked with sleepy confusion.

"I couldn't sleep, seeing the news and knowing that a murderer is lurking around your neighborhood, is a little scary you know?" Aeris looked embarrass, "I would have gone to Leo for some comfort, but he's a heavy sleeper so I couldn't wake him up."

"So, ya decide to go to me." Jethro said Aeris nodded. He turned around, "come in, I guess". Aeris walked in and closed the door behind her.

"Can we turn on the lights, its dark in here?"

"Huh? Yeah, sure." Jethro sidled the wall with his hands, until he felt the light switch, he turned it on and the room instantly light up. Aeris noticed Jethro's blood stained hand.

"The hell happened to your hand?" she asked, pointing at it. Jethro just noticed it as well, and looked at it.

"Uh, I accidently broke the bathroom mirror."

"Accidently?" Aeris cocked her eyebrow.

"Aight fine, I purposely busted it up."

"Why?"

"It's a long story…" Jethro went over to the bathroom to wash his stained hand, Aeris followed him and leaned against the door frame, she was shocked to see the broken glass all over the floor. Jethro swept the glass away with his foot, and turned on the sink. He began to wash his hand, the stains slowly washed away. There was silence expect for the running water. Jethro got most of the stains off, but his hand kept a reddish tone, he grunted and grabbed a towel. He walked out and Aeris followed, he sat down on the floor and she followed suit and sat next to him. Again, there was a silence between both of them, he looked over his shoulder at Aeris, she looked worried and scared.

"So, ya scared?" He said, to break the silence.

"No, I'm not scared." She said defensively.

"Usually if someone wants comfort, they're scared"

"Okay, maybe I'm just a little scared."

"Well don't be, even if ya scared, ya gotta keep ya cool, ya gotta put on a brave face, and make the people around ya feel safe." He said, giving Aeris a small smile.

"Yeah…I guess you're right." She said, she gave him a smile as well. The two then, went back to an awkward silence again, "Jethro?" Aeris asked, Jethro looked at her, she hesitated for brief moment, but went on, "What happened to you, to make you want to run?" Jethro stared at her, for a while, and then looked up at the ceiling.

"Guilt, shame, hurt, loss…" Jethro hung his head down. Aeris looked at him with sympathy, "I killed for money, but one time, I killed in cold blood…", Aeris looked at him, in shock, "his name was Cabele, I looked up to him, eva since my father committed suicide by cop. He helped me and family out a lot, but then he betrayed everybody, includin' me and my family, in fact he tried to kill my entire family, and he succeeded, so I had to avenge everybody, I felt like I was the only one who could do it, so I shot him, six times." , Aeris looked at him astonishment, but then looked up at the ceiling as well.

"So, you're an escaping from murder?"

"No, that's only a small part of it. I killed two otha men, ya know those groups those dead blokes on the news were affiliated with?" Aeris nodded in response, "Well, I went out to kill their leaders too, I thought I could fix everythin' and end the killin' and violence, but now that I think about it, tryin' to stop the killin' with more killin', kinda silly ain't it?" Jethro looked at Aeris for a reaction but she still looked at the ceiling, "But anyways, I had otha reasons for runnin'." He reached in his bag and pulled out the bottle, and showed it to her, and she took it and examines it, "I was also druggy, I sipped that cough syrup almost every day, getting' high and stuff like that, anyways I was really sippin' that stuff after my sista, Shannon, was killed right in front of me. But the cops found me at home high on that shit, so they send me to rehab, but afta two months I escaped, and went out to kill Cabele." Jethro stopped, and sighed, he wanted to break down and cry. Aeris looked at the ceiling still, Jethro wondered if she was even listening, but then she brought her head down and looked at him. The two of them stared at each other for a while.

"You, have sad life, I'm sorry for trying to pry before, I didn't think that you went through hell."

"No worries, we're friends , so its fine. You can ask any question since I pretty gave you my life story, and I've been, I guess reviewin' them all."

"W-what about your mother Jethro?" Aeris asked, Jethro realized he forget about his mother, but the memories came back.

"My motha, she was a nice, and beautiful woman. Afta my fatha died, Cabele started to help us out a lot, but when he got "ill" these people came to our house, and demanded that my motha paid the debts that my fatha had on them. Apparently, since the AWP was in complete ruins my fatha secretly did jobs for the NAAC , but he didn't join them, he only did jobs for them to get the money to support us. But the thing is, is that they had fees for him, ammo fees, contracta fees, a fee for workin' for them as a third party memba. He thought that if he did enough bounties he could pay them all off, but he was wrong, so the debt was on us. My motha told politely that we didn't have the money to pay, and told them that these "debts" were ridiculous and that they should leave, so then they…t-they beat her. Me and my sista took her to the hospital and we were so worried, it hurt to see her beaten and bleedin', but as soon as she came out, she gave us treats, and smiled at us saying 'it was goin' to be all right', and she cooked us our favorite meals. Every week those three men came over demandin' the same thing, and mum she just said same thing, in the same polite manna, and once again, they beat her down, with fists, and kicked her when she down, used the butt of their guns. But every time she would pick herself up, and patch herself up again, even with scars, bruises, bandages, black eyes, she would always smile at us and act as though nothin' happened. She would tell me to get some money outta her purse and told me to go to the store and buy a treat for me and my sista, I didn't want to, I wanted to stay home, and take care of her, but she insisted and soona or later I would go." Jethro paused, he wiped his face, he looked at Aeris, "you want to hear the rest?" he asked.

"It's up to you, I don't want to pry you of anything." She answered, Jethro nodded at her, and decided to continue.

"Well, I remember sometimes that those guys would beat her so badly that she had to crawl, sometimes me and my sista had to help her move around. It hurt a lot to see her deteriorate like that, I mean the human body can only take so much, eventually her body was at the end of the line. Afta one harsh beatin' she couldn't move, and me and sista helped her up on the couch, my sista always cried durin' those times, and she brought the first aid kit ova, I took and I was goin' to patch her up, but I noticed that her beathin' was irregula, it was heavy and short, asked what's wrong she couldn't even talk, she looked like she was in serious pain, so I called for an ambulance, they came ova and me and sista went inside with her and the paramedics, I asked them what was wrong, they told me it seemed that some of mum's ribs were broken, and were puncturin' one of her lungs from blunt force trauma, although they said they're weren't sure, but the bruises and scars were dead giveaway. So they cut a slit in the side of her chest and stuck a tube in there and a bunch of blood started to drain out into a bucket, my sista looked away immediately, but I watched, then suddenly one of the paramedics shouted "the chest tube is clogged!" everyone was rushin' around, someone said the blood pressure or somethin' was decreasin', and I saw there was a huge vein on the side of mum's neck, one of the paramedics told anotha to check her heartbeat, they said it was muffled and distant, everyone turned white, then one said it was 'Beck's Triad' and that they didn't have the equipment or time to save her…" Jethro stopped, he took a deep breath, and hung his head. Aeris took his hand, and gave him a sympathetic smile, Jethro looked at her and gave a smile back, "thought I was supposed to give you some comfort" Jethro said.

"Well you did" Aeris said, she got up off the floor, "well I'm feeling better now, so I'm going go back now, thanks Jethro." Jethro, just nodded to her, she waved and walked out. Jethro sat there for a long time, he picked up the bottle and looked at it, then he unscrewed the cap.