Chapter 100: Truth Or Lie

“Jack?” I coughed on the sour taste of pickles and finally decided I should stop munching up Amy’s food without permission. She didn’t seem bothered by it. She looked more concerned about what was going on with me.

“Who is it?” Amy whispered to me curiously.

“It’s Mason,” I told her with the phone leaned away from my mouth before turning my attention back to the phone again. “So what’s going on? Dude hasn’t texted me back in days! Does he have beef with me or somethin’?”

“Sukia,” Mason said my name in a serious but careful tone, something that I didn’t hear too often unless he was trying to give me bad news in a gentle way that wouldn’t shatter me at that very second. “There’s no other way I can tell you this, so I hope you’re sitting down, but… Jack… he’s dead.”

The jar of pickles immediately slipped from my fingers. Even putting the lid back on wasn’t enough to keep it from shattering on the floor. The glass and juice that splattered on me felt invisible in my current state. “Suki!” I thought I heard Amy’s startled shout, but the world around me blurred and darkened. The only thing that was still working out of my five senses was Mason’s words echoing in my ear. My voice was a quivering whisper.

“W… What…?”

“Found him dead in a ditch… the police think it might’ve been a hit and run, but they’re not certain, not yet anyway.”

My dark, spinning world was slowly followed by an intense burning feeling in my core that grew hotter and hotter, swallowing me whole. “Where? Where the fuck was this?!”

Amy was watching me with bewilderment as soon as she made sure I was unhurt by the broken glass. “Suki?” she hesitantly whispered to me again, this time with fearful worry. Something had to have been very wrong to get a reaction like this out of me.

As soon as I got the info I needed, despite the pleaded warning, I stormed my way to the door. How could I not be pissed off? Somebody left my friend for dead! In the fucking DIRT!

“Suki!” Amy grabbed the back of my shirt before I could rush out of her apartment. “What in the world is going on?!”

“Jack’s dead.” my words may have been blunt but they couldn’t hide my seething emotions. “I won’t believe it till I see it. I gotta go.”

“What?!” Amy’s horror was reflected in her expression as she covered her mouth. She’s known the man for about as long as I have and she had become friends with the three men, trusting them to look after me when I was living on the streets. And now the one that was the most relatable to us was dead. “Wait, let me take you! Just show me the way.”

Amy was smart and knew me all too well. She knew that if I drove alone behind the wheel in my current state of mind, I’d be the next one who get into a deadly car accident. I give a nod and briskly follow her to her car. It wasn’t as new as mine, but it was far better than Jack’s rusty bucket…

My knee impatiently bounced up and down rapidly throughout the whole drive, one of those rare occasions where I was nibbling on my bottom lip out of pure suspense. There’s no way in hell that Jack is dead. It doesn’t make sense!

The last memory I had of him smiling at me and telling me he’d see me later crossed my mind. He never would’ve lied to me. Never!

Our drive slowed down as soon as we saw red and blue lights flickering up the road. It was as if it were being treated as a crime scene that was still in progress. I noticed Mason’s car in the distance, close enough to watch the police’s activities but far enough where they wouldn’t be noticed.

I jumped out of the car before Amy parked. “Sukia!” she gave a startled shout and swiftly stomped on the breaks to make sure I wasn’t the next person to get run over. It didn’t matter what my crimes were or how well-known my face was to the authorities, I had to see what was going on. Mason has to be mistaken. He just has to be. He has to be!

But the closer I got to the yellow tape, the more detail I saw of what happened. The dirt was collapsed where a heavy object had been knocked into the ditch. The ditch was usually hidden behind tall grass, but the heavy rainfall that comes past the west-side at this time of year flattened out the grass far enough for the rocks and mud to be seen in the bottom of the ditch. Amongst it all was a crater in the mud and old blood staining the black road, threatening to be completely washed away.

*It’s just from an animal. A deer was hit and tossed into the ditch. It has to be. Or at least… at least mistaken who it was!*

Whether or not it was an animal was answered for me the moment I saw the black body bag.

*That’s not him. It’s not him!*

As I persistently made my way closer with swift steps, I heard Mason call out to me “Stop!” without saying my name. But nothing could stop me now. Until I saw a familiar shoe in the ditch, a filthy sneaker that was similar to my own, a pair we had stolen back in the day.

*No… no!* My last few steps next toward the yellow tape gave me enough view to see a hand being tossed into the zipping bag that was being hauled away. My jaw dropped in horror. I couldn’t deny the sight of the hand I had held countless times over the years. A hand that I had always considered a close friend when all along he felt something more for me.

“J– Jackie?! JAC–” before I could scream his name, a tight hand covered my mouth as another arm wrapped around my torso lifted me off of the ground and hurriedly took me away from the crime scene. I could tell it was Mason, by the scent of his favorite cigarette brand. I squirmed and screamed in my struggle to get back to Jack’s side. Eventually, Mason’s grip loosened enough that I could breathlessly demand him to let go. “GO BACK! I need to see him!! Fucking LET ME GO!”

“Sukia!” Amy gripped my shoulders tightly and looked me in the eye, something she only did in serious situations. She was trying to put on a stern face, but her eyes still glistened with tears. “The police know your face! They’ll lock you up the moment they see you!”

“I DON'T CARE!” I screamed again as I kicked at the air, incoherent to the situation. All I wanted was to see Jack. “I need to see him! I NEED TO SEE HIM!!”

Mason covered my mouth again when my voice was raised. However, the arm he had wrapped around my torso loosened until it felt like he was giving me a tight hug and he leaned his cheek against the back of my head. The jolly man’s breath shook with pain. “No… you don’t.”

I flinched at Mason’s grim words. I knew what he meant; Jack was too messed up, and I’d never see him the same way again. My knees gave out and if it wasn’t for Mason holding me up, I would’ve fallen to the ground. My chest hurt now more than ever. I couldn’t remember the last time I cried. I think it was when Dad died. I thought my tears were all evaporated by the hell in my dreams. But I was proven wrong when what felt like a dam had been shattered and the flood engulfed my burning body. Both Amy and Mason held me tightly as I sobbed out my agonizing pain.

My friend was dead. Ran over like a common dog and left in the mud. The person who ran him down didn’t even stop to see if it was an animal or not that they had just hit. Even if it was an accident, they were going to pay dearly. Through the flooding pain, there was still fire in my core that boiled like lava, evaporating the torrent into skin-melting steam. My hatred burned hot.

Whoever did this, I’ll make them pay.

*I’ll fucking kill them with my bare hands!*