Chapter 101: Vow For Vengeance

As soon as my body stopped trembling from my sobs, Mason and Amy’s hug eased up so that I could at least have some air to breathe. Amy looked up at Mason. “Where’s Alex at?”

Mason tilted his head toward the police. Outside the yellow tape, next to one car, Alex was talking to two officers. “He’s the only one of us with a clean track record. He’s telling them everything that we know.”

Amy’s brows knitted together in confusion. She was still surprised just as much as I was at the sudden, unexpected situation. “What *do* you guys know? When did this happen?”

Mason looked away from her shamefully. I could feel his eyes land on the back of my head for a moment even though my dead gaze was trained on the ground beneath me. “I don’t know. We don’t know… he didn’t really give any specifics. He just said that he’ll be right back and… well, he never came back. It was two days ago. We just thought that he was going to visit family. They live outside the city on the outskirts. We just assumed… we didn’t even call him. ‘Thought he’d call us or text us.” Mason’s head hung. “I should’ve called him or something. I should’ve…”

Amy reached up and placed her hand on Mason’s shoulder. “It was a hit and run. No matter what you did, it wouldn’t have made a difference.”

“He could’ve still been alive!” he protested. There was a crack in his voice as he expressed his guilt. “If we had gone looked for him, he might’ve lived!”

Amy didn’t look so certain. Hit and runs were like hitting a deer. It's fast and leaves a lot of damage on both ends. And most of the time, the deer end up dead.

“Put me down…” I finally whispered, cutting off their conversation. I could feel that Mason was hesitant, worried that as soon as my feet touched the ground, I’d sprint back like a bat out of hell. But he eventually put his trust in my common sense and let go of me.

“Suki…” Amy whispered as she wiped away the stained tears on my drenched cheeks. “I’m so sorry…”

I didn’t respond to her. My world was no longer in a daze. It very much became a reality. My eyes were wide open to all of the ugly colors. My body remained stiff because it was taking all of my strength to not rampage and take out my fury on the people that I care about. I was hellbent on murder, something I learned to steer far away from back when I was living on the streets. And now I was going to sniff it out like a rabid animal.

“Hey, guys…” Alex’s voice interrupts us as he comes back. He sounded just as depressed as the rest of us. Unlike me, it sounded like he was still struggling to accept that this was reality. “So I told the police everything we know… they’re gonna start investigating. This is murder and they won’t rest until the murderer is caught.”

*Not unless I find and kill them first.*

The truck that had Jack’s body in drove off with several of the police cars. The ones that remained had officers still looking at the crime scene, taking in every detail. I wanted to see too but I knew Mason was right, if the police noticed me then there was a possibility that at least one of them would recognize my face. I had the pleasure of being on both the TV news and in the Newspapers. It brought me great pride, but it was a hindrance when my mom would see it, and now it was a curse… Fuck, if I could go back and change it, I’d change it a thousand times over.

“Alright. I guess we should get going then.” Amy’s decision left me as the oddball in the group, uncertain of what to do. I drove myself to her apartment but I was clearly still in no shape to drive and now that my mom was back in my life, she was uncertain where I should go. “Do you want to stay the night with me, Suki?”

As expected, she dropped the decision on my shoulders. I was about to say ‘yes’ so that I wasn’t bothered by anybody, but the thought of being wrapped up in my mother’s comforting arms made me feel otherwise. “...No. Just take me back to the mansion.” I didn’t want to say take me to Mom because that’d make me sound like a kid, but at the same time, I couldn’t call the mansion home either. Not with the twins living there. Grace has always been a thorn in my ass but lately Julian has been proving to be a bigger problem than she ever was.

“Ok.” Amy wiped my other cheek, even though the tears had dried.

Alex came closer and gave me a tight hug followed by Mason and Amy’s second hug. I usually hated being touched and handled, let alone crowded all at the same time but this was our time of mourning.

“Jack will get justice,” he said as he released me, his voice holding anger. “This won’t stand. Things will be made right.” Alex’s eyes may have held vengeance too, but it wasn’t dark like mine. He sought true justice, I sought blood. Eye for an eye. But if I told anybody my true intentions then their very willpower would become my prison.

“That’s right.” Mason agreed, the crack in his voice turning into determination. “We’ll have the gang track this bastard down.” his gaze was no longer watery with sorrow, now it had a powerful fire in it. “We’ll let you know when we’ve found something out.”

“You better.” My curt response was icy. After my frantic panic attack, I’ve become quiet compared to the others.

“We’ll see you later then. Come on, Suki.” Amy grabbed my hand and we all went our separate ways. I glanced over my shoulder back at Mason and Alex. Mason’s car was in worse condition than Jack’s. The days of the four of us zooming through the west-side, running stop signs and traffic lights were gone now. Those times were never coming back now. The thought made my heart feel like it was getting left behind, lying in the muddy ditch where Jack’s body had been found.

Amy didn’t make a plan when we got in her car and drove off on how to get my car back. I figured she already had a plan in mind and didn’t think it was worth bringing up. The dead city slowly coming to life, from west to east, didn’t even phase or awe me.

When we were halfway there, Amy finally spoke up. “Um… Suki…?” I looked at her reflection in the window. She looked uncomfortable and hesitant, her jaw clutched as if she were about to choke out her words. “You’re not… you’re not planning on doing something bad… are you?”

“Define bad.” my tone was blunt and brief again. I already knew what she was referring to. She’s known me for far longer than the men I grew up with on the streets. I could tell that she knew I was dodging her question on purpose, purposely making the topic more difficult for her to speak. I hated manipulating people, especially her, but I really didn’t want to talk about the vengeful act that I was about to do that would change my life forever. There’ll be no going back after my chase is caught.

I heard her gulp as she used all the strength she could to speak her deepest fear. “You know what I mean, Sukia…” she finally turned her head and looked at me. “As bad as you can go.”