“Well let’s take our bounty upstairs and we can talk about whatever is on your mind.”
6
Kiani
We settle down on the big four poster bed and dig into our rice and baked beans. We don’t really talk at first, both of us devouring our meal with abandon. By the time we finish our meals, I’m ready to curl up in a ball and sleep for months. But I can’t, because my best friend needs to get something off of his chest.
“So, what’s on your mind, big guy?”
He sits quietly while staring at the wall across from us. There’s a large TV and I wonder if they have any DVDs lying about for us to watch. I’m sure some mindless TV watching would be good for all of us tomorrow.
“You ever wonder if Sam is alive?” he asks. He doesn’t look at me, so he can’t see how his question causes my eyes to widen and water. I get control of my reaction before he turns around to see me. “I know we saw her blood, but we didn’t see her body. You saw the note. She could still be alive”
“Derrick,” I pause so that I can get my voice under control. “Derrick, that was almost a year ago. In a world that isn’t the same as it used to be. I don’t know what could be worse. The thought of Sam alive and being a prisoner to someone as sadistic as Boss, or her dead and lost to us forever.”
“If she’s alive, there’s a chance that we can find her and get her back. We can save her,” he exclaims. “We have to play The Game. If we play The Game, we’ll find her!” My heart breaks as I look at him, unraveling at the core. Sam was like a sister to me, but I feel like she was much more to Derrick than he lets on.
“So, what do you want to do?” I ask, angrily. “You want to get off course and just go on a wild goose chase that can get us all killed?!”
“What’s your problem?” he snaps. “Sam was family to us both. I thought you would be on board with me if there was a chance to get her back.”
I stand up off of the bed and I face him head on. We don’t ever really argue, but I can tell that this is going to be one for the record books. “Are you fucking serious right now?” I growl out. “Sam was my sister! If I could have taken that knife to the stomach I would have! But I had to save you! I thought she could have handled herself and I hate myself for it every day! But you know what I won’t do? I’m not going to sacrifice the people that depend on us just for a wish!”
Derrick stands up so that I’m not towering over him. It doesn’t make that much of a difference because he’s not that much taller than me. We’re chest to chest and it seems like we’re both ready to throw down.
“So, you’re blaming me for Sam?” he asks in a deadly quiet tone.
“No, I’m not,” I sigh defeatedly. “I just feel like life would be easier for you if it were me instead of Sam.”
He takes a step back, shock written across his face. “How can you say that?”
I laugh bitterly in his face. “Come on, Derrick, you haven’t been the same since she was murdered. It changed me, too, but I don’t hold the anger and pain so close to my heart. You barely look me in the eyes, we barely talk, and you take responsibility for every single thing like you’re God! I feel alone in this entire situation even though you’re supposed to have my back through anything.”
“I should’ve been able to protect her. To protect both of you.”
“Against four men?! You were getting your ass handed to you by two of them! Neither one of us knew what we were getting ourselves into. Yet here we are, one year later and we’re as distant as we’ve ever been.”
“It’s because I miss her!” he yells.
There’s so much raw emotion in his grey eyes and in his voice that my heart clenches just a little bit. “You’re in love with her, huh?” I ask.
He was silent for a while. Just staring at me. The silence stretches on, and with it my anger grows for some odd reason. “Just go to bed, Derrick. We can talk about this when we’ve both had some rest. You want to play The Game and I don’t. We’ll be clear headed with some sleep.”
He opens his mouth to say something, but instead he just turns around and walks towards the door. “Goodnight, Kiani,” he says as he walks out.
I flop down onto my bed and stare at the ceiling. I don’t know why my chest hurts, must be heartburn from all of the beans. I don’t know why it bothers me that Derrick may be in love with Sam. I mean, she’s dead. And even if she wasn’t, they’d be perfect for each other. They complemented each other so well.
So why does my heart hurt?
I wake up with the room still dark and I’m confused as hell. I know I didn’t sleep through the entire day, even if I was super exhausted last night. I roll over and I see that the windows are covered up completely. Ugh, I hate that my brain doesn’t wake up when I do. Speaking of brains. I groan as I flop over onto my back while bringing a pillow over my face. I can’t believe I asked Derrick if he was in love with Sam. I don’t know what has gotten into me.
When we were younger, Sam had confessed to me that she didn’t see Derrick as a brother, even though we always joked that we were fraternal triplets. At the time I didn’t think too much of it, because maybe she wasn’t as close to him as I was. But now that she’s gone, and I see how much Derrick is unraveling because of her absence, I feel like I missed a lot. I also feel like I’m left out. Which is crazy, ‘cause she’s dead.
After failing at suffocating myself with my pillow, I roll out of bed and head into the bathroom. I scrounge around until I find exactly what I’m looking for: spare toothbrushes. I can’t tell you the last time I brushed my teeth. Morning breath has nothing on me right now.
I find the toothpaste and a small facial towel, and I get to work on making myself look presentable. Just these small actions make me feel more like a person and less like an insect trying to stay alive. After I finish taming my dragon breath, I head out of my room and downstairs to the kitchen. The first thing that I notice is that I’m the only one that is up. I guess everyone was just too tired or too comfortable to get out of their beds.
My bare feet pad along the wooden floors as I make my way to the double doors that let out into the massive backyard. I pull aside our makeshift curtain and my heart drops. It’s storming. Like full blown, ‘how did I not hear this?’, storming. If the storm keeps up like this, there will be leaks in the roof in absolutely no time if it hasn’t been treated. This also means that we’ll have to spend another night in this house and in Bandit territory.
I close the curtains and head over to the pantry. I busy myself with looking for any kind of foods that could possibly go together that will make a good enough breakfast for all of us. I find most of the ingredients called for to make homemade biscuits. I’m missing some of the key ingredients, the perishables, but I think I can make do with what I have. I head back over to the pantry to see what else I can find when I hear footsteps coming towards me.
Brian rounds the corner with his curly hair sticking out around his head. A half smirk graces his face as he sees me trying to be domestic and make a sad version of a Sunday breakfast.
“Hey, Kiani. I didn’t think anyone else was up. What are you doing?” he asks.
I hold up a can of string beans and canned chicken and point towards all of the ingredients I have piled up on the counter. “I’m trying to cook breakfast for everyone, but it’s kind of hard because none of this stuff actually goes together. Plus, we don’t have milk for the biscuits, so they may be dry,” I reply with a slight grimace.
He walks over to the pantry and he studies it for a while. I don’t know what he’s doing so I head over to my mess and begin mixing all of the dry ingredients first. Once I have that all squared away, I move towards the sink to add some water to my mixture when Brian lets out an excited “Ah Ha!” and runs over to me holding up a can.
“What’s this?” I ask.
“Well, when you said that you didn’t have any milk, I thought to myself ‘For a house that screams southern for some odd reason, I bet they have all of the ster
eotypical southern things. And what’s more southern than condensed milk?’ so I looked in the pantry and sure enough, I found three cans of the stuff. Well, kind of. It’s evaporated milk, but I think it can serve the same purpose,” he replies with a sheepish smile.
“This is the second time you found something I really need. I can get used to this,” I tease.
“Yeah, no, don’t,” he laughs. “I don’t want the pressure of being Diego the Explorer for you.”
“Well, you want to help me cook this weird breakfast of canned chicken, string beans and almost biscuits?” I ask.
“It would be my honor,” he says with a deep bow.
I laugh and slap him on the back of his head. He straightens up quickly and reaches out to slap me on the back of my head. Oh, it’s on! Just as I’m getting ready to tackle him to the ground, he holds his hands up in a show of surrendering. Hmph, serves him right to be afraid. Well, I would have liked to think he was afraid, but the way he’s looking constipated as he fights off his laughter tells me otherwise.
“Figure out what to do with that chicken. I’ll get the biscuits going,” I say while making a funny face at him.
“Yes ma’am!” he salutes me and then gets started on opening up the canned chicken and just staring at the gelatinous mess that’s inside. I walk over to where he’s standing, and I shudder.
“That’s disgusting,” I whisper in horror.
“Maybe we should wash it off?” he whispers back.
“Yeah, wash it and then season it. That should hide the taste,” I whisper.
“Why are we whispering?” he asks.
“I don’t know. I just feel like…”
“Like if we talk too loud it’ll wake up?”
“Yes! Just hurry up and dump it!”
He quickly complies, and I almost throw up. The chicken slides out of the can and just flops into the sink. Who in their right mind would eat something like this by choice? I turn my back to the science experiment happening in the sink and focus my attention on mixing and forming my almost-biscuits. I preheat the oven and search for something to bake them on. I find a large baking pan in one of the cabinets and search for something to spray on the pan, so the biscuits won’t stick. At this point I’m just being difficult. Who cares if the biscuits stick? At least it will be a hot meal.
I put the biscuits onto the pan and put them into the oven. I look over at Brian and I burst out laughing. He’s still staring at the chicken in the sink!
“What are you doing?” I ask with laughter in my voice. “Just staring at the chicken won’t wash and cook it.”
“Would it be unmanly of me to say that I’m afraid to touch it?” he replies while rubbing the stubble on his chin. We should look and see if there are any razors lying about. I’m sure the boys would like to feel clean-shaven. I know my armpits could use a break from being smothered.
“Not really. That thing is pretty scary. But if you don’t want to touch it, I’ll take care of it,” I offer.
He looks at me with such comical relief that I just shake my head while laughing. I push him out of the way and look down at chicken little and begin rinsing him off. Once all of the amniotic fluid is cleaned off, I just stare at this full chicken. Should I boil it? Nah, that’s nasty. I decide to just season this bad boy up and toss it into the oven with the biscuits. After that, I put the string beans on the stove with a dash of salt and pepper and a little bit of evaporated milk and we just wait.
Brian and I take a seat at the large table and I realize this is the first time he and I have ever been alone. To be honest, the only people I’ve had alone time with is Isaiah and Derrick. This is a little awkward, if I’m to be honest with myself.
“Well, this is awkward,” Brian jokes.
I exhale and crack a smile. “I feel like you just read my mind. This is the first time we’ve sat down without the others. It’s new.”
“So, since I have you alone for the first time ever, may I ask you a question?”
“Like what?” I ask, trepidation filling me. What kind of question could he ask me that had to wait until no one else was around?
“What were you and Derrick arguing about?” he asks seriously.
“You heard that?” I groan.
“I’m sure we all did. You guys weren’t exactly quiet. Even when you started with that whisper shouting. You don’t ever argue. Or at least I’ve never seen you guys argue. So, I’m curious.”
I look at Brian and I decide how much I can tell him. Brian hasn’t been with us for too long, but I feel like I can talk to him. The way I wanted to talk to Christine. “We never told y’all this, but when we first started out, it wasn’t just Derrick and me. We had a friend named Samantha, but for the love of God never call her that, only Sam. Always Sam. We were walking through a Bandit’s territory and came across an incredibly violent group of Bandits. They wanted Sam. We wouldn’t let them take her. We fought, and Sam lost. They stabbed her in the stomach and knocked Derrick and I out. We came to and she was gone. We followed a trail of her blood until we couldn’t follow it anymore. Derrick thinks she’s alive and he wants to go search for her.” I say all of this in a rush. Scared that he’ll interrupt me and I’d lose my nerve. I take a deep breath and drop the biggest piece of information. “There was a note left at the end of the trail. A note left by the Boss. We’ve entered into a game with him against our will. Either we find him and find a potentially dead Sam, or we keep on trekking to our destination.”
He sits there with shock on his face. He looks like he wants to say a million and one things and can’t decide exactly what it is he actually wants to ask first. “So, do you think she’s alive?” he finally asks.
“Honestly? I have no idea what to think. When she was stabbed, there was so much blood and I doubt they have doctors just lying around waiting. But if she did die, why would they take her body? It doesn’t make sense.”
“So, Derrick wants to go looking for her and you want to…?”
“I want to keep going. She could be anywhere, if she’s alive, and looking into a Bandit’s territory just screams death for all of us. I won’t risk all of our lives for a hope and a prayer,” I state.
“Why do you think Derrick is so gung-ho on looking for her,” he asks the question I’ve been dreading. I don’t know if I should tell him what I suspect, or would that be a betrayal to Derrick.
“I don’t know,” I lie. “I think he holds most of the guilt over the whole thing because he couldn’t protect either of us. We have trained so much in the art of self-defense, and we still lost. Maybe he wants to ease that guilt by hoping that she’s alive.”
Brian looks at me like he knows I’m full of shit. Thankfully he drops the subject and get up go and check on the biscuits and the chicken. He comes back after a minute or so and looks at me square in my face. “I know you have a lot on your shoulders. I mean, let's face it, we all depend on you and Derrick for survival because you guys know what you’re doing. Even though you guys give us a say in matters, it’s ultimately up to you two. With that being said, feel free to talk to me whenever you need. I know I’m not Derrick, and we barely know each other, but I care about you too.”
I stare at him for a second, confused with what to do with that statement. “Um, thanks?”
He waves off my awkward gratitude. “So what did the note say?”
I pause before responding. Not because I need time to remember the words on that fated note, they’re imprinted on my brain permanently. No, I paused because I can’t believe I’m about to actually tell Brian everything. I’ve never opened up to anyone but Derrick and Sam. But hell, what do I have to lose?
“Your friend may be alive, or she may be expired. Do you wish to risk your life for your simple hope and desires?”
“That’s really what that note said?” Brian asks incredulously.
I lift my hands and shrug my shoulders. “That’s exactly what it said. Word for word.”
“You have got to be shitting
me. What is he trying to be? A sadistic Dr. Seuss?”
Surprised laughter flies out of my mouth before I can clamp my lips shut. I did think it was a little weird that he chose to rhyme his threat, but maybe that was supposed to make the threat more intense. “I think he wanted to make the game into a riddle. The more we figure out, the closer we’ll get to finding out if Sam is alive.”
“So do you know where he’s at?”
“No, we haven’t had any luck with finding any more clues. Derrick believes that they’ll be in the next big city.”
“And you?” he asks.
“I think our chances of running into any Bandits will increase the closer we get to the city. So it’s only logical that we run into the Boss. My hope is that we don’t and we can make it through unscathe.”
“I don’t know Derrick as well as you do, but it’d be foolish to hope for him to ignore logic. Especially since he’s clearly in love with her.” With that, he gets up and starts rinsing plates off so that we have something to eat off of.
7
Kiani
The smell of food cooking worked better than any alarm ever could. I was just taking the chicken and biscuits out of the oven when everyone started to filter into the kitchen. Brian had found some sweet tea packets in the pantry and was just finishing pouring the tea into a pitcher when Ashton ran into the kitchen and slung his arm over my shoulder.
“So, you’re trying to win my love?” he asks with a serious face.
I look up at him from beneath my eyelashes. “Were my attempts so transparent?”
“I wouldn’t say they were transparent, but I know when a woman is after my own heart,” he jokes.
“Well, if I would've known that some biscuits and a little experimental chicken was all it took to win your heart, I would’ve found some a long time ago,” I reply.
Kiani’s Journey- Mayhem Page 5