XIV
You're Not Ready
~~~

Kai leaves the bathroom and looks around the halls. The janitor's closet next to him is wide open, so before he makes his way back outside, he grabs a do not enter sign and places it on the bathroom door. He knows that there's no way that the school is completely empty only a half an hour after school ended.

He walks calmly to the other side of the school towards the gym. Better to avoid confrontation. They could be still waiting for him at the front.

I hope they didn't take her backpack...

Nobody's there when he opens the door, but he keeps looking around just in case. Scanning the wall and the trees adjacent to the school, he searches for her backpack while trying to remember what it looks like. All he remembers is that it's black.

Was there anything else on it? Like...her name? Or maybe pins? He asks himself. Nothing notable comes to mind. Damn, couldn't she have a more distinguishable backpack?

Either way, he manages to find it lying on the gravel behind a car. Strangely nowhere near where Raven was being attacked.

They must've moved it. Why? We're they trying to hide it from me?

He picks it up and rummages through it, searching every pocket for her car keys. At one point he just says, "Screw it." and started shaking the backpack to listen for the keys.

I don't hear anything. God, don't tell me they took them.

"Looking for these, Twig?" Michael emerges from the trees and stands atop of the hill, taunting Kai as he jingles Raven's car keys with his finger.

"Where are the other two?" Kai asks monotonously. "They get bored following you all day?"

"Tch, nah. I made them go home. I wanted to talk to you solo. One on one."

He probably sent them out to look for her.

"Why'd you move the backpack? It wasn't anywhere near here."

He shrugs his shoulders. "We were gonna take it, but we went through it and there wasn't anything useful in there. Other than these that is." He lifts up the keys.

Kai groans. "Dude, gimme the keys. I don't have time for this."

"Where is she?"

"None of your damn business."

"Tell me where she is and I'll give you the keys."

"Michael, that defeats the purpose of me getting the keys. And besides, you'll probably just take off with them if I tell you."

"How does it defeat the purpose?"

Kai puts his hand on his face and drags it down, pulling his features around almost like rubber.

"The keys are so I can drive Raven away from you. If I tell you where she is, then I won't be able to get to her before you do because you're quicker than I am. Make sense?" He explains patronizingly.

"I'm not seven years old, you know."

"You sure as hell act like one." He murmurs. "Look, Michael, please just give me her keys."

He stares at Kai for a moment and doesn't shift an inch. Then, once he speaks, it's jarringly calm and collected. "Why do you protect her?" He finally says.

"Why? What kind of question is that?"

"You have no idea who she really is."

"Like you know any more than I do."

"Her ex is my best friend. He told me a lot about what she said to him."

Kai laughs in disbelief. "Raven dated one of your friends? What did he do threaten her at gunpoint?"

"No." He sneers. "My point is that you shouldn't be messing around with her. She's been involved with a lot of bad people. Hurt a lot of people too."

"What are you talking about?"

"Have you heard of the Ivy Twins anywhere around school?"

Kai shakes his head.

"Well, ones missing and the other is in custody or jail or something because of her."

Then it hits him: Wait...the girl who kidnapped Garfield? Dick, Wally, and Vic did say she had a brother...

"She was with 'im though. She worked for him and his crazy ass cult."

"Cult??" Kai asks in bewilderment.

"Yep. Raven was in it. Deep in it."

Kai stays silent for a moment. "...You're lying aren't you?"

"What reason do I have to lie to you?"

Kai ponders on it. He cannot think of one.

"Exactly." Michael crosses his arms, the keys still jingling. "The stuff they did was f*cked, dude. Absolutely demented sometimes."

"Why are you telling me this?"

"Because I'm sick of people who don't know her falling for her. It's not right. That girl is freaking evil. And she doesn't even want all that attention! But she gets it anyway. My dude Adam sold half of his dignity to her and she put him in jail. That Gar kid couldn't keep his damn eyes off her and now he's just gone. And there were so many rumors that Ike, one of those Ivy twins, had a thing for her...or was it with her? E-either way, he ain't free either. That girl causes damage everywhere she goes.

But as much of a pain in the ass you are, people like Gar don't deserve that. Adam, maybe, Ike, hell yeah. But he didn't. You don't.

Kai glares emptily at Michael. "I don't believe you." He claims sharply. "Give. Me. The keys. I know what I'm doing."

"No, you don't. Trust me." He says it so matter-of-factly that, if it weren't a conversation between these two specifically, Kai might've actually laughed out loud.

Kai withholds his response and instead gestures with his hand for the keys.

Michael groans, "Fine." He tosses them down into Kai's hands and shakes his head. "You have no idea what you're getting yourself into." And he walks away, not looking back. Kai watches him as he meanders around the corner, hands in his pockets, and disappears.

What a douchebag. Harassing Raven because of rumors. He stares at the shiny silver keys that lie in his palm. I just have to trust her. That's all I have to do.

Last time you put that amount of trust in someone she abused it. Do you really want that to happen again?

Shut up. I'm well past being over that. She can go date eight guys at once and mistreat them all for all I care. She's not my problem anymore.

Raven's dated two already. One's missing and you don't know what happened to the other one. How do you know you won't become a memory too?

I...I don't want to date he—

Liar.

I am not. Besides, I don't really know a whole lot about her.

Well, you're learning more.

I know...

~~~

"Hey, Rave?" He calls when he enters the bathroom. This surprise, she's standing up looking at herself in the mirror. She snaps her head to him when she hears her name. "I got the keys."

"Did you get held up?" She asks.

"Michael had moved your backpack and took your keys." She rolls her eyes. That's one of the last things she wanted to hear. "He gave them back to me though."

"Gave them?" She walks towards him.

"Yeah. I don't know. We talked and he just gave 'em back. I didn't even have to do much negotiating."

"What did he say?"

"Stupid stuff." He replies promptly. "He tried to convince me to leave you here."

"Leave me?"

"Yeah. Like just leave you at the school tied up. Like he thought I was dumb enough to do that."

"He's dumb enough to think that that'd work." She sighs and Kai stares into her sullen eyes.  "C'mon. Let's go."

"Raven, wait. Did he...do anything else to you before I got there?"

Raven stops and doesn't turn around, taking a long time to answer. "No, I'm ok, Kai."

That answer didn't sound very convincing. Her hands ball up behind her.

They exit the bathroom and Kai makes sure Raven is constantly at his side. If she slowed, he did as well. If she sped up, so did he. The whole walk to the car, she had this pained look on her face. And when they got outside, it was that face mixed in with the face you'd make when a shock of cool air hits your skin. At least, it was cool compared to inside the school.

Kai now walks behind Raven in an attempt to hide her hands from anyone else that may be looking their way. Unfortunately, it also looks like he was the one who put them on her. So he lets Raven go behind him.

"Is this your car?" He asks. She nods. They get into the car, buckles Raven in, and he puts the keys in the ignition. Once he turns them they click into place as the car bursts to life.

She watches Kai's determined face focus on the road and then looks ahead, realizing that this is the opposite direction of her house.

"Where are we going?"

"My apartment." Raven stops moving. "You said you didn't want to go home. So I'm not taking you home."

"Oh."

Buildings start to replace houses, and sidewalks and parking lots replace lawns.

I know I said I didn't want to go home but I didn't think he'd really take me anywhere else.

"Is that ok?"

"...Yeah...I'll probably have to call my mom."

"It's ok my mom and Daniel can do that."

"...Alright. It's not like I can't call her right now anyway. But..."

"What is— HEY!" He screams at someone who cut him off. "What the hell is wrong with people?"

"...what are they gonna say when they see my hands tied?"

"Who?"

"Your parents."

"Oh. Oh...right. Crap. Uh..." They approach the parking lot of Kai's building and he pulls in.

"Stay here. I'll be right back with scissors."

After about ten minutes of Raven staring out the car window, Kai returns with a pair of scissors.

"Where did you get those from?" She questions while Kai cuts the zip-tie from her wrists.

"Uh, don't worry about it. Heh..."

Raven shakes her hands and then examines her wrists. Other than the red mark around one side of both wrists, she feels relatively ok. She nods to him.

"Good. C'mon then. Grab your backpack and let's go inside."

Raven nods and they both grab their backpacks, Raven following Kai to the entrance.

As they walk, Raven watches the sky as dark clouds roll in.

"It looks like it's gonna rain," Kai comments to no one in particular as they head for the elevator.

"The city is gonna be flooded by tomorrow if it does." Raven mentions. "Seriously, where did you get those..."

As soon as she asks Kai darts into the open janitor's closet with the scissors and returns without them, instead with a face that feigned innocence.

"Nevermind." She shakes her head at Kai with a smile.

"Hey, I got you scissors didn't I?" He says with a certain shine about him.

Raven laughs, "Yes. Thank you."

He can only smile.

They walk down the hall and as Kai puts his key into the keyhole. Once they go in, thunder claps outside signaling the inclement rain. Lilia greets Kai and is quite surprised to see Raven at his side. Raven feels herself get sucked inward as Lilia moves toward them. She remains silent as her son asks her to call Arella to let her know that Raven is here, she herself adding that she'll probably sleep over.

"Really?" Kai asks slightly shocked.

"I-If that's ok with you..."

Kai smiles and nods. "Why wouldn't it be?"

After they receive the ok from Arella, Kai takes Raven down the hall to his room.

"So this is your room."

"Yep! You like it?" He enthuses, eagerly waiting for her response.

"Honestly, it's kinda plain."

Kai gives her a comically defined frown and asks, "Whaat??"

"I mean, I expected a musician to have a crap ton of posters up on the wall or a vinyl record player in the corner." She explains. "Instead it's just your guitar and like, two pictures."

"Ohh. Yeah, I stopped putting posters up awhile ago."

"Why?"

"I used to put up posters of my favorite bands as a kid after my dad, and then Daniel, took me to concerts, but Jay would always tear them down and tell me they were stupid. So I stopped."

"Aw, that wasn't very brotherly."

"Yeah, no kidding." He grumbles.

"Where is Jay anyway?"

"Oh, he went back to college. Where he needs to stay."

"Good. I didn't like him."

Kai laughs, "None of my friends really did."

Raven continues to look around his room as Kai begins to rummage through his things.

"Hey, you wanna play a game?"

"Hm?"

"I've got this racing game for my PlayStation. It's kinda old but it's better than nothing."

"Sure. Not like we've got much else to do."

Huh. Raven spies a photo hung up right above his head. It's not very large, probably five by seven inches, and should probably be on a desk rather than hanging up on the wall. In it are what seems to be Kai's family, though something looks off. There's a clearly younger Lilia where her hair was shorter but still as chocolatey brown, an adolescent Jay looking more like a dork than anything else with his braces, a pipsqueak Kai with at least two teeth missing and light brown hair, and a man who has bright red hair like Kai's now and most surely isn't Daniel.

"Is this your dad, Kai?"

"Huh? Oh, looks like you found that old photo. Yeah, that's my bio dad. He and Mom got a divorce I think...a month or so after that picture. I had just turned eight."

"Where is he?"

"Oh, he stayed in Pennsylvania. Jay hates him, but I still love him."

"Why?"

"Well, as much as I love my mom, I think it was her fault that they got a divorce because she was being too demanding of him. She wanted him to do things that she knew he couldn't whether it meant that he was already busy or for whatever medical reason he had. But Jay thinks that it's because Dad never wanted to do anything that Mom asked him to and that he was just lazy." He explains as he turns on his PlayStation.

"Hmm."

"What?"

"I'm just...thinking." She turns around to him. "You and Jay can't really agree on anything can you?"

"Heh, no I guess we can't. We're way too different."

Thunder claps again, but louder.

Raven examines the photo again. Specifically Kai and Jay. "You looked pretty similar other than your hair color."

"Ugh don't remind me. That's what everyone said before my hair turned red."

"Turned red?"

"Don't ask. I honestly don't know what happened." He looks at the PlayStation, watching it load, and then he thinks of something. "Hey, what about your dad? I didn't see him when I was over there."

She sighs. "Tony and I have an...interesting past. Let's just say my mom and I don't see him as my father anymore."

"Oh god, that's harsh."

"Trust me, if you knew everything he did, you wouldn't say that."

As Raven finishes talking, the console boots up, lighting up Kai's face with the blue light only known to electronics. "Alright, it's on. Time for me to beat you into the ground!"

"In your dreams, Redfield."

With Kai as Player One and Raven as Player Two, they race against each other into the early hours of the morning. Raven wins one race, Kai wins another, they both get beaten by one of the computerized racers, and then Raven wins the last one. Kai, frustrated with his performance (and slightly embarrassed that he crashed so much during the last race), demands a rematch and proposes a sort of tournament-style match.

"Two out of three." He says. Raven silently accepts his challenge and once again, this time even worse than the previous round thoroughly beats him. Placing in the top three spots in all four races while he was relegated to places four, five, and six. But to Raven's surprise, he kept calling rematches. To Kai's dismay, he only won once out of the many times that they played.

"Damn..."

"Hah. 'Beat me into the ground' he said." she chuckles calmly.

"Oh wow. It's getting late. I should get you your air mattress. I'll be right back." The room that surrounds her dissipates as her memories begin to fade into and merge themselves with her sense of sight. Kai's house is morphing into something more familiar to her, yet something just as frightening.

The...old house?

Voices then trickle their way to her eardrums, voices that are nothing like Kai's voice. She turns to her left and her eyes are abruptly met with those blue ones that she knows all too well. The ones that can only belong to Gar. Her mother is sitting next to him, both with controllers in their hands.

No! I don't want to remember this!

Muffled shouting ensues from the two, only reminding her more of the first time Gar had entered her house in six years.

"Raven?" Gar puts his hand on her shoulder. "Raven?" He shakes her a little bit. Jostling her brain inside her skull. She slams her lids shut and refuses to open them regardless of how many times she hears her name.

"Rave?" Kai asks laughing. Her eyes open slowly and then blinks a few times, verifying that this truly is reality.

Kai's house, Kai's voice...good... He's holding a rolled up plastic mattress under his arm.

"You fell asleep sitting up. I know it's midnight but I thought you'd at least last until one."

"Mmm."

Kai tilts his head. "Everything alright?"

She looks up at him with hidden yet genuine longing. "Yeah, I'm good."

Thunder outside rumbles, practically screams, and then a flash of light along with the loudest noise makes Raven's heart leap into her throat. Another low rumble of thunder follows.

"You sure?" he asks with a little chuckle.

"Y-yeah...just startled..."

Kai looks skeptical, but he nods and goes over to blow up the mattress with a small black air pump that she can swear he pulled out of nowhere.

"Sorry, I don't have any clothes for girls. You can wear one of my t-shirts if you want to."

"Sure. Do you have any sweatpants with a drawstring? I'm not sleeping in jeans." She asks a little quieter than she has been.

"Uh, yeah I think so."

As soon as the mattress was full of air and he turned off the too-loud-for-midnight-use air pump, he rummaged through his closet for the clothes. Raven, on the other hand, was trying to turn off the PlayStation and was successful after a minute or two of looking for the power button. Afterward, she removes her jacket and tosses it in the corner with their backpacks.

"Found 'em. Here." He tosses them to Raven.

"Can you turn around?"

"Huh?"

"I wanna change in here. I don't feel like going to the bathroom."

"Uh..."

"Can...I?"

"Uh, sure." He does as she asked and turns around, waiting for the shuffling behind him to stop before he asks, "Are you done?"

"Mhm."

He turns back around to a Raven that, now that he's looking at her fully, looks much dimmer than she was while they were playing the game. Almost as dim as she was on their way here. Her eyes tell it all. Despite this, he's met with a pleasant surprise.

"You're wearing the necklace!" He exclaims, trying to brighten up her mood.

"Oh, yeah." She replies simply rubbing her wrist. "I've been wearing it all day."

"I didn't see it when I was...uh..."

"Yeah... It got turned around with all the movement."

"I didn't see it during school either," Kai says slightly disappointed.

"It was tucked under my shirt."

"Oh." Why?

They now stand in silence and plenty of feet between them, the only noise being the growing sounds of the rain becoming heavier and heavier on the window pane and the metal fire escape outside. Raven begins to grow more and more despondent as she thinks about the day's events and her face expresses her growing pain.

What's...wrong with me? I was so mean to him and I can't even apologize because of my pride. I'm lucky that he's so nice or else I would've been in a lot of trouble. Yet he still brings me over to his house and gives me his clothes. Raven keeps looking at Kai as her brain continues to develop her thoughts.

"Oh my god, Raven," Her face prepares itself for tears and her hands ball up into fists.

Why does everything you do remind me of Gar?! We've only fought once and my fights with him keep invading my head! You walk like him and sometimes you even talk like him! The way you are is the way he used to be! Even the game we played just now...

Her legs buckle beneath her and her knees hit the carpet.

"Raven!"

No wonder I've started feeling like this. They're so similar... But Kai's different. He's never even met Gar. He probably doesn't even know he exists. Maybe if I told him everything now so he doesn't have to find out from someone else as Gar did...

With her head hung low and her face hidden from Kai, she tries to speak but gets choked up in her battle to stop Kai from seeing her tears again.

"Raven, what's wrong? Is it another migraine?" Kai tries to remain calm, but inside he's absolutely panicking.

Raven slowly sits up and breathes in, exhaling slowly through her mouth. "No." She tightens her fists while they rest upon her lap. "Kai, I have to tell you something."

Raven begins giving Kai the rundown of her past, her junior year, the summer that had followed it, and everything that has been going on right under Kai's nose. But to her complete shock,

"I know."

The rain beats down on the earth harder.

"You...do?"

"Most of what you said other than the stuff about your dad, yeah. But hearing your side of everything with all the specific stuff makes a lot more sense. Especially with what I saw in the forest."

"You saw something in the forest?" Kai explains his supposed encounter with Domino in the forest. "That...had to be her..." she mumbles. "Who...told you?"

"I heard it from a lot of people. People talk you know."

"But the people in school don't know a lot about what happened though."

"Yeah...uh, don't tell him I told you, but Dick and the guys kinda spilled it a bit ago."

I am going to kill them all.

"So...you knew all that and you still helped me today. Even knowing about how I...killed someone..."

"I didn't want to believe it, (and I found that out after I rescued you) but, yeah."

"And you're...ok...?"

"Yes. Of course, I am. Sounds like Gar wasn't though."

"No... After he found that out we had...a lot of problems..."

"Every relationship has problems, Rave. If it doesn't then that's a problem in it of itself."

"True..."

"Thank you." He says.

"For what?"

"Feeling comfortable enough with me to tell me everything."

"I was worried you'd see me different like Gar and everyone else."

"Everyone else saw you differently because they either don't know who you really are or they don't know enough about the situation. Gar saw you differently because, at least to me, it sounds like he had an idealized version of you that he couldn't get rid of, and then made you think that his mental disorder was your responsibility which it obviously is not.

He should have taken his pills, he should have gone to a therapist. If not for himself then for you. Not doing either of those things is just plain selfish. A relationship is a two-way street Raven. You can't be doing all the work. He has to do his share and he certainly was not. It doesn't matter how sappy he got in the end even if it was life or death. He can't just expect you to fix him. You're not God. If he wants help he should go out and get it himself, not wait for you to come and save him."

"But...he killed Tony. That's probably one of the best things he could've done for me."

"That fire would have killed him anyway, Raven! Gar used that fire as a cover-up so he could leave you! All that shows is that the only thing on his mind is himself! That, despite what he said to you, his own wants were at the forefront of his brain ahead of you. That wouldn't be a problem either if what he wanted to do wasn't in spite of your feelings! Raven, there are so many guys that would make a better boyfriend than him! For f*ck's sake, even I would..."

In his seething anger and annoyance, he let his mouth just repeat what his brain said. When he stopped himself, his arms had been thrown in the air and halted there. When he looks at Raven and her stunned eyes, he drops his hands to his legs that were tucked under his bottom, a thick red blush forming from one cheek to the other, straddling the bridge of his nose.

"I- Sorry, Rae, I got a little worked up." He covers his mouth and her eyes widen upon hearing his mouth utter her forbidden nickname. "Oh god!" He falls onto his back, wholly embarrassed. "Sorry sorry sorry..." His hands are covering his face. "Agh! Damnit!"

She crawls on her hands and knees towards Kai's head and sits on her knees again next to him. She gently pulls Kai's hands from his face which is now as red as a beetroot. She can't help but smile at that for some reason.

"I'm sorry, Raven. I shouldn't have said that. You obviously still have feelings for Gar." She only stares at him. "I meant the rest of what I said though!" He points up at her firmly.

"No. It's ok. I...actually like the way that sounds coming from you."

"Really?" he says in wonderment.

She nods, "Yeah...but...I'm...honestly not sure what to feel at this point."

Kai sits up, "You don't have to know how to feel yet. But you know how I feel about him."

"No, not about Gar. That's not what I meant."

"What?"

"About...you..." Kai's blush returns. "I don't know how to feel about you."

"Me?"

"Yeah..."

Now Raven is blushing as well. She pulls her hair out from behind her ears in order to try and hide it, but it's no use. Kai sees her face, and she sees Kai's face. Loud and clear on both ends.

"Look, Raven..." he looks as if he's fighting himself because it takes him a minute or two to finally continue. "I..." he drags his hands down his face and groans. "I have feelings for you. I know that Gar is still bouncing around in your head, but someone who abandoned you like he did... You just don't deserve that."

"Why did it take you so long to say that?"

He turns himself right towards Raven, leaving nothing up to interpretation. She can see every inch of his face.

"I...repeatedly told Jay that there is nothing like that between us and I only thought of you as a friend. Then I told Dick, Wally, and Vic that I didn't either. I promise that has nothing to do with you."

"Why?"

"Why? Why what?"

She avoids eye contact with him. "Why do you like me? Why do so many people have crushes on me? I genuinely don't understand it."

"Hah. Well for one, you're freaking beautiful regardless of how much you try and hide it; you're also kinda shy, a little mysterious, and strong to the point where people know that you shouldn't be messed with; you're kind, intelligent...resourceful...determined...and..." Kai abruptly loses his words in Raven's eyes as she continually tries to hide them.

"...Kai?"

His entire moon begins to shift and Raven can see it right down to the muscles in his face. Entirely caught up in his emotions, Kai moves her hair from in front of her face back behind her ears and leans into her. She watches his lustful eyes lock on her lips as he reaches out and holds her face while he closes the gap between them. Raven gingerly holds his wrist as he does so.

"K-Kai... W-what's going on with you?"

"Nothing. I'm perfectly fine." he replies with a mischievous grin. His voice dropped at least an octave or two and is currently beside himself. So is Raven. She's at a complete loss for words. "And I'll be even better in a second."

Raven inhales sharply as Kai's lips unite with her's. Her shock soon dissolves though and her eyes close. This kiss is unlike any other kiss she has had before. It's tamer than Gar's, softer than Michael's, and so much more loving than Adam's. She feels his entire personality in his lips. She senses all of his feelings in his kiss. Despite this, Raven does not reciprocate. She doesn't pull away from him, but she doesn't kiss him back either. She simply sits there with her right hand on his wrist and her left hand tentatively hovering around his cheek.

Kai pulls back, and Raven is so jarred that she can hardly move. She's lightly holding her lips with her fingertips.

"You didn't pull away...or kiss back."

"N-no..."

He stares at her for a moment and shakes his head. That lustful look in his eyes has gone.

"Ugh, Raven, I...I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done that I just..."

He looks like a sad puppy and has lost that lustful glint in his eyes, avoiding eye contact.

"It's ok..." she manages to say. What...just happened? He shifted gears so quickly. That was the best kiss I've ever had. I want your kiss every time I see you, at night, and in the morning. I don't care where we are, I want it. I'm addicted to it.

I want to kiss him again...

How did he manage to make me addicted to a kiss?

"This...will this affect our friendship?" he asks.

"Yes." She promptly replies, throwing Kai off balance a little. "But...nothing bad will happen. I just...want to wait for Gar. Just a little bit longer."

"Yeah, I get it." His mouth says one thing but his face says another. Disappointment blankets his face entirely.

Raven yawns and Kai yawns too. Neither of them realized how late it had gotten.

"Oh crap, I forgot your blanket." He uses this as an excuse to get up and out of that room in a hurry. Once he gets into the dark living room and turns on the light he heads for the closet where he got the air mattress. As soon as he opens the door, he bangs his head into one of the shelves in front of him in complete shame.

What the hell is wrong with me?! I let it happen again! I could've sworn that I fixed that... Damn, why did I do that to her? I shouldn't have kissed her. She obviously isn't ready for that. I can't make her like me like that. Ugh. At least she knows I know about everything now. That's a huge weight lifted off my shoulders. He pulls himself together and finally looks for the blanket. Selfish asshole keeping her from me. I can't believe he did that to her! If he ever comes back...

If I...If I ever see his face in person I'm going to give him a huge ass piece of my mind.

~~~

The wind strengthens as the rain dies down, leaving puddles in flooded backyards all over the street. The police tape is illuminated beneath the street lamps and fights passionately in the enraged blusters of wind against its ties to the posts at the ends of the lot. The charred remains inside of their boundaries sit somberly along with the dead memories that used to live inside. The tall deciduous trees that form the forest behind it fight against the wind to no avail, completely at the mercy of mother nature. The bushes beneath them strive to keep their roots in the ground and the animals that live in them cower in the underbrush, waiting until it seems safe for them to come out and move a few more feet further toward their destination.

Tiny twigs break under their pressure and the larger sticks break under a different kind of pressure. The pressure of heavy, plodding, uneven footsteps. The mud squishes with every step and spreads out. Wet branches are pulled down sending them crashing down onto the forest floor. The leaves that belong to them float down slowly afterward, adding to the endless sea of green and brown that coats the ground.

God, please tell me I'm close. I can hardly tell where I am anymo--

"Ah!" Gar's foot catches a root and he trips over it, tumbling over the bushes and into a yard that's just as gross and wet as the forest. "Ow..."

His heart pounds once he notices his surroundings. "No way..." His arms and legs quiver as he tries to get up, hardly able to support his own meager weight. "No way! I made it!"

I want to go see Raven but I don't know where she lives now.

He staggers through the night on his way to the street. Looking up and down it, he sees his house. It looks so much emptier than he remembers it.

Rita and Steve! I can--

"Ouch! My arms..." Every single pinprick hole that was put into Gar's arms starts to throb as the fatigue finally sets in. He can hardly move them, whether from the pain or from the restrictive bandages around his arms he's unable to discern.

He takes one more look at his house and then turns about face and walks wearily down the hill, hoping that he still remembers the layout of the city.

After walking into the parking lot of the police station, he just barely makes it to the front door. He knocks and it's locked, but there's a young woman sitting at the desk, illuminated only by the lamp dangling above her.

Please...

"...Hello...?" He says through the glass. "Please...let me in."

His knocking finally gets her attention, but too little too late. As soon as she looks over, Gar collapses onto the ground, his legs and brain completely giving out on him. Pain or exhaustion doesn't matter. He can't function any longer.

God, my arms hurt so much. I can't move. But...

I'm home. I'm safe now.

I'm safe.

Despite all the agony emitting from his arms, he slips into unconsciousness with a wry smile on his face.

~~~

And this is the end of Part I!! The story is (more or less) halfway completed and it's just getting good! Trust me! Let me know your thoughts on this part and any way I may be able to improve! Also, don't forget to ask questions! As long as their answers don't go into spoiler territory I'll be happy to answer them! That Q & A chapter is for the general questions. Thank you so much for enjoying my story.

Also, yes that is my own art at the top of the chapter!

See you in Part II!

EDIT: Alright my dudes, I just decided that in the introduction to Part II, I'm gonna do a character Q & A! Comment your questions here for Raven, Kai, and Gar, and any other character you want! I'll be taking questions until I finish the next chapter! Bye!

~Rae

Word Count: 6040