I Never Told You What I Did for a Living

"What are you going to do?" I asked slowly, getting up off the floor where I'd landed.

"Whatever it takes," she replied, uncrossing her arms and placing her hands on her hips. "Actually, you can find out whenever you want."

"What?"

"Come downstairs whenever you're ready."

I turned and looked out the window. In my hasty return, I hadn't noticed the unfamiliar black car parked in the driveway.

"Who's here?"

She shrugged. "You're going to go and stay with someone until you've decided that you're ready to cooperate."

"Where am I going?"

"You'll know as soon as you come downstairs."

I spun around to face her. "Tell me. Where the fuck are you sending me?"

"Don't take that tone with me, Lily. You brought this on yourself."

"No, you brought this. It's all your fault! Now tell me what's going on!" I demanded.

"Pack your things," she said calmly before turning and leaving the room.

I didn't know what to do. Should I run or start to pack? Running hadn't worked well so far, but leaving any other way didn't seem right. Once she'd descended the stairs, I went to my door and slammed it as hard as I possibly could. A picture fell from my wall and shattered.

With no other options, I took my suitcase from my closet and opened it on my bed. I began throwing clothes inside and zipped it shut. I flopped down on my bed and sighed. I pulled out my cell phone and called the one person who would need to know I was leaving.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Gerard."

"Are you okay? You sound really upset."

"I'm leaving."

"What? What do you mean?"

"I don't know. My mom told me to pack because I'm going to stay with someone for awhile. I don't want to go, but at this point I don't know what else to do."

He sighed. "You've got to go. Promise me something?"

"Of course," I agreed unconditionally.

"Call me when you find out what's going on, and then again when you get there safe."

"Sure. Will you tell Mikey and the guys that I won't be around for awhile?"

"Yeah. Who knows, maybe by the time you get back I'll be out of the hospital."

"You'd better be. By the sounds of it, I'm going to be gone awhile. I'll come home as soon as I can, though."

"I love you."

"I love you, too."

I stared out my window for a few long moments. I knew that I'd never seen that car before, so where was I going?

I grabbed all my things and left my room, not bothering to clean up the shattered remains of the picture. I went down the stairs like an inmate headed to her own execution. It felt sort of like I was waiting for my own death.

When I reached the landing and saw the guest in my house, I was certain.

I must have died and went to hell.

The face that looked up at me from the couch made my whole body burn with rage. Of all places I could have gone, why there? Why put me through that much torture? I'm really not that bad of a person, am I?

The guest stood and began to walk over to me, smiling. The smile was nice enough, but I knew that underneath was pure evil. I shook my head slightly, as if the motion would make this all dissappear, make this somehow less real. When nothing changed, I sighed loudly, giving up.

"Hey, Dad."