The Little Bandit

The next thing I knew, I asked for Jerry’s permission to go home early, however, instead of going home I drove my car along the city, trying to find Aiden. I didn’t care about him, to hell with that guy, all I care was Adam. He was my best friend for God’s sake.

The problem was it was impossible to find Aiden easily. I didn’t know his friend’s circle, except for the bunch of girls he used to date. His time was spent mostly with the girls than with boys.

I had been trying to call his contacts, but it gave me nothing. Most of them were girls and some of them didn’t know where he was, the others were pretty disappointed to find that I was the one who talked, not Aiden, and the rests were so angry – maybe they were dumped by him or something.

It seemed that I had stopped at all the cafes, restaurants, and bars in this city but I couldn’t find him. I felt so stupid. Adam must be dying right now. When I almost gave up, Aiden’s phone rang.

“Hello?” I said carefully.

“You’re not Aiden,” it’s another man; his voice was deep and calming. “Who’s this?” he asked, now with a hurry in his voice.

“I’m Alyssa. I found Aiden’s hand phone at my working place. Then a man called-“

“What man?” he cut me off.

“A very scary man,” now I realized that my voice was shaking. “He told me if I didn’t bring Aiden, he will kill Adam.”

Long pause. The man in the receiver must be thinking or shock right now. “Hello?” I tried to get his attention back.

“How do you know Adam?” he asked slowly.

“He is my best friend,” I responded.

Another pause. “Are you that lousy girl who has really thick messy brown hair?”

I was confused by his question. Thick brown hair? Yeah, it was me. But it was not messy. “Yeah, that’s me. Who are you?”

“I’m also Adam’s friend,” he answered simply. Hah? Adam’s friend? He was such a geek - which was similar to me - and we didn’t make friends easily. That’s why we became friend. As long as I knew, Adam’s friends were Cathy and I. “Is there anything else that the man told you?” he spoke again, drawing my attention back to him.

“Ah, yes. He told me about a black code”

“Shit!” he swore on the other line. “Alyssa, is that your name?”

“Yes.”

“Now, listen. Go to Adam’s house where you can find Aiden there. Tell him to meet Dylan at the harbor before midnight. You think you can do that?”

“Yes, but…”

“What?” he responded impatiently.

“I don’t know where Adam’s house is.”

~

I stopped in front of a very big beautiful house which was located in the most expensive estates in my city. I didn’t know Adam was rich, he never told me about his family. He didn’t like to talk about that. He never invited Cathy and I to his house, came to think of it, Adam was like a close book to us. And I still couldn’t believe he got involved in this gang thing – yeah, on the way here, I decided to call it “Gang Thing” because you know, it involved the trouble maker Aiden.

I jumped out of my old car which belonged to my late father, and stood in front of the huge white gate. I hesitated for a moment before pressed the bell. I had to press it three times before someone answered.

“Davies Residence. How may I help you?” a woman spoke in the speaker.

“Umm… I’m Alyssa Blair, friend of Adam. I’m just wondering, maybe Aiden Norton’s there?” What a strange question; asking for someone else outside the member of the households.

“Wait a minute,” she said. A second later, the gate opened, presenting a driveway to the entrance door of Adam’s house. Gee, it was not a house, it was too big to be called house. I stepped into my car one more time and drove it until I was right in the front of a large white door.

“Hey you, the waitress,” a voice called me and I saw Aiden just got out of the door.

He smirked, observing me from top to toe. “What brings you here?” he asked.

I cleared my throat before answered, “I bring message from Dylan,” suddenly he looked serious, “and I want to return this,” I gave him his hand phone. He took his hand phone from my hand.

“What message?” he asked while he was checking his phone.

“He wants you to meet him in the harbor before midnight. And, there was a man called you, he said,” my voice started to tremble again, “if you didn’t come, he would kill Adam. And he also said something about black code.”

Aiden became white. He dialed a number in his phone and spoke quickly. After he hung up, he looked at me. “You should go now.”

“But I want to help. Adam is my friend,” I pleaded.

“Oh yes, you are Adam’s friend. No wonder you are quite familiar.”

“So?” I waited.

“No, sorry, but you have helped him so far. You’d better go home; you look terrible, more terrible than you used to be.”

I looked at him furiously while he was walking to his car, a Mercedes CLK-Class Cabriolet. He really had everything, hadn’t he?

~

Twenty minutes later, I was hiding inside my car, waiting for Aiden who had entered an old warehouse to come out. While I was waiting, to my surprise, Dylan Willis arrived, also went inside the warehouse. So, there are three of my schoolmates; Adam Davies, Aiden Norton, and Dylan Willis. It was so surprising, why? Because the three of them weren’t friend, in fact, Aiden always made fun of Adam and Dylan was the second smartest guy in school, after Adam of course, but he was more popular than Adam. Well, who wanted to date a geek? But if those girls knew that Adam had such an amazing house, they would chase him too. But, the point was, they had nothing in common. So what were they doing here, in a secluded part of the harbor, inside a rusty building?

Were they selling drugs right now? Or they were selling human’s organ? Maybe that explained the blood in Adam’s face. No way, I shook my head, afraid of my own thought.

Ten minutes had passed. I started to get anxious, and scared. I had to do something. I could check the warehouse out, found out whether they were okay. I opened my car’s door - the sound which was made was twice louder in this quite place. I tiptoed towards the warehouse, hidden under the shadow, and finally reached the door.

It was open. Tried to make no sound, I entered the room. A thick wall divided this room into two parts. The light was dim, however there was enough light for me to see, in fact, there was nothing to see. This place was empty, no one was here. Where the hell were those people? In the next room, perhaps?

Suddenly, without any warning, I heard a loud bang from the next room. I was scared to death. Who was being shot? Who died? Who shot? I panicked. I ran to the next door – which was close – and opened it slowly. I could hear people talking now.

“Died?” it was Dylan’s voice.

“I don’t think so. But we’d better call the police and James,” this time was Aiden.

God, I had just witnessed a homicide, and the murderers were my schoolmates. Was it possible for 17-years old boys killed a man? And where was the body? Was it really a man? Or Adam? Did he just kill Adam? I shrieked, which was a big mistake because both Aiden and Dylan looked right at my place standing.

Without saying a word, I ran away.