Won't Turn Out Right

The scared look that flashed through Zacky's eyes was gone. His eyes were a cold, dull green. He wandered over to the other side of the room, sitting down on the ground against the wall. He looked down at his fingers and started picking at his nails. I stared at the ceiling.

So this is my final resting place. My last breath of fresh air. My home away from home. This is how I'll spend my last minutes, hours, days, weeks. Final breaths. This is it.

What's in the newspapers? Where is everybody? Where is my father?

What ever happened to the Lovers? Where is the Fool? Stay where he can find me? I don't want to stay here. I want to go away and never come back. Why should I stay here if I'm not wanted? They don't want me here and I don't want to be here so why don't I just go? Oh, that's right, it's because I can't. It's impossible.

So... what are you gonna do? Are you gonna sit there? Sit there and do nothing? What are you gonna do, Charity?

I'm gonna sit here. I'm gonna sit here and do nothing. Because there's nothing i can do. Roughly 15% of my stomach is gone. I've lost quite a lot of blood. It's taking me everything just to stay awake. I'm sure you can understand how much I would love to go to sleep. To fall asleep and dream and dream the last days of my life away.

But, you have to do something.

Yeah... I know.

-*-

"We're going to cut you a deal. We have you on speeding already, car theft, and violating parole. We're going to get you on more." Johnny licked his dry lips, staring the officer straight in the eye. "If you confess now to everything, " he said staring harder. "We will drop some of the charges against you, and see what we can do about dropping a couple years off your sentence. Forty five sounds better than sixty, doesn't it?" Johnny cracked his knuckles. "We know about your friends. We know that you know that there was a house ransacked a couple weeks ago. A girl was kidnapped. Mr. Seward, tell me what you know about that." Johnny licked his lips again.

"I heard about that. Too bad. But, I don't know anything about it. Sorry." The cop nodded slowly.

"That's interesting. Because, you see, there were some fingerprints left behind at the house." Johnny's blood ran cold. "We didn't know whose they were, until we matched them up with yours, Mr. Seward." Johnny let out a tiny breath, barely a gasp, and looked away from the cop down to his hands.

"Is that right? I find that a little hard to believe."

"Would I lie?" Johnny looked up again.

"Would you?" He shook his head.

"Where's Charity, Johnny?"

"Who's Charity?" The cop slammed his hand down on the table.

"Don't do this! Tell me where the girl is!" Johnny remained silent, and the cop sighed, running a hand through his hair. "Your name was released to the papers. We'll get answers soon, whether you give them to us, or not. Are you familiar with the Barrys?" Johnny sneered without thinking, and the cop chuckled. "Yeah. Exactly. Are you going to cooperate?" Johnny sucked at his teeth.

"I need protection."

"Done." Johnny shook his head with a mocking laugh.

"No. Really. A lot of protection." The cop nodded.

"You want some coffee?" Johnny shook his head.

"It started with my... my girlfriend. It all went downhill from there." There was a knock on the door, cutting Johnny off, and someone entered. The man waved over the cop, and they started whispering to each other. The cop came back a few seconds later with a grim face.

"It's, uh, Matt. Matt Barry. He's missing." The cop cleared his throat. "Got any idea where he could be?" Johnny bit his lip.

"Synyster."

-*-

Shadows punched Matt Barry again.

"Where's Jason?" He growled out. Matt spat some blood out to his side.

"I don't know. I haven't seen him since Tuesday." His hands and legs were tied to a chair, and he made no attempt to break free. "He sort of lives out of his car now. He could be anywhere."

"You must've had plans to see him sometime soon," Synyster said from behind him. "You must have some way to contact him." Matt stayed silent.

"Do you want to die?" Matt rubbed a bit of the blood from his chin down onto his shoulder.

"That's a rhetorical question, right?" Shadows punched him again in the temple, and Matt groaned. "No, asshole, I don't want to die."

"Could have fucking fooled me. What have you both been telling people? Have you gone to the cops? Are you double crossing us?"

"Which question do I answer first?" Shadows growled again and moved to hit him. "Wait, wait, okay. Jesus. Jason was caught by the police a couple weeks ago. I don't know what he might have told them. I never thought to fucking ask him. I swear, though, I don't know where he is. He had set up our meeting for tonight."

"Where was this meeting supposed to be?" Matt took in a deep breath, slowly letting it out.

"The train station. I was going to meet him at the train station." Shadows smiled.

"Well, I guess you shouldn't keep him waiting."