Sons of Night

Ashley’s POV
I paced back and forth in front of the window and looked for a second into the swirling snow. Andy had been gone for too long. I sighed and peeked through the blinds out into the driveway. The darkened streets showed no signs of life. Andy had been gone for nearly two hours. There was no way that he wasn’t having some sort of trouble. I just hoped that he hadn’t been caught.
“Ashley, what is going one?” Amy said with exasperation. She’d been watching me pace around the room for a good long while.
“Andy’s not back yet and he should be,” I said, bending down to look out the window again. I turned back into the room and looked at her. She had a look of concern ingrained on her face.
“Where did he even go?” She asked. I could tell that I was making her even more nervous. I weighed what to say to her. Andy hadn’t revealed anything about Mayden, so I wasn’t going to either, he had his reasons for what he said and didn’t say.
“To go get a school schedule,” I said simply.
“Where exactly did he go to do that? You guys are acting like he walked straight into a war zone,” Amy said, I could see her frustration at her lack of knowledge. I shrugged my shoulders in response. I really didn’t want to lie, but the truth wasn’t something that had to come out. I heard Amy sigh and start to walk away as I turned back to the window without answering her further. I heard her walk up the stairs and I was relieved to be alone. I sat on the couch with my hands folded in front of me, but that felt too relaxed. I was about to get up when hushed voiced caught my ear.
“Having them here without Andy makes me nervous, Chris,” I heard Amy whisper from the top of the steps. I froze and tilted my ear to listen.
“What do you want me to do? Kick them out?” Chris whispered back. There was a pause.
“No, I don’t expect you to kick them out, at least not until CC’s better, if Andy’s not back until then he’s lost anyway,” Amy replied.
“I know what you mean though. We don’t know anything about them and Andy is definitely keeping something from us,” Chris said in a hushed voice back.
“Well, what can we do? We’ll have to give this a couple of weeks and see how it works out,” Amy said with a sigh. There must have been some silent end to the conversation, because a moment later Chris was creaking down the stairs. I turned and looked at him for a moment, and nodded in acknowledgement to his presence. He walked into the kitchen and I heard him pouring himself a glass of water. Then he came back into the room and stood in the doorway.
“No sign of him yet, Ash?” He asked and I shook my head.
“Well, if you’re staying up until he gets here then I’m staying up with you, everyone else is in bed,” Chris said. I stood up and wandered back over to the front windows. I looked out and saw a tall and thin form hurrying down the street a block or so down.
“I don’t think you’ll have to stay up for long, I think I see him,” I said. I watched the figure speed walking down the sidewalk, with what appeared to be a piece of paper in his hand. I hoped that was the schedule. I leaned away from the window just in time for the front door to open, Andy blew in with a swirl of snow. He smacked the paper into my chest. I took it and looked at it for a moment, he’d gotten it. Andy was taking off his boots and his coat at the door and he still hadn’t said a thing. His nose was red from the cold and his hair was what with snow. I didn’t know why he wasn’t congratulating himself over his mission success like he normally did.
“Congrats, dude, you got it,” I said. He shrugged, and a little grunt came out of his throat, but not a word.
“What’s up man? Something wrong?” I asked. He brushed past me into the living room and flopped down on the couch, running a hand back through his black hair and then down over his face.
“I kinda succeeded,” He said, like he was apologizing.
“What do you mean kinda?” I asked, coming into the room. I looked at him. He didn’t look hurt, not physically at least.
“I mean I probably wasn’t supposed to get caught,” He said with a sarcastic shrug like it was no big deal. I was shocked, get caught? Shouldn’t that have been an emergency?
“Dude, what are you talking about? If you got caught then shouldn’t we be, like, leaving? Or something? Are the police coming?” I asked approaching him. He looked up at me for a second and then turned to his dad, who was looking as confused as I felt.
“Do we have any beer?” Andy asked Chris. Chris hesitated for a moment and then looked at me. I shrugged. Any form of alcohol was seldom in the woods, we only had it for big celebrations, New Year’s, Birthdays, that kind of stuff. Andy never really drank either. I shook my head and shrugged, Chris turned and went into the kitchen. He appeared a moment later and threw a can of beer at Andy. Andy caught it, opened it and nearly chugged the whole thing in one go.
“Andy, what happened to you?” I asked, I sat down next to him as he took another swig. Then he sat back on the couch, nodded and sighed. I’d never seen him like this before.
“Du-” I started, but he silenced me with a hand.
“Give me a minute, Ash. I just had a gun to my head,”
Andy’s POV
Ashley was about to start griping at me to tell him what happened agian. I wasn’t ready. He wasn’t going to know until I could relax, and I couldn’t relax with him there griping at me. I took another long drink of the beer and felt the can drain. That wasn’t enough. I barely felt a difference at all.
“Andy, you have got to tell me what happened,” Ash said. I didn’t have the energy left in me to be annoyed by him.
“You know what Ash? I’ll tell you when I wake up in the morning. Go to bed, I need space. Don’t worry I’m fine, you’re fine, everyone’s fine. Just go to bed and leave me be,” I said, as nicely as I could. As I talked I stood and started walking towards the kitchen, past my dad.
“Andy, tell him what happened,” Dad said, I looked at him for a moment.
“I’ll tell him in the morning, when I figured it out for myself,” I said before continuing on my way. I opened the refrigerator and looked down in the bottom drawer. The alcohol was there. I shuffled through it until I found a full bottle of whiskey. I turned and presented it to Dad.
“May I?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Drowning your sorrows isn’t going to help you,” Dad said, I looked behind him into the living room, Ashley was gone.
“I’m not drowning my sorrows, I’m trying to relax enough to go to be able to think,” I said, even though I knew it was bull shit, and I knew that Dad knew that it was bull shit.
“You can have it. Just don’t over do yourself. I’ll see you in the morning,” He said, but he didn’t sound mad, which was a relief to me. He left the kitchen and I heard him walking up the stairs. I sat down at a the kitchen table and cracked open the bottle. For a moment, I considered getting a glass, but I decided against it. I took a gulp and the liquid fire straight from the bottle, coughed and took a deep breath before taking a few more swallows. The dark kitchen around began to dull to my senses a bit. I felt my heart rate begin to slow down. I put down the bottle for the time being and sat back in the chair.
I had nearly died. For all I knew the cops were on the way to the house, if that happened then I would’ve wished that I did die. I took another drink. Mayden had revealed everything. Everything. To her parents. Without a glance in my direction. After I confessed my love to her, of course. I frowned in disgust, I was starting to hate myself for that. I took another drink and the room began to sway a bit. She’d stopped me from being shot, but I almost wished she hadn’t stopped it. That would have been easier. I didn’t have much to live for anyway. How would I survive even if we solved the crime. I didn’t have any way of supporting myself, with less than a freshman year’s worth of education, my parents would be burdened by me for the rest of my life.
Another trail of fire burned down my throat and my thoughts shifted again. A combination of thoughts. Mayden was something for me to live for. Assuming she’d have me, I’d even go back to school if that meant keeping her. Get a real job to support her and feed her, give her a safe roof to put over her head. I smiled at the thought of that, living in a nice house, with maybe a few kids. All of this behind me. I swallowed more alcohol and began to slide into a fantasy. Mayden finding me here like this. Drunk, alone, in a kitchen at night. She’d come into the room, shaking her head in concern, wipe the dribbles off my chin and ask me what I was doing. I found my own hand wiping at my chin, at the alcohol that had missed my mouth, I wiped it on my jeans. It was Mayden’s hand doing it though, not mine.
She smiled sweetly and stood up slowly. My eyes followed her every move. The way her hair fell and and her body moved. It was beautiful, Mayden standing in front of me with a disappointed look on her face. She said that I’d had enough to drink and it was time for me to go to bed.
She took the bottle out of my hands ever so gently and laid it on the kitchen table, all the while pulling me to my feet and towards the stairs that lead to my room. I was enough in reality to know that this was just me trying to make myself go to bed, but I wanted what was in my head. I grabbed the bottle off the table and carried it with me as her soft hand led me slowly across the living room. I made it to the first stair and tripped. All sense of the the reality was gone as pain radiated up through my knee. I cursed quietly and stood, looking up at the wavering steps. If I could make it to the top I’d reward myself with the rest of the bottle. There wasn’t that much of it left anyway. Gripping the handrail I marched myself up the steps one by one. Stopping and swaying every once in awhile and even tripping and nearly falling back down at one point.
I stood proudly at the top of the stairs, feeling like it was Mount Everest and I claimed my reward. I tilted my head back and let the rest of the drink burn all the way down to my stomach, just as the bottle ended I felt gentle hands taking it away from me. It was real this time. I looked and my mom set the bottle down by the stairs.
“That was mine,” I slurred.
“Was, it’s all gone now,” She said gently. With one hand on my back she started guiding me down the hall.
“Where are we going?” I asked.
“It’s time for all the big boys with their drinks to go to bed,” Mom said, she sounded so caring. She led me to my room, with a hand on me the whole time to make sure I didn’t fall over. She led me into the room and flicked on the light I winced in the brightness.
“Can you get yourself in bed?” She asked, I nodded and started trying to get my shirt off, but I was quickly entangled. I stopped my effort with my arms stuck above my head and my head trapped in the shirt.
“Help,” I whimpered, while my mom chuckled.
“What am I going to do with you?” She asked, and helped me pull the shirt the rest of the way off. I started fumbling with the buckle of my belt but my drunken hands were too clumsy to make any work of it. My mom took my hands and placed them by my sides. Before I had time to realize how ashamed I was she’d gotten my jeans down to my ankles and was trying to help me step out of them. I looked away, blushing.
“Andy, I changed your diaper. If I’m not allowed to help you when you’re drunk then who is?” She asked, and she helped me balance as I stepped out of the jeans.
“I’m sorry,” I said. As she walked to the bed and turned down the covers for me.
“Don’t be sorry Andy, everyone has a bit too much from the bottle sometimes,” She said. She lead me over to the bed and laid me down.
“No, I mean I’m sorry for everything I put you through over the last ten years,” I slurred. She regarded me for a moment, and then pulled the blankets up to my chin, tucking me in like a child.
“You’re forgiven,” She said as she snapped off the light. She left the room, the door closed, and I passed out.

Notes

Andy has hit a new low. Leave me a comment and let me know what you think, I love to hear it. See you guys next week!