Sons of Night

Andy’s POv
“Wake your drunk ass up, Andy!” Someone yelled, shooting pain through my head. I moaned and rolled over. My eyes refused to open to the bright, white sunlight penetrating through the blinds.
“Fine, just remember that you chose the hard way,” The voice laughed. I swung an arm in the direction that it was coming from in an attempt to get them away. A moment passed and I thought they had gone. Then ice cold water poured all over my face and head. My skin tightened with goose bumps and I sprung out of bed to throttle whoever thought that was a good idea. My legs tangled in the bed sheets and I fell flat on my stomach in the middle of the room, dripping wet and disoriented. There was a distinctive cackling laughter. I looked up to see CC standing a foot or two away howling like a witch on crack.
“Dude, that was not funny,” I said, holding my head and shivering as I stood up.
“It was hilarious, and I had to wake you up at some point, dude. The day’s half over and you’re breaking into the school tonight you need some time to get over your hangover,” CC said panting for his breath. I was still pissed. I took a step towards him and he took a step back.
“You’re really going to stoop so low as to beat up a guy who just had surgery?” CC giggled. He knew he’d gotten me. I tightened my jaw and glared at him. As glad as I was to see him up and around, he didn’t have to get straight back to being a jerk so soon.
“Get out,” I said pointing to the door. He held up his hands in surrender and started stepping over the mess I’d made to get there.
“I’ll tell them you’ll be down soon,” He said, sounding like he was getting ready to bust up laughing again. As he left I saw the stitched up wound sitting in the middle of his abdomen, it looked very good. Jinxx had done a good job. The thought brought back the day after when I’d seen him in the hallway. What had happened to him? I shook it off and went to my bag to get dressed. My head was pounding, my ears were ringing and my stomach was churning with every step I took. That was it. As I was getting dressed I resulted that I was never going to drink that much again. I didn’t need any of my thinking impaired or to be physically impaired at all. I made my way slowly down the steps weighing if I would have to run back to the bathroom to puke or not. Eventually the wave a nausea passed and I continued on my way.
I came down the stairs and winced as I entered the well lit living room, the sound of people talking in the kitchen splintered through my ears. I went there anyway, on shaking legs that for once felt as stick-like as they looked. I was as invisible as I could be as I slipped into the only empty chair at the table. My elbows rested on the table and the heels of my hands went to my eyes, while my fingers entered my ears. Simultaneously cutting of light and dulling the lunch-eating noises around me. I sighed as I slid into a slightly more comfortable state. I still felt a bit like I was riding a boat on rough seas, but it wasn’t so bad. I sat there for a while, listening to the muted conversations. Finalizing the plans for the day. There was a gentle pat on my back and I lifted my head and saw two round pills and a brimming full glass of water sitting on the table. I took them eagerly, I couldn’t wait to snap out of my stupor.
“So, I propose we leave here at quarter till nine. At that point their marching band will be finishing up their practice. That gives us enough time to walk there and make sure that we’re all set up, and give them enough time to get out and we’ll be on our way, in and out without a soul seeing us,” Jake was saying from across the table. His arms were crossed and an empty plate sat in front of him. Everyone nodded, including myself, and Jake targeted me with his eyes.
“Good morning, sunshine. While you were sleeping, we got everything set up. We’ll be wearing cameras and microphones so CC will be able to see and hear everything that we’re doing from here. We’ve each got ear pieces so he’ll be able to talk back. We tested everything and for right now they work. We also separated all of the climbing gear, we’ve got enough for everyone,” Jake reported, with a bit of a sour attitude. I nodded guiltily.
“Where did we get all the tech to do that? We didn’t have that stuff when we got here,” I said, in an attempt to shift the topic from me being inept.
“Thanks to a generous donation from your father, we went to the store and bought what we needed. Also while you were sleeping,” Jake said, with the same condescending tone. I looked at the table.
“I do believe I owe an explanation,” I said quietly, my parent’s were not in the house, it seemed so there was no trouble with them hearing and asking about Mayden. There was a chorus of sarcastic agreement, and so I explained what had happened to me the night before. The whole house listened intently as I talked, and the longer I talked the stupider I felt. The entire situation could have been avoided if I could have been a bit more, shall we say, graceful in my execution. While I talked my eyes drifted to the table instead of looking at anyone’s face. I finished and looked up as the room drifted into silence. I met Jake’s eyes and his face was unreadable. Ashley who was right next to him, on the other hand was looking at me with a sort of disgust that I’d never seen before. I shrank away from his glare.
“You idiot! You could have blown this for all of us, because you worry too much about how that girl feels and you didn’t get it done how you needed to get it done!” Ash spat at me.
“I’m sorry,” I said, it came out as just above a whisper.
“Dude, it wasn’t his fault. It could’ve happened to any of us, and it’s not like we helped him plan really well or anything,” Jake interjected.
“Yes, yes it is his fault. You know why? Because any of us could’ve got in there and searched the house without anyone knowing that we were there. Gotten what we needed and left, but no! We sent him, and he gets emotionally attached to people very easily. I should have known he was going to try to connect with Mayden again. Try to bring her back into his life. He’s too stupid to realize how bad for him she is!” Ash’s voice was dripping with venom.
“Dude, you were the one who said you thought he’d have sex with her while he was there,” CC chimed in.
“Yeah, well I was joking. I thought you were smarter than to make the decision to try to get near her again,” Ash said.
“I’m sorry Ashley, I wasn’t thinking clearly!” I yelled back standing up, even over my roaring headache my anger was winning out.
“Clearly not. Sometimes you make me wish I never saved your bratty ass. The only things you’ve ever been good for are whining, and getting us into more trouble. I should have left you be eaten alive by the wolves,” Ash said. I sat back down, and put my head in my hands, no I wasn’t crying, I was just overwhelmed. Ash had never said anything like that to me before. I never even had an inkling that he felt that way.
“Your parents probably didn’t even want you back,” Ashley hissed and he was out of the room, I heard the front door slam a moment later. That was it, all it took was one swift kick in the insecurities and I was a mess. I’d never broken down before like I did right then. Not even while I was alone. Someone blew past me, and the front door slammed a moment later, I couldn’t care though. I was doubled over, sobbing from my gut, one hand was wrapped in my hair and the other was around my waist and I couldn’t even think about trying to compose myself. The chair next to me moved and I felt my head get pulled into Jinxx’s chest. He held me while I cried, he even went to the point of running his fingers through my hair to try and soothe me.
I’d always worried. It had always been my worst nightmare to mess up bad enough that even the sons of night wouldn’t want me. I’d always convinced myself that it was impossible, we’d all already hit our lowest lows and nothing was low enough to force us to hate each other, but I had done it. Yes, I had done the one thing. I blew the cover on our mission. Opened it up to the world who we were, what we were doing, where we were hiding, and that was it. I was out and at least one member of my the only real family I had hated me.
“I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry I’ve been such a fuck up. Such a burden to you,” I sobbed into Jinxx’s chest.
“No, no Andy that’s not true. We care about you so much. You’re our little brother, not a burden, we love you,” Jinxx said in an attempt to console me. It didn’t work though. Ashley was something different. It was like Ashley was my adoptive parent. He chose me, let me in and said yes, made the final decision that I could live with them. Now he was sending me back to the orphanage, and Jinxx, my adopted sibling had no say in the matter. It was not Jinxx that had to approve of me, it was Ashley.
“I’m going. I’m leaving,” I said, trying to pull out of Jinxx’s arms, but I was met on the other side by CC.
“Why do you think you’re going away?” CC said as he held onto me so I couldn’t get up.
“So that you guys and my parents don’t have to deal with me anymore. I’ll go so I don’t mess anything else up. No one wants me,” I said. trying again to pull out of CC’s arms, but I was weak and disoriented. He held me tightly.
“And just where would you go?” Jinxx said.
“To the police station. I’m turning myself in. I belong in jail, I’m a worthless murderer, and I deserve to rot before I can hurt anyone else. Mess up someone else’s chance at a normal life. That’s what I did to Cody, that’s what I did to my parents, that’s what I did to Mayden, and now I messed up again and now I’ve ruined you guys’s chances of being free again. I’m so sorry,” I moaned and tried to pull myself out of CC’s arms again. I succeeded that time and I sat up only to have Jinxx’s arms on my shoulders.
“Andy, look at me. Look at me,” Jinxx said. I forced my eyes up off the ground and tried to look at him through the tears that were still flowing. The door opened and closed again.
“Ash is gone, I tried to catch up with him, but I don’t know where he went,” I heard Jake report as he entered the house, “Oh shit,” He said as he came into the room and saw us there. Me, a sobbing mess in Jinxx’s and CC’s arms.
“I’m sorry, I’ll leave so he can come back,” I said, hugging my knees to my chest.
“No, Andy. He has to mature up and come back here himself,” Jake said.
“He doesn’t want me here anymore,” I said. My chest was aching and my head was throbbing again. Jake drew up another chair next to me and hugged me how Jinxx had been not long before.
“No, Andy. He just took out his frustrations on you. We’re all tense and he just found an easy place to take it out. He knew how to hurt you, to make himself feel better about his situation, so he did. He didn’t mean what he said, Andy. He loves you like a brother, and brother’s can be mean. We all still want you, and we all still love you,” Jake said. For some reason I took some comfort in his words. It reminded me of when I first came with them, the nightmares I had were horrible. I would wake up screaming and having a panic attack almost every night. It came to the point where it was a nightly ritual that when I was having a nightmare, Jake came into my room and held me until I was able to go back to sleep. It was always him that had been able to convince me that the bad things were all in my head.
I had been much smaller back then, and he hadn’t done it in years. It should have been weird but it wasn’t. He held me and rocked me right there at the kitchen table, at twenty four years old, he still managed to convince me that my real life situation was nothing but a nightmare.

Notes

Super dramatic because I missed last week. I actually teared up while writing part of this. I hope you enjoyed, please comment and let me know what you thought.