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6
cyanide - creeper
"we know no one forgives the fugitives of heaven"
"Are you sure this is the right house?"
"Yes, Nate. This is the right house." I grumbled as I continued to traipse through the Staedtlers' front garden, turning over rocks and garden ornaments in pursuit of the spare key.
Nate was standing on the front porch, a concrete slab with two steps in front of a bight yellow door. A bible verse was printed on the doormat, an outdoor ceramic frog parked next to the mat.
This was definitely the right house.
I turned over one of the garden gnomes, shouting triumphantly when I found the little metal key, pressing the cold steel to my lips as I kissed it. Salvation at last.
"Keep it down, Forrester!" Nate hissed. "What if Lords and his guys were in the area, huh?"
"Christ, Nate. Fine, but remember that I have the key!" I shoved the blonde aside and slid the key into the lock, turning it roughly and pushing the front door open, casting a worried look behind me as I slipped into the foyer.
I had never been so scared before in my life.
Not even when that post came out.
Nate closed the door behind him, a misplaced grin on his face as he pointed at the Jesus-on-a-cross that was hung above Alexia's front door, almost blending into the dark brown paint on the walls.
"Are we in a house of God? Is the Lord going to protect us from drug dealers?"
Despite myself, I laughed. We were in such a shitty, life or death situation, and Nate can still find some kind of humor.
I wished I was like him.
"There's that smile." He said quietly, a smile creeping onto his face that made me blush, even though we were standing five feet apart.
When it became awkward to look at Nate anymore, I turned away, catching a glimpse of myself in the hall mirror. I was covered in blood, dried rivulets running up my arms, some of it smudged on my face, and even a little bit in my hair.
I looked like hell, and I felt like it, too. I felt like there was dirt creeping into every pore in my body, filth on my soul that could never be cleansed.
I cleared my throat. "Try not to touch anything, and only turn on lamps, not overhead lights." The Staedtlers had drawn all the curtains when they left home. "help yourself to some clean clothes, the master bedroom is upstairs on the left. I'm going to take a shower."
Nate nodded, reaching for teh IKEA floor lamp in the doorway between the living room and the foyer, and I turned around to head up to the second floor. Alexia and I were mostly the same size in everything, and I knew that my clothes were done for.
