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Above the sound of her own voice in her head, there were nuclear bombs going off in Naomi's ears. Waves crashing beneath her chest. Earthquakes rattling her dead bones like the sound of a dreamcatcher slipping past wind. It was undeniable that just like every other natural disaster, Naomi Morgan would be quiet before terrible things began to happen and perhaps it was true that animals are the first to notice something amiss, but these animals were oblivious. The Guise was too busy coming up with mundane plans, their backs turned to the doom lingering in the dark corner just two feet away from them.
"I'm just saying, maybe we should consider all our options," Lia was saying.
"That's not an option. That's suicide. There's no way we'll survive blazing out of Riverside. Mayor Fowley has cops on every exit route," Saint shook his head at her, "We can't run. At least not like that."
They were all sat in some disfigured circle, with the tacos that Tio had brought for them that morning in the centre, resting in crumpled foil paper. Sully was the only one still eating, though his chew was considerably slower than when he had just begun. The left side of his mouth was moving as if there was something trying to pry his mouth open. Like he needed to speak and the food was just a distraction. Naomi saw that exact forced silence in her brother too, except, it was the opposite. For Will, something was always clamping his mouth shut, forcing him into muteness. But now, Naomi supposes, it's hard to tell the difference.
Tio was standing a little off, in the spot where the broken windows shot streams of sunlight inside, illuminating his bright green suit among the pitch black everything else. "Maybe you should lay low until all of this blows over," he said to them.
Chyna looked up, "You mean until they find us."
"I mean until things are quiet enough to make an escape."
Chyna's afro was a lump around her head now. It didn't hold the height and lively curls like it used to since the day they got here. Now, it was just droopy and dead on top of her head. Naomi realized it was starting to look a lot like her own hair that simply fell to her back without even putting up a fight. Chyna shook her head and said, "Things will never be quiet enough. And the longer we wait here, the higher the risk we run of them finding us. We need to get out of here."
Cairo was smiling at his IPad for the past ten minutes. He hadn't even taken a taco. Instead, was a sitting a reasonable distance away from everyone else. Like Naomi, he helped make their circle awkward and disfigured. Then, out of the blue, he suddenly looked up. "Maybe we should just turn ourselves in."
Everyone turned around.
"Maybe we can make a deal. Get a lower sentence." He shrugged. "It's better than being on the run for the rest of our lives."
Saint narrowed his eyebrows. "But we didn't kidnap Naomi," he said slowly and firmly.
"Didn't we?" Cairo met Naomi's stare then, both of their eyes unreadable. "She'll never tell them otherwise so we might as well have. After all, she is sitting right there. Not doing anything. Not even willing to defend us. So maybe we did kidnap her. Coerced. Forced. Pushed. And now she's just waiting to be rescued, and for us to suffer."
"Lay off, Cairo," Chyna said.
His gaze never budged from Naomi. In fact, a part of her knew that he wasn't talking to them at all really, he was talking to her. Or at her. "No, ask her," the boy continued, narrowing his eyes on her, "If it came down to it, would she clear our names even if that meant she had to go home and stay in Riverside? We've risked everything for her," his voice, Naomi knew, wasn't full of hate, but fear, and that made his shiver resonate a little deeper in her ears, "but is she willing to do the same for us?"
Pairs of eyes slowly moved, trailing hesitantly to look at the calm before the storm sitting among dirt behind them. They didn't make any statements or ask any questions, but they waited. And Naomi watched their estranged faces. For the first time since their conversation began, they were interested in hearing what she had to say. Naomi smirked at that.
There was no doubt about it now. Her disaster was imminent and it will be devastating and cruel. The flexible walls that always tried to contain her would come crashing down. The evil things snapping for her heart would finally be set free. And everyone will have to watch. "I have a plan," Naomi blurted. She turned to Tio, "But, before we do it there are some things I need to do first. We'll need our bikes, masks and some baseball bats."
They looked among themselves for a moment, discussing with their eyes before Saint turned back to her. "Okay," he began, "Let's hear it."
Author's Note
Readers we just hit 80k reads! Thank you!
This week's dedication goes to OnuumahiChinenyeGift! Thank you so much for your votes and support! I SEE YOU! <3 Remember readers, if you vote/comment, the next dedication could literally be you!
Writing this ending is extremely draining, not to mention I'm working on another book so I'm quite exhausted, readers! So, I won't keep you too long! Comment what you thought about the chapter and what do you think Naomi's plan is! Have a great weekend!
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IN THE NEXT CHAPTER...
If there were birds in Riverside, the crack of his skull against the hard bat would have sent them flying...
