- WhiteBird -

- Chapter Twenty Five - The Sunset and The Goodbye

Casey sat upright in his hospital bed, bending down slowly to put on his old shoes. The evening sun trickled through the thin white curtains of his hospital bed, warming his face.

He was finally free to go, now allowed back into the endless world, but as he peered through the gap in the curtains, he couldn't help but feel afraid.

In the matter of three short days he had been sent to the hospital twice, and he was flushed with embarrassment and anger. The nurses gave him strange looks, and he wished he could tell them how hard he was trying to stay out of trouble.

Casey stood, a little sore, and still exhausted, and crossed the distance from the bed to the wall, to peer out of the small window.

The sky was a swath of pink and orange, becoming more rich and saturated as the sun crept down, the earth forever dancing around it.

Below him was a weathered and scarce parking garage, and there he saw it. The little twinkling black and silver car, a couple stories below.

For a year now, every time his gaze would fall upon it, he would feel so proud that it was his, he could taste the freedom it gave him, but now as he studied it out of the window, it was as if looking at a person. It was difficult for him to see just a car anymore. Instead he thought maybe he saw a friend.

Casey held the blue floppy disk in his hand. He didn't have to watch what was on it to know what secrets it revealed. Written on its white tag was something he hadn't seen at first. It read, "Karr 1980 - 1986".

During his first hospital visit, a woman he had never before met, Bonnie, sat at his bed and told him everything. If Casey hadn't already met and accepted Karr, her tales would have been truly unbelievable. A large part of him had first felt afraid at what she had said, because still he didn't understand Karr completely. She told him about his mom, and about his dad. She told him about The Foundation for Law and Government, about Micheal and Kitt, and about Karr and his past.

Karr has stolen, kidnapped, threatened, and physically harmed three people, and that truth both scared and saddened Casey.

But the way Karr had protected him so fiercely, and had helped him so much, he knew that the past was simply that. The past. A place long gone in a time that no longer exists.

As he watched Karr from the window, Casey felt only gratitude, because without Karr, Casey would be sitting on the steps of his old house, watching the sunset with eyes filled with lost hope. But now, Casey watched the sunset with eyes filled full of fire, determined to face life with arms wide open, and fists ready.

He was so filled with curiosity of his father, and of the men that tried desperately to hurt him, and this time he was ready to get answers, even if it meant putting up a fight. He would not walk away from closed doors any longer.

The floppy disk burned like a searing lead in his hands, and though Bonnie had explained to him the truth of what happened, curiosity prodded at his mind like a devil on his shoulder.

"Watch me!" It laughed in his ear.

The other, his angel, asked him to throw it away.

Casey slipped the disk in his pocket, allowing it to burn a hole there for now, entirely uncertain on his desires to view it.

Braille had left earlier that day, to return and work at her grandmothers little grocery store, the image of its brightly colored exterior danced in his memory.

The events of the week were unbearable in comprehension, it was almost entirely to much to absorb. The weight on his shoulders pressed down with unending force, and as he turned away from the little window, with the purple sky illuminating his back, the only thing he felt now was the intense desire to return to Karr, who sat patiently below, and not unlike Casey, was fighting off the mental exhaustion of weeks past.

Casey's footsteps crunched on the old pavement of the parking garage, it echoed in the silence that surrounded him. As he neared Karr, a tightness enveloped his chest like a python, squeezing his heart and lungs. It was not fear that gripped him so intensely, but uncertainty. A feeling he was becoming all too familiar with.

He felt as if he and Karr were on an empty black and featureless plane, there were infinite directions in which they could drive, but the destination was so unclear to him. Like a twinkle of a lone star in the darkness of his heart there was merely one thing he could think of now. Go back to his father, try and kindle a conversation, something to keep him from wandering lost. Perhaps now that his father had showed interest, as far as his safety was concerned, he'd be more open to talk.

Casey's hand reached out for Karr's door, savoring the familiarly the touch gave, the only constant in his life, his only friend. Braille's presence lingered lightly in the back of his mind, like a soft blanket that soothed him. But inside that blanket of twinged and giddy feeling was a feeling so faint he almost didn't know if he had felt it at all. It was a whisper of unease in his gut. As soon as it had appeared it was gone.

Casey tried to shake free his mind, he was so sure it was just the worry of the world around him, his mind was too exhausted and drained to contemplate more, but even in his endless tiredness, he knew sleep would not come to him that night. He slid inside the car, with only one direction he knew to go.

"Karr" he sighed, resting his head and hands on the steering wheel. "I'm so tired but sleep is the last thing I could do"

Karr's emotions were absolutely haywire, like painful electrical shocks zipping back and fourth.

"You're never leaving my sights again" Karr replied. "We are leaving Sole now."

"No!" Casey barked, sitting up straight. " I have to speak to my dad, I have to speak to Arturo, I can't just leave without doing so. We came to Sole for this reason." He argued.

"I will not, I absolutely will not risk your life once again" Karr growled. "Recent events have proven that I cannot protect you as well as I had planned, we have entered a world we are not capable of dealing with."

Casey's mind jumped and reeled, he had no energy on which to argue with Karr, but his decision had been made to as least finish what they had traveled so far to do.

"My mind has been made Karr, take me back to my dad's place or i will walk there myself!

"You just don't understand!" Karr practically yelled at the boy. "Your life has almost ended twice, your father made no effort to speak with you, and for good reason. He's a criminal! We are going anywhere but here!"

Karr expected anything other than an instant argument from Casey, he expected some kind of reconciliation but the stubbornness and stupidity of the boy was showing through now.

Casey winced briefly at the intensity at which Karr spoke to him, but he had no fear now of that angry voice. Casey snatched the disk out of his pocket and threw it at the passenger seat.

"Look at you, trying to act like some saint!" Casey yelled back. "Do you know what's in that tape? Do you know if Iv watched it?"

Karr growled angrily, and locked the doors automatically as his engine fired to life. "I don't care what's on that tape" he sneered. "You can hate me forever but we are leaving, I will not be a part of this any longer, twice is twice too many. We stay here an you will end up dead!"

Casey struggled with the locked door, but it would not open, and he shouted with sudden rage and frustration. He felt so guilty for rushing back to Karr like he would understand. The words formed in his mouth before he had a chance to stop them.

"You're nothing but a soulless machine! Who are you to understand what's best for me! I am not your prisoner, unlock the fucking door." He screamed, a bead of sweat rolling down his temple.

"A soulless machine?" Came Karr's voice in a furious whisper. " I'll show you soulless."

With that statement the doors unlocked, and Casey practically fell out of the car in surprise, for he had not ceased yanking on the handle.

He had to jump back as Karr spun angrily out of the parking lot, kicking up loose old asphalt, and before Casey could blink or think of feel or even whisper the start of an apology, the black trans-am was gone, and he was alone in the now dark and cold night.