Innocent Murderers

[13] a drink in the name of jesus

The sound of knocking echoes through the house and we all sit up, startled. We never get visitors. None of us are from around here and this address doesn't exactly look lived in from the outside. Aaron gets up to answer it, slipping his phone into his pocket. His face freezes when light streaks in from the door. I hear muffled voices and he looks to me.

"Kennedy, it's for you," He says, robotically. I frown, confusion wrapping me in its embrace.

My feet find their way underneath me and I make my way to the door, Aaron taking my hand discreetly when I land before the door. Two police officers are standing before us, expressions stony and cold.

"Hello?" I ask, voice wavering. One, female, smiles a small smile.

"Are you Miss Harper?" She asks, sweetly. I nod, still frowning.

"We have some, new, information about the incident regarding your parents a few weeks ago."

Aaron squeezes my hand.

"What is it?" I ask, the words escaping my mouth before I can control myself.

"You might want to take a seat," The other officer, a man, chimes in. The words turn the confusion to anxiety and I release my shaking hand from Aaron's, hastily inviting them in with fumbling actions. I almost trip over my own feet but I feel Aaron's hands snaking around my waist and his breath next to my ear.

"Calm down, okay?" He whispers as the officers introduce themselves to the others, "It's okay."

His words, however enjoyable, do little to calm my nerves as we all sit on the dark grey fabric coating the sofas and he does not leave my side. The female has her hands clasped on her lap.

"I believe that when the incident first occurred it was thought to have been a tragic accident," She begins, "a fault with the electrics was our first assumption."

The other officer clears his throat.

"Upon further inspection it has become increasingly clear that it was not an accident, but arson." The words leave his lips at the same time my entire body slips into paralysis. I can't feel anything and my limbs have become stone somehow attached to me. I can hear Aaron asking me if I'm okay, the police officers' apologies for my loss. Lucy apologising.

So many apologies. My mind spins like a tornado, ripping through my peace, my final belief I could accept my parents' deaths and move on.

"I have to find out who did it." The words slip off my tongue unknown and foreign against my ravaging brain. A million voices tear through my paralysis, thrusting me back into reality.

"No." The word startles me into looking into Aaron's eyes. Green, and unforgiving.

"What?" I ask, a tear slipping down my face. I have cried so many times. I'm weak, this is my chance to make myself strong and he says no?

"No, Kennedy you're not thinking straight, you're being ridiculous." He says, the words making me red in the face.

Anger courses through me, one of many emotions circulating alongside my blood.

"You can't tell me what to do."

And I'm up, heading towards the door before anyone can stop me. It slams behind me and I slip backwards, into an alley that goes behind the house and into a busy street where they'll never find me.

I need to find this person. This sick, disgusting person.

The thought drives me. It fuels my steps, throws me down the street and into a bar near the end. A car whizzes by, narrowly missing my skinny body.

My weak body.

Somebody killed my parents.

Somebody that is still walking this earth while my parents will never walk again.

And I'm blaming myself.

The previous months memories pile up behind my eyelids as I slip onto a bar stool, demand alcohol and shut my eyes tightly, willing the tears away. Someone sits next to me, chuckling. My eyes open rapidly and a scowl creeps onto my features.

"Hi," Adam Kentucky says, his face inches from mine.

I jerk back, my hand grasping my glass of gin as I sniff it.

"Did you drug it?" I ask, fear creeping into my bones. He laughs, heartily and happily. My scowl deepens.

"Nope, idiot." He says.

"What are you doing here?" I ask, throwing my head into my hands.

"I'm here to get drunk in the name of Jesus, what about you?"

"Okay fine, if you're not going to be serious then I won't either," I say, "I'm here to accept my own happiness."

Our glasses collide in mid-air. Some part of me is telling me to stop talking to Aaron's worst enemy.

A murderer.

But the other part is angry at everyone who doesn't stand in my way of finding my parent's killer.

And he currently is not doing such a thing.

==

I don't even know what to say. The frick is happening.

K byeeeeeeee