Chapter 20

“Open the door!” they yelled from the other side. Twitch and Sophie came quickly down the stairs and the rest of us met them there at the bottom.

          “The two of you girls must stay here.” Jonah said in his normal, calm manner. How he could even stay that calm when the police where banging on the door I did not know.

          Twitch looked at Sophie of whom he had come to love dearly in the short time she had there, not wanting to leave here but knowing it had to be done. Sophie looked back at him with mixed emotions, she wanted to get out of there and go back to here family, but she wanted to take him with her. Tyler was extremely anxious since he was the one the police were after at the moment. Adam looked sad as well as anxious for he knew there was only a slim chance of escape. I knew we had to stay. 

          “All right,” I answered. They were beginning to break down the door, so the boys ran up stairs. From there they proceeded to jump out of the window in the very back of the building. Sophie began to cry and I also had tears in my eyes as the police burst open the door and came swarming in, guns out.

          “Where are they?!” one of the officers asked. Sophie began to lean into me now sobbing.

          “I don’t know, but they went up stairs a…” I didn’t get to finish before a good bit of them went rushing up the stairs. A few moments later they came quickly back down.

          “It looks as if they exited out a window,” another officer said. I knew the boys had no cars that they could get to from there and would be on foot. The officers went out side and began the pursuit. The two officers in suits lead Sophie and me out side over by on of the cars. Then all of a sudden we heard gun shots. One all by it self then followed by many all at once. The first shot sounded different from all the rest that had followed. Some how I knew it was on of the boys guns. I began to worry. I didn’t think that there would have just been one sound of that gun if they had been shooting at the officers. Could they have been shooting at each other; but why and who? If anyone I knew it had to have been Tyler who had shot. I wanted to stop my mind from thinking more but who could he have shot at, Jonah, Twitch, or Adam? I shook my head as more tears ran down my face and I leaned my head on Sophie’s.

          A few minutes later a younger officer came up to the ones in the suites.

          “We’ve got um,” he said. The officers, or detectives as I learned later, sighed with relief. I didn’t know what to think so I tried not to. Momentarily I saw Jonah and Twitch being brought up in hand cuffs.

          “These two never fired a shot and gave themselves up pretty easy. I think the shorter one’s got some issues,” the officer said looking at Twitch. Poor Twitch was twitching probable more than I had ever seen him. I new Sophie wanted to go to him but restrained herself. I wanted to go as well and talk to Jonah, but stayed put.

          “Drugs, they’ll do that to you,” the older of the detectives looked Twitch up and down with an air of disgust. Neither Twitch nor Jonah looked at us. Then an ambulance pulled up. Men jumped out and rushed down the ally way. My heart skipped a beat. A few moments later I saw Tyler being carted off, shot to the right shoulder just above the shot I had treated the night before, but where was Adam? That was all I wanted to know. A few men came rushing to the ambulance again grabbing a few things and rushed back just as quickly back down the ally. They made Twitch and Jonah get in a car and Sophie in the one we were standing by, but I refused to get in the car until I knew what had happened to him. Just as the younger detective was once again trying to get me to get in I saw the paramedics pushing a cart with a body covered in a sheet from head to toe and I knew. I slipped into the car. As we drove back to the police station tears didn’t stop coming down my face. Adam was dead.

          I knew that once we got to the station that Sophie and I would be questioned about everything and everyone. I didn’t want to do it, not right then, but they gave us hardly any time before we were in the interrogation room. I answered all of their questions to the best of my knowledge and truthfully even though it was a hard thing to do. In the back of my mind I wondered if Tyler would try to have me killed for saying all these things but I didn’t care any more, he had killed Adam and he was going to get what he deserved.

          After the interrogation I was told I was going to be taken home. I almost dreaded this for I knew my parents could never understand what all I had been through and it would make things hard for me. I was right they never did.

          When I got there the first thing when my mother did when she opened the door was embrace me. She cried and cried and told me how much she had missed me. I didn’t say much. It was the same with my Dad hugs and tears. After a while I went up to my room. I could see that it hadn’t been touched since I was last there. I could still imagine Tyler standing in my room and thought about how weird it that I had ever lived there let a lone just over two months ago. It was so big compared to the room I had slept for the past months. Then I wondered if my parents had ever found out about the party I had that night. Then I thought of Josie, Leon, and the rest of my friends and how things with them could never be the way they were again.

          Over the next year I went to many trials. Twitch and Jonah pleaded guilty to their charges and didn’t end up spending too much time in jail. Most of the trial dates were for Tyler. In the end he was convicted and sent to prison for the rest of his life.

           After Twitch got out of jail he got help for his drug abuse and quit but his twitching never has gone away. He now goes to schools and talks to kids about the affects of drugs. He and Sophie were recently married and are very much still in love.

          I stayed very much in touch with Jonah no matter how much my parents objected. After he got out of jail I saw him even more and he became more than a brother to me. I loved him as a person, as a person I wanted to be with as much as I could. We married exactly one year after he got out of jail and we now have a beautiful girl Jamie.

          I know now that my love for Adam could never have really lasted. I still love him, but in a different way now, as a dear friend viciously taken from me by life.

          I was only there for two months, two weeks, and one day, but changed my life forever and I will never forget it.

Noreen Johnson Wilder

Author's Note

not proof read

Reviews

[Lauren Xena Campbell]

Congratulations on a truly wonderful and exciting story. I could not stop reading until I had finished and I enjoyed it greatly. I loved the characters, the excitement of a racy plot and the ever threatening dangers of the criminal scene. A wonderful story, one I high commend.