Lost in the Shadows

37

Today is the day. Today is the day I walk into my fathers house alone. Today is the day he will be taken down once and for all. Today is the day I know my life will be completely flipped inside out.

I sat in my room for about an hour trying to piece the plan together in my head and playing out different scenarios. I couldn't help but feel like something terribly wrong was going to happen, but I buried that feeling as I just made it out to be nervousness and anxiousness. Today was going to be fine.

I walked downstairs to see everyone scattered around, David in the Kitchen, Luke in the Living room and Matt outside. I didn't see Wes though. And why wasn't any one talking, everyone seemed so focused and down. I usually walk down the stairs to see the boys shouting at one another, eating something random, or play fighting. Not today though. I wondered if they also felt the irritable pit in their stomachs.

"Where's Wes," I asked Luke, but he didn't say anything, he just shrugged. I could cut the tension in the house, it felt so heavy and sad with a mixture confusion.

Why wasn't any one speaking? This house usually filled with laughter and yelling, it felt off. We all sat in silence while none of us wanted to bring up the elephant in the room. I scrolled through Instagram out of boredom, I realized that I haven't logged on in weeks and it felt foreign looking at other people's photos. It's almost as if I had forgotten that people outside of this gang existed, because I forgot about festivals, beaches, museums and etc., I forgot that people still live normal lives.

Wes walked through the front door, but I was the only one to look up at him. As I watched him, I noticed that he also seemed off. He didn't speak to anyone, he just went straight up stairs. I couldn't help but notice his face when he walked up, he seemed gloomy, sad, and miserable. His forehead stretched with frustrated wrinkles as his eyes didn't sparkle like they usually do, they seemed dim.

I huffed before giving in and walking up stairs to follow him. As I walked up the steps, I realized that my back didn't hurt as bad as it did yesterday, there was still a slight sting and ache, but it was bearable today.

I knocked on his door before entering. His back was turned to me as he sat on a rolling chair looking outside into the neighborhood. He didn't greet me as I walked closer, I assumed that he didn't know I was there. "What do you want Danielle," he snapped, causing me to jump back. He never turned to look at me, he just continued to face the window.

"Um, I'm just confused. Why is every one so glum," I asked not really knowing what to say.

"Today is going to be a difficult draining day, Danielle. We're all feeling it, don't you," he asked still not turning to face me.

"I mean, I guess I do, but I've never seen everyone so down before," I commented walking closer to him to see if there was anything out the window that he was staring at. There wasn't.

"Im sending my girlfriend, and they're sending one of their best friends into a house of murder. I think it's safe to say that none of us are in a cheerful mood," he groaned setting his feet on the windowsill. I didn't know what to say especially since he used the term girlfriend, because I knew that we were together kind of, but we never put a label on it.

I spun his chair around forcing him to look at me, "Okay, you can look at it that way, or you can look at us as today is the day that we take down the enemy," I told him trying to get him to smile, but it was a fail.

He stood up from the chair and walked over to his drawer, he then handed me an old torn brown book. I sat on his bed while flipping through the pages and as I did I realized that it was a book of memories of some sort with hundreds of people.