Chapter 16: Nightmare

The night passed and it was now Tuesday morning. Mayr had seen Kashi on his way to school, so he decided to walk to school with him. Mayr's hand was wrapped in bandages because of the injuries he sustained from crushing the glass soda bottle in his hand.

"How's your hand, Soju?" Kashi asked while staring at the injured hand.

"It's nothing I can't deal with," Mayr replied, "I'm more concerned about Kris. I'll catch up with him if I see him in school."

"Sounds like a good idea." said Kashi. As the two were about 2 meters from the entrance, they spotted Kris walking towards the entrance from the left.

"Yo Kris!" Kashi yelled out in an effort to get Kris's attention. Kris was initially walking with his eyes fixed on the ground in front of him, but after hearing Kashi's voice, he noticed Kashi and Mayr to his right.

"Hey, guys." Kris replied with a dull smile on his face. "What's with the low energy?" Kashi bantered, "We're getting a whole bunch of new members at the end of the week. We need you to be in top spirits."

"Yeah, I know," replied Kris with the same dull voice, "I need to lighten up a bit."

"How's everything going with the family?" Mayr asked, sensing the dismay in Kris's voice. "I thought everything was going great," Kris replied, "I'm searching for an apartment, and I've got more than enough finances to fund our hotel stays."

"Then what's the problem?" Mayr further inquired. "Yesterday, after we got to the hotel, I saw her secretly texting." Kris explained, "I found it odd, so after she fell asleep, I checked her phone. Turns out she was texting that scumbag. He was apologizing and she was talking about how she's trying to convince me to go back. She asked me about it this morning. She told me that he's apologetic and he'll be different now, but I don't care even if he has changed, I'm not going. She still keeps bringing up how it's unfathomable for me to make ends meet even though I told her to believe in me. I don't understand why she can't believe in me for once. So, after all the ear aching she's been giving me, I told her to choose between me or him. If she doesn't believe in me, then she can do whatever she wants."

Mayr was upset by this proposition, so he put his hand on Kris's shoulder and began to speak.

"It's natural for her to have these inhibitions." said Mayr, "how often do you see highschoolers that can financially support just themselves, let alone their families? Belief doesn't come from words, it comes from actions. Take her complaints with a grain of salt for now. Once she sees that you've kept true to your word for weeks and months, then she'll have complete belief in you."

After thinking about it for a moment, Kris understood the logic behind Mayr's point. His mood visibly changed for the better, so he thanked Mayr and went on his way.

Mayr would not see Kris for the rest of the day. As a matter of fact, Mayr did not see Kris until Thursday afternoon. This was not an unusual occurrence. In fact, sometimes, the crew would not meet until Friday during payments. This was because after school, Mayr would go to the Muay Thai gym with Nesh and the rest of the crew members went to their posts. The only person that Mayr would see every day was Nesh.

As Mayr was walking out of the school with Nesh, he saw Kris sitting on a bench across the street from the school. When Mayr walked up to Kris, he saw that he was, yet again, wearing a dull and depressed expression on his face.

"Hey, Kris!" Nesh greeted enthusiastically. Kris shifted his gaze towards Nesh and Mayr for a moment. He acknowledged the greeting and greeted them back with a forced smile, and shifted his gaze straight forward as if he was living inside his own mind.

"Everything alright?" Mayr questioned concernedly. Kris didn't reply. He simply stared forward without a word.

The conversation paused for 10 seconds. These 10 seconds felt like an eternity, but after the pause, Kris reached into his pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper and handed it to Mayr.

Mayr hesitantly grabbed the piece of paper and began unfolding it. It was a note. Mayr glanced at Kris for a brief moment after unfolding the paper. He then looked back at the piece of paper and began reading.

"Dear Kris,

I know this will upset you, But I've moved back in with Robbie. I don't want you to spend your teenage years working hard to take care of us. That's my job. Your job is to live life to the fullest and I want to make sure that you have the opportunity to do so. I know you don't want to hear this, but he was the way he was due to his stressful life situation. He has assured me that he will work to be better. I won't force you to come back, but please visit. Once you see that Robbie has actually changed, then you can decide to move back in. I hope that day comes soon because life is lonely without you.

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Love,                                                                                                                                          Your Mother."

Once Mayr was done reading the note, he looked at Kris, who was still staring straight ahead into nothingness.

"I found that when I got home on Tuesday," Kris said in a downhearted yet matter-of-fact tone, "She didn't even give me a week to prove myself to her."

"Do you want to go and bring her back?" Mayr asked. "Nah," Kris said nonchalantly. "She's made her choice. If she wants to come back then I'll welcome her with open arms, but I'm not running after her like she's a child. I actually hope that Robbie does change. If my mother is happy, then that's all I can ask for."

Mayr simply looked at Kris with proud eyes and gave a shy smile. "Since when did you become so mature?" Mayr asked jokingly. Kris smiled back with a slight chuckle, "I guess that I'm in good company."

"Alright," said Nesh, "my moods dropped because of this conversation. Let's go get some Ice cream!"

Mayr and Kris agreed and the three made their way to the ice cream parlour a block away from their school.

As the three were walking to the ice cream parlour, they ran into Jun who seemed frantic and jittery. "What are you doing here, Jun?" Kris asked with a worried tone, "You're supposed to be at your post at this time. Is everything alright?"

Jun simply stared at Kris for a moment. After a few seconds, tears started flowing down Jun's eyes and he ran up to Kris and hugged him. "I'm so sorry Kris!" Jun said while bawling his eyes out. "Wait, what's going on Jun?" Kris asked in an even more worried tone than before. After hearing this, Jun slowly backed away from Kris and looked at him with a stunned expression on his face.

"You haven't heard?" Jun asked nervously. "Heard what!?" Kris asked agitatedly.

Jun led the three into a nearby arcade and asked the person at the counter to turn to channel 5 news.

Once the tv flipped to the news channel, what appeared on the screen was an image of a woman lying in a puddle of blood. The body was completely blurred. The only thing that could be seen in the image was a picture beside the woman. The picture was of a woman, a man, and a child, the same picture that Kris had on his desk.

"Breaking News!" announced the news anchor, "Today, at around 2:5 pm on Florist Lane in Youngsville, The body of a 39-year-old Kireen Marno was found. She died from blunt force trauma to the head. The police have taken the suspect, 39-year-old Robert Jensa into custody. Robert rejects the claim that he was the one to do it. He claims that it was probably done during a breaking and entering situation."

The tv cut from the image to the man that Mayr had come to despise in just 1 interaction.

"It wasn't me!" he hollered into the microphone as he was being escorted by the police, "A bunch of my stuff is stolen. My windows are broken! Somebody robbed the place and didn't want her as a witness!"

The female news anchor reappeared on the screen after Robbie's rant. She concluded the news with the statement "Jensa will have a bail hearing on Wednesday, November 29."

As Robbie's segment was being broadcast on the news, unadulterated rage flowed through Mayr's body. But more than that, concern for his friend overtook him. Mayr turned towards Kris to see if he was ok, but all he saw was a face in complete shock.

Kris didn't say anything for 30 long seconds. As Mayr was getting ready to talk to him to see where he was mentally, Kris spoke his first words. He said these words with no change in expression and in a monotone voice. The words he said were "I'm gonna kill him."

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