Take Me Back to the Start

*This story starts at the end, and then traces back to how it happened*

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“It was only an accident!” I screamed.

My brother, Kenny, looked at me in horror as he saw Charlie’s large body lying in the ditch. Charlie was bigger than Kenny, even, and Kenny weighed nearly two-fifty.

“What did you do to him?!” Kenny screamed frantically, his huge hands grabbing my small shoulders.

His hands were shaking. I looked down at my own and noticed they were strangely calm.

Kenny shook me and yelled, “Eric! What the fuck did you do? What happened to him?!”

Tears were gathering in my eyes as I could not find the words. Kenny searched my face for an answer and eventually gave up and pushed me away. He headed towards Charlie’s body, which was lying face down in the wet, muddy pile of leaves gathered in the ditch. I remained standing where I was and watched Kenny discover what I had done to Charlie.

“It was just an accident, Kenny!” I yelled once more.

Kenny didn’t say anything as he rolled the body over. The knife was sticking out of Charlie’s chest. Blood had seeped through his blue polo.

“T-This. . .was an accident? I leave for five minutes and you, you do this?” Kenny stuttered with confusion.

He cringed at me and screamed once more, “This was an accident, Eric?!”

I nodded my head as I began walking away. I knew what I had done and no one will believe me if I told them the truth.

“Where are you going? We can’t just leave him here! We have to go get help!”

Kenny yelled across the road. I stopped walking and turned around to look at

Kenny’s frightened face and said lowly, “If we get help, I get killed, and if that doesn't happen I'll go to jail and then get killed.”

Kenny shook his head. “If we get help, it’ll be for the better, Eric. Fuck!” he argued.

He bent down and grabbed onto Charlie’s hands and attempted dragging the body out of the ditch.

“Shit, Eric! Help me! He’s too heavy,” Kenny grunted as he tugged at the massive body, his feet slipping on the wet leaves.

Ignoring him, I began walking away.

“Eric!” I heard Kenny yell, his voice echoing through the woods as I got farther and farther away.

This never would have happened if Charlie only listened to me, I thought.


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Chapter one.

It was an October morning. The leaves had just colored and the wind was getting an eerie chill to it. It was unsettling. Kenny, my mother and I were sitting in the kitchen, eating breakfast. No one was speaking and the shrill of the telephone ringing broke the silence. Mom handed me the phone after looking at the caller ID, and assumed it was for me. “Hello?” I answered, putting my fork down on my plate.

“This is Eric, right? It’s Charlie,” he said. Charlie was one of my good friends. He was constantly getting in trouble with kids at school he owed money with and always wanted me to pull him out of the hole he continuously fell into.

“Hold on,” I said, excusing myself from the table and upstairs to my room.
My mom doesn’t need to hear what I talk about. If she did, she’d freak out.

“I’m not doing this for you any fucking more, Chuck. Lay off the drugs and the kids won’t come after you,” I growled lowly as I shut my bedroom door.

“No. It’s not that, I swear. Actually. I lied. It’s someone else that needs help. One of my bro’s. You know Richard Evans?” he said, hastily.

“Damn it, Chuck! I don’t want to get involved in all this.”

“You didn’t answer my question.”

“No. I don’t know a Richard Evans,” I told him, annoyed.

“Well, he is some deep shit. Carl, you know that dude who hangs outside K-Mart who has ‘connections’ or some shit like that. Well, he gave Richard a credit card that was stolen from someone else and the police tracked him down for identity theft last night when he bought some CDs. But get this, Richie managed to get away from the cops and now he is on the run, hiding in some shantytown somewhere here in Tuckerson. We have to go get him, Eric.”

Was he insane?

“Are you high?” I asked, angrily.
He must’ve been because I don’t know why he is calling me about all this.

“No, man! I’m serious about this,” he yelled.

“You think I’m fucking superman or something? Do you know how crazy you sound right now? It’s not even noon yet and you call me up about something like that? That is deep shit that kid is in. Something we shouldn’t even get involved with. That’s way out of my limits to do something like that, Chuck. Find someone else,” I retorted.

“Wait, Eric. Please. Don’t just throw me over the edge like that. You’re all he’s got. If we help him, we can get Carl in trouble, since this is all his fault. Stupid bastard,” he said. I could feel the pain in his voice.

I contemplated. This was ridiculous.

“Fine,” I said, giving in, “but I’m bringing Kenny with me. He’s the one with the car and I’m not doing this thing alone.”

“Oh, thank you man. Meet me some place. In front of that old gas station or something. In like, an hour,” he said quickly. The pain in his voice was gone and he sounded more relieved.

“Alright. You owe me, Chuck,” I told him and hung up.

I went downstairs and entered the kitchen to finish my omelet. Mom wasn’t there. Instead she was out in the garden.

“We have to leave in an hour,” I told Kenny, staring out the window at Mom.

“And go where?” he asked, puzzled.

I explained to him what happened.

“No. I’m not doing that, man. There is no fucking way. That’s involving the cops and shit. Do you know how much trouble we would be in if we were to get caught? Shit, man. Loads,” he whispered, shaking his head.

“I know, but we have to. I promised Charlie,” I said, as my mother came back in the house, taking her gardening gloves off.

“What was that call all about?” she asked, placing her gloves on the counter and joining us at the table once more.

“My friend was wanting to know if Kenny and I could hang out today,” I told her. I didn’t blink. If I blinked, she knew I was lying. It was my weakness.

“Oh,” she said finally. “Are you planning on staying the night at his house?”

“No. We’ll be home by six,” I said. It was the truth that time. I had no intentions to be gone that long.

Mom bought it. “Okay. When are you leaving? I can take you his house, if you’d like,” she offered.

“Is it okay if I drive to his house instead, Mom?” Kenny butted in.

“Why wouldn’t it be. It saves me gas,” she laughed. Good.
“Well, we have to leave in about an hour, so we should be getting ready,” I said.

Mom nodded her head. Thank god our mother trusts us. Though, I do feel bad when we go behind her back and do the worst possible thing two seventeen-year-olds could do: getting involved in the drug business. Our mother was too good for us. We didn’t deserve her.

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Chapter two

At the old gas station up town, Charlie was leaning against a large street lamp overwhelmed with purple and green graffiti. Charlie’s body was slumped, out of posture, and his stomach was peeking out of his almost-too-small shirt. His short, chubby arm jiggled wildly as he waved, signaling us he was there. As if we couldn’t see him enough as it is.

“Eric, how the fuck are ya?” he greeted me, punching me roughly in the arm as I stood in front of him.

Flinching at the impact, I said, “Good. We need to get to business if you want to help your friend.”

“Right, right,” he said to me lowly.

“So, uh, Kenny,” Charlie said, looking some place other than Kenny’s face. He always felt uneasy about Kenny. He thought he hated his guts. Kenny didn’t hate Charlie, he was just annoyed by him.

“You drive now, huh?” Charlie asked. Kenny nodded his head.

“Yeah. Where do we need to go to? I want to get this over with, Chuck,” Kenny said unexpectedly. There was boredom on his face.

There was a look of relief on Charlie’s face when he heard the nickname ring in his ears.

“Oh, just here in Tuckerson. By those docks on the waterfront,” he said finally.

On the drive to the harbor, it was silent. My heart raced inside my chest as I sat there and thought the unthinkable things that could go down while we were getting this Richard kid back on his ass. The sun shined brightly through the colored leaves as we turned onto a lonely, dirt road to the docks. The weather today didn’t seem to fit with the situation we were in. It was too happy, too clean, and too perfect.

Just before we were about to pull into the marina, Charlie broke the silence.

“Fuck. Back up, Kenny,” he ordered.

“What? No,” Kenny argued.

“Shit, this is not good. Kenny! Back the fucking truck up, now!” Charlie yelled.

“What’s your problem, man?” Kenny retorted.

“Winston. Winston is here,” he said lowly.

Kenny looked over at me in confusion.

“Winston is no joke, Kenny. Do as Charlie tells you,” I demanded.

Winston was a gang member and drug dealer and he went to our school. Charlie has owed him money for months now, but he kept avoiding it, putting it at the back of his mind. And every time they’d encounter each other, I had had Charlie’s back. Not this time though. I had nothing with me to bribe Winston with to give Charlie more time to pay him back. He was on his own.

“Shit. Shit. Do you think he saw me, Eric? Do you think he saw me?” Charlie asked in panic mode.

I couldn’t say because I didn’t know. Kenny had put the gear in reverse and slammed on the gas pedal. Dust flew all around us as we bolted off at a far enough distance down the dirt road.

“Do you still want to go through with this?” I asked Charlie a few moments later.

He didn’t answer for a minute. I could tell whether he was thinking about which life he wanted to keep: his or Richard’s.

Having the good heart that he does, he wanted to save Richard’s.

“I’m fucking staying here,” Kenny said, chickening out.
I knew he would and I expected him to because I dragged him into this.

“Okay,” I said and turned to Charlie and asked, “you ready?”

He nodded his head yes, even though inside I knew he was screaming no.

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Walking down the dirt road towards the marina, Charlie wasn’t speaking.
My heart raced, terrified for Richard, and for Charlie at the same time.

We walked around the corner, onto the pavement. Cars were parked everywhere and fishermen were getting their boats ready to head out onto the ocean. The sun reflected in the water as the waves became large and overwhelming for the boats already out there. The marina had just opened, and people were coming in to get some breakfast.

“Where is Richard?” I asked finally, looking around to see if I could spot Winston anywhere. He was no where in sight.

“I, uh, I don’t know,” Charlie said quietly, not looking at me.

“You said you did, Chuck. You said you knew where he was, now tell me. Don’t be playing fucking games with me, man,” I scolded.

“There is no Richard Evans!” he screamed at me.

“He isn’t here! I made it up. It’s me who is the one who is in deep shit. I am the one cops are after, Eric. I knew you wouldn’t help me if I told you over the phone. Fuck,” he said, grabbing his hair, crying.

I didn’t say anything. I just stared at him.

“I’m sorry, man. I just, I don’t know where else to go, you know? You’re all I got. And Winston is still after me and I owe other people money. I need help, I know that, but--”

I cut him off. “Shut the fuck up, Chuck. You got yourself in this mess, you can get yourself out. I can’t always do this for you, man. You dig yourself so deep, it’s unbelievable. Now you got the cops after you. Go up to them your fucking self and tell them that Carl is the stupid shit head that got you into all this,” I yelled with my jaw clenched.

Just then, we saw a black Escalade driving towards us.

“It’s Winston!” Charlie yelled, running away. His fat legs weren’t taking him away that quickly.

Winston got out of the passengers seat before the Escalade came to a complete stop and toppled Charlie.

Another guy stepped out of the Escalade as well, and stood behind me, making sure I didn’t interfere.

“Get off of me!” Charlie yelled helplessly as Winston grabbed him by the hair, exposing his neck.

He reached in his back pocket, and took out his large switchblade, pointing the tip of it to Charlie’s Adam’s apple.

“Winston,” I said quickly, trying to convince him to stop.

“We can figure this out, man. Don’t do this. He’ll pay you back,” I told him.

“Bull shit, Eric. You fend for this fool every time I come into view. Not this time. This is his last time. He’s dead,” Winston said, pointing the knife now at Charlie’s chest.

“You can’t do this here, man! We’re in public, Winston!” yelled one of his friends from the Escalade.

“We’ll just go some place a little more private, that’s all,” Winston said, picking Charlie up and forcing him to walk down the dirt road.

The farther we walked, the more quieter, and lonelier it had gotten. Kenny’s truck was around here somewhere, wasn’t it? We didn’t park too far, I was sure of it. But I couldn’t see it anywhere.

“There,” Winston said, “peace and quiet.”

Charlie struggled to get away.

“I’m sorry, man!” yelled Charlie. I didn’t know if he was talking to me or to Winston.

I wanted to do something, but the guy hovering over me was holding me back. I was terrified. I had nothing to defend myself with.

“Hey, Eric,” Winston said to me. Charlie quit struggling. He was exhausted.

“How about you do the honors, huh? I got some mad dough in the car,” he said.

Was he wanting me to kill Charlie for him. For money?

“Fuck no. Let him go, Winston, please,” I pleaded.

Instead of saying anything, he quickly grabbed my hand, put the knife in it and violently drove it into Charlie’s chest.

Charlie let out a gasp of air as he stared into my eyes, fear-stricken, not believing what had happened. The knife still in his chest, he fell to his knees and fell face first into a ditch with the colored, autumn leaves.

“If you fucking go to the cops about this, I’ll kill you. Do you understand me?” Winston threatened.

He and the guy behind me jumped into the Escalade and sped off down the dirt road.

I was numb. I just killed somebody. That was when I saw Kenny's truck coming down the road. How was I going to explain this to him?

The End.