The ways we lost him(completed)

27

Angie and Lukas phones binged at the same time and it rang out throughout the courtyard, breaking the three out of their silence.

Karma looked up, a dangerous glint in his eyes hinting at the fact that whatever it was, he was aware of it. He grinned crookedly, his shoulders falling.

"I guess the games up, huh?"

The message they had received was from Dalia, five words, clear and precise, yet they left a heavy feeling in the air.
The evening sun stayed high in the sky, flooding the courtyard with a golden glow and flying across the ground in streaks.

'Meet me by the sunrise.'

They both knew which one she was referring to.

-/

They may their way up the hill they climbed that night when they were fifteen, they had just walked out of school, even Luka wasn't temped to stay behind. They were all in deep thought, their minds elsewhere as silence followed them up the dark surface of the hill.

And then, they reached the top. And he was there, standing on the very edge with his back turned to them.

But they knew it was him.

Sebastian turned offering his friends a nervous smile. Luka and Angie stared back in disbelief, he was alive, bright and healthy only steps away from them.

Luka hesitantly stepped forward, as if she thought the ground would fall through if she moved too fast. It was then that Dalia stepped out into the light, her face neutral, her dark eyes glinting in the stray sunlight.

It was Angie that spoke, a soft hushed voice that cut through the air and travelled across to reach them.

"How?"

The question had been lingering in the air. Not why, but how. It was like they still failed to accept that it was real, that he was real.

But indeed he was, as he stepped closer to them and they could see his familiar baby blue eyes. They almost seemed surreal now, after all this time. It's like their minds had finally began to believe that he was actually gone and now that he wasn't, it was inscrutable to guess how they felt.

"I guess I have some explaining to do," he said gingerly, his voice still yet a whisper and it made the atmosphere feel odd, the kind of feeling you get when you wake up really early in the morning and you have to be quiet in an attempt not to wake anyone.

And he did explain, he explained the nonsensical way he was standing here right now.

"After I was kicked out, I was suicidal." He stated, although it didn't seem sad, he just blatantly stated it in a neutral tone, as if he were telling the time.

"I thought I'd lost everything, my family, myself, my friends and I had decided that I wanted to die. But then something stopped me." He smiled crookedly, a sad smile, one that spoke more words than he ever could.

"I was out on the streets, wandering when I was approached by a detective. And all he did, is ask me if I was okay and you know what? I broke down right there, in front of that officer and I thought, fuck it. I told him everything. I told him about the drugs and about Jaxon and about his family. I told him about Dean and my parents and you know what he told me? He looked at me, with the kind of kindness I thought I'd never find at that point and told me to come with him. I've been living with him for the past two months, along with his son, someone you might know?" He asked and Angie and Luka looked at each other, the incredulity evident of their faces.

Karma

Karma knew that Sebastian was alive this entire time.

"And then it was that we came up with the plan that you just saw unravel, to manipulate Jaxon into ratting out his family."