Like a Train Wreck - 36. Chapter 36: Fingerprints

"I think this is it." Miracle said as he pointed out a camper that was on the other side of the bumpy dirt path from the lake, there was a gray pick up truck and a black jeep parked out front. Miracle pulled his seat belt off as Jaemin pulled along side the jeep and parked the van, shutting the engine off, seeing bright lantern lights and a few tiki torches lit around, enough to illuminate the whole area, and the three guys standing outside around a wooden picnic table near a grill that was built into the ground as part of the camping sight.

"Well this is your party." Jaemin tugged the keys out of the ignition.

Miracle stared at Jaemin. "If you didn't want to come, you should of said so."

"All that Nick guy wants to do is bang you."

"Really? Then why didn't he say so?" Miracle asked.

"That's naive of you, Miracle." Jaemin looked at him. "They don't always just say so. Did Brad just say so?"

"That's a risky example, since you weren't around when Brad and I met." Miracle paused and hesitated. "But...no. He kind of just...nearly ran me over with his car and uh..claimed like he knew what he was doing and it would of never happened."

Jaemin raised his eyebrows at Miracle. "So how did it happen?"

"Well...we went to my house and Martha fell asleep watching her soaps and I kinda...stole her credit card and withdrew some money." He looked away, his gaze shifting towards the window. "And uh...I kinda just took the money and rented the room." He quickly looked at Jaemin. "But see, that was me! I was in total control, Brad was just going to drop me off at home, it was all my idea."

"And I'm sure he was so conveniently happy with it." Jaemin shook his head.

"Hey, are you guys coming or what?" Chad yelled out towards them and smiled, waving.

"Well who cares what Nick wants. I'm sure there is free alcohol so lets just take advantage of it...and them." Miracle opened the door and hopped out, a bright smile being given to Chad. "Hey!" He walked over to where they were, Jaemin right behind him. "You turned off the phone, right? You can do whatever you want with it, just...after we're gone."

"Oh..yeah, the phone is off, don't worry." Chad nodded.

Nick reached into the cooler and sat two more bottles of beer onto the wooden table. "I also got a little bit of coke if you guys want." He looked at Miracle. "Not the soda...sorry just felt the need to clarify, you look so adoribly naive. I also got some weed to, figure we could pass it around."

"I brought a little X...liquid or tablet. Though I prefer liquid, I slip it into my drink." TJ shifted the little glass bottle in his hand and then sat it in the middle of the table next to another glass bottle with tablets in it. "Just no pocketing them anyone."

Miracle looked at Nick and rolled his eyes. "Way to win someone over. I wouldn't of assumed it was soda unless you mentioned mixed drinks." He grabbed the bottle of beer and twisted the cap off, tossing the cap onto the table and lifted it up for a sip.

"I'm down for the weed, not sure about the rest." Jaemin said as he took a sip of his beer and then nodded for Miracle to follow as he followed Nick and TJ towards the camp fire that Chad had just ignited and sat on one of the circle of logs that they had made.

"I'm up for anything." Miracle grabbed the liquid X.

"Just a drop, don't OD on it..." TJ warned Miracle as he sat down next to Nick across from Jaemin.

Miracle shook his head and tilted it over and carefully just let a tad bit spill into his beer and then sat the glass bottle down and screwed the cap back onto it. He moved over to the fire and walked over to sit next to Jaemin by the fire.

"Got a drivers liscence?" Nick asked as he pulled out a small bag of cocaine.

"A fake ID." Miracle said and then he frowned. "All I have to remember Melanie by."

"Well give it to me for a second." Nick said, stretching his hand out.

"Sucks she died, you guys made her sound like a major drug dealer." Chad shook his head.

"She had access to a pharmacy, full on behind the counter access." Jaemin said as Miracle handed over the card and he watched as Nick carefully made a line on the ID card for Miracle.

Nick pulled out a short, cut off, straw and carefully leaned forward to hold the card out to Miracle and handed him the straw. "Go for it."

Miracle sat his beer on the ground and took the shortened, cut off, straw and he leaned down to snort the powdered drug until it was all gone and then tossed the straw in the fire before taking his card back. He wiped it clean of any traces and shoved it back into his pocket and blinked rapidly, shaking his head.

"You're going to be messed up." Jaemin looked at Miracle, knowing if he weren't there, these guys could take full advantage of him.

"That's the point!" Miracle grinned. "You should loosen up, Jae! We have finally escaped our lives! Yeah, it sucks that we had to sacrifice everything but at the same time at least we are free." He grabbed his beer and then leaned in to whisper to him. "And at least when Jordan tracks my phone, they will find these guys." He laughed and lifted the bottle for a sip.

"What did you guys have to run away from?" Chad asked after Nick lit up a blunt and it was passed over to him and he took a drag from it.

"Satan on earth." Miracle said. "Though you would think I should take comfort in the fact that he wants to fuck me and not..."

Jaemin quickly slapped Miracle on the arm. "Do you want to be a walking tabloid?"

Miracle looked at Jaemin. "What was that for?! It's not going to mean anything if I tell them!"

"It could for them..because then they will have information that could risk their lives if they don't spill it." Jaemin shook his head.

"Wow...go all CIA on him." TJ shook his head and passed the blunt over to Miracle. "I think we pretty much get what you were going to say."

Miracle took the blunt and took a drag from it and then he passed it off to Jaemin and nudged his shoulder. "Come on...just chill, for one night?"

Jaemin looked down at it and sighed, taking it from Miracle and then he took a small drag before passing it off to Nick again. "Fine." He grumbled and looked around at the three guys, honestly feeling awkward, like they really didn't care if he was there or not, the old ball and chain reference coming to mind.

"Okay so I'll tell you guys a better story, one he wont get upset over." Miracle grinned. "So I got this other friend right, she is like really awesome. Well there is these one set of class rooms that have large glass panels in their doors and she decides she wants to throw a fire extinguisher at one of them, the whole thing shatters and scares the living hell out of everyone and she kicks the door open and walks in and picks it up...and she says the funniest thing in the world 'who wants to get messy?!' and then she proceeds to spray the teacher with it!" Miracle laughed. "Then Jaemin ends up having to save all of our asses and we end up having to escape through the tunnel system, Melanie pulls the fucking fire alarm, sending everyone outside, she called it pulling her Harry Houdini..."

The guys just stared at him.

Miracle stopped laughing shortly after. "Not funny?" He paused. "Yeah...it's starting to lose it's amusement with me too."

"You can only burn a story so many times before it's ashes..." Jaemin took a sip of his beer. "Sometimes you have to create new amusement, Miracle."

"Okay...well how about my newly discovered sister? Yeah, see...I was so jealous of her because she came to school with this kick ass new kid introduction when mine sucked." Miracle paused. "It's not really a funny story, I doubt I could even remember what she said word for word but...she used Fable in a whole new way."

"Skylar was a nut job, can't believe that was your sister." Jaemin grinned briefly and took the joint and took a hit off of it before passing it off again.

Miracle took the joint. "That's only because Eric made her that way. At least you had a good fighting partner for a while. Didn't you get bored being able to just kick everyones ass?" Miracle took a hit and passed it off to Chad.

"Wait a second." Chad grinned. "You banged your sisters Dad?" He shook his head. "Isn't that like incest or do you guys have separate Dad's?"

"Oh..he was just her fake Dad because her Mom wanted a sugar Daddy after my Mom stole our Dad away from her and then he went off and disappeared and then my Mom tossed me up for adoption because she wanted a picture perfect family or no family at all." Miracle paused and looked around and waved a hand. "I'm over being pissed at her. Actually I was more pissed at the cops who happened to show up at the same time that she did which turned into a big drama fest. Though...it was fun getting in that one cops face..." Miracle took a sip of his beer.

Jaemin stared at Chad and then he looked over at Miracle. "Before I was Sterling's friend it was fun kicking his ass from Sunday to Sunday."

"Yeah but if I wasn't into you I would have so got him training. He would have gone J-Lo on you, Enough style!" Miracle laughed and stood up, stumbling around the fire pit. "Would of had the kick ass flash backs and all! He would of remembered how you kicked him down the hospital stairs! Deliver a kick!" Miracle made a kicking motion. "Then a flash back of...uh..." He stopped and looked thoughtful. "Oh...how you threw him at the computer and how he fell off Kevin's Daddy's desk. Then another kick!" Miracle made another kick motion. "Then he would of had a flash back of me ODed on his bathroom floor and BAM! You fall from some high up place all dramatic like!"

Jaemin shook his head. "Whatever seems fun to you." He took a sip of his beer.

"You're going to fall over." Chad laughed.

"I want to go to a carnival! Has anyone ever tried getting high on this stuff and riding those crazy rides?! Tell me, TJ?!" Miracle laughed and then stumbled over and fell forward and Nick caught him and pulled him into his lap and laughed.

"You would probably get mad sick. Your world would go spinning into madness." TJ shrugged. "I assume, I was never risky enough to try it."

Jaemin looked at Nick and shook his head and then his gaze fell onto the fire and he zoned in on it, trying to block everything out at that point.

Miracle leaned into Nick's chest and he grinned and then sighed and took another sip of his beer, leaning back on Nick's supportive arm. "Maybe the ferris wheel would be at least safe...or those swings. I always found them to be so...calming." He took the joint from Nick and took a hit and handed it over to TJ.

"Maybe the ferris wheel. I would risk that." TJ said.

Nick looked over at Jaemin, clearly seeing he was mad as hell, at least he assumed so by the intense look in his eyes but that wasn't going to stop him from asking. "Hey, dude...you know, I would be willing to pay for a round with your boy. The money would probably help your cause..."

Jaemin looked up at Nick. "I never hold Miracle back from anything." His hands balled up into fists. "Miracle, did you hear him? What do you think?" He wondered how Miracle would respond. "Guy wants you...desperately, feed that ego of yours?"

Miracle seemed totally spaced out for a moment and then he blinked. "Huh?" He looked over at Jaemin. "Wait, what? Prostituting me out?" He grinned and then suddenly started laughing.

"Stop laughing at it...I want to know what that makes you think." Jaemin's intense gaze was on Miracle and it wasn't leaving.

"I would to, Miracle. Thing is...I know Chad is so excited about that smart phone. He has never owned one in his life, he's probably dying to use it as soon as possible." Nick said as he looked down at Miracle and began to gently rock him. "It'd be scary if Jordan came down here and found you like this."

Jaemin's head jerked slightly and he looked at Nick. "Shut up, quit trying to scare him. I want to see what he truly wants to do." The fact that Nick just tried to blackmail them made Jaemin want to attack him right then and there, he could take them all out if he wanted, he knew Miracle had brought Hunters pistol but he really wanted to see what Miracle would say. "Forget what Nick said, that phone is staying off. What do you want to do?"

Chad and TJ watched on and Chad's eyebrows lifted. "I think my Mom's psychic powers are working in me..." He closed his eyes. "I can just feel the intense energy flowing through the air..."

"Dumbass...you don't need psychic powers to feel it." TJ looked at Chad and wanted to punch him in the arm but he didn't do it. "And your Mom's a fraud, I went through your internet history to see she did a background check on me before my appointment with her."

Chad opened his eyes and he looked at TJ. "For reals?"

TJ shook his head and watched on.

Miracle looked at Jaemin. "Would you stop being mean?" He then looked at Nick and pulled away from him and stumbled when he stood up and walked a little bit away from the two of them. "And stop threatening that Jordan is coming down here. That guy is creepy." He looked between the two of them. "I want to leave...and both of you stay away." Miracle turned around and started to head towards the van.

Jaemin watched Miracle and he stood up, along with Nick and the two of them followed after Miracle.

"You aren't leaving. I have the keys to the van anyway." Jaemin shook his head. "I want to know...do you want to do it or not, yes or no? Nick did say it would help us with the money." Jaemin then looked thoughtful, wondering if he just wanted to antagonize Miracle into it, for some reason wondering if he just wanted a reason to be angry at Miracle just for attracting these guys to them in the first place. Maybe he was jealous of the fact that where evere they went, Miracle would always attract competition to himself? Jaemin started to wonder if there were deeper underlying motives behind what he was doing right now.

"Come on, Miracle. Lets just do it, I help you out...and you have a great time with me." Nick smiled and shook his head. "I can tell...you're not the type to be tamed, your curiousity has no boundaries." Nick stuck out a hand. "It works out for everyone."

Miracle lifted a hand and scratched the side of his head as he stopped walking and fell into a lazy lean against the side of a tree and he finished off his beer and dropped the bottle. "I need another beer." He mumbled.

"There is plenty more where that came from." Nick smiled. "But the point of the X...it's not just the high. I don't think you even know what it can really do for you. I can show you. It will be amazing...you're a total virgin when it comes to it."

Jaemin didn't say another word. "You know what? Miracle...I think you already answered my question." His eyes shifted towards Nick. "Go ahead and take him, if he doesn't resist anyway." He shook his head and turned around to walk back to the fire.

"Damn...boyfriend gave up." Chad took the final hit of the joint.

"Nick works his magic, you know that." TJ sipped his beer and then headed for the cooler to get another.

"Sorry man...you know, the drugs make a person different, he would think different if he was right." Chad looked at Jaemin when he got back to the fire.

"Don't worry about it, I think I know whats going on with me." Jaemin watched Nick practically drag a fucked up and non resisting Miracle into the camper as he sat down by the fire again and grabbed his beer. "I just want a reason to be mad at him for being so damn...attractive."

Chad lifted his eyebrows. "Always bringing competition?"

"I guess you could say that." Jaemin shook his head. "I thought leaving New York meant that was over...but I guess not. Even just going to a fucking place like Arby's does it." Jaemin looked at Chad. "Do yourself a favor and throw that phone in the lake. Miracle just wanted to lead those people to you, it was actually a really bitchy thing to do."

Miracle's eyes open and he finds himself laying down in the van again but can feel it in motion and his eyes close and he rolls over onto his back, a hand lifted to cover his face. "Oh...hang over..." He sighed. "Jaemin...where are we?"

"Out of Philly." Jaemin said. "Do you remember what you did last night?"

"No." Miracle opened his eyes. "What happened?"

"Well you decided to get us some money..." Jaemin sarcastically grinned. "Your ass was worth twenty five dollars to Nick. Oh...and a free tattoo."

"A tattoo?" Miracle suddenly sat up. "Tell me thats a sick joke?! I don't want a drunk tattoo! Those should be meaningful and not a careless decision."

"Look on your ass. You were branded." Jaemin said.

Miracle made a face and rolled over and twisted slightly to see Nick's name on his ass but then sighed with relief to see it was only a pen. He then looked at the curtain but he could only slightly see Jaemin because it was only the early morning, the sun was just rising. "You jerk...why did you do that do me?"

"It was actually my idea." Jaemin said, not seeming phased by Miracle's mood. "You know...it pisses me off that I can't take you anywhere without getting fucking competition? That I can't even take you to eat at Arby's without some guy wanting to fucking bang you?"

Miracle grabbed his duffle bag and went through his clothes to pull out a pair of briefs and some sweat pants. "Well I'm sorry you feel bitter Jaemin...and I'm sorry you're pissed off but it's not like I ask for it!" He said as he struggled to get half way dressed.

"That first night we left...I thought we finally connected again, I was so fucking happy..." Jaemin's voice broke up. "Miracle, I just want you...and I want everyone to know that you belong to me, that you're mine and to leave you alone. I don't want to have to fight people off all the fucking time. I don't want to end up having insecurities. I don't want to end up being the jealous boyfriend that everyone stares at and wonders what his problem is!"

"So is that what this is? A statement? Maybe you want your name tattoed on me? So then everyone knows?" Miracle shook his head. "I would love to do that for you, Jaemin, if it made you happy, Jaemin, if it made life easier for you, Jaemin, but the idea of that scares the living hell out of me. What if I got your name on me and you died? No one would ever want me, I would be alone forever. Or what if you left me or abandoned me? I would be branded as your property. Private property, do not trespass!"

Jaemin sighed and slowly shook his head. "I just want us to be normal..."

Miracle shifted around the curtain and into the front seat, yanking the back of it up and it clicked into position and he yanked his seat belt on and sighed. "Don't you think I want that too? I sent Kevin away for you. I managed to say goodbye to Sterling and I didn't even have the urge to kiss him and I felt the same way you did that first night, I felt connected and it was beautiful to me." He looked at Jaemin and lifted a hand to wipe at his eyes. "It was so beautiful to me." He looked down.

Jaemin shook his head. "Maybe I'm overreacting."

Miracle leaned over and pulled himself close to Jaemin, leaning his head against his shoulder. "It's not going to be like that every where we go. No ones life is like that...not even mine."

Tears started to run down Jaemin's face. "I just hate...I hate all of this..."

Miracle looked up at him and tilted his head to the side. "We have to be strong. It's the only way we'll get through it."

"You just found your Mother...you had some sense of a life, I was finding it, everything was so great and then...it all went to hell." Jaemin's hands tightened on the steering wheel.

"Have you even slept?" Miracle asked.

"No...I didn't even get all that drunk, so I took you as soon as he was done and I left, you were passed out. He probably fucked you unconcious. That's why we're already in West Virginia."

"That's probably why you're upset, you have got to be tired...why don't you sleep? I can drive for a while."

"Miracle, if you are pulled over without a liscence, we are screwed." Jaemin shook his head. "I can't do that."

"I'll be careful." Miracle rubbed his shoulder. "Just pull over."

Jaemin sighed and slowed down as he pulled off to the side of the road and parked the van. His eyes closed as he leaned forward and pressed his head against the steering wheel.

Miracle took a deep breath and rubbed Jaemin's back as he cried. "I'm going to find a pay phone somewhere...and we can call Sterling and Jasmine and Cody and they will make you feel better."

"We shouldn't." Jaemin sighed. "We have to be careful when we do that, pick our places wisely. Their phones could be tapped." He sat up and closed his eyes. "We can do it when we are near the Virginia and Kentucky lines, when we have the chance to confuse Eric. I went to Baltimore and left a bit of a paper trail already. They probably already tracked the phone to Philly." He looked over at Miracle. "I told Chad to throw it in the lake."

"I..don't know why you did that. Should of told them we were going to Florida, let them be found." Miracle said and then looked around and grabbed a napkin that laid in a Burger King bag that he saw in the floor board and he wiped Jaemin's face off.

"That would have been to easy for them, to obvious." Jaemin sighed and unfastened his seat belt.

Miracle grinned. "Not really, if Jordan were any psychologist worth a damn, it would be genious. Let our real location be given away in hopes that it would throw them off as a fake location and send them off west. He would then assume our real location was then south when really it actually was west. Reverse psychology."

Jaemin grinned. "Only in that head of yours." His eyes opened when the napkin was pulled away and he sighed and climbed over the seat and behind the curtain.

Miracle smiled and then tossed the napkin back in the bag and slid over into the drivers seat and pulled his seat belt on to continue on, seeing a sign up ahead that let him know that they weren't far off from the cabin that Robin had told Craig about. Finally a place where they could take real shelter at.

Miracle sighed and looked around the yard while Jaemin worked on getting in the door, the place was pretty private and yet he wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not but it was different, far different compared to New York. "You know, Jaemin, I'm thinking..."

"Uh oh...should I be scared?" Jaemin laughed and then the door finally popped open. "Well here it is...hotel Wrong Turn..."

"I was thinking...maybe we should just stay here." Miracle looked over at Jaemin.

"Just stay here?" Jaemin looked over at Miracle. "Uh...there's a little thing called a crime, yeah...it's breaking and entering. And...despite being Robin's left on Earth friends, I don't think her parents are going to have sympathy enough about our situation to let us shack up here."

"Well of course not, if they find us here...we run or if Eric finds us here...we run." Miracle walked around Jaemin and stepped inside. "But why go straight to my Mom's place first? At least if we stay here...it's like home number one. If this doesn't pan out...we have a back up place in Nevada, though hopefully it doesn't drive us that far."

Jaemin followed him inside and shut the door. "Maybe you got a point." He walked over to the couch and sat down. "It would cut it a little close, I think, but if we survive the mess...it would be a short trip home."

"Yeah...survive the mess. We haven't quite figured that part out yet." He looked over at Jaemin. "Exactly what are we going to do? Eric hasn't let go of his grudge about you for two years...and I don't know about you, but I really don't want to put up with it for that long." He frowned. "Our senior year is coming up...and over half of our friends are dead and the rest...were left behind, along with our life."

"So then...we don't run." Jaemin looked up at Miracle. "With the exception of Robin's parents or otherwise, our enemies...we fight."

Miracle sat on the couch next to Jaemin. "Kind of wish we had that mentality a long time ago."

"Well...there was a lot of trickery and manipulation. Like Jordan...he was a silent threat, didn't even realize it. We only killed Skylar because we had to and Kyler...well he hadn't done any serious damage yet but if we hadn't...underestimated him, took Kevin's stabbing more seriously...Robin would be alive today."

"I think this is karma." Miracle frowned. "Maybe if I apologize to Daniel..." He looked around and sighed. "That's probably a crappy idea."

"If it's karma...it's me. I started the killing when the first life was taken around us." Jaemin ran a hand through his hair and then laid his head back and closed his eyes.

"So lets end it with our karma...with the final killings."

Jaemin suddenly looked at Miracle. "You mean intentionally murder?"

"Why are you so shocked?" Miracle looked at him. "You've done it. You don't think I have it in me?" He paused. "Maybe I didn't...but I think I do now."

"So what is your suggestion?" Jaemin asked.

"Throw Eric off track again...we'll go further. A trip to Georgia...and then we make contact, through Jordan and we make a statement. Prepare to take him out and Kyler.." Miracle slowly nodded. "Once it's done...we come back here and we wait for whatever predetermined time we agree with...and then we go home and face whatever is or isn't there. Should something happen before then, we take off for Nevada and then make another plan."

Jaemin looked down thoughtfully. "You seem pretty sure about this."

"What I am sure of...is that I'm not ready to be a finger print yet." He looked over at Jaemin. "Not my senior year...not all of it anyway."

Jaemin reached down and took Miracle's hand. "You're never going to be a mere finger print...you will always be you to someone, you will always be you to me."

Miracle tried to keep a strong face and slowly nodded. "Yeah...well, it's just a feeling that I've had for a really long time now. A feeling of...anticipating a feeling."

Jaemin nodded.

"Will I feel different?" Miracle asked. "After I've killed someone?"

"I...wish I could tell you." Jaemin said. "To me...I'm so...numb to it. The only time I've ever felt anything for anyone I've killed...was when I killed Melanie and...when I did, it was the strangest feeling. There was pain, of course but...I remember just looking at her and she looked just like she was sleeping." His thumb brushed across the top of Miracle's hand. "I guess for me...it's based on what the persons worth to me."

Miracle nodded and leaned against Jaemin and closed his eyes and then he yawned. "I'm pretty tired."

"Well, take a nap and uh...I'll see if there is any food here and make some lunch. If not I can...find a store some where or pick up something."

"Is that safe?" Miracle asked. "You know? To separate? Or even sleep with one of us not here on guard?"

Jaemin thought about it. "Probably not, at least, well since you bring it up, I don't feel good about the idea right now so...we'll just hope somethings here, probably canned food if anything." Jaemin stood up and let Miracle lay down and grabbed the throw cover off the back of the couch and covered him up with it. "I think it's really good that you're stepping up, just means you want your life back, it's nothing to be afraid of or to feel bad about."

Miracle grabbed the edges of the cover and pulled it close and nodded. "Thanks." He took a deep breath and tried to relax.