Hide Away - Prologue. Prologue

The hot water dripped down on James' naked body. His muscles were so tired after playing volleyball with his two best friends Hunter and Max, in the park. It was the last day of summer vacation, and tomorrow would mark the beginning of his Junior year. One more year and he was out of there. James put a quarter sized glob on shampoo in his hand and massaged it through his scalp. He had done this so many times before but he didn't know that this time it would be different, that he would remember this shower over any other shower he had taken before this moment. Click. James ran his head underneath the shower head while the soap ran over his body and down the drain. Wiping off any excess from around his eyes, he reached for the conditioner. Bang.

It took a moment to register the loud sound. It sounded like a car backfiring on the street but it sounded so close to him. He turned off the shower head, wrapped a towel around his tan body, walked into the hall and called for his family.

“Did anyone just hear that?” he asked waiting for a response, but none came. He turned to his brother Cody's door and knocked gently. “Cody did you just hear that?” No response came from behind the closed door. Knocking again a little louder this time but still no response, he turned the brass knob and opened the door to reveal blood. That was the only thing that James could see at first, blood and some gray stuff on the wall. It was then that he traced the blood to see a body on the floor. A body with half a face missing, a being that he had called brother so many times before this day. His hands shook as his brain completely seemed to shut off. James barely remembered walking into the hall way, dialing those three easy numbers he learned in kindergarten, or the women on the other line. When the she said hello (for the third? Fourth? Maybe even sixth time,) he knew that he had to talk, but the only words he could form didn't seem right. Nothing about this seemed right.

“My brother is dead” James said. The woman put her years of training to work, and she couldn't be shocked because James was freaked enough for the entire world.

“Are you sure?” asked the woman playing to the script.

“His face is half gone, there is blood everywhere. Ambulance”

“Did you check for a pulse”

“He's dead, please send help”

“I need you to check for a pulse, sir” said the woman. She knew the guy was dead but she had to give this boy some kind of false hope, as this was family. James knelt beside the body, phone in hand, anf put his index finger on his brother's wrist; nothing.

“There isn't a pulse, I don't know what to do” said James as he sat next to his brother, not caring that there was blood all over him.
“Sir, I am sending help right away. Are your parents in the house?”

“No, I don't know where they are”

“Sir, I need you to stay on the phone with me” said the woman, James looked at his brother's lifeless body. “Cody how could you?” was the thought playing over in his head when he spotted the white paper in his brother closed hand. He opened up the hand, pulled out the paper, and opened it. A suicide note.

“He killed himself” said James out loud, the woman sighed sadly.

“Sir, just remain calm. Help should be there soon!” said the woman but James didn't hear those words, as the shock was to great for him as he blacked out. The paper now closing in his hands as the blood continues to soak into his clothes and hair. If anyone has seen this, they would have thought both boys were dead but only one was while the other only wished. Wished for his brother to be alive, or both to be dead. It wouldn't be til the next day that James read that letter as his parents prepared to bury their eldest son. When James prepared for school dodging the pity glances at the wake, he knew there would be many more to come. James sat on Cody's bed to read the last thing that his brother would ever write.

To All,

-Cody

James didn't know what to make of it. This was the most fucked up thing he had ever read in his life, his brother’s final goodbye. He threw the paper onto the floor, knowing it was then he promised himself that he would never love again. Only because losing that love would only hurt him more and he would never let himself go through that a second time. James slammed the door to his brothers room and vowed he would never go in there. Out of sight, out of mind. That was the only thing that would get him through this. He went to his room, opened his copy of Pride and Prejudice, and didn't leave that space until the second week of Junior year. When the school said they would have to fail him if he didn't attend, James never once laughed, or smiled. And he thought he never would, but he didn't know that senior year would be different, he would be forever changed.