January 1

I was sitting at the poker table in our basement with Cyrus and Ryan as we were finishing our last round.

We do this every year. We gather around this table on December 31st every year to play at least five rounds before the new year.

Ironically every year we play, one of us wins at least each round. It sounds stupid but it gives us hope for the new year. Every win per person means that the rest of the year will be in our favor for each of us.

I learned to play when I was five. My father taught me. He told me that learning to play games like chess and poker teaches you a lot about a person. How they think, their body language when they lie or when they tell the truth, and the pitch in their voice denotes either fear or confidence.

Wanna know if you can really fuck someone up mentally or emotionally? Let them beat you at chess or poker. Never show them your cards so they can show you theirs. Literally and figuratively.

But right now I'm not playing to fuck with anyone or see if they're able to fuck with me. I'm playing for luck as cheesy as it may sound.

Cyrus and Ryan have been my right and left hand for a while so they're my usual opponents in these games. But right now we're missing a player.

The man who taught me himself.

We finished the last round and both Cyrus and Ryan have beaten me in every game before this one. With Cyrus winning this one for the 2nd time.

"Hey, Jess. you already know us like the back of your hand you don't gotta let us win. I'm not usually this smart." Cyrus says looking at his cards in disbelief that he won again. Usually, he gets one lucky win and most of the time it's Ryan and me.

"No," I sigh "It's just not my night, I guess."

This has never happened to me before and I don't even know where to begin as my mind starts to wander as I drop my cards on the table

I pull out my cigarette and blow out a puff of smoke as I pull out my phone and go to the "Find My" app. I click on my father's contact and refresh multiple times as it keeps saying "No location found" causing me to scowl at my phone as I chuck it onto the table, placing my cig back in my mouth wondering where the hell he could be.

I'd call him but you never call a man when they're handling a shipment because anything could go down and the sound of a phone could be inconvenient

I feel something hit the front of my knee as I lay back in my chair running my hands through my dirty blonde mane for the thousandth time tonight in frustration

I look over at the culprit to find both Cyrus and Ryan staring at me. "Where is he?" Cyrus says with his eyebrows raised as Ryan has his mouth dropped but no words are coming out.

I don't know what could be happening to him right now. That scares me. But if I don't put on a brave face in front of these two, their emotions could start spiraling. I shrug at

Cyrus trying not to say what I really feel because as much as I hate to say it, the thoughts running through my mind are scaring me.

I never felt like an only child because I had them. My father practically raised all of us the same despite the fact that they have their own parents. We're all miniature versions of him. I met Cyrus and Ryan on my first day of Kindergarten. You know how it's your first day of school and you know no one but you leave school a few hours later with a bunch of friends. Yeah, that was me. But Cyrus and Ryan stuck with me the most.

When I met Cy, his name was Justin Tranter. I know there's no correlation between the two but we named him that because in fifth grade, we found out that he knew all of the songs from Seasons 1-4 of Hannah Montana by heart when we came over to his house and caught him dancing in front of his mirror to 'Best of Both Worlds.' On his dresser, the CD soundtrack was sitting on top of the radio as the music was blasting from the speakers and he tried to say it was his older sister even though his sister was 25 and wasn't a big enough fan.

He then admitted to having a crush on Miley Cyrus and said that he'd sacrifice his firstborn just if she knew who he was. So we called him Cyrus to play into his belief that he will indeed marry into her family.

"Do you think something went wrong?" Ryan looks at me warily trying to get some sort of a reaction from me. He won't get one. I shake my head and take my cigarette out for the last time throwing it on the cemented ground beneath me, and stepping on it with my shoe.

The TV screen on the far right side of the room is the only source of light besides the tall lamp that's shining above the table.

I look up and I see red and blue lights flashing from the screen in the corner of my eye. The caption at the bottom of the screen catches my eye, "Ryan, put that up for me." I say to him as he goes toward the TV and presses on the volume buttons since we can't find the remote. The damned thing is always on WKLA 5.

My eyes go wide and the color drains from my face as the reporter on the screen says in all seriousness,

"This is Lesly Pierce from WKLA news coming to you live on the scene of an abandoned warehouse from what looks like another night gone wrong. Behind me, police cars are on the scene reporting to calls where gunshots were appeared to be heard in this area. There are 6 suspects injured and 2 who have been killed. Although we don't have word on who these people are just yet, we---

I couldn't hear anything else as my mind drew to a blank. Behind the lady was the warehouse that my father and his men were handling a shipment for the night. They were supposed to have been back hours ago. My worst fears came true as I saw a man being rolled onto a gurney, his face covered with a white sheet. The end of his pants was rolled up and I saw the tattoo of the symbol that the rest of the gang had. My father was the only one who chose to keep it on his leg.

Cyrus and Ryan appear to have noticed this too as the table has now flipped over in a fit of rage due to Cyrus's anger as he stares at the screen.

Ryan is on the far left of the room with his back to the wall and his knees curled up to his chest as he appears to be crying in his hands.

I'm the only one without any of my emotions showing as I stare helplessly at the screen. It's all I can do.

My father was dead.

This year had already gone to shit before 1 AM.

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Hey, Guys! I've just started this story and I'm really excited to see where this goes. I'm editing this the day after I've posted the first three chapters and I wanted to say to anyone reading this, Thank you for giving this book a chance. I have a lot of ideas which is my driving force in finishing it.

If you choose to continue thank you for reading the book in advance. lol, there will be more author's notes in the future.

I promise it won't be like anything you've read before.

If you've voted, commented, or even just read the book, you are a chia seed now. There's no escaping it.

THANKS AGAIN BYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE <3