23. The Dead Boy's Letters

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Luke had tackled Kevin to the ground.

I stood in shock as the two wrestled each other to get the upper hand, but soon snapped back to reality.

I rushed over and began to pull Luke off, but he had balled his fists into Kevin's sweater at that point and wasn't budging.

"You stupid motherfucker!" Luke spat, trying to shake me off. "Why are you here?! How are you here?!"

"Get off of me!" Kevin said, prying Luke's hands away.

Kevin scrambled to his feet and tried to bolt in the opposite direction, but Luke was strong and fast. He pushed me away and went after Kevin again, grabbing him and shoving him against the wall of the shack.

I rushed over to them and tried to pull them apart but Luke wasn't having it. He had balled his fists into Kevin's sweater again and was pinning him against the wall.

"Answer me!" He spat.

"Go to hell!" Kevin said.

"Get the fuck off of him!" I demanded of Luke. "Right fucking now!"

"No way!" Luke said, not taking his eyes off of Kevin. "This asshole is gonna answer for everything he did!"

"Was beating me half to death not enough?!" Kevin said.

"Everything he told you is probably a lie!" Luke said, finally turning to me. "You can't trust him, Ricky!"

"I can't trust him?!" I said. "You tried to kill him! You tried—"

"Ricky, you need to understand!"

"Understand that you left my brother to die?!" I spat. "That you thought he was dead this whole time and knew you were responsible?!"

"Listen, Danielle was—"

"Danielle lied, you piece of shit!" I said to him. "And you believed her lies."

"She didn't."

"She did!" I said, finally prying and pushing him away from Kevin. "She lied."

Luke shook his head. "No... Ricardo, you weren't there. If you would've seen her—"

"She's one hell of an actress," I interjected.

"See Rick?" Kevin said. "It was him and the rest of your so-called friends! Right, Luke?!" Kevin looked Luke directly in his eyes.

Luke clenched his jaw as well as his fists, taking a step towards Kevin.

I quickly got in the middle of the two and gave Luke a hard glare. "Don't. Fucking. Touch him."

Luke looked bewildered. "Really? You're gonna take his side? Just like that?"

"At the end of the day, Luke; he's my brother... And you almost took him from my family and I. But he's here now. And I swear to you, you won't get away with what you've done."

Luke was speechless and was looking at me as if I were somehow wrong. How could he even have the audacity? After everything that I'd learned, who the hell did he think he was looking at me as if I'd lost my mind. The case was closed. He did it. He and my friends did it. The rage that boiled inside of me rivaled a thousand volcanoes.

"I just don't understand why you've been torturing me," I said. "I don't understand why you tried to kill me that night at Travis' house and—"

"What the hell are you talking about?!" Luke demanded.

"You know what, enough talking," Kevin said. "It's over for you, Luke."

"Oh yeah?" Luke said.

His facial expression changed from anger to concern as I stepped toward him. Kevin did the same. We had to turn him in. Had to knock him out and turn him in so this nightmare could be over. I was done listening to his lies. Done with this game.

Luke's attention was solely on me at this point. "You're really turning on me? Me?"

I said nothing to him as I was mentally planning my next move.

I didn't plan fast enough.

It came so suddenly, the blow to my face. Luke's fist landed hard and I fell to the ground, hitting my head on what I could only believe was some type of large rock. I was now dazed and my head exploded in pain. I attempted to get up and stabilize myself, but I couldn't bring myself to. I fell back to my spot on the ground, groaning at the searing sensation that the blow had created in my head.

All I could understand now was the sound of feet running away, far off into the distance and Kevin's voice echoing in my brain.

"Ricky! Ricardo, are you okay? Ricky!"

But the more he called to me, the more his voice became distant and his image became more blurred mirage in the obscurity of darkness.

Then everything was black.

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I was alone when I'd awakened. It was morning time. I'd been knocked out the rest of the previous night.

I sat up straight and winced at the pain that still ebbed in my cranium. I put a hand to the spot where my head had hit the rock and winced. I looked over to see the rock, dried blood stained it's light gray hue. I could feel the now crusted blood that had dripped down the side of my face after the impact to my head.

I stood up and looked around. Where had Kevin gone? Luke ran off. I knew that much for sure. But why wouldn't Kevin had gotten help? Or sheltered me in the shack at the very least?

Had Luke gotten to him at some point during the night? Had he decided to finish what he and my friends had started?

I ran.

I ran through the woods, away from the shack, in the direction I'd left my car. I ran as fast as I could, dodging branches, hopping over foliage and snapping twigs as my feet slammed on the ground below me.

I had no idea what today would entail.

Do I go to the police now? Was it safe now that I knew who tried to kill Kevin? And if that were the case then where would Kevin be right now? Why wouldn't he be with me? Why wouldn't he stick around so we could tell the story together?

The more I thought about it, the more terrified it made me. Kevin wouldn't just leave me in the woods like that. Not after everything that's happened.

Something terrible had happened. I could feel that. I just didn't know what.

I reached my car in half the time it took me to get to the shack last night. I was a panting mess by the time I got in and started the engine, taking deep breaths and trying to calm down. I sped off on the empty road, with no idea of what I should do or where I should go.

After driving for about ten minutes, I'd decided to just go to my house. Maybe someone knew something there. Maybe Kevin had contacted Mom or Dad. I know that he didn't exactly trust them because of the whole Raymond situation but what else would he be doing?

I tried to wrap my head around that, too. Mom and Raymond had a child together. All these years. And no one had any idea about it until now.

Raymond and Mom had been talking about some boy in secret for a while now and it finally clicked. I wondered if I'd met him. He had to be around my age at least if this had happened a long time ago. So who could it be? Did he live in Hillbury? Is that why Raymond was moving here?

I was seething at all the secrets people were keeping. I was being lied to left and right. I know I'd told my fair share of lies, but I'd only been protecting everyone else. When everyone else lied, they'd only been protecting themselves. And that's what hurt the most.

It took me a while to finally get home. I rushed out of the car and practically bathed through my front door. There I was met with the shocked and concerned gazes of my family.

Mom was the first to stand to her feet, a horrified look on her face as she examined me. "Ricardo what happened to you?!"

I hadn't really considered my appearance and I knew I looked terrible. My hair was messy, there was blood on my face, and my shirt and pants were dirt stained.

Raymond and Dad stood up from there spots as well, looking at me in bewilderment.

"Ricky, what the hell happened?" Dad asked.

Mom stepped to me and placed her hands on my shoulders. "Baby, what happened?! Why were you out when you're on punishment? Just look at you."

I shrugged her hands off and said nothing.

She stared at me with fearful eyes. "Ricky..."

"I'm fine," I said. I went to a party last night and got in a fight. Happy?"

"Well, who was it?! I need to know so we can—"

"It's not that serious, ma!" I said. "Just drop it. Okay? I need to be alone right now."

I made my way to the staircase, ignoring her protest and went to my room, slamming the door shut. Kevin hadn't contacted them, that much was obvious. So where was he?! And where would Luke be for that matter? He couldn't possibly just be going about things as if they were normal, could he?

Whatever the case was, I was confused and out of a phone now, thanks to Eddie.

I shook my head, and went to my closet. I grabbed some new clothes and went to take a shower.

A shower is probably the worst place to be when something bad happens in your life because you have nothing to do in there but think about it as you clean yourself, and that's all I could do. I simply could not shake the thoughts and questions from my head. I was close. So close. So very fucking close to figuring this all out. I felt that.

I had a lot more questions, but I'd gained some answers which was more than I'd had two days ago.

There were just little things. Just these little pieces that were missing from the big picture. And admittedly, the more I thought about it, the more questions that arose, particularly when thinking about Kevin's story.

How could he suddenly and so vividly remember the details of what happened the night he was attacked? I understood that he was dazed, confused and beaten, but it was like he had gained his memory back within a millisecond.

Then there was his explanation, or rather lack there of, for the whole SPI thing. He wrote letters to the kid Mom and Raymond had, but doesn't recall the boy being at SPI? Or as he said it, he doesn't know the full story? How could he not if he was communicating with the boy? And how wouldn't he know that his own picture is plastered on an article accusing him of escaping that very same institution?

And the note! Kevin never mentioned a note telling him to leave Hillbury the first time. Now he claimed Luke left that note. Had he purposely omitted that for his own reasons, or was there another explanation?

This just wasn't adding up and now I was questioning everything Kevin had told me. What would he gain from lying about any of this? Was he really clueless or was there more he was hiding? He had to at least been telling the truth about Luke because Luke never denied what he and my friends had done. In fact he tried to justify it. I tried to focus on that. Tried to focus on the fact that the point is that Luke and my friends tried to kill Kevin... And that probably included Sayora.

I began thinking about the inconsistencies. Something was off. A lot of things were off. I thought back to the first time Kevin and I met up and compared it to last night, searching for anything else I could think of. Something he might have said that didn't match the story from last night.

The one thing that popped into my head was how Luke reacted when I demanded to know why he was tormenting me. Why he had tried to kill me and Travis that night, wearing that stupid mask. He'd acted like he didn't know what I was talking about.

The mask.

The realization dawned on me, hitting me like a semi truck and a chill ran up my spine. My heart felt like it had sank straight down to my stomach because I found myself feeling more dread than before.

"I don't know who did it, or why," Kevin had said during the first meeting. "The person was wearing a mask that night, so I have no clue who it could be."

In Kevin's story from last night, a mask was never mentioned.

He said that the blow came from behind, knocking him out and when he woke up he was blindfolded. Luke beat him to a pulp, and he was only able to recognize it was him by the sound of his voice. Then he left with the others. Kevin had only gotten the blindfold off hours later when he'd broken himself free to then see the note telling him to leave town.

At what point would Kevin had seen a mask?

I couldn't deny it anymore. I couldn't overlook it. There were just too many holes. Too many inconsistencies.

He lied, I thought. Kevin lied to me.

I finished my shower about fifteen minutes later. And during those fifteen minutes all I did was sob. My tears mixed with the hot streams of water, running down my face. I held my head down crying like a big baby. Any attempt to calm myself was for naught, because I'd think about it over and over again, just to begin weeping over and over again.

When I finally had some control over myself, I stepped out, dried off and got dressed. Going into my room, I flopped on my back onto the bed, shaming myself for breaking down in the way that I had.

I had stood up for Kevin against Luke. I'd taken his side and cornered my best friend and now I didn't know what to believe. There was no doubt that Luke had done what he did, he didn't deny it. But Kevin was lying about something. Something important to the story that made Luke out to be the sole bad guy. That had to be it, right? Was Luke really innocent? Was this some big game for Kevin?

Or did they both have me completely fooled?

My thoughts were interrupted by my mother. I hadn't closed my door after entering my room from the bathroom so I saw her as soon as she appeared in the doorway.

I sat up and stared at her. She had a hand behind her back, hiding something.

"Hi," she greeted.

"What do you want?" I asked her, curious as to what exactly she was doing here and what she had.

She stepped into the room. I stayed in my spot on the bed.

"I need to give you something," she said. "Something I think you'd like to have."

I arched an eyebrow. "And that is?"

She took a deep breath and finally revealed what she'd been hiding. There in her hands, she was offering me a large orange envelope with the words For Ricardo written on it.

I shot to my feet and took the envelope from her. It was the one Kevin had left for me, the same one she'd snatched from me the day I trashed Kevin's room looking for clues of where the video diaries were.

"Did you look at what was in here?" I asked.

She shook her head. "I didn't."

I eyes her, not really believing her answer.

"I didn't," she reiterated.

"Why not?" I inquired.

She shrugged. "It's not for me. Whatever is in that envelope... it was meant for your eyes."

"Did Raymond see?"

"He tried," Mom nodded. "But I wouldn't let him and I hid it. Your father was quite curious about it, too thanks to your outburst that day. But he hasn't seen it either. None of us have."

I wasn't exactly sure how to respond so I said an insincere "Thank you."

Mom looked at me with hurt eyes. "I don't know what's going on here, Ricardo. I don't know what's been going on with you. But you destroyed your brother's room to find this, so it must be important. Whatever that is... Kevin wanted you and only you to see it. I have to respect that... I have to respect that wish of my son."

I looked at her and could just tell by her face, her tone; She was being honest.

"Thank you," I said, sincerely this time.

A sad smile appeared on her face. "I want your know that we're all here to talk this out when you're ready. That's all we want."

With that she gently placed a hand on my cheek, a gesture of endearment, before leaving the room.

I sat back on the bed, holding the envelope in my hands and suddenly felt like I was holding all the answers. Everything I need could possibly be found in these letters between Kevin and the unknown boy.

Without wasting another second, I opened the envelope and dumped the contents on my bed.

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