Levi Winchester

It's been a month.

The heated topic of Dr. Barros, aka Dr. Mengele, was the talk of the town still. Some said it was a rumor and some said it was highly exaggerated. Even so, the growing interest was a small win. The public was demanding someone to look into it.

The police have officially opened up an investigation into my father and everyone involved with him. According to detective Moss, a lot of influential people are involved like Coach said.

But why do I feel things are working out too easily for us? Well, I guess for me and Tyler. Coach even warned me, that had Jay killed someone, there's no way he won't be investigated.

"Right!" The annoying interview lady smiled falsely at me. Didn't her face ever get tired of faking it? "Of course things are working out in our favor, but public interest is important. I need to write about how you're coping. That being said how are you these days?"

"Nothings changed," I said flatly. At least she switched to a more pleasant smelling perfume.

"Isn't that great! How do you feel now? Relieved or-"

"I don't know."

"Has it not sunk in?"

"I guess it's like that. I'm not sure what to do now since my purpose is gone. I've always lived according to my fathers...I mean, that mans life plan. If he gave me a problem, I had to find a way to solve it. Now that I don't have to anymore, I've realized that I have no idea on how to live normally. What would you know about that?"

"I do know something," She smiled a bit wider.

"What?"

"It's the same for 'normal' people. In my case, I just did whatever it was I felt like."

"Whatever you wanted?"

"My parents wanted me to have a steady and stable job, but that just wasn't for me," the reporter giggled. "I've always wanted to report the news and do investigative journalism! It's more fun than some lame 9 to 5."

"And that's why you're a writer?"

"Yup! And everyone thinks about achieving their dreams at least once."

"Dreams?"

"Yes, what was your dream? It might be a bit confusing now but it'll be easier to figure out once you have a certain goal in your life. Is there anything you want to do once this is over?"

My dream? I wonder what that was. During all that downtime how have I never thought of it? The only future I could think of was one with Tyler....but I had no idea what I wanted to actually do.

"LEVI!!!!!" I heard Tyler yelled out for me as soon as I was stepping out of the interviewers office building. He ran towards me at full speed with Liam limping in tow.

Tyler jumped into my arms and gave me a big longing hug and kiss. He looked exceptionally happy at the moment to see me.

"Hey," Liam said as he caught up. "When are you coming back to school, Levi? This guy won't stop whining about it. It's getting super annoying."

"I wasn't whining!" Tyler snapped.

"I won't be going back." I admitted.

"Why?" Tyler asked.

"I wasn't enrolled correctly in the first place." I explained. Honestly it was weird how it happened. "Nothing I did at that school could possibly count as real since it was all done under a false identity."

"That can't be right! You were top of the-"

"Levi's right, he made a fake identity. Levi's a completely different person now. If he wants to live regularly, he has to do it right." Liam sighed. "Let him take responsibility like he's supposed to."

Do it right? "I'm sorry." I blurted out.

"What the hell? Why are you apologizing?" Liam asked.

"George died. Even if I set things straight, I can't bring him back for you," I looked away, now knowing full well that this was all I can do to try and relieve the guilt I felt. This is part of taking responsibility, right?

"You shouldn't be apologizing for things you didn't do, it's incredibly weird. I want to hear that sincere apology from Jay. You aren't responsible-"

"Because of my father, you lost someone important to you, is it not my place to bring some type of apology to you. Or at least some compensation?"

"Stop drawing a line in the sand! It's so damn condescending and it's getting on my nerves. You're turning into Tyler, but worse and it's annoying as hell. All you're doing is trying to clear your own conscience selfishly. I don't want to hear about what you didn't do. Yes, George was my lover, but nothing you say or do is going to bring him back. Besides, you're a good friend for trying to save him, so thanks for that. Still, stop using me to to make yourself feel better."

I suddenly felt like shit. Have I just been unconsciously taking on everything my family does? He was right, I do just want to feel better, I'm still taking my feelings out on him and other people. "I'll stop."

Tyler gleamed at Liam suddenly. "That's right! We're all cool here! So let's go on a trip after this is over!"

"What the fuck?" Liam asked. "Aren't you off topic here? Control your man, Tyler!"

"Shut up, stupid! Anyway, we're seniors this year. We won't have time to hang out as much because we'll be too busy getting ready for college. Have you picked a college yet?"

"Not yet, should we study abroad? My dad showed me some schools in England."

"We're minors, we can't go abroad on our own. I think."

"Yes we can!"

"We can board a plane but we can't book rooms to stay in!"

"Fuck you! That's the point of boarding school dorms. I'll pay for your boyfriend to attend too."

"Let's just go out of town to relax." Tyler suggested. "You still have the lake house in your name. We finish school here and go abroad for college."

"That's a good idea."

I smirked as they argued on where to go for vacation. Tyler was so good at being carefree. I wish I could be like that and stop overthink everything. Tyler led us too a good cart and ordered some soft pretzels.

"This one's on me." I said and pulled out my usual card to swipe in the square reader.

Declined?

"Wow, Levi! You were pretending! I didn't think you knew how to joke!" Liam laughed. "We don't have to pay for you to go to the arcade though right? How do you spend your allowance....oh, did I go too far?"

I took out the cash needed and paid before walking off with the two staring at the card. This was a first for me....and it was embarrassing. It worked just fine yesterday. The money in this card was just to make things easier for myself during this experiment, right? So why has it been declined this time? Wasn't the experiment still going on despite a month passing anyway?

I've withdrawn all the money I needed to carry out my backup plans anyway, so maybe this was for the better. Yeah, this is for the better. I felt uneasy using this card anyway. It was the last connection I needed to have to him.

"No it's alright," I told Liam. I almost dropped the card onto the street but decided to keep it in my pocket just in case. I should've just dropped it into the sewer. "Let's go to the arcade."

"Your phone, Levi." Tyler pointed out the buzzing sound from my pocket. I took out my phone to find an unrecognizable number. "Answer it. It might be important."

"I have a feeling I know who it is." I said. It can only be one person.

"They're calling again, just take the call." Liam said while pulling Tyler towards the entrance of the mall. "You know where to meet us!"

With a deep breath, I picked up the call.

"Hello, why are you calling me?" I asked. All I heard was heavy breathing on the other end. "Why aren't you saying anything? Hello-"

"'Are you leaving the country?"'It was Coach Nichols.

"What the fuck are you talking about suddenly? And what's wrong with your other phone-"

"'The situation is working out in your favor. Once the crimes get revealed, you're free to live your own life. But not Jay, he went too far. And even if you decide to stay here, it won't be easy to live with a clean slate."'

"I'm not leaving."

'"I'm only telling you to move abroad for a while, not forever. Just until people forget about this. Until then, I'll help you out so you can live a normal life like any other kid your age."'

I couldn't help but start laughing at this man. "I'm not leaving and I don't need your help to leave if I wanted too. I've always taken care of myself and I'll continue to do that. Can't I just think about myself and Tyler right now? Like everyone else, I can now afford to think about what my dreams are. And I have a friend that really does have my back." Images of Tyler ran thru my mind like rapid fire. "And Tyler's finally all mine. I don't want to leave."

If I left Tyler now, what would I do? What would I think? Is there even life after him? Life made sense because of Tyler.

"'Whatever, if you're that adamant I'll keep my offers to myself. I was just checking. Don't get too comfortable, Levi, this isn't over yet."' Coach said before hanging up.

What the hell was that about? Was something wrong?

"Levi are you done?" Tyler popped up suddenly. "Was it important?"

"No, just a check up."

"Um...Uncle Rhys got transferred to a different department and region this morning. So the inside man is now out of the fire pit," Tyler told me just as Liam walked up. "It came up so suddenly!"

"Hurry up so we can-" Liam got cut off by our phones going off at the same time. "That was weird. Check your phone too."

Tyler pulled out his phone and gasped. "I got a message, it's a video link."

"Let me....I got the same one!"

"It's called 'the brutal murder of Stephen Ryan'?"

"Don't press it! It might be a virus!"

"Probably, but they sent a photo of the guy along with the link."

I pulled my phone back out and checked the message. It was indeed a video link with an attached photo of Stephen, his face was crudely scribbled out.

"They tried to block out the face but that's our school uniform, correct?" Tyler asked.

No way!

It was a direct link to the video of a brutal murder shot in 1080p. At the end, the man in the video pulled his hood down and took his hat off after dropping the bloody bricks.

It was clearly Jay.

Without thinking I sped off in the other direction frantically calling Jay on my phone.

Pick up your fucking phone! Please Jay! Just do this one thing! After five tries I finally came to my senses.

Of course, you can always cover up an issue with an even bigger one. Why didn't I see this before? Everything was going too well.

It's only been ten minutes and already the video is trending and has over six million views. Some people think it's just a prank to gain views. But as this video keeps getting reposted, it's stimulating more people.

As a result they're wondering if the video is real. Along with the interest, there's were countless tip offs. Someone from our school had already posted a few pictures of Jay taken without him knowing. It was still clearly him.

Public response exploded from there. The police even put out a statement in record time. Rhys was suddenly transferred. Coach made that suspicious call out of the blue. That can only mean one thing.

Our plan has failed and shit was about to hit the fan!