The Unknown Tragedy...

They stood there, in the middle of the street in shock of what just occurred. James and Russell never thought they would witness something like this let alone be a part of it all. They looked around and saw countless cop cars on the street, probably around 10 all parked with their sirens blowing. There were some cops going into the building, some standing by the cars with their guns pointed at the door. James turned and looked at his older brother Russell,

“So now what do we do?”

Russell replied with a crackly voice trying to sound like he had everything under control,

“Now we go home.”

They both turned, arm around each other and started to walk slowly back to their house.

When they got home their mother was there working in her office. She looked up for a brief instant and immediately noticed there was something wrong based off the look on her children’s faces as they walked in the doorway. She didn’t want to make a big deal of anything. After all, she was already stressed out with work and figured she was making something out of nothing, but it was something she noted.

“How was school, boys?”

She asked trying to sound as calm as she possibly could.

Russell and his brother froze right away. After a brief moment of silence, Russell cleared his throat.

“Good.”

And he and James walked to their rooms and closed the door behind them.

“Why didn’t you tell mom what happened at school?”

James said while sitting on the edge of his bed, back to his brother.

“I don’t know. What was I supposed to tell her? Nothing’s ever going to be the same anymore. We’re going to have to move schools, move houses, everything is going to be different.”

“So what good is it going to be if we don’t tell her anything. She’s going to find out one way or another and if she doesn’t hear it from us first she’s going to be pissed. At least tell her about Jerry.”

The brothers argued back and forth as quiet as possible trying not to project their voices to the point where their mother could hear them. Eventually, Russell snapped at his brother and yelled as quiet as possible,

“You don’t get it! If we tell mom, that’s our heads! Our asses are on the line just as much as Jerry and them are and moms going to be devastated. We were lucky we played the part that we did and we were able to be on the outside looking in. What do you think is going to happen now, if we tell her what happened!”

James sat there in silence for a few moments. It was finally sinking in what had happened and how serious this all was. Reality was sinking in. His fear turned into anger and he snapped back at Russell, much louder. So loud his mother could hear him and arguably the neighbours from across the street.

“This is all your fault! I told you we shouldn’t have gotten involved in this bullshit! Now look where we are! We’re screwed and there’s no way out.”

The next thing they heard before they could continue was their mother’s footsteps coming towards their room. She opened the door and just stood there looking at them with a face of anger and confusion. The brothers looked at each other and knew they had to do something.