“Hey!” I jumped off the chair and chased her around the kitchen table. “Give it back, pig face.”

“I don’t have a pig face, butt brain!” she yelled from behind a chair.

“You do too!”

“Do not!”

“Do too!”

“Hey! What is going on here?”

We both turned around to face our ‘mom’ as she glared at down at us.

“She stole my cereal,” I said, pointing at her.

“He took the last of it, and I called it yesterday,” she pouted. “It’s the most delicious cereal ever!”

“Yeah, that’s why it’s mine!” I said, pointing to myself.

Sighing, the woman in front us pulled out a new cereal box and said, “Guys, there is more than enough for everyone.”

“Yes!” We both threw our hands in the air. But as Amelia did so, the cereal and milk went flying from the bowl and onto my head.

That was not in the script.

Turning to face her, I saw her eyes go wide. She hated making mistakes. She would start to freak out. So I wiped my face and took a deep breath.

“You are so gonna get it, pig face!” I yelled, hoping she understood to run. And she did, breaking out into laughter.

“You said it was yours!” Her voice sounded like little bells.

They played the voice over; “Kercurns Cereal—so delicious and nutritious it’s the logical choice!”

“Cut!”

Amelia and I immediately stopped, looking to the director and hoped he was okay. Getting up from his chair, he walked right up in front of us, bent down, and said, “You two have bright futures ahead of you, you know that?” Smiling, he glanced between us, and I saw the same thing I always saw in adults’ eyes: dollar signs.

“Thank you,” we both said.

Kat came over with a towel for me, then proceeded to talk to the director. Amelia looked around, but her mom and Ollie were talking to the director as well.

“This is our chance,” I whispered to her. Confused, she glanced over to me, and not wanting to waste time, I grabbed her hand, making for a run for it.

“Amelia!” someone yelled. But she ignored them.

“Noah?”

“Just trust me!” I laughed, taking her with me: right, left, down. Then we got to the large black studio doors.

“Noah…”

“Shh.” I turned back to her, and she was too busy looking around. “Amelia.”

“We are going to get in trouble—”

“Who cares? It’s your birthday, and you need a present,” I reminded her.

“A present?”

“Yeah. Come on.” We slipped through the door together, Amelia holding on tightly with her hand.

The moment she stepped inside, she froze, her mouth dropping open as she stared at the set and cast in front of us.

“Awesome, right?” I whispered.

She didn’t answer, but a smile spread across her face. And it wasn’t her fake smile—this was real.

I didn’t want to get caught staring, so I looked away from her and back to the circus act in front of us. They were making a movie, but right now, we got to see them flip and throw fire in the sky.

There were lightshows.

Elephants.

A bear.

And a lion. When she saw it, she squeezed my hand tighter, taking a step behind me.

“You scared?” I asked softly.

“No, I’m ten now. I don’t get scared,” she lied.

I didn’t say anything for a moment, just watched with her, until the lion roared and she jumped beside me.

“Amelia?”

“Huh?”

“I can’t help you all the time now,” I said. And I hated it. “But when I’m older, when I’m an adult, I promise I will. No matter what, okay? I’ll even fight that lion.”

She giggled, shaking her head. “He’d eat you.”

 “That’s okay. As long as he doesn’t eat you…I mean it. When I’m older, you can count on me.”

I’d fight the adults as an adult.

“Noah.”

“Noah?”

When I faced her, she kissed my cheek. Her face was super red, but she did it anyway.

“I count on you now,” she said.

“Okay,” I muttered, rubbing the back of my head. I wasn’t sure what to say, so I said nothing and watched with her.

Everything would be easier when we became adults.

Present

“Hello, little brother,” Bodean said, standing head to head with me, his green eyes piercing into mine when I cracked open the door. Like a snake, he slithered inside, and I shut the door quickly behind him. “What, you ain’t even gonna say hello? I heard you’d be comin’ to Chicago. Has Frank visited you…?”

He stopped speaking when he saw the body still lying on the living room floor. A normal reaction, for a normal person, would be to panic, scream, or go into shock like Amelia. But Bo and I were anything but normal.

“Just like old times,” he smirked, taking off his shirt. He had even more tattoos than the last time I saw him. They covered his right arm and part of his chest now. When he took off his baseball cap, I saw that he had even cut his blonde hair into a buzz cut.

“She can’t just disappear, Bo.” Austin stepped out from the kitchen. I had called him right after I had called Bo. He was wearing a bowtie and suspenders, and from the look Bo was giving me, I knew he thought I had lost my goddamn mind.

“You still have this fucking clown around you?” he hollered at me.

“As his manager—”

“Well, that’s nice. Why don’t you get me a coffee or—” Bo started.

Before he could finish his statement, Austin grabbed him by the neck, pushing him up against the wall.

“I have a Hollywood legend on my floor. I do not have time to deal with your pathetic display of testosterone. The only reason why you are here is because Noah says you can keep your mouth shut. Can you do that? Can you keep your mouth shut?”

“Austin,” I called, and he let him go. Everyone thought Austin was a teddy bear, but in reality, he was an actual bear. He wasn’t above doing anything if it was in my best interest. He knew where all my skeletons were buried because he was the one who buried them.

“Bo.” I put my hand on his shoulder, trying to calm the rage that was ready to explode. “It can’t be like old times. This isn’t Frank’s mess. It’s mine. I’m begging you. As my brother, do what he says.”

He glared at Austin, tensing his jaw before facing me. “Fine. Only ‘cause you’re family.”

“Thank you,” I said, moving so that we could face our problem. “Like Austin said, she can’t just vanish.”

“But with the recent scandal, she can’t appear right now,” Austin replied.

The ‘recent scandal’ being me coming out of jail and the downfall of Ray Mallory. I glanced to Austin, motioning to the bedroom. I didn’t want Amelia to be alone for too much longer.

“Go. I got this,” he said, and I trusted that between him and Bo, they would get it done. There was no other choice.

Amelia

All I could do was watch.

3:17 a.m.

3:18 a.m.

3:19 a.m.

The numbers changed right before my eyes, and I could do nothing but watch, clenching the pillows under my head. Two hours. That’s how long it had been since I killed … murdered … my mother. Noah hadn’t come in the bedroom since then, and I was too scared to leave. I’d taken a shower, but I wasn’t even sure if I was supposed to get dressed. My head felt like it was spinning, and resting in bed seemed like my only choice. But the moment I laid down, I felt like the whole world was now on my back, smothering me. I cried, and if my throat hadn’t ached so much, I was sure I would be sobbing as well.

I didn’t mean to.

I swear to god, I didn’t mean to kill her.

It didn’t matter, did it? Whether I meant to or not, a murder was a murder. There was no undoing shit like that.

What happens now?

What do I do now?

I heard a door open and shut—I heard a lot of things. But again, I didn’t move.

3:29 a.m.

“Amelia.”