Deserted - Auctioned

“Yessir.”Gray and Darius spent the next couple hours erasing any traces of their ever having been in the house—and around the property. Darius went so far as to clear the tracks of the ATV and their boots in the sand around the backyard and a fair bit into the desert.

Jackie sat on the porch with a blanket around himself.

Darius had instructed him not to venture farther, just in case passing vehicles spotted him.

The sun dropped lower and lower.

In the distance, a pack of coyotes filled the silence with their howling.

“I feel bad just sitting here, Gray,” Jackie called into the house. “I know the plan by heart. I’ve rehearsed it to myself for hours. There’s gotta be something else I can do to help.”

Gray left the kitchen with some snacks from Warren’s grocery run and passed his body on the living room floor. Darius had covered it with a blanket for Jackie’s sake.

“You’ll have a big responsibility soon enough.” Gray set the tray on the table and inspected one of the rickety lawn chairs before taking a seat. He didn’t need to sit on a rusty wire or get bitten by a black widow. “Come get something to eat, buddy.” He didn’t want Jackie on the floor anymore. He could get hurt.

Darius joined them soon after, and he squatted down casually and lit up a smoke.

“I can get you a chair in the kitchen,” Gray offered.

Darius waved it off and slid his gaze to Jackie. “How you feelin’, kid?”

Jackie shrugged slightly, munching on a piece of bread. “I’m kinda blank at the moment. More focused on you two. The alibi thing—Gray told me you have to get home quick.”

“Gray and I will be fine, regardless,” Darius assured. “That said, the timing is a bit up to you. We will prepare everything down to the last second before we leave, and then your only job will be to throw a lit match into the living room.”

“And make sure you don’t stumble over this death porch,” Gray said pointedly. “The fire’s gonna spread quickly.”

Darius kept his contemplative stare fixed on Jackie. “What you have to decide is how long you believe you can stay here—by yourself—before starting the fire.” He paused. “Gray and I will be here throughout the night, so you don’t have to worry about being alone in the dark.”

Maybe he’d noticed fear or worry in Jackie, because once Darius told him that last part, even Gray could see how Jackie lost some tension in his shoulders.

“Let me get this straight,” Jackie said hesitantly. “The time between your departure and my setting this place on fire is what you have to work with—to get home, I mean.”

“Well…” Not exactly. Gray interjected, “If we push it, we can be home in twenty-four hours, but we don’t need that long. As a precaution, we only want to create some distance between us and here.”

“I understand.” Jackie set down his bread, thinking. “If I can sit out here and not have to go inside, I can wait until tomorrow evening.”

It was Gray’s turn to hesitate. He knew how fragile his mind had been right after he’d been rescued, and he didn’t think it was wise to leave Jackie alone for an entire day. It meant several hours where a single breakdown could have horrific ramifications.

Darius appeared to be on the same page. “I think I know how we can solve this.” He rose from his position and pocketed his smoke. “I’ll be right back. I’m gonna make a quick call.”

“Bring a chair with you,” Gray requested.Only Darius could sleep that night. Completely unaffected, he got five hours of sleep on the couch in the living room, about four feet from a dead man.

Gray and Jackie stayed on the porch and drank too much soda, listened to the coyotes, and talked.

It’d finally dawned on Jackie that he was free. That he was going home. And he wouldn’t stop talking about everything he wanted to do, which mainly consisted of spending more time with his mom, going to more games with his dad, and perhaps not annoying his sisters as much as he used to.

The roller coaster had begun. Jackie could chuckle his way through a funny memory about his sisters, only to cry five minutes later with how much he missed them.

Gray did what he could to comfort, reassure, and, most importantly, prepare Jackie. It was gonna be a rough few months ahead of him, and he couldn’t stress enough the importance of taking it slowly. Then he told Jackie about the period when Gray left his family behind because he felt out of place. Like he didn’t belong anywhere.

“But it gets better,” he promised. “You’ll get through the anger, the grief, the pain. All of it. And you won’t be alone.”

Jackie managed a wobbly smile. “You and your friend are my heroes forever. I swear.”