GLITCH.
053 | distortion of love

RETRIEVING THE KEYS TO THE PHANTOM FROM THE MAYBANK HOUSE WAS FAIRLY EASY

well, at least for Renee and Kiara who despite their offers to assist JJ in going inside which he inevitably refused not being aware of what kind of state his dad was in and especially not wanting to expose either of them ( but especially his girlfriend) to it.

It gave both of the girls time to mull over what had happened with their parents back at the wreck. Renee couldn't help but wonder what was suddenly pulling out this maternal side of her mom? she had never seemed to care about what happened to her, claiming that it was her own problem far too many times for Renee to be able to count.

But. She couldn't help but feel guilty, although her mom didn't show it as much as she used to — she loved her in her own way, Renee was still her child after all.

Renee flinched at the feeling of JJ's cold palm resting on top of the bare skin of her thigh — snapping out of her thoughts as she looked back at jj who had been trying to talk to her,

" you've been quiet since we left the wreck, is everything ok?" he asked, which prompted the question to plant itself in her own head.

She was a fugitive, running away from the law doing everything that she had been raised distinctly not to do. She was scared, beyond scared: for herself, her family, her friends — especially John B of all people. 

Of course she wasn't ok.

" yeah." she faked a smile and momentarily glanced at JJ " I'm fine and dandy." soon turning her attention back to the road as she drove down the road to the storage unit the boat was being kept in.

JJ and Kiara momentarily shared a look of questioning if the other knew what was going on with the girl — neither knowing the answer, leaving them in the dark.

The flashing of red and blue mixed with the horrendously loud sound of the sirens send shock waves through the three teenagers.

" guys get down!" JJ instructed, himself pushing his body down into a uncomfortable slouching position whilst Kiara ducked behind Renee's seat.

Renee used one of her hands to position her hair to cover the half of her face that the cops could clearly see — too grabbing JJ's hat off of his head and lazily placing it on her own.

Her heart beat didn't go back down until it's usual rhythm until the police car and her own vehicle were at least ten metres apart from one another.

Pulling up to the storage unit was soon after, turning off the ignition and getting out — a slight buzz of excitement filled JJ's eyes as Renee looked at him as she approached the lock of the storage unit.

As he pushed the door open, light leaked into the unit — junk scattered along the left side of the walls although it was obvious that no body was looking at that when the getaway boat was taking up most of the proximity on the right hand side.

" there she be." JJ grinned, walking into the unit soon being followed by Kiara and Renee,

" hey girl." he greeted the boat, pulling the cover from over the railing " a nineteen eighty three formula four-o-two SR one." JJ clarified, the name sparked in Renee's mind.

" I'm pretty sure my grandpa use to have one of these back in France ." she mumbled to herself, although through JJ's awe of the boat she was barely heard.

" the phantom." she turned to look at the girls who nodded and hummed, not really knowing what else to do or say.

" the first boat to make the run to Bermuda in under sixteen hours!" he boasted, continuing to ran his flat palm over the side " Forty years old! Fourty."

" it's still the fastest thing Kildare's ever seen." Renee and Kiara looked at each other,

" JJ what? Are you like in love with it or something?" Renee asked, genuinely curious as he frowned at her.

" it's kind of a junker." his gaze soon turned to Kiara as he flickered his eyes back to the boat.

" really kie? She's right there, she can hear you." Renee couldn't help but bite her tongue to withhold  laughter as she looked away.

" let's just put it this, you would not be smoking weed right now if she never existed, okay?" JJ told them, earning a roll of the eyes from Kiara whilst Renee walked closer to JJ.

" all I'm worried about, is if she's going to run." Renee told him " I mean like you said she's- I mean it's forty years old."

" she'll run all right." JJ spoke in confidence " she's faster than any cutters the boys in  blue got!"

Renee looked away from JJ at the sound of motorcycle engines — Kiara sighing and soon began walking towards the sound.

" Pope finally!" she picked up her pace, until she stopped realising after all that it wasn't Pope - it was much much worse.

" hey there, what's going on?" Rafe Cameron's voice sent shivers down Renee's spine as she and JJ looked up from the boat

" JJ? The lovely Renee? how you guys doing?" Renee reached out for JJ — who she could already tell was seeing spots of red in the midst of his vision .

Although Rafe was the least of their problems, a wolf whistle behind them suddenly stole their attention away from Rafe who was now climbing on the side of the phantom.

Barry appeared from the side of Renee's busted up car — eyeing up JJ especially who had a regretful look in his eyes.

" well well well." Barry smirked, happy to notice the pale faces of all three of them.

The tone had changed. The sound of a gun clocking and being focused in the direction of JJ's chest made this all feel like a dream. A nightmare.

" see, don't think I forgot about me and you on the side of the road." Barry told JJ who held his hands up in surrender to the man.

" now I'm here because I want my mother fucking money!" Barry shouted — launching at the blonde boy as JJ was viciously pushed to the ground.

Renee and Kiara both shouting for JJ — then soon picked up by Rafe who dragged them away, Kiara's squirming and persistent violent attempts to escape from his grip not landing her in the position she wanted.

Rafe soon launched the arm that kiara was grasped in outright — Renee watched in horror as Kiara fell to the floor a few metres away from them.

" Kie!" Renee's voice was brittle, pain stinging her throat as she screamed out for her friend who was aching on the hard floor. " Kie are you ok!"

" see I didn't want to do that!" Rafe told the blonde as he set her down, Renee broke her gaze away from Kiara to show her disgust to Rafe. " she just left me no other choice!"

" what the fuck is wrong with you Rafe!" Renee lifted her open palm — soon striking it against Rafe's cheek. Hoping to use the few moments of realisation to go and check on Kiara. Although as she suspected, that plan didn't work.

As soon as Renee took a single step towards Kiara and away from Rafe — his hands viciously placed itself on the skin of her bruises and newly healed cut that had left a scar, the pain blindsiding her as he pushed her back.

" now, I really wish you hadn't done that!" He hollered out — Renee tried to step back, get away from him with her hand reaching behind, rapidly searching for something to defend herself with.

" I don't want to hurt you ok." Rafe almost compromised, as Renee scoffed.

" you haven't had trouble doing it before have you?"

" I know what you did you know? On the airstrip." Renee told him, hoping to distract him so he wouldn't have noticed her wandering hands.

He furrowed his eyebrows, squinted his eyes, ultimately playing the clueless act as he shook his head at the girl, " what did I do exactly Ren, tell me!"

" You killed her. You shot Peterkin!" Barry even looked up as Renee screamed back at Rafe, taking a momentarily break from beating up JJ who was cowering on the floor.

" I know you did, because you're a fucking psychopath !"

he didn't say anything, instead he moved closer. Renee couldn't tell what he was about to do but she was still terrified. She didn't know this Rafe.

" I really really wish you hadn't done that."

Rafe's fingers clasped tightly around Renee's neck, lifting her upwards until her toes were barely touching the floor — her fight or flight sense kicking in as her legs began hysterically moving trying to hit him enough to let go or even loosen his grip on her. The sound of her choking evident although nobody was around to save her.

Every millisecond that had passed — she could feel her life slowly fade away from her — she was going to die at the hands of Rafe Cameron, she was sure of it — ninety nine percent.

" Rafe-" she placed her own hands on top of his as she stared at his blank eyes that no longer held any emotion with hers that felt as if her life was flashing through them " please stop." her voice barely audible as he shook his head,

" this could have been so much different, so much better."

" you should've just given me a chance, you should've given us a chance." he told with tears brimming in his eyes.

Confusion distilled her until it all managed to finally clicked all into place inside of her head — all these years she had thought he just had a sickening obsession with his best friends sister.

" Rafe, you're hurting me." her voice weaker, breathless

All of the ways to try and grab her attention,
Every time he mocked her for being a pogue, every time that he would get overly defensive or jealous of her being friends with boys that weren't himself, Topper or Kelce.

" I could've loved you like you wanted to be love, I could have been there for you when nobody else was." tears began to fill his eyes, however Renee didn't take it as genuine as she could feel the life suck out of her.

" I can't breathe." her words barely audible as they took all her remaining breath. Her hands overlapping his as an attempt to get him off of her.

" Ra-Rafe-"

It was his demented way of showing that he loved her — although his distortion of love was actually obsession.

" I'm sorry Ren." he told her, his grip only tightening on her neck. Her body falling limb and eyes fluttering shut.

Heavy pants left Renee's mouth as she fell abruptly to the floor and back into reality — Rafe's grip on Renee's throat failing as the back of a metal pipe collided with his legs.

" get the hell off of her!" Lennon yelled at the limp brunette that had then fallen to the floor.

Renee coughed, gasping for breath as she weakly lifted herself from the floor that she had earlier fell onto — the burning sensation from where Rafe's fingers were once suffocating made her feel sick and a small amount of blood dripped from the corners of her mouth — the rusted taste only making her all the more nauseous.

Lennon, blinded by rage and betrayal dropped the pipe to the floor and stared at a weakened Rafe in disgust through his tear clouded eyes.

" I trusted you." He roared, veins in his body popping out to the surface as his skin — tears dribbling from his eyes.

" you were like a fucking brother to me, you asshole!" Renee managed to find strength to stand herself up — watching as her brother was pushed aside by Pope who was soon taking his place and their shared anger out on Rafe — throwing punches in his direction, anger blinding him from any sort of logic.

" Ren!" Kiara called out, too weakened by Rafe's actions — the girl hobbled over to Renee who was still adjusting to what had just happened, Renee wrapped her arms around the girl momentarily as she continued to cough.

" fuck, I thought I'd lost you." Kiara mumbled, having regained her full mobility the second Renee looked as if she was gone.

Before Renee had time to answer, Barry clocked onto the change of situation from Rafe's side and the appearance of another pogue and slightly more shockingly one of his ex best customers.

The gun was pointed in the direction of the two girls, Lennon and Pope.

" Rafe!" Barry called out, JJ who was still on the floor wrapped his hands around Barry's foot, tripping him up and forcing the gun out of his hands.

" Ren! Kick it!" JJ shouted, the girl kicked her foot towards the gun — letting the weapon slide underneath the boat, out of arms reach for any of them.

Another fight commenced; although now it was Rafe and Barry taking the punches and the pogues dishing them out even the phantom took a few hits as JJ pushed Barry's body against it before pushing him back to the floor.

Renee stood in the centre of it all. Kiara had wondered off to try and pull Pope off of Rafe although her attempts were currently ineffective.

" hey!" Lennon grabbed ahold of his sister, to which she flinched not noticing him beforehand — Renee looked at him, squinting her eyes.

" believe me now? or do you need some more proof." Although she was still trying to catch her breath, Renee managed to give out her usual snappy sarcasm , Lennon shook his head at his little sister.

" I'm sorry ok?" He bargained, as Renee stepped back, noticing the current severity of the situation — something she had grown use to unlike her brother,

" you need to go home." she told him " you can't be here right now."

Lennon scoffed " like I'm going to leave you to get almost killed again, yeah no." Renee grabbed ahold of her brothers wrists.

" Lennon." she huffed, although her attention was deferred to Pope's new found violence as he continued to punch Rafe mixed with Kiara's attempts to stop him,

" Pope!" Renee let go of her brother, pacing towards what was happening — soon JJ and Lennon both clocking on to it also and although in no way was Rafe Cameron in Lennon's good graces, he still didn't want him to die, which it looked like he would soon at the vicious rate Pope was going at.

" Pope I know you're angry man, but stop!" Renee hollered out to him, even her attempts named useless — his hands grabbing the material of the hose pipe and wrapping it tightly around Rafe's neck.

" snap out of it dude!" JJ tried to get through to him, snapping in his face hoping to break him out of whatever transfixion he was currently under.

" Pope!" Kiara and Renee both continued to shout out to him, their verbal attempts were deemed unsuccessful.

Instead, both JJ and Lennon grabbing ahold of Pope and trying desperately to pry him off of Rafe,

" come on dude, stop!" JJ grunted at the force he was putting in yet no outcome, if not only making things worse.

" Look at me!" Kiara yelled, finally deciding to obey. Pope dropped the pipe along with Rafe's nearly unconscious body that was now lying at Popes feet as he gasped and coughed.

Renee briefly looked down at Rafe.

"Yeah doesn't feel good does it asshole."  She seethed, obviously not earning a reply as the brunette continued to cower on the floor.

" shit, oh shit." Lennon said lowly, bringing Renee's attention back up to eye-level.

The realisation of what Pope did finally hit him, his eyes drifting down to Rafe and the blood that had dripped from his mouth,

" okay, we gotta go." Kiara told them, Renee and JJ nodded beginning to walk away from the scene and towards the car.

JJ intertwined his and Renee's fingers, both of them quiet although the silence we soon broken between them.

" Ren wait!" she stopped, tugging JJ behind her as they were still holding hands.

" Len, we've gotta go." She urged, she could see the concern for her painted on his face. But she needed to save John B and Sarah.

" just go home." she told him, before swallowing dryly in a slight amount of guilt " I'm sorry."

Turning her body around and getting into the car that the boat was now attached to — the four pogues drove away.

" once we get John B and Sarah off of the island this is all over." Renee sighed, pulling out onto the main road as they sat in silence, not answering her,  she turned her head to look at JJ.

" right?" she asked again, slight panic in her eyes as the boy nodded and pressed his hand on the one of hers that was sat on the gearstick.

" yeah it'll all be over."

what a fucking lie.

AUTHORS NOTE.
the writers block is real rn .
I know this chapters really bad so don't shout at me please :)

only two more chapters of this left and then book two x

- Elle xx