About time I updated this one, I'd been neglecting D: but not because I wanted to I just didn't know what to write. At first I did, but when you procrastinate you tend to forget. Oh well next to this I think my other idea I forgot was pretty bland in comparison. Anyways I'm actually not to happy at the moment. Turns out I had another version for after a certain part in here, but somehow my stupid computer DIDN'T SAVE IT! And I had to start ALL THE WAY OVER from that point. Even after I clearly remember hitting the save button at least 3 times before I turned it off. When I turned it back on needless to say I was pissed when I opened word and half of the chapter is gone. I swear the minute I get a job and save enough money this piece of shit laptop is going in the garbage. I actually liked that version better but lucky for ya'll it's not too different even though it wasn't what I originally wrote [DAMMIT!!!]

Well I guess after all that it doesn't matter,one idea lead to another and now the chapter is done and that's all that matters. It didn't really end how I expected, but I did the best I could. I once again pulled an all nighter so ya'll better like it. Naw just playing :D I'm just gonna turn this over to you guys now.
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“Jazmine will you hold still! How do you expect me to take your temperature if you keep moving”

“I can’t I hafta sneeze!”

“Well then sneeze already!”

“I can’t, it won’t come out,” she sniffed and poked her bottom lip out. Huey sighed and looked at her tiredly. All she did was shrug her shoulders. Due to stress and uncontrollable climate change, Jazmine managed to find herself sick.

“Well you’re just gonna have to take it yourself then, because if I don’t leave now I’m gonna be late for work,” Huey got up from the side of the bed and handed Jazmine the thermometer.

“Thanks, thanks a lot Huey. You were a big help,” she rolled her puffy eyes sarcastically.

“No problem,” he replied grabbing his keys.

Jazmine glared at the back of his head as he walked around the room getting his belongings.

“Jazmine you can stop giving me that evil look now,” Huey turned around and gave her a look of his own.

“No,” she rasped pointing a finger at him. “What kind of boyfriend are you anyways?” she continued scowling.

“The kind that cares enough to be late to work trying to take your temperature,” he rose an eyebrow at her. “Also, you should probably go to a doctor if you plan on having a voice tomorrow,” he added pointing out her sandpaper sounding voice.

“Whatever, just go to work already,” Jazmine waved her hand in a shooing motion at him.

“Go to the doctor Jazmine,” he warned while walking out the door.

“Goodbye Huey!” she hollered (more like rasped) pretending to ignore him.

When she heard the front door close shut, she sunk back onto her bed full of used tissues and throat lozenge wrappers and sighed miserably.

She felt like shit.

Probably looked like it too.

Going to the doctor was the last thing on her mind. A doctor going to a doctor felt really weird to her, and considering she didn’t go that much to begin with, she really didn’t want to make it habit. Besides, all she had was a cold and all they were gonna tell her was get plenty of fluids and rest. Most of the time that over the counter shit didn’t even work. So her best bet was to just sit at home and wait it out.

Which was exactly what she planned to do.

About four hours later, between bad daytime television, constant sneezing, coughing, and blowing the mucus that was clogging up her nose out, and just being plain bored she found herself on the couch exhausted yet too uncomfortable to actually sleep. Somehow though in-between then she did manage to doze off, but woke up in the same predicament as before, she was sick, exhausted and bored. And about 2 sneezes later she got curious enough to look in the tissue she just blew in.

It was yellow with some green thrown in.

She cringed, wrinkling her nose in disgust at the snot rag and threw it in the trash next to her. Great, that’s just what I need. An infection. She thought shaking her head and getting up to go toward the kitchen.

Ignoring the slight ache in her side she sniffed and looked around. Something was wrong.

Most if not all of the cabinets were wide open. Jazmine moved towards the sink and shut the door underneath it with her slippered foot. She looked around cautiously. Everything seems to be in order… she thought to herself while closing one above her head. She moved across the way and grabbed a bag of chicken flavored noodles from an open one and pondered to herself while grabbing a pot. No way did Huey do this. He’s way too much of a neat freak. Then again he was in a rush this morning. But he would’ve remembered leaving this many cabinets open wouldn’t he? She sat the pot full of water on the stove. Was it Riley? She quickly furrowed her eyebrows at the thought.

A few months back Riley just happened to be living with them, and let’s just say things didn’t end well. However to Huey’s contrary he never got a chance to get his key back from him. And along with that he had various things of his in odd places around the apartment. Most of the time the only reason he ever came over now was to beg for money and steal food from the fridge. It was almost like he never moved out actually. Almost.

Maybe he finally came back for his stuff. She thought. Yeah right. She smirked at herself.

She leaned on her forearms with her head in her hands on the counter next to the boiling water. She really did not need this now. Somewhere in the back of her mind something was telling her that it was not Riley who left all those cabinets open and that she should be very afraid. She couldn’t help but get the familiar feeling she got when she was in the garage that night at her job. It had been awhile since she had the nightmare, and it had been a week since the incident with Juanita and Jonathan and her wallet. Since then she had only talked to Juanita once, and even then she didn’t sound happy. Maybe her decision finally caught up with her she thought. I’m gonna have to call her once I’m over this crud I … Jazmine was instantly pulled from her thoughts and she shot her head up as she heard a shuffling sound coming from the bedroom.

Right about now Jazmine had two options, she could either grab her phone and get the hell out of there unnoticed, or she could grab the pot of boiling water and go scald the shit out of someone.

Without even realizing it Jazmine’s hand had grabbed the silver stainless steal handle of the pot as she advanced toward the room. As she crept slowly she realized her first plan wouldn’t of worked anyways since her phone was in the same room as her intruder, plus they had a really squeaky door. There was no way she was gonna get up out of there unnoticed. Another thing also crossed her mind, there was no way in hell she would’ve ever been this bold if she hadn’t met Huey and Riley. After all this time they were still violent if not more so with each other. To be quite honest Riley was worse than Huey, but he could be just as bad when he wanted. She knew that. She had known for 15 years, it was only a matter of time before it rubbed off on her somehow. Not to mention Huey had a stash of weapons sitting in the corner of their closet. She couldn’t exactly say it was a good thing, but it wasn’t exactly bad either. Sometimes those weapons came in handy.

To bad she didn’t have access to one now. But her pot of scalding water wasn’t too bad either. It could leave a third-degree burn, plus lot’s and lot’s of pain.

The minute she got to the room she let out a breath of relief and coughed a little holding her side with her free hand. “Riley what the hell are you doing here! You scared the shit out of me!” she hollered as best as her damaged vocal chords would let her.

Riley whipped around and scowled at her like a caught child. “Scare you! You scared me with yo nasty lookin face!” he said pointing out her disheveled appearance. “Lookin like shit turned over,” he added.

“Thanks, like I didn’t already know,” she snarled back.

“Damn and you acting like a bitch. What? Is Huey not beatin it up right?” he cackled, like a hyena at his own joke. Jazmine glanced down at the pot of water in her hand. She was seriously reconsidering not scalding the shit out of his face. That would shut him up, she thought but ultimately decided against it.

“I’m sick smart ass. I have a cold,” she sniffed rolling her eyes.

“Oh word? I was wonderin what you were doin knocked out on the couch wit cho mouth wide open snorin like that. I was about ready to shoot a paper ball in yo mouth to see if it would go in,” he stood straighter and grinned at his devious plan.

“What?!” she shrieked in shock. Then she remembered her reason for coming in there in the first place. “Riley what are you doing here?” she asked.

“Need guns,” he answered vaguely turning towards the closet.

Jazmine furrowed her eyebrows. Riley had tons of guns, and she knew for a fact that he had more than Huey, seeing as how that wasn’t really his weapon of choice anyways. So what did he need with his stuff?

“What happened to yours?” she moved and sat the pot down on the nightstand and crossed her arms.

“Maaaannnn you ain’t gon believe what happene….” He started

“Stop,” she held her hand up “I’m not gonna say anything, but when he finds out, which he will, you know it’s gonna be your butt right?” she warned. Riley poked his bottom lip out. “Maann fuck that bitch ass nigga, ain’t nobody scared of him. Imma kick his ass right after I get Tyrone,” he boasted picking out a pistol and checking to see if it had ammo. Jazmine raised an amused eyebrow. “Who’s Tyrone?” she asked.

“Some punk ass nigga who owe me $5 and I told that nigga if he don’t give it to me today imma bust a cap right in his asshole,”

Jazmine shook her head. “Well don’t say I didn’t warn you,”

“Man will you quit worryin, you sound worse then Huey,” he said walking towards the doorway.

“Well somebody has to worry about you,” she claimed following him out the room. “If not us then who?”

“I never asked ya’ll niggas to worry about me. I’m young Reezy, I …”

“I know, I know. I go where I wanna go do what I wanna do,” she mocked playfully.

Riley glared at her. “You know you really starting to piss me off with this interuptin thing,” he said stopping at the front door.

“Spell interrupting,” she challenged

“I-n-t-ruptin!” he exclaimed.

“AHHHNNNN!!! That’s the wrong answer!” she giggled.

“Man I ain’t got time for this shit I’m outta here,” he huffed opening the door and stomping away.

Jazmine closed the door still giggling at him. Riley was always fun to harass because he got worked up so easily. It was hilarious, plus it was payback for saying she looked like shit turned over. Which, however was not funny, because she really did.

To weak to do anything else, she moved towards the kitchen to make sure the stove was off from earlier then plopped back down in her place on the couch, barely noticing when she dozed off again, she was so tired.


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When she woke back up it was dark. And she was coughing, but not because of her cold, but because of smoke?

The apartment was on fire!!

Her whole body crawled with sweltering heat and drops of sweat found themselves glued to her sideburns while the rest of it rolled into the T-shirt she had on. Jazmine quickly went into high alert and accidentally threw herself off the couch in frenzy.

She couldn’t see anything. The thick dark clouds of smoke consumed everything right in front of her.

And on top of that she could hardly breathe, let alone move she was so weak.

Ok Jazmine think, what did you learn about fire safety. Uhh number one stay low. Jazmine looked down to make sure her knees and palms were still touching the ground, she was shaking so much. She was so disoriented she honestly didn’t know up from down anymore. Ok number two uhh.. uhhh… shit I can’t remember! Uhhh… oh! Get far away from the flames as possible. Gee that would actually help if I knew where they were coming from. She thought to herself as she felt her way over to a wall.

She blindly crawled like a baby and felt further up the wall till she realized it was the window leading to the fire escape.

YES!! She thought pulling herself up by the windowsill. The last step, get the hell outta here!!

It took almost half her energy just to raise the window but once she did, and she felt the cool September air hit her feverish face, it was all that she needed to get her cloud pajama clad leg out onto the stairwell and half drag the other one out behind it.

With the rest of her energy she had, she ran, damn near tripped down two flights of stairs before making it to the end of the stairwell. Oh this just had to get worse, like most fire escapes it never actually touched the ground. So she had to jump. Jazmine was in no such condition to jump, she had barely made it out just a few seconds ago and now she had to do this. Jazmine let out a little whine and leaned over the rail to look at the ground beneath her and immediately wished she didn’t. Before she even known what had happened Jazmine had flipped over and landed right on her back. Lucky for her, her hair was so damn poofy at the time her head didn’t feel anything, if not dizzy.

Slowly Jazmine pulled herself up. She wobbled and clutched her chest and taking painful shaking gasps of breath like they would be her last she looked up at her nearly demolished apartment. They almost were. She thought morbidly. But immediately her heart stopped as she saw a dark figure pass by the window.

Someone was in the apartment

To caught up in everything that had happened to her, Jazmine barely had time to register how the fire started in the first place. But looking at the dark figure pass by it was all the clarification needed.

This fire was no accident.

Someone had started it but who?

Right before she could ask herself Jazmine heard the screeching of tires, and turned her head just in time to see bright headlights before everything went dark.



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Jazmine? Jazmine? A familiar comforting voice was calling her name. It sounded so distant to her, but inviting. Who is that? She furrowed her eyebrows subconsciously, as she slowly became aware of her surroundings. She was laying on something soft. That’s when she felt it. A cold tube was tapped up to the back of her right hand. An IV? She thought confused. She let it sit in her head for a few minutes before it finally clicked. I’M IN THE HOSPITAL! Great, just great. The one place I really didn’t want to end up at today… wait what is today? Jazmine slowly opened her eyes and was immediately blinded by white lights before she was met face to face with worried filled amber eyes.

She blinked once. Twice. Three times, before she said anything “Huey?” she whispered narrowing her eyes, with her not remembering anything or how she got there, Jazmine really didn’t know if it were him or just a figment of her imagination. But with that afro it had to be him. She could spot that thing anywhere.

“Yes,” his deep yet distinct tone answered. She breathed a sigh of relief. Yea it was him.

“How did I get here?” she asked closing her eyes again.

“You passed out in the middle of the street from dehydration and over-exertion,” he replied gently.

Jazmine opened her eyes at the comment and that’s when everything came back with a full force. The cabinets being open, the scalding water, Riley not being able to spell, the smoke, the fire escape…the intruder, and last but not least the passing out.

Jazmine shot up and immediately wished she didn’t. Her whole body ached.

God what happened? Oh yea that’s right I fell off the fire escape. She thought trying to resettle herself.

Huey stood up from his chair and quickly steadied her with his hand. “Jaz you really don’t wanna over do it,” he warned shaking his head a bit “From what the Doctors said you’re lucky to be up right now,” he eyed her sternly while mindfully avoiding her bruises as he maneuvered her to lay back down.

She sat silently for a moment before she asked him another question. “Did you find anything out about the apartment,” she said quietly. He was quiet for a moment. He was giving her that look that said ‘I really don’t want to talk about it. But since you asked and you look so pitiful I have to say something’ Needless to say it wasn’t her favorite look of his.

Huey sighed. “The police didn’t say much, except that they’re working on it. Stupid bastards, they never do anything right,” he spat keeping his head low. “You shouldn’t worry about that now though, you need to rest,” he placed a cool hand on her forehead, startling her a bit. Catching her expression he spoke up.

“You had a fever of 105 earlier,”

“What!?” her eyebrows shot up.

“Turns out your cold was really pneumonia,” he said bluntly.

“Well that explains why my side hurt earlier,” she mumbled. He swept a piece of hair out of her face before he continued talking. "The doctor said he started you on some amoxicillin to clear out your lungs, so you should feel ok in couple of days but until then I’d suggest you get well acquainted with this bed, because you’re not gonna be doing to much moving,” he explained.

Jazmine shrugged slightly, “Ehhh it hurts to much to move,” she sighed and rolled over on her side facing him.

Right when she was about to quit fighting it and go back to sleep, she finally realized the news was on, and she honestly couldn’t believe what she heard. She had barely missed it what with her already being half-conscious anyways, but she knew that name anywhere.

Dr. Natasha Dreadin had just been declared missing

Well, at least now she wasn’t bored anymore.


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