Chapter Fifteen: As The Story Goes...

I wouldn't allow myself to grieve. I cried, of course I did. But, I don't think it was out of emotion, more shock. Tala tried to kill me. I found myself staring down the barrel of a gun, even after all we'd been through. Personally, I don't consider that much of a friend.

I didn't feel a thing for him anymore. The cops shot him, so what? He brought it on himself. He decided he was going to murder me; he made that decision by himself. It was him, or me. And it's their job to get rid of the world's scum.

If he'd have shot me, and I'd died, then the consequences would have been much worse. If he'd shot me, then more innocent lives would've been claimed by him. And nobody wants that.

There's a saying in the Bible: If you live by the sword, then you die by the sword. In Tala's case, it was the same, but with a gun. Tala's death was his punishment for his sins; I've no doubt about that. I'm just grateful that God was looking over me that day. I mean, I'm not exactly a complete saint, but He forgave me, even for my sins. I suppose Tala just stepped over the line, if it works that way.

But as stories go, I carried on with my life. It's been a year since that fateful day...

I went to live with the couple that comforted me when Tala was shot. They cared for me dearly, and I loved them in return like I would with my biological parents. I couldn't have wished for anybody better. They loved me, fulfilled my every need, and encouraged me with my schoolwork and stuff like that. Heck, they even grounded me! But that didn't matter. I'd just hold my hands up and admit I'd been up to mischief, whereas with Voltaire I'd kick up a fuss. They understood me so well, and just sorta seemed to know what to do. If I was depressed, they'd give me some space. If I was hyperactive, they'd mess around with me for a bit. If I was mischievous, they'd put me straight back into line. It was just like we shared some sort of bond. And for once in my life I was... happy. I was content with what I had, and a lot of the time I was even delighted to visit my grandfather. Life was perfect.

I left school at sixteen. I knew what job I had in mind, and I had the grades to back it up. I knew it would be hard though, and I'd have to work extremely hard and put in a lot of money and dedication. But my 'parents' were with me every step of the way, and I finally made a break through into the music industry. Now I'm the lead singer in a major rock band, as well as being their guitarist. 'Fragmented' is one of the most recognised bands around right now. I'm not quite sure why, but everyone tells me it's because of the deep, down-to-earth lyrics that Wyatt and I write. We prefer to write about our experiences in life, and try to incorporate it into a sort of story. Our story.

It's really quite fun being with the guys. We always perform daft stunts on stage. We're all a bit mental, you see? Sometimes we totally regret them afterwards, but it's all good fun, and really gets the crowd going. Despite the fun we have, however, we're all ready to just get down to work and carry on with our songs. They're rather depressing, if you listen to the words, but we try to make them mean something. The tunes change every time. We try to make our music available to a wider audience. We won't stray away from the rock genre, but just change elements slightly. One minute we'd be writing really heavy stuff and the next we'd be writing something a little more punk.

My social life isn't too bad either. I still find it difficult to trust people, but I've always felt like that, partly because of Voltaire. I have a close bond with the guys in the band, of course, but I've also got a few friends outside of it. They know about what happened, so they also understand. We often just hang about at the skate park, showing off to each other half of the time. I'm not a bad skater, myself. My best friend, Wyatt, was the one who got me into skateboarding. Wyatt's great. He pulls off all these gravity-defying tricks that are just completely impossible. Nobody comes close. I think he's better than that Tony Hawk guy sometimes. Anyway, we'd practise there, and then head off to the greatest place on Earth: Shadow Heart. It's a mosher/skater/punk/goth cafe. It's a social area for all and totally rocks. We'd all have a drink, maybe a slice of pizza and just talk about anything. I loved everything about it.

So although one of my closest friends had died, it became more of an opportunity for a real life for me. And I gladly took it. This was the final chapter in Kai's Story. It doesn't end there, of course, but my life had changed for the better, and I doubt many things can go wrong now, not unnaturally, at least. There obviously will be times when I'd want to throw in the towel, but that's just another part of life. So this is how it ends. I hope you've... heh... enjoyed my misfortunes, and thank you for being there, listening to my story. Maybe we'll meet again, who knows?

- Kai

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Oh my God! I don't believe it! Yes, that was the final chapter! Kai's Story is finished! So how did you guys like it?