Authors Note: I wrote this for a story challenge last month. Deciding to post it here now. Let me know what ya think.

Gone

Kevin ran his fingers through his dark hair in distressed disbelief. This couldn’t be happening to him. Or could it? He looked back up at the TV screen letting the words of the news reporter sink in. A thick knot filled in the pit of his stomach causing him the sensation of wanting to vomit. He couldn’t though, with his mouth and throat dry. With a shaky breath, a rather forced one that was hard to get out, Kevin grabbed the remote and turned the volume up to hear the report for the fourth time that day. The woman was standing in front of his house, that was blocked off with police tape.

Thirty-four year old Kevin Richardson of the Backstreet Boys has been suspected in the murder of his long-time girlfriend, Amanda Ellis. Her car was found abandoned on the side of the road, her body found severely beaten in a crop field about a hundred yards from the vehicle, just off of route seventy-one two days ago, his finger prints matching that which was on her clothing. There has been no signs of Richardson, but if you know anything that could lead up to finding him, please call the number at the bottom of the screen. Amanda’s family is offering a reward to anybody who has information that could lead to his arrest.

Three days. It had been three days since his girlfriend had been in his arms. Kevin had to hold back a choked sob as he closed his eyes. He remembered that night so clearly. It had been like most of their other dates. She’d come over and then together they had gone out to dinner and then back to his place to cuddle on the couch and watch a movie. Right before she’d left, he’d embraced her in his arms for several moments just hugging her and kissing her soft lips gently, telling her to be safe going home. Everything had been perfect. That was, until the next morning when he’d been sipping on a cup of coffee reading the morning paper and listening to the news in the background. His world had come crashing down and he was being convicted of a heinous crime. One in which he’d taken absolutely no part in. Some monster had taken away the one thing that had made his life worth living. His three year relationship was gone in the blink of an eye. He felt lost and alone. Numb.

And there he was hiding out in a dingy hotel room miles upon miles away from his home. He really had no choice because the police were looking for him. He knew that hiding made him look guilty, but he honest to God wasn’t. He didn’t want to be drug off and charged with murder though either, for he knew people were convicted all the time for things that they didn’t do.

Kevin sighed. He and Amanda had planned on getting married. Growing old together. Dying together. None of that would happen though. He was left separate from her.

“Please, don’t leave me behind.” Kevin whispered to himself aloud as a bright picture of the woman he still loved appeared on the TV screen.

His friends had pretty much disowned themselves from him. He didn’t know why. Did they not know him better than that? It didn’t seem so, because whenever he tried to call, none of them answered. Even his family had turned on him. He was no longer the kind, gentle man in their eyes. He was now a murderer and they wanted nothing to do with him. There was not a thing he could do to try and convince them otherwise either. After all, his ‘finger prints’ had been found on her clothing. Since when was hugging your girlfriend goodbye a crime? Somehow, they’d connected something innocent and caring with something completely...horrible.

Kevin froze when headlights appeared through the window of the hotel. Or was it a flashlight from the police searching for him? He gulped back more tears, not knowing if he was being reasonable or just plain paranoid. Either way, Kevin knew he couldn’t live like this. He couldn’t live in fear and in hiding and he surely couldn’t be this depressed for the rest of his days. This was no way to live.

Kevin waited until the lights went away just to be on the safe side. It was only then that he got up leaving the room untouched as he made his way towards the door of his room, leaving it and everything behind just like he had his home which he could never return to again.

***

They stared at the TV in shock at the scene before them. Each man was speechless as they watched as from one angle, a helicopter flew over a bridge and lake below as from another, a reporter stood atop the bridge holding her microphone in hand. The night sky was lit with the moon and stars, casting an eerie glow upon her long black hair and ivory skin. Across the bottom of the screen were the words BREAKING NEWS. It was when she began to speak though that everything fell together.

Kevin Richardson, suspected of killing his girlfriend Amanda Ellis, earlier this week, was found dead in Lake Michigan. His body was recovered just hours after a witness came to us reporting a man jumping from the Mackinac bridge with what appeared to be a bag of some sorts tied to his feet. It appears to have been suicide, the cement blocks making it so that after he jumped, there was no way to turn back and change his mind. A box was found atop the bridge with a note on the inside left by Richardson. The note read: To my sweet Amanda, with the lyrics,

And I'd give up forever to touch you
'Cause I know that you feel me somehow
You're the closest to heaven that I'll ever be
And I don't want to go home right now

And all I can taste is this moment
And all I can breathe is your life
'Cause sooner or later it's over
I just don't want to miss you tonight

And I don't want the world to see me
'Cause I don't think that they'd understand
When everything's made to be broken
I just want you to know who I am

The note ended with the words ‘I didn’t do it. I loved her more than life itself, and now I will be with her again.

Police have been searching for Richardson for days now. It appears that their search is over and a mystery left unsolved.

Only moments later, another scene came on, but the four men were in too much shock to even notice it. Was this right? Had Kevin really committed suicide over his girlfriend? Guilt gnawed at each of their insides because they knew that they’d made a mistake in distancing themselves from their best friend. Their soul brother. Guilty by association was how they’d seen it, but they’d been in the wrong and it had cost one man his life. Nothing could bring him back.

“I...I...damn,” AJ stuttered, not quite knowing what to say.

“This can’t be right.” Brian mumbled, as Kevin had been his cousin. His strong, optimistic cousin with a bright future ahead of him. A man that nothing could break down...until now. It was still so hard to believe.

“We should have known better,” AJ’s voice trembled with emotion, “We should have known he’d never do anything to hurt her.”

The others all nodded in agreement, but nobody said anything more. Everything was still sinking in. The shock of it all was slowly starting to creep up more and more. Two young lovers had died in the blink of an eye, and nobody really knew the truth behind it all. Nobody ever really would.

The scene of where the suicide had taken place came back on the screen as all watched as if hypnotized. The clear, aqua waters of Lake Michigan sparkled under the moonlight. Their gentle waves splashed along tauntingly. The same seemingly peaceful waters that had lured their best friend, Kevin, to his death.