take me to the riot

TWO

KILL YOUR DARLINGS

They haven't run into anything yet, which is a miracle, but the two of them still remain as quiet as they can when they walk up the porch steps to Shay's front door. The neighborhood is like a complete ghost town. There are a few cars missing from their driveways, front doors have been flung wide open and windows broken, shattered glass littering the ground. There isn't a single sign of life in any of the houses. Shay takes a breath and crouches down, lifting up the welcome mat where there is a spare key.

She only hesitates for a moment before she moves to unlock the door, key in the hole and hand ready to turn the knob—before she realizes that the door is already open.

She freezes.

"What's wrong?" Jonah says from over her shoulder.

She shakes her head. "Nothing," she says and pushes the (it should have been locked) door open wide enough for them to get through, "Nothing."

"Your old man is here, right?" Jonah says, following her inside the house. It's big, bigger than the downtown apartment he shares with his grandparents at least. "I mean, you're sure he didn't go to the evacuation center or something? I think that's where my grandparents went too."

Shay turns on him sharply. "He wouldn't leave without me!" she snaps and then adds in a softer tone, "He wasn't feeling well today, so he stayed home from work. Something told me to stay behind with him instead of going to school but I—" Her heart clenches something awful and she feels her eyes burn.

Jonah puts a hand on her shoulder and looks her in the eye carefully. His eyes are a wonderful shade of green, much nicer than her own dull brown ones. If she weren't busy panicking and worrying about her dad she'd probably be a little jealous.

 "It's okay. He's here somewhere. We just gotta look." He smiles. Her heart unclenches.

"Okay," she says and nods. His hand leaves her shoulder and he frowns, suddenly, sniffing the air.

"Is something burning?"

"What—" she starts and then she smells it too. She runs to the kitchen, with Jonah close behind her. The stove is on, the fire turned up a little too high with a pot of what looks like soup boiling over, over it. Quickly, Shay moves to turn it off.

"He's here, he's gotta be—He wouldn't just leave the stove on like that—"'

"Sh...Shay..." The voice is faint but loud enough to make Jonah and Shay st0p completely.

"...Dad?" she calls out, hesitantly.

"Sssshaaaay," he hisses out her name. It sounds like his voice is coming from the pantry. Jonah glances at the slightly open pantry door warily and then back at Shay, whose face looks relieved.

"Dad? Dad I'm here," she says and rushes over to the pantry and opens the door before Jonah can really process what she's doing. His expression is that of alarm as he shouts, "Wait!"