Chapter 27
Everything stopped when I heard his voice. It was like the sound of his voice was the key to the essence of time and when he spoke, everything froze. At least, that’s what if seemed like to me, since Joel and I were standing stone still right where we had stopped. It was like we were a couple of deer caught in the headlights of a speeding eighteen wheeler. We knew we had to do something but we were way too damn scared to do a fucking thing. Seriously, what could we do at this point? We’d exhausted our options and we were finally out of luck. Joel could have pulled out his gun and shot blindly into the darkness in a feeble attempt to wound the man threatening our lives, but that was assuming that Joel actually knew how to work the damn thing. This was it, I thought to myself as I gripped Joel’s hand tightly. A part of me was wishing that I had died in the alleyway that night, at least that way, Joel wouldn’t be standing next to me, facing almost certain death. And Benji, poor Benji. He had been through so much because of me, to protect me, to only have me die in the end anyway. Tears began to poke at my eyes as I was overcome with an unpleasant mixture of guilt and fear.
“Don’t move,” the voice demanded, shaking slightly and I could tell that he was nervous too. It had to be Kevin. Mike seemed so sure of what he wanted to do with us, where as Kevin was just going along with things. The man standing behind Joel and I was most definitely Kevin. “Alright, turn around slowly,” he demanded. I broke my grip on Joel’s hand as we both turned around to come face to face with Kevin and the barrel of a gun. “Hey Mike, get in here!”
“What?!” Mike yelled some what frustrated a moment later.
“Just get the fuck in here,” Kevin called back, not once taking his eyes off of us. I could hear Mike’s footsteps taking him closer to us.
“Why the fuck…,” he started, but his voice trailing off when he looked at me and Joel. “Well, well, well, what do we have here?” He said, an evil smirk playing on his lips. I felt my stomach turn from fear and disgust as he kept his eyes locked on us. “You thought you could get away huh?” he said, keeping his attention fully on me. Our eyes locked for a moment and I quickly diverted my attention. I could feel Joel tensing up beside me with anger. I just hoped that he wouldn’t do anything stupid. I shuddered when I felt Mike gently brushed his fingers against my cheek. “You should have known that it wouldn’t be so easy.”
“Don’t fucking touch her,” Joel threatened through clenched teeth.
“And what are you gonna do about it?” Mike said, turning his attention from me to Joel. Joel stared at him, completely stone faced and unmoving. He was taking his position and he wasn’t backing down. God damn him and Benji. They were both so fucking hard headed. Why couldn’t they just keep their fucking mouths shut?
“I’m gonna kick your fuckin’ ass,” Joel said, his voice filled with rage. He and Benji were most definitely twins and most definitely completely out of their fucking minds. Mike just laughed at the comment.
“Oh yeah?” Mike asked, his tone sounding slightly amused by Joel‘s statement. “How do you plan on doing that with a hole in your fucking head?” Mike snapped, immediately bring his gun up to Joel’s face.
“No,” I shouted immediately, without thinking, it was just a reflex reaction. I just didn’t want him to suffer any more than he already had. He and Benji had already been through enough because of me, I didn’t want his death to be another reason for them to hate me. Mike just smirked and turned his attention back to me. “Leave him alone,” I whispered, my voice becoming shaky and uncertain. I looked to the ground, not wanting to make eye contact with him. “Just let him leave, please. I don’t care what happens to me, just let him go,” I whispered, tears beginning to roll down my cheeks silently. I didn’t want to die alone, but I didn’t want Joel to die period. It would hurt Benji too much to lose him so I was willing to sacrifice myself so that Benji would have at least one of us.
“Really now?” Mike questioned and I nodded my head slowly, hoping that he would take me up on my offer. “Bring them in the back,” Mike said to his brother. My heart started pounding with a mixture of anger and fear. No, he had to let Joel go. That was the only thing that I wanted. He had to do that for me, he just had to.
“No, let Joel leave. You can’t keep him here,” I blurted out. “He’s been shot. He needs to see a doctor. You can keep me. I don’t give a shit what you do to me, just please… let Joel go.”
“Hmm, let me think about it?” Mike said sarcastically. “No.”
“Please,” I whispered, my tears still pouring from my eyes. Mike just rolled his eyes, obviously annoyed with my display, but I really didn‘t care at this point. I knew I was about to die and I wasn’t going to let Joel die without a fight. Mike just pointed his gun at me and I froze.
“Look, either do what I say, or you both fucking die, it’s as simple as that,” Mike replied. I nodded, finally coming to grips with the fact that we really had run out of luck and we were in fact, at the end of the line. Silently, Joel and I were led towards the back of the building and into the room where Benji and I had been locked in when we were first brought here. My heart raced even faster as we moved closer to the room, thinking that they were going to kill us back there. Sure, they wouldn’t get too far afterwards with Benji and the police not too far away, but they would still kill us. I could feel that I was on the brink of hyperventilating as we moved further and further into the darkness. Joel’s hand immediately went onto my back and I could tell that he was concerned, more concerned about me then what was about to happen to us, it seemed. Well Joel, you better wake up and realize what was about to happen to us. We are gonna die.
“Alright, get in there,” Mike demanded, nudging me back into the dark room where Benji and I had been confined in only hours before.
“Look, let’s just leave them here,” Kevin whispered to his brother. “We don’t need a fucking murder conviction.”
“Are you going soft on me Kev?” Mike replied, turning his head away from Joel and I and in the split second, Joel reacted, pulling out his gun and firing it. Mike screamed and his gun fell from his hand and hit the floor. I froze in fear as I watched Joel lunge at him, knocking him down to the ground, a grunt was forcefully ripped from one of the men’s throats, I couldn‘t tell which. I stared it awe, not completely sure what I should be doing right at this moment. There didn’t really seem like anything that I could do.
“Stop or I’ll shoot!” Kevin yelled, his voice shaking. I could tell that he wouldn’t actually shoot, at least I didn‘t think he would. This was my chance, maybe I could distract him long enough for Joel to break free so we could escape. “I said stop!” Kevin yelled again, still not sounding entirely convincing but in that moment, I realized that he had taken his attention off of me and I was only inches away from the gun that Mike had dropped. This could be our last chance, I thought to myself as I silently took a deep breath and decided that I would make an attempt to get that gun. “I’m gonna give you to the count of 5!” Kevin yelled and at that second I dove for the gun that was laying abandoned on the ground. “What the…,” Kevin said, over taken by shock.
“Drop the fucking gun!” I yelled as I aimed the gun at him. “I know you’re not gonna fuckin’ shoot me so you’d better drop that fuckin’ gun because at this point, I really don’t have anything left to loose if I kill you.” Kevin stared at me, his eyes wide and I could tell that he wasn’t sure what he should do. “Now!” I yelled, hoping that my anger would help him make his decision. He nodded and slowly began to lower his gun. I could still hear the sounds of Joel and Mike fighting on the ground, but I didn’t want to take my attention off of Kevin out of fear that he would react. Now I was torn. I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t break eye contact with Kevin because he would react and I couldn’t let Joel and Mike keep fighting on the floor. Kevin smirked at me, obviously picking up on my dilemma.
“Well, what are you gonna do now, huh?” he asked. “Because it seems to me like you’ve got a choice you need to make. Either let them keep fighting and keep me at bay or you break them up and risk getting yourself killed.”
“Or I could just shoot you,” I retorted.
“Yeah, you would do that, but I don’t think you’ll shoot either.”
“What makes you think that?” I asked, trying not to show the fact that I was beginning to become more and more nervous.
“The fact that I don’t think you know how to work a gun,” he replied as he took a step towards me. I fiddled with the gun that was in my hand, trying my hardest to get the damn thing to fire but it was to no avail. Kevin just reached out and took the gun from my hand. “That, and you didn’t take the safety off.” I heard Joel groan loudly and Mike stood up, leaving Joel curled up on the floor.
“You get that out of your fucking system yet!?” Mike yelled, kicking Joel in the side, the groaned again and I screamed, hoping that he would leave Joel alone.
“Leave him alone!” I asked, my voice sounding desperate. He just laughed, and I had a feeling that he was really getting sick and tired of me begging him. Hell, I was getting sick and fucking tired of doing it myself. He sneered at me and walked closer to me. My heart started to race as he moved closer and touched his hand to my cheek. “Maybe I’ll have a little fun with you before I fucking kill you.” I closed my eyes, just waiting for it to me over when suddenly I heard a loud popping sound.
Author's Chapter Notes:
I would have added this chapter soon had I known that people were still reading it, lol.
