Brian sat there in silence, watching as their captors walked back and forth past them, almost as if forgetting that their hostages were also in the room with them. They had long since cleaned up the blood that stained the stone flooring, but Brian could still see the extremely faint hue of red. Luckily, the smell of death that had once lingered was now gone, replaced with the fresh scent of Pinesol, but he could still smell the sharp metallic scent of fresh blood. His cousin’s blood.

He glanced down at Kevin, who was propped up against the couch. He had paled significantly, and his emerald green eyes seemed heavy and glazed. His breathing was shallow, due to the fact that he probably didn’t want to take normal breaths in, which would cause his chest to expand, thus leading to an onslaught of pain. Blood continued to seep out of the wound, but Brian had noticed that there were no traces of blood on the couch of which he was propped up on. A sure good sign that he hadn’t suffered an exit wound, but nonetheless, the bullet was still lodged within his chest cavity.

“Stop staring at me.”

The weak voice had broken Brian out of his trance, “Huh?”

“I said… stop staring at me.” Kevin softly spoke out again. “Stop looking at my chest, stop looking at the blood… I know what it’s doing to you Brian. And for the record, I’m fine.”

Brian sighed, “You don’ look fine Kev.”

“Thanks for making me feel worse Bri.” Kevin tried to chuckle. “Couldn’t you have at least… lied and told me that I look beautiful?”

Brian forced a smile, “You look beautiful cous.”

Kevin lightly shook his head, “It’s too late, you can’t tell me that now… I already know I look like shit.” he tried to turn his head to look at Howie, “How you holding up over there D?”

Howie, who had busied himself with staring at dismissed cookies and gifts, looked at his eldest friend, “I’m as fine as can be in this situation man. The real question is, how are YOU doing?”

“Just got done telling Brian I’m fine… I’m kinda growing numb right now.” Kevin sensed them both tense up in worry. “Before you guys jump all over me, I’m actually taking it as a good sign… I’d rather be numb than feel the continuous pain.”

“You will let us know if you feel progressively worse… right?” Brian asked in a small voice.

Kevin remained silent for a while. “Yeah.” he lied. Truth was, he may have felt slightly numb, but he could still feel the pain, and he knew the numbness wasn’t a good sign.

“Alright you two, get up.” Bobby said as he gestured for Brian and Howie to stand up. “Zach and Gene, help that one up.”

“Where are we going?” Brian asked as he rose up from the ground. When he noticed that Zach and Gene were closing in on his cousin, he quickly stepped in front of Kevin, as if to protect him. “Wait, what are you guys doing?”

Dennis came up and shoved Brian away from Kevin, “You best not ask questions and just do what we fucking tell you.”

Brian watched helplessly as Zach and Gene wrenched Kevin up from the ground, not being mindful of the gunshot wound he had sustained. “Move!” Dennis shouted as he pushed Brian forward again, causing him to crash into Howie.

Howie quickly reached out to steady Brian, “Lets just do what they tell us Bri.” he softly said as they followed Bobby.

Bobby led them into the room Brian had selected to stay in, “You guys are to stay in here. We already cleared this room out of anything that you guys could possibly use to try to escape. So, in other words, don’t even try it.” and with that, they all left them in the room, closing the door behind them.

After standing there for a moment in silence, Brian finally turned his attention back to Kevin, who stood there in a hunched position. “C’mon Kev, lets help you to the bed.”

Howie had came over to help Brian bring Kevin to the bed. “At least they brought us in here to sleep.” Brian voiced as he helped his injured cousin to settle in, trying to remain optimistic. His room was complete with a king sized bed as well as a large, plush couch.

“Does that feel better Kev?” Howie asked as he continued to prop the full pillows up around him.

Kevin simply nodded; he was in too much pain at the moment to say anything, but he didn’t want them to know that. Before anything else was said, the door to the room opened again, revealing Adrianna as she slowly walked in.

“Brought you guys something to eat, as well as some medical things for him. Took me a long, and I mean long time to convince James, but he gave in.” Adrianna said as she placed down a tray on the small round table that sat tucked away in the corner of the room. On the tray was a pot, some bowls, spoons, packages of crackers, a loaf of bread and a first-aid kit. “I hope you don’t mind, I used your kitchen and food items. You guys seriously stocked up with groceries, huh?” when she got no reply, she continued talking. “Well, I hope you guys like minestrone soup. It’s my specialty, actually, James’ favorite.” she explained as she placed the bowls out in front of her and began to ladle some of her hot, fresh soup into each bowl. “Has some hearty potatoes, carrots, celery, beans…”

She handed the first bowl over to Brian, who just stared at her in return. She gave a small smile before she grabbed the next bowl and handed it to Howie. “So, are one of you guys gonna feed him or…” she trailed off, holding the last bowl before her. “One of you guys can feed him after I look him over.”

“What do you mean look him over?” Brian asked as he placed his bowl down.

“I’m gonna take a look at his injury, make sure it’s not getting infected or anything.” she replied as she grabbed the first-aid kit and made her way over towards Kevin.

“We don’t need your help, we got it from here.” Brian said in a menacing tone, not wanting the woman who had tricked them to touch his cousin.

“I really do insist taking a look at it. I mean, I’m no doctor, but I’ve been through this enough to know a thing or two.”

Brian immediately glanced over at Howie, who looked just as concerned with what she said. Adrianna continued, “James is always so quick with his gun… he wouldn’t have to resort to this kind of thing if only people would listen. Don’t get me wrong, he is quite a difficult guy to live with, but you’ll get used to him if you give him a chance.”

She sat herself down on the bed, inching herself closer to Kevin. “I’m gonna have to lift your shirt, if it’s alright.”

Before Brian could protest, he saw his cousin move to try and lift up his shirt. Deciding not to fight with him, Brian moved in to help Kevin lift his shirt up. “Okay…” Adrianna sighed as she moved in even closer to inspect the wound. “Doesn’t look like it’s infected. Just gonna clean you up a bit and dress it up. There should also be some painkillers in here to help ease the pain.” She rummaged around in the first-aid kit, pulling out a packet of gauze and the bottle of hydrogen peroxide. “I seen the way Zach and Gene just hauled you up from the ground.” She twisted the cap off of the hydrogen peroxide bottle. “You might wanna take a deep breath in.”

But Kevin did nothing to prepare himself. If he had taken a deep breath in, he’d cause himself more pain than he was in at that moment. Adrianna slowly poured a good amount of the peroxide over Kevin’s gunshot wound; the liquid immediately began to fizzle and foam up. Kevin chewed on his bottom lip, trying hard to not focus on the extreme stinging sensation that now wracked him.

“I know it burns.” Adrianna whispered as she lowered herself towards his chest, “It’ll go away in a bit.” She gently blew on the fizzling wound, looking up at him in a seductive manner all the while. Kevin bit down on his lip harder, trying not to reveal that he was actually cringing at her behavior. He wondered if his cousin had seen that, because if he had, surely he would have gone off.

After lingering over his exposed chest, she finally rose up and opened the gauze packet, pulling the fresh medical material out. She separated the folded up gauze, taking one and placing it over the peroxide bottle. She gave it a quick shake, lightly dampening the sterile cloth with the peroxide. “Now, I’m just gonna clean up this mess a bit.” she said as she began to wipe away the trails of blood that had streaked down his chest and dried up, staining his flesh. As soon as she was done cleaning him up, she took the remaining gauze and placed it over the now cleaned wound.

“Could you rip me off two pieces of that medical tape please?” she asked Brian.

Brian obliged and grabbed the roll of tape, ripping two pieces off and handing them to Adrianna. She gave him a quick smile before she turned her attention back on Kevin, taping down the gauze to his chest. “There you go. That should hold you over for now. Which reminds me, I forgot to bring you guys drinks. I’ll be right back in with some water and then you can take some aspirin.” and with that, she rose off the bed and began making her way out of the room.

“Why are you doing this?”

Adrianna froze at the sudden question. Her hand lingering over the doorknob, she slowly turned around to address Brian, who had been the one to ask the question. “What?”

“Why are you doing this to us?” Brian asked again. “You tricked us into thinking you needed help, we took you in with no hesitation and tried to help you. Then we find out that you’re with the guy that’s holding us hostage. The same man who’s hurt my friends, the same man who shot my cousin.” he voice became hard as he said that. “Don’t you understand he needs a hospital, regardless if you’ve cleaned him up, he needs to see a doctor. But you’re not gonna let us go, are you?”

“We’ll let you go, after we get what we want.”

“And what exactly is it that you guys want? Money? Cars? Because if that‘s what ya‘ll wanted, you would have just taken all that we had a long time ago and just left.” when he got no answer, he continued. “You guys probably don’t even know what the fuck ya’ll want.” The fact that Brian was standing up to one of their captors, especially in a vulgar manner had shocked both Kevin and Howie; it even had shocked Adrianna. “You guys are probably just some incompetent, sadistic burglars who steal and kill. So again, I ask you, why are you doing this?”

Adrianna remained silent, as if contemplating the question. “I’m leaving the first-aid kit in here, in case you guys need to change his gauze or whatever.” she finally replied, avoiding the question altogether. “And if you guys behave, our friend who’s coming up tomorrow just might be able to help your cousin.” and with that, she left the room.