"Daniel, my God! What's going on?", I swallowed thick, looking at the three men pointing a gun at him. I was going to have a heart attack.
"Daniel, if the girl moves, she dies," warned one of the guys, deflecting the gun towards me. I raised my hands in the air instinctively, watching my life pass in front of my eyes. I thought about my family, that this could be the last night of my life.
My body faltered. I could lose the stability of my legs at any time. My heart was beating like crazy, like I had never done before, I almost felt like it was going to come out of my chest. The three guys were meters away from us, on the other side of the bar counter, they used those looks that screamed that they didn't mind shooting Daniel or me at all. I looked at the door, looking for a way to escape from this, but it was far away, and if I ran to it I would most likely end up with a bullet in my body. I couldn't take any chances, but I also couldn't stand idly by. I prayed that something would save us from this. I thought about calling the police, but I didn't have the cell phone on me, I had left it in the break room, along with my other things.
"We want the money right now, Daniel. We will have no more patience with you."
Daniel was behind the bar, with me, almost a meter away from me. He was tense, his jaw and fists clenched, holding back his anger. I swear I wanted to yell at him for leaving me in the middle of this situation, but clearly he didn't expect this to happen either. His breathing was irregular, but not as much as mine. Unlike me, he didn't let his fear be glimpsed. How did he control it? I felt that I was peeing from the fright I was carrying. Daniel's eyes narrowed, looking hatefully at those people. He challenged them with his gaze. Was he crazy?
"Please, Daniel, give them the money. Give them the money out of the box and leave at once." I pleaded, frightened, with tears flooding my eyes.
My voice was shaking. From how well they dressed, they didn't seem to be mere thieves. I wanted to regain my calm, I didn't want them to see my fear, but the situation made it very difficult for me.
"I doubt that there is $700,000 in that box", replied the man who was pointing at me. Besides, with all the time you've been on the run, Daniel, your debt has increased threefold.
What? Did I hear right? 700 thousand dollars? And... was Daniel on the run?
I clearly didn't know him at all. Daniel was a friend I appreciated too much, one I liked very much and was falling in love with quickly, but what was happening made me realize that I was always right to distrust him a little, to feel that fear when I saw him. I always knew he was hiding something, his eyes were screaming at him, but I didn't want to believe it. Ignoring my instinct was a mistake.
"And the time to pay off your debt is over, Daniel," the guy said. And what did that mean? What were they going to kill him and that's it?
I don't know who I was afraid of more. Obviously I didn't want to die. But I also didn't want him to die. Even though at this moment I felt a great anger towards him, I loved him very much.
"What debt are you talking about, Daniel?"
I had to know.
Daniel just didn't answer me, he just ignored me.
"I'm sorry, but I won't pay you a single penny. Why do they insist so much on this debt? You have enough money, and you can even get that money on your own."
"No one fails us," he replied.
One of those who was pointing at Daniel, the one on the left, unlocked the gun. I slowly approached the boy next to me, despite our problems, I was fond of him and did not want anything to happen to him no matter how hateful, proud and arrogant he was.
"Damn, I told you not to move!" the guy yelled at me. I hit a respingo before the fright.
"Let her go, we can talk about this somewhere else. She's innocent, she doesn't have to get caught in the middle of all this. You love me, not her," my partner suggested, in a furious tone. I always knew that he had something that didn't close me, that his secrets were dark and perverse, but I never thought that his secrets were life and death.
"You don't have the power to ask for anything, Daniel, so you better close your damn mouth. You will give us all the money you owe us, or I swear we will kill you mercilessly!"
"Do it!" Kill me at once! They will never have that money!
But what...? Damn, Daniel! He couldn't be saying that! I shouldn't challenge them that way or they would actually kill us both!
"But can you tell what the shit is going on in this bar?" Said the owner of a well-known voice, standing on the stairs.
In the blink of an eye, one of those callous men repeatedly shot my boss, the owner of this bar crap. I have to admit that the boss was never to my liking, but this was already too much. Daniel took advantage of the terrible moment as an opportunity to save us both. He gave me an extremely quick look and pushed me to the ground, preventing a bullet from hitting me. He beckoned me to get into the break room, and I listened to him immediately. The other guys started shooting too, so I couldn't help but scream at the horror I was having to live. What did I do to deserve something like this?
The questions invaded my mind as if it were a computer gathering information, as if it had enough storage to keep all those questions I needed to ask Daniel. I kept begging to get out of it alive, and if I did, the first thing I would do when I was safe would be to call my family and tell them I loved them too much. Something caught my attention, a kind of red liquid spilled on the ground. I frowned my eyebrows, thoughtfully, and the first thing I did was look at Daniel, making sure he was safe. While I found some small bloodstains on his clothes, I didn't find any wounds. So if it wasn't him who was hurt... then that blood belonged to me.
"Oh... No...", the anguish I felt back then was too much. Everything started to spin around me.
"Hell!", Daniel said as soon as he saw what was going on. I looked at him in horror.
"Daniel..."
"You're going to be fine, Nathaly, you're going to be fine," he held me on the ground, protecting me.