Suddenly, Chris gets the upper hand on me as he rolls over and knocks me down. I drop the pistol as Chris lands a punch on my face "You piece of shit!"
We wrestle on the floor, trying to wrap my arms around his neck and choke him to death. He strikes his foot in my stomach as I fall on my back. I quickly jump up and back away from Chris "Stop resisting!" I shout. He slowly gets up and uses a fighting stance. His smirk tells me that he isn't gonna give up. We're stood in the middle of the hallway, breathing heavily from the wrestling.
My heart starts beating faster, and a rush of adrenaline kicks in as I lean towards Chris while swinging. He takes the punch and backs away to recover. I waste no time and jump forward again, aiming at his jaw, but he ducks and counters with a hook to my left cheek.
I fall on all fours and immediately go for his legs. I trip him as he crashes through the door. I'm on top as I repeatedly punch his face. He blocks and pushes me to the side. He gets up and closes the door. "You can fight" he compliments me mid-fight. I mean I've been to prison, so of course I'd learn some skills. "Just shut up" The weight of my foot steps ahead as I throw a jab. He blocks as I throw another. He blocks, but I push and kick his stomach as he crashes to the wall.
I swing my leg to his ribs, but he catches it with a quick reflex. I lose my balance and fall to the ground as he sweeps his legs against my other. I scramble to get back on my feet, but he grabs me by my suit and throws me to the wall. He sprints and strikes his knees to my stomach and combos me with a hook and an uppercut. I bleed from my lip as he throws me back to the ground. I groan in pain as I spit blood out my mouth. He laughs "Nevermind, you're trash. That's why we're gonna get away with this and take your precious little lover, Charlotte"
"Don't lay a fucking hand on her!" I uppercut his jaw and kick his rib. He falls on the bed as I pick up a pillow and jump on him. I suffocate him with the pillow, tightly pressing down on him. He struggles while trying to punch and kick me off, but I fight back by pressing down tighter. He lands a painful punch on my face as I fall off the bed.
He comes down and stomps on my stomach "Aaah!" Managing to make me scream. Chris grabs a lamp from the desk and throws it to my face. I slap it away and get back up, tackling him to the ground. I find the nearest item to me, a small trash bin. He kicks me off, but I grab the bin and rush back towards him. I put his face in the trash can and strike my knee to his stomach, sending him to the ground.
I lift the bin from his head and slam it down to his face. He manages to grab a blow dryer on the ground and smacks my face with it. I fall to the side as my ears burn from the pain. "Aaah!" We both scream. We both get back up and face each other, and I realize that he's a tough opponent.
"You know, this mission was supposed to be about taking Hailey. But it seems that we can't do that anymore" Chris says "You piss me off" he points at me while smiling "We're gonna take Charlotte instead"
"Don't fucking touch her!" I shout as I press my hands against my ears, the blow dryer to the ears really hurts. "Oh I'm gonna touch you" he chuckles "She'll be where she belongs; with me" he points at himself. I curl my hands into a fist "Don't say that again or else I'll make you suffer" I say.
"I'm gonna tie her up and cut her up like meat" he laughs. A criminal barges through the room "The police are here!"
"What!?" Chris shouts. Is this my opportunity to strike? Yes, it is. I take multiple steps until reaching Chris "Fuck you, Chris!" I yell. I strike him in the face as he crashes to the wall. The man grabs me and throws me to the window, shattering it. Chris and the man rush toward me. I dive between them and try to run away, but Chris catches me. He drags me by the foot and throws me in the closet.
He gives me a chilling smile "I'm gonna take Charlotte" he slams the doors shut on me as I kick the door down in anger "Chris!!!" I scream. I charge at him as he closes the room door. I quickly open it and sprint to Chris. How the fuck is he already so far ahead of me? The man attacks the police officer "Chris!!" I scream. Not Charlotte, please. I need to catch up to him. "Charlotte!!!" I scream out, hoping she can hear me "Charlotte!!!" I scream again.
TRAUMA OF '89
VOLUME 1, CHAPTER 11, REVEAL
He tightly grips my arm, tears streaming down his face and onto my sleeves. My left arm is gently placed on the left side of his head. I understand Vick's pain about losing Charlotte. Seeing the pain in Vick's eyes makes my heart ache for him, and all I want to do is help him. I believe that we can bring her back if we focus on the bright side rather than the negative. "Vick, get up," I say. He listened as we both slowly got up. He continued to stare off into the distance over the tracks. "God damn it, my car is wrecked up," I say in frustration "We need to call the police again"
"No," Vick spoke out. He breaks away from the distance and faces me "We need to call the others and get them here immediately" he suggests instead. "Why?" I ask. What is Vick up to? "You have the tracker on her, right?" he asks "We can save her right now if we follow her tracker," he says. I'm against that plan. I feel like we wouldn't be able to take upon an entire criminal organization. Besides, it's six of us against all of them. I decline "No, we should get the police involved this time"
"She's gonna get assaulted!!" he slams his foot down on the ground, demanding me to call my friends. He continues to try to get me on his side "If we get the police involved, they might take a long time to respond and go to Charlotte. It's up to us, Ella, please" he says. He walks towards me and gently grabs both of my hands "Please, Ella" he says.
"Okay," I say. He convinced me. I also don't want her to wait a long time for us to come. I don't want her to suffer like how me and Vick suffered in '89. Haney's crew is so cruel. "She's not gonna suffer like we did, Vick," I say. "I don't want her to" he responds. "We'll drive Phil's car," I say.
A few minutes later, we all met up at the tracks. "Emily!!!" Phil screams "What is this!!?" he points at my car, destroyed and wrecked, his face shocked. "Will insurance even be able to cover this!? You guys had a car chase with the criminals!" Phil continues to shout. "Phil, stop. We got it, okay? Let's just get to the point why we're all here" I shut him up.
We all enter Phil's car as he drives off. "Where are we going?" Phil asks. I pull out the laptop from the glove department, typing in my passcode. "Your name is Emily?" Vick asked me. I turn around to see everyone's faces, all shocked and wide-eyed at his question. "What?" Vick asked, Vick noticed everyone. "I'll tell you later" I face the front. He probably heard Phil calling me Emily earlier when he was screaming at me about the car damage.
"Here, just follow Charlotte" I place the laptop on my lap as he takes a quick glance at it. "Charlotte? They managed to get away with her?" Phil asked. "Sadly yes" I replied. "What are we actually gonna do when we get there?" Phil asked. The car was quiet. "You guys seriously don't have a plan? You thought we could just bust right in and take her?" He added.
"Phil, we had to act fast, okay? We can plan as we follow" I say, trying to defend Vick and me "Vick" I turn "What do you have in mind?"
His eyes are fixed outside the window, possibly thinking of what we should do. "You got guns?" Vick asks after he finishes thinking. "Yeah," I reply.
"How many?"
"Like thirteen"
He breaks his eye contact and faces me "We can kill all the criminals in the room"
"Woah, woah, hold on, dude!" Phil shouts "You know we can get sentenced to prison because of that?"
"I don't care, Charlotte's life is on the line. I'm willing to do anything to save her. If you all want out, then you can just drop me off and give me firearms for the rescue" Vick said.
"Vick, we're not gonna let you go on your own," I say. I could see an irritated expression on Phil's face, looking like he didn't want to help at all. "Yeah, Vick" April agrees. "I'm honestly down for anything. I'm with Emily" Priscilla says.
Vick adds more to the plan "When we do get in there, we'll shoot up the place and kill every last one of the criminals, except Haney and Chris. I want them to burn. I want them to suffer for what they did"
"Do we have another plan that doesn't sound like suicide?" Phil asks. "Yeah, one of us might die if we have a shoot out" Veronica adds. "We can have a group distract the criminals as another saves Charlotte. When the criminals arrive at the distraction group, they can fire their guns, killing them all on the spot" Vick made another plan.
"Then that's it," Phil says "I'm only down to go if we use this plan," he says. "Okay," Vick says. "We're going to save Charlotte" I reassure Vick "I promise"
Vick looks away, facing the window again "Yeah, I know"
Later, we pass by Lake Travis. Where are we going? We missed a turn. I remember the path we took to the warehouse last time, but it looks like Charlotte isn't heading there. "Where are they going?" Phil asks "It's further than the warehouse"
"Exactly what I was thinking," I say. I turn my head and notice everyone sleeping, except Vick. Vick notices me and stares at me "Ella. Is Ella your nickname?" Vick asked. I forgot he wanted to know if Emily was my real name. I think I should tell him the truth. Why I befriended him and why I stalked him.
"Yeah, Ella is a nickname. My real name is Emily" she replies. "You look like...her," he says. I stare at April and Veronica sleeping with wide eyes. Look like who? Did he connect the dots that I'm Emily Grant? His victim? "Who?" I acted confused.
"Emily Grant from '89" concern crosses his face, his eyes continuously fixed on me. I glanced at Phil, he looked shocked. "I am" I reply.
Vick stares at me, his face frozen in shock. "Emily" he uttered. His eyes start tearing up "E-Emily" he stutters. "I'm so sorry" he apologizes. It was silent. All you could hear was his cries and the car driving on the road.
"It's okay, Vick," I say "I know you didn't mean to do any of those horrible things. You were forced- no. Threatened into crime. If I was in your shoes back then, I would've done the same things as you. It's okay, Vick"
"Why are you guys here then? Why were you guys-" he paused. I see him eyeing Veronica and April while panicking. He scoots further from them, and starts breathing heavily "Why did you guys watch me?" His voice is shaky.
He's connected the dots; the realization hitting him. I could see Phil in my peripheral glancing at Vick often. My heart pounds as I see the fear in Vick's eyes, and all I can think is, do I tell him the truth? I'm quiet, but still faced at Vick. I bite my lip in frustration as I can feel the tension in the quiet car.
What if he doesn't forgive me for targeting him?
"Vick" Phil speaks "I know this is hard for you, but we were after you"
"Huh?" His panicking stops, but he stares wide-eyed. I turn back to the front.
"Emily and I both formed a group to target you; to avenge her family for what you did to her. You made her suffer" Phil explained. I slightly turn back to Vick, does he feel betrayed?
"You see the blonde girl, that's April, your last victim" Phil points "The other girl is Veronica, also one of your victims. And, finally, Priscilla, she's just our friend"
"Hey, I have a bad backstory too" she jokes. "Shut up," Phil says. "Vick, we were plotting against you. We wanted you dead. We planned to get close to you and at the last moment, make you suffer and then die. We hated you; all of us"
I could see Vick's teary eyes staring at the ground, his hands next to the door handle as he slowly reached for it.
"But that doesn't matter anymore," I say immediately "Vick, the plan changed. Once we found out that you went through being forced into crime, we felt you; we understood you, which is why we want to help now, okay Vick?"
Vick faces me, revealing a stream of tears. I reach my hand out to Vick "I promise...we have nothing against you anymore"
"What about your family?" He asked. I pause and take a moment to think of what to say. After, I smile "It hurts to think about it, but you didn't have a choice. I forgive you, Vick"
His mouth hung open, shocked by my answer. "We have other things to focus on" I added "Charlotte is in danger and we're going to help you"
Silence comes in again with Vick processing all the information we just told him. I re-offer him a handshake "We're going to save Charlotte, Vick"
Vick reaches for my hands with a serious expression, wiping away his tears "We will"
TO BE CONTINUED....