by Nicole Casey
I hooked up the door handle, and pushed the metal door open revealing myself to the loan shark. There was nothing protecting me now. It was just me and him, and an empty briefcase.
There was no way in hell that this could go right.
I was absolutely doomed.
Jamie
I couldn’t see, however hard I tried.
This whole mess was very frustrating to me. Someone had hold of my arms, making it incredibly challenging for me to even move an inch, never mind attempt a daring escape of any sort. For one, I didn’t have the slightest clue where I was, and for another, I was slightly intrigued to learn how this would turn out. Not enough to lose my life of course.
All I could do was try to work out what on Earth was going on around me, and what my chances were for ending up back in that damn basement.
“So, who the fuck are you?” the growly guy with the gun asked. I was so used to his delightfully dulcet tones now I would recognize them anywhere. “You aren’t who I was expecting.”
“No, I’m not.” I leaned forwards slightly, straining my ears. I knew that I didn’t know any of my kidnappers, but maybe I would know the ransom payer. I assumed I did, otherwise why would they have come? I’d overheard enough on the journey over to know that a substantial amount of cash was supposedly being exchanged now. Sure it was for Ashton, not me, but still I could know the voice. “But I have your money. I’ll need the prisoner released first.”
The men bellowed with laughter around me, acting as if this was the funniest joke ever. Clearly, my rescuer had as much experience with all of this as I did. Wonderful. At this rate, I would never get out of it alive.
“Are you fucking mental?” Mr. Growly asked, being about as charming as I knew he could be. “Do you think you’re in any position to be making demands here? I have been waiting for the money that I’m owed for a very long time, there’s not a chance in hell that I’m going to give up my leverage.”
A thick silence clung to the air, giving me my first real taste of how this could go really wrong. On the drive over, because I couldn’t see, I’d been considering all the worst-case scenarios, but they were hypothetical. This was far too real now. I could actually lose my life to some mess that had nothing to do with me.
“I’m not Ashton,” I called through the bag. I knew my voice was coming out muffled, they’d told me enough times, but I needed to try. I couldn’t go out with no attempt to rescue myself. “If you need money, I have it, I’ll pay the debt. Just let me... argh...” The red-hot pain radiating through my head was enough to shut me up for now.
“Jamie?” It was only the shock in my rescuer’s voice that made me realize exactly what was going on. Those men didn’t have Ashton, not inside this bag but they did have him out there. It seemed they hadn’t quite clocked onto that fact just yet.
I didn’t want to give Ashton away to these horrible men, not really, not even considering what he’d done to me, but this was his doing, not mine. He deserved to be under this bag instead of me. Maybe if I could just throw things off for a moment, I could make Mr. Growly see that I could actually pay him off, just to put an end to this nightmare. Even if it would be helping out my enemy, by this point, none of that mattered anymore.
Life or death was far more urgent.
“I’m not Ashton,” I yelled thickly through my aching mouth. “That over there is Ashton, I would recognize his voice anywhere.”
No one said anything, not at first, but I did notice an intense slackening with whoever had hold of my arms. I was getting through to these people, now I just needed something to happen to confirm it, someone to speak. If Ashton said something to support me, that would be great, but even if he didn’t, someone had to say something soon.
Bang!
Just as I was about to say something more, the horrific sound of a gun firing made my body automatically collapse to the ground in shock. That wasn’t what I meant to happen… I really didn’t want to get Ashton killed, I just needed to stall things for a moment. I just wanted to throw a spanner in the works; I never wanted to end up with blood on my hands.
Bang! Bang!
When no one reached for me where I lay, I tugged the bag off my head, no longer caring so much at what might happen, and the first sight that I noticed was that Ashton was still standing. The bullet must have been a warning shot, which flooded relief right through me. Now that Mr. Growly had his real target, he wasn’t interested in me anymore, which meant I could remain on the ground virtually undetected.
“Where. Is. My. Money?” he demanded angrily. “If you really are Ashton Carnn, then I would like to think that you aren’t stupid enough to come here without my payment. What is in that briefcase?”
Ashton didn’t need to say anything, because the expression on his face said it all. I needed to jump in here if I didn’t want there to be any death.
“Run,” I screamed without even thinking about it. Then I leaped up and I shoved the man nearest to me to the ground. I took off, hoping that no one would be following me, and I raced as fast as I could go. My feet pounded loudly against the concrete, my chest hurt with the lack of air that I was getting into my body, my brain was shaking with a dizzy spell that wanted desperately to consume me, but I just kept on going.
I hoped that Ashton was running too, the douche bag. I didn’t have to like him one bit to want him to carry on living. It wouldn’t have been human of me otherwise. I needed to get to the police, to contact them to help before anything bad could happen, but I was too scared to stop just yet. I wanted to be certain that I was far enough away that I knew for certain I was safe, and although I’d been running for a long while, I didn’t quite feel there just yet.
People, I need people, I thought desperately as I moved. If I’m around others then they won’t be able to do anything to me. But it seemed that yet again, Mr. Growly’s expertise had worked in his favor. We were far out of the city, in the middle of what seemed to be nowhere. I had no idea if I would ever see people again!
I kept on running, as fast as I could, but still my prospects didn’t get any better, and eventually the exhaustion claimed me and I fell to the ground with a thump. I lay on the ground, clutching my aching stomach, the ragged breaths falling out of my mouth like they might just be my last...
Ashton
Screaming.
Yelling.
Fists flying.
As soon as Jamie shouted the word ‘run’ everything fell apart. The loan shark lost his cool and punched one of his own men for letting Jamie free, which in turn made everyone else lose it. At first, the chaos consumed me. I felt it closing in on me, taking me along with it, but then I spotted one of his men coming for me with evil in his eyes that action snapped within me. Some inhuman strength crept up inside of me, and I pushed him away before taking Jamie’s solid advice.
I ran. I ran as fast as my body would allow me to go.
I wasn’t sure whether I should be mad that Jamie sold me out, or grateful to him for saving me in the end. When he first told those guys who I was and that gun was pointing into my face I felt nothing but pure hatred for him. I felt glad that I’d betrayed him and I wanted to take him down with me. But then he switched things up again, and now I wasn’t sure how to feel about any of it. If it wasn’t for him, I would probably be dead by now...
Jamie took off in one direction, and as soon as I managed to slip past everyone in the confusion, I went the same way. I had no idea what we were to one another at the moment, sort of friends or mortal enemies, but I preferred the idea of being with him to the concept of being with them. Anyone was preferable to those monsters with no morals.
I needed my car. This running was wearing me out, but I didn’t have time to get in it and I certainly couldn’t go back. I just had to keep on moving forwards.
The old dance hall was likely to be the perfect sort of place for any trouble like that, because it was right on the outskirts of the city. In the nineties, when it’d been in its heyday, il
legal raves were held there all the time. The cops probably knew about them, everyone else did, but because any chaos was far away from everyone else, it was probably easier to just leave it where it was. It kept the trouble in one place, and stopped everyone else from suffering because of a few drugged up idiots.
Of course, eventually raves fell out of fashion, so the dance hall lost its magic and became derelict, undoubtedly used by sketchy characters all the time as a meeting place for endless transactions. The only problem with that was now it would take us a while to get back to civilization, and people were key. I didn’t think that they were the sort of men to murder with witnesses. If only I knew where the hell I was going...
“Jamie?” I hissed as soon as I got far enough away to no longer be able to hear footsteps trailing behind me. I wasn’t confident that I was safe, but I didn’t think I ever would be, and I needed to find him at some point. “Jamie, where are you?”
What a horrible turn of events. Jamie, the man that I’d already screwed over once, was the one who’d somehow ended up in my place. It made me feel like a terrible shit. I wasn’t sure that we ever had a chance at rebuilding a friendship before, and now I felt utterly certain about it.
Jamie Sparks would hate me forever more.
“Jamie?” I didn’t want to start feeling hopeless, but the intense winter darkness was setting in, and I was scared about getting lost out here. The loan shark was sensible enough to come with a whole range of men; they would likely sniff the both of us out by morning if we got lost out here. “Come on, Jamie, answer me please.”
My chest hurt from all the running that I’d done, and the guilt weighing heavily on me didn’t help. I needed to stop but I couldn’t, I didn’t deserve to until I found Jamie...
Wait, what was that?
I noticed a slight breathing sound coming from the ground somewhere, which halted me in my tracks. Whoever was around I needed to know. I just hoped that it was the one person that I wanted to see rather than any of the few that I really didn’t.
I fell to my knees and felt around on the ground, moving slowly and cautiously just in case. It was hard to follow such a small noise when my whole body was creating an intense racket of its own, but I did the best that I could. My knees scraped, my hands filled with gravel, but soon I got the reward of hitting warm flesh.
“J... Jamie,” I stammered, hoping and praying once more. “Jamie, is that you? Are you okay?”
I leaned in closer, trying to see through the horrible darkness surrounding us. This was another reason my loan shark had chosen here on this night, no lights and seemingly barely any moon to help me out. It couldn’t have been plotted better if he tried. I couldn’t tell who this body belonged to or how well he was doing.
“Jamie, answer me, please?” Desperation clawed at my throat, and it dripped out of my lips with every single word. I just needed something to happen before I went insane.
Then as if from nowhere, a fist connected with my body and sent me flying backward until my back hit the ground with a loud thump. I blinked my eyes a few times as the pain tore through my face, and rubbed the tender area, all the while trying to work out what the hell was going on now.
“You asshole,” Jamie hissed, confusing me even further. I wasn’t expecting to be hit by him in the middle of all this danger. “You absolute asshole. What the fuck have you done?”
“Wait, Jamie, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for any of this...” I reached out to touch him, but with eyesight that clearly put mine to shame he grabbed onto my wrists and fixed me in place.
“Jamie, this isn’t the time,” I begged. “Stop this, now.”
“I know it was you who fucked up my business, and when I went to get my revenge I ended up being locked up in your place, serving a fucking punishment for something that you’ve done.” As Jamie solved the mystery of how he ended up getting mistaken for me, the temper flew out of his mouth. I could feel it hitting me like sharp needles pricking all over my skin. “You let me get stuck for you. I almost died for you, and to think you could’ve been my friend.”
I wanted to cry. I wanted to weep for everything that had been lost. It was probably my fault that a friendship had never been developed. I allowed my petty jealousy to get in the way.
I didn’t deserve Jamie.
I didn’t deserve anyone.
“I’m so sorry,” I whimpered pitifully. “I really am.”
“You’re sorry?” Jamie sneered, clearly not taking my apology well. “Oh trust me, you’re gonna be sorry. I will sure as hell make certain of that.”
Jamie
Rage burned up my veins as everything that this man had done to me rolled over in my mind. The information leak, the kidnapping, the constant screw over… I knew that we weren’t exactly friends anymore. That bridge was burned way back, but I didn’t think that I’d ever done anything to deserve this. I’d made a violent threat, and I intended to make good on it.
He will be sorry, whether he wants to be, or not. This is all that he deserves.
My fist pulled back. I was ready to let all of that aggression out, but it was almost as if something had grabbed hold of my arm to prevent me from actually going through with it. I looked down on his hopeless face in the darkness of this horrible night. He didn’t look scared, or angry, or even upset. He was just willing to let this happen to him. That was enough to have everything ebbing away inside of me, leaving me with nothing.
What was the point of any of this? It wasn’t getting us anywhere.
“Come on,” I muttered instead, moving into an upright position. “We probably should get out of here before someone catches up to us. Do you even know where we’re going?”
Ashton slowly moved himself into a standing position to meet my eye line. “I think we’re running in the wrong direction. I’m not totally sure. I can’t see well enough. I do actually have my car back there, if they don’t torch it to the ground. I don’t think they’ll bother since it’s a heap of crap, it’s more torture to leave it as it is. If you want to hide and wait this out until we’re sure they’ve given up, I can drive us back.”
I couldn’t see a better option coming my way, since I didn’t really feel like running anymore. My entire body ached from it.
“Sounds good.” I sighed acceptingly. “Where shall we hide?”
“There must be somewhere around here.”
We both glanced around through the thickness of the night, trying desperately to find somewhere that we could wait this out.
“Come on,” I hissed, tugging onto Ashton’s arm. “Let’s go and find somewhere. We can’t just sit out here in case they come after us.” After being locked up in that basement, I knew that they were coming after us. There was a huge amount of money at stake, so we had to be smart. Getting confident wouldn’t help us at all.
We walked in silence towards some unknown destination. I felt certain that there were a million conversations flooding our minds, but this wasn’t the time to discuss them. Our lives were at stake; a man with a gun was after us.
“Here,” eventually I was shaken from my mind by Ashton gripping onto my arm and yanking me into a small shed-like building that was used for God knows what. I allowed him to drag me with him because it wasn’t like I had anything better planned. “This will do for now.”
For a while, we crammed together into the space and listened intently to the noises bursting around us. All I could hear was my breath combining with Ashton’s, both of us sounding worn out and afraid.
“Can you hear anything?” I whispered quietly. “I’m not sure that I can.”
“I don’t know.” Ashton sounded as desperate as I felt. “I think so, but I don’t know if it’s the wind or them.”
I nodded slowly and strained my ears harder. There could’ve been footsteps, I could see where Ashton was coming from, but it also could’ve been nothing. This whole mess was crazy, how the hell had it come to this? Not so long ago all my days were exactly the same: building up the bus
iness, working hard, going home... the same cycle over and over again. Then just because Ashton, for some reason, took it upon himself to wreck things for me, I had ended up in some dank basement, and now here, in the middle of nowhere, fearing for my life.
The more I thought about it, the more I felt wound up again. I was trying to keep my calm, to keep quiet and to ensure that I managed to get a ride away from here too, but it was difficult.
“I hope you’re happy,” I couldn’t resist hissing childishly. “This is what you wanted, right?”
“Oh come on, you know that no one could’ve wanted this. It was all just a horrible mistake... I’ll explain it all to you once we’re safe, I promise.” Ashton sounded regretful, but I was too deep on the roller coaster ride of emotions now, going up and down unwittingly.
“I don’t think that you can explain this one away...”
Ashton shushed me as he heard a definite footstep outside, which caused me to clamp my lips tightly together. Ashton sucked in his breath and he held it in, so I did the same. It was doubtful that the thug outside could hear our breaths, but it was much better to be safe than sorry.
Step, step, step.
Muffled shouting followed, but whoever was speaking didn’t have a clear enough voice for us to pick out what was being said. It could’ve been them calling the others over to exactly where we were, or it could’ve been them giving up and going home. There was no way for us to know for sure, and that terrified us both. Without even thinking about it, I gripped onto Ashton’s leg and I held it there like a comfort blanket. Just knowing that I wasn’t going through this alone was enough.
“Have they gone?” he breathed into my ear, speaking words that were just for me. That sent an odd shiver tearing up and down my spine... probably the fear, nothing to worry about. “Can you hear anything?”
“I don’t know. I can’t tell.” I moved closer to Ashton, allowing him to snake his arm around my waist. With a common enemy, it was easier to forget that we had our own issues. The heat that came from his body was like a protective blanket and that was nice. “Maybe.”