by Mia Ford
“What’s going on?” I whisper. “Has something happened?”
I try to lean passed him, to see what’s halted him, but he stands in my way again.
“What’s going on, Carter?” I insist, the anxiety now a million times worse. It’s actually getting hard to remain standing, the pain in my stomach is so much. “Carter, tell me what’s happening. I need to know, now.”
23
Carter
I need Raelyn to shush, but I don’t want to be rude about it. Not when we’ve just gotten things to a good place. I don’t know why I’m so damn freaked out, but I am. It’s just two guys arguing, but there’s something dangerous about it, and I need to work out what it is before they see us and we get dragged into it.
“We might need to run,” I breathe quietly to Raelyn. “So, be prepared.”
Finally, she managed to lean over me to see what’s going on. Her fingers grip so tightly to my arm as she spots the same thing that I do that she could be causing a bruise. I know she has the same gut instinct as me.
“Should we go now?” she asks me, fear lacing her near silent tone.
“In a moment, let’s just wait for the right moment.” I don’t want to make too much noise; I just need to hold out for a couple of seconds more. “I’ll say when. Just… wait for my signal, okay?”
She nods, putting every scrap of her faith into me, and we just watch. Snippets of curse words burst free, but there’s nothing to give us any indication of what this argument is about. I have seen enough of the world to know that men usually only argue over two things: money and women. That’s probably the case here. They’re fairly young, by the looks of it, but there’s some clear aggravation between them.
“Come on.” Raelyn tugs on my arm, desperation getting the better of her. “I don’t like this.”
She’s right, I know she is. We do need to leave, but there’s something here, fixing me in place. I can sense the danger here, but still something is keeping me in place. “Hold on, wait a moment.”
The arguing becomes increasingly irate. The men start to fight and I wonder if the reason that I’ve stayed is to break this up. I try to separate from Raelyn for a moment so I can run to stop this before it gets out of control, but she grabs my arm and yanks me backwards. She clearly doesn’t want me to go anywhere.
“They’re fighting,” I hiss. “I have to stop them before one of them gets hurt.”
“No, it isn’t our business.” She shakes her head rapidly. “We can’t get involved.”
That attitude actually irritates me. I have the opinion that if the whole world turns their back on one another and no one helps a stranger, then society will all fall apart. Is this going to be a problem with us? I thought that Raelyn and I had overcome all the hurdles, but it seems we have one more…
“I need to help, I can’t just let them beat each other…”
“No, it’s bad. Trust me.” She clutches on to her stomach. “Believe me. I don’t know why, but I just know that you definitely shouldn’t go there. We need to get out of here before something bad happens.”
I stare at her, soaking in the real fear in her eyes. She really does believe this, which puts me in a pickle. She isn’t being a bad person, wanting to avoid a stranger, she’s just scared for me.
“Look!” She points back to the guys and I look too. “See what I mean?”
There’s a glint of metal that flashes so quickly it makes my heart stop beating. Now I really need to intervene no matter what. I don’t know what weapon that is, but it can’t be good for either of them.
Then three life altering things happen all at the same time, almost in slow motion so I can digest them properly.
First, I take a step forward, deciding to stop this no matter what Raelyn thinks. I will just make her understand later why I did what I had to do. She might hate me right now, but it’ll be fine in the end.
Second, the weapon becomes clear, almost in an instant. It’s a knife. One with a very long blade and the potential to do some serious damage. I reach my fingers out, wanting to grab it before it can do any damage, but I’m too far away, it’s too late. The knife pulls back in one of the guy’s hands and flings forward into the other’s body. Right into his chest where I know his heart is. Blood spurts everywhere. It’s almost cartoon like, but in the most disgusting way possible. Vomit swirls violently in my stomach.
Thirdly, Raelyn yells out. I think she screams ‘no!’. I don’t know if that’s because of the stabbing that we’ve just witnessed or because she doesn’t want me to get in the middle of it, but it shifts everything badly. Our identity is no longer a secret, as the man with the knife now knows that we’re here and he’s spinning around to look at me.
Fuck. My heart pounds furiously. I dart my eyes back between the killer and Raelyn. I need to protect her; I’m going to have to do it right now. I can’t help the guy who’s been stabbed, not that there’s a lot that I can do for him anyway if he’s been stabbed in the fucking heart, but I can save her. I can ensure that the same thing doesn’t happen to Raelyn, since she definitely really doesn’t deserve it.
This is a nightmare, the worst possible way to end this confusing, dreadful, amazing day, but here we are. Witnessing a God damn murder. I need to get out of this moment of being frozen and take action. It’s up to me to somehow ensure that this becomes much less dreadful.
“Come on!” I spin on my heels and turn back to Raelyn. “Let’s get the fuck out of here now.”
She takes the hint, she needs to go, so she grabs my hand quickly and we race together. Our feet pound on the concrete as we take off as quickly as we can manage. I’m sure I’m hurting her arm as I tug her behind me, but that’s not as important as keeping her away from him. The killer with a knife and bad intentions.
He saw our faces; my addled brain reminds me. He knows that it was us.
It doesn’t matter if he doesn’t know our names, he can find out who we are if he really wants to. There are plenty of men like Lee in the world who can discover anything about anyone. There are all sorts of things about me on the Internet. About me and my business. I could be in serious trouble here.
“Where are we going?” Raelyn screams behind me. “He’s still behind us.”
I glance backwards to see the guy with the knife waving in my direction. He wants me dead, I can see it on his face. He doesn’t want any witnesses to what just happened.
“We need an ambulance,” Raelyn continues to yell, all of her thoughts spewing hard and fast out of her mouth, “We need to take care of that guy, he’s going to die if we don’t do anything about it.”
He’s already dead, I know that. I saw enough to know for sure. That knife pierced his heart with too much ease. I really don’t think that there is even the slightest chance in hell of him surviving. It might make me sound a bit like a dick and go back on everything that I thought earlier on about helping out a stranger, but I need to keep us alive. That’s my main priority right now, to keep us from losing our lives.
“Come with me,” I call backwards. “Don’t lose me no matter what.”
I take different directions, trying not to glance back to see if he’s gaining on us, and I eventually hear the noise of traffic which floods me with relief. If we’re out in public where people can see us, then there’s much less chance of us losing our lives. We need to be around as many people as possible.
It doesn’t help that I can feel Raelyn flagging too. If I don’t get her away from that guy, then she might fall down. So, I tug her harder, pushing her a tiny bit more and we burst out onto the street. We’re by a bar slash night club where people are already drinking and dancing outside. Some of them look like they’ve been partying for days, so won’t be any use to us if we need witnesses. Right now, we are the witnesses and that’s bad enough.
“What are we doing?” Raelyn shouts at me. “Where are we going? We need the cops.”
I tug her close to me so that only she can hear what I’m saying to her
. “Do you trust me?”
“What do you mean? Why do I need to trust you? We need to sort this out right now.”
“I need you to trust me, Raelyn. I need to keep us safe.”
The word ‘safe’ sparks something in her. She nods fast knowing that she needs to make a decision quick. She wants to be safe above all else. Her survival instinct kicks in and she just wants to live. She saw that blade too;, she knows as well as I do the damage that it can do. She’s scared, and that affects her answer.
I’m afraid too. That’s why my eyes keep flickering everywhere. I think that we’ve lost him, but I’m not about to let my guard down anytime soon. I won’t get stupid and die because of it.
“Okay, good because right now I’m getting us in a cab and getting us out of here.”
I don’t specify where we’re going because I don’t think that she’ll like it. We’re going home, to my place, so I can work out what we’re going to do next. We will go to the police, once I’ve worked out how much our lives are in danger. I’m really frightened that Raelyn and I could die too.
“You hail a cab; I’m going to call an ambulance.”
This works for her too, so she nods and agrees with me. “Okay great. Yeah, let’s do that. Help him.”
I find a drunk person to borrow their cell phone, someone who looks nothing like me so cannot be mistaken for me if there’s any tracking done to hunt me down, just thinking ahead. Right now, I want the least to do with this crime possible. The guy saw my face and I don’t want to also be seen as a grass. I don’t say that I know what happened, just that someone is hurt and I give the exact location so they can find him.
I know they’re going to find him dead, I’m certain of it, but I’ve done all that I can. I don’t want to think about what will come afterwards because it makes me really sad. I haven’t lost what’s happened here tonight. A man has died. I don’t know what the situation is surrounding it, that’s really sad.
I find Raelyn already in a cab, her leg wobbling fast with anxiety and stress. I slide in the car beside her and reel out my address for the driver to take us there.
“What are you doing?” Raelyn hisses. “We need to go to the police station.”
I press my finger up against her lips to silence her. “We will, one thing at a time.”
“We need to go now. It’s the right thing to do. We have to go right now…”
“No, Raelyn, just trust me. Please.”
Her eyes narrow at me. I can see the distrust rolling off of her in waves, but there isn’t anything that I can do about that. She’s going to just have to wait. I know what I’m doing… at least I think I do. I hope I do.
24
Raelyn
What the fuck is going on here? I can barely even look at Carter; I don’t know what we’re doing. He keeps telling me that I need to trust him, and I want to, I really do, but I’m not entirely convinced that he knows what he’s doing. I know for sure that I haven’t come to terms with it yet. What’s happened tonight is crazy. We witnessed a freaking murder! That definitely doesn’t happen every day, and I don’t know how I’m supposed to act.
The police. We need to go to the police, I’m sure of it.
But I can’t really argue that point while we sit in the back of a cab with a driver who keeps darting suspicious looks my way as it is. I’m not too good at hiding things, and this is no exception. This is worse because it’s so massive, and I guess that’s showed. I wouldn’t be too surprised if he calls the police on us.
When we get back to Carter’s place, I’m going to do what I can to make sure he listens to me, before this eats me up alive. It’s good that we have an ambulance on the way, but it isn’t enough. I need to know that we’re doing more. That man killed someone, he needs to be locked up before he does the same to someone else.
Eventually, Carter tells the driver to stop the car outside what I presume is his place. I stare at the large building, trying to drink it all in, to learn more about this man just like I planned to, but my brain is completely consumed by images of violence and blood, the sort of thing that I’ve only seen in terrible movies beforehand.
“Are you okay?” Carter asks me quietly, making me realize that I’m gasping desperately. I can’t seem to get enough air in to my lungs however hard I try. It’s like something has them in a vice like grip and won’t let them go. “Just hold it together for a few more minutes and we can be alone, okay?”
He hands the driver a bunch of notes, more than the cab cost I’m sure, and he guides me to the front door. It doesn’t escape my notice that his hands are shaking so hard the keys jangle loudly between his fingertips. I suppose I could comment on it, but I’m in too much of a rush to get inside away from this world.
“You don’t think he’s following us, do you?” I unhelpfully ask.
“Who? The guy with a knife?” Carter’s eyes go everywhere. “I hope not. I did check but I suppose I can’t be one hundred percent sure. I have a good security system though, so we’re going to be safe here.”
I love that word. Safe. It’s something that I don’t have to think much of really, I take care of myself enough to know that I’ll be alright usually… but today it’s the only damn thing that I want in the world.
“Ah, open.” Carter shoves the door and tumbles inside. I follow him inside and slam it shut.
“What do we do now?” I practically scream. We’re alone now, it’s time to decide this.
“We… we wait here for a while,” he says as if this is a decision. “See what happens.”
“Wait and see? That’s your big idea? That’s what I trusted you for? Are you insane?” He just looks at me blankly like he doesn’t understand it at all. “We need to call the authorities now.” As I reach for my cell phone, he grabs my arm to stop me. “Why are you so against me calling the police?”
“There is a big organized crime problem here,” he shocks me by replying. “It’s kept away from the public eye as much as possible, but it’s there. What if this is a part of it?”
“What the hell are you talking about?” I scoff. “That’s the plot of a damn movie. This is real life. What I saw were two guys, too young to be in some organized crime bullshit, arguing and it got out of control. We need to tell the police what we saw to make sure the killer is caught and he never does it again.”
My impassioned speech falls on deaf ears. Instead of paying even a scrap of attention to what I’ve said, Carter starts pacing up and down the room while he taps thoughtfully on his chin.
“Carter!” I throw my hands in the air in dismay. “What is going on here? Why are you acting so crazy?”
“I need to think, that’s all. I just need to think. It’s bad enough that we were witnesses to that, it puts us in plenty of trouble. But if we grass as well? I just don’t see that working out for us.”
“But the police will protect us! That’s what they do. They have to, right?”
“You have far too much faith in the police.”
“Are you trying to say that we can’t trust our law enforcement now?”
“I’m not saying that at all. What I’m saying is that I don’t trust the criminals. The police can only do so much; they can’t throw all of their resources at us. I want to make sure that we aren’t killed over nothing.”
“Nothing? This is nothing to you?” How are we on such different pages? I don’t get it.
“No, this isn’t nothing, Raelyn. Don’t act like that. I’m just trying to make sure that what we do is right.”
I fold my arms across my chest and stare him down. “Right for who?”
“I called the ambulance, I did what I could for that guy. Even though he isn’t…”
A pain clutches at my chest. Carter is convinced that he’s dead, I know it. I really don’t want to hear him say it… mostly because I know it too and I don’t want to deal with it.
Carter heads into another room, leaving me on my own. I don’t know what to do, I don’t feel comfortabl
e in his house alone, so I eventually end up following him into the kitchen. It’s a massive kitchen, one so pure and white, filled with all the equipment that any one person could need. It’s lovely, but not enough to inspire anything
Maybe another time, when I don’t have the weight of the world on my shoulders.
“What exactly are you thinking, Carter? Because I really need you to make up your mind right now. I need to know if I’m leaving alone, or you’re coming with me. I’m getting dangerously close to giving up on you.”
“Raelyn, the reason I don’t want to go isn’t because I want you to go alone. It’s because I want the both of us to be alive. I am not about to let you out of that door by yourself. It’s too dangerous.”
I balk at his words. “You aren’t going to tell me what to do. I’m not like that.”
“To hell I won’t! I’m not going to let you do something stupid. I will take care of you.”
My hands rest angrily on my hips. “You are fucking joking, right? What I do is up to me!”
“I wouldn’t let anyone do what you’re proposing to do…”
“I’m proposing,” I shoot back sarcastically. “That I will get in a cab which will safely drive me to the police station, where I will be surrounded by law enforcement officers who are perfectly capable of looking after me, thank you very much, and I’m going to make a statement about what we saw.”
“And what about after then, huh? How will you get home?”
An ice cold anger soaks through me. “That really isn’t any of your problem, is it?”
“I care about you,” he replies, indignant. “Of course I care about you.”
“This is your way of showing that you care, is it? By demanding and bossing me around, huh? Because as far as I’m concerned, that doesn’t show anything other than you being a massive asshole.”
Regret instantly floods his expression; he knows that he’s made a mistake. He pants as he tries to adjust himself, shying away from a place of anger and taking that out on me. It’s good to see this hit him because it means he’s becoming more rational. I need him rational right now, so I don’t have to be. It’s too much weight on my shoulders, I can barely stand under the pressure of it all.