CHAPTER TWO
DARIAN AWOKE TO the sound of sirens outside and someone shouting on a loudspeaker from a distance.
"Drop your weapons and step out with your hands up!"
He looked around for a second, trying to remember where he was and why he was lying face down on the ground. His head was splitting and he couldn't understand why. As he glanced around, he realized he was in the gas station in town and remembered something about needing some smokes. As he put his hands on the floor to pick himself up, he saw blood splattered all over them.
Everything came back into focus suddenly. He started checking himself before getting up to make sure he wasn't shot, and came to the conclusion that the man with the gun had only hit him in the head with his gun and not shot him. He gingerly arose to his feet.
"Lacey, are you okay?" he called over the counter before looking over, hoping to hear her voice trembling from fear.
There was no answer. He moved to the counter and looked over to see her crumpled body lying in a pool of blood. The blood spray that had hit him in the face and on his hands had come from her as the man shot her in the face. It was a brutal way to die, for sure, but Darian took some comfort in knowing that she didn't suffer.
"I'm so sorry that I couldn't have helped you." His eyes held back the tears that wanted to come forward as he realized she would have to have a closed casket for her funeral and her family would never get to see her face again.
"Come out with your hands up or we are going to open fire!" came the voice from the megaphone again. They seemed to think the man with the gun was still in the gas station.
Darian looked around frantically for any sign of the man in the hopes that he could point him out to the police somehow and end this nightmare. There was no sign of him. Darian made his way to the front door, holding his hands up so that he didn't accidentally get shot when he walked outside.
He waited behind the glass door for a few seconds to make sure that the police saw him. He had watched enough movies and television to know that you don't come rushing out in a situation like this. Sudden movements were a great way of having the police department unload every bullet they had into you, and that was not how he wanted to go out.
He always pictured himself sitting on a beach in Florida in his 90's, watching the young women wearing their skimpy bikinis while he had a heart attack. That would be a great way to leave this world. That was something Darian rather wanted to experience.
"Keep your hands up and step through the door!" the unidentified voice screeched through the speaker.
Darian took a deep breath and pushed the door open with his right foot. He took a couple of steps out and stopped as he noticed the entire police force, consisting of five cops and a K-9, along with the sheriff's department, another 9 officers, all pointing their guns at him.
"Come toward my voice until I tell you to stop. Any sudden movements and we will open fire."
Darian could hear the adrenalin coursing through the officer's voice as he stepped forward until he was told to stop.
"That's far enough. Lift your jacket up and turn around slowly," the voice commanded.
It was definitely a shitty night for Darian to go without any smokes as he slowly reached down to lift up the bottom of his jacket and turn around.
As Darian lifted his jacket, he could feel something heavy in one of its pockets. He hadn't noticed it inside the store and knew that he didn't walk in there with anything in his pocket. He stopped for a brief second to try and figure out what it was he had when the realization finally hit him.
The man had knocked him out and placed the gun in his pocket in the hopes that the police would assume he was the one who shot Lacey. It would give him a decent head start before they believed Darian's story.
"It wasn't me! I was knocked out by the guy that shot her and he took off!" Darian yelled to the officers. He wasn't trying to yell at them, but panic was starting to set in as he realized what was transpiring before him. He knew that if they saw the gun, they wouldn't listen to anything he said until someone finally went and looked at the security cameras, seeing as he had Lacey's blood on him and the murder weapon in his pocket.
"Turn around and lift your jacket up! This is your last chance!" The voice seemed to be frustrated now and Darian got the feeling that he wasn't going to get to explain anything in the foreseeable future. He lifted his jacket up and the gun slid part way out and toward his hand.
"GUN!"
Darian heard the word being shouted by at least five people as he tried to turn around to see what was happening.
He felt the gun press against the palm of his hand and instantly knew that they were yelling at him. He spun around and dropped his jacket, the gun falling out and to the ground.
Darian put his hands up in front of his face to show them that he didn't have it in his hands as the first shots rang out.
The Stygian's Eye (Shadow Stalkers 1) Page 2