“Luckily for you, you’ll never have to because I’m not going anywhere. Now, come on, let’s get you home before you fall asleep right here. Now that I’m looking at you, I can see how tired you are.”
“I am a mess,” I laugh… well, sort of. It’s more of a weird noise. “Thank you for pointing that out though.”
“Oh you know what I mean.” She slings her arm over my shoulder. “I’m just looking out for you."
She walks me to the end of my block and we chat for a couple of moments, then she turns on the opposite street continuing her walk home. I pause, lost in thought a moment too long.
I guess I’m so lost in my thoughts, I don’t notice anyone pull up next to me on the street. I don’t hear anything until the driver’s door swings open and the stranger pulls me into the car and places me in the driver’s seat beside him.
“Er, who… who are you?” I stammer.
He stares at me with a mania in his eyes, a mania that seems to come from drugs or something. God, after the shitty ass day that I have had the last thing I need is some junkie strung out holding me up for drugs. “Drive. I need you to drive.”
“Wh… what do you mean? If you need to go to the hospital, it’s two blocks from here. That way…”
“I don’t need the hospital, I need you. Now will you just start driving already? We have to get out of here.”
“Where do you need to go? I… I don’t have much money, but you can take what I have…”
I feel sick, I think I am about to have a full-blown panic attack. I can deal with drug addicts inside the hospital building, because I’m surrounded by others and we have the right equipment to help them. But drug addicts can be erratic, so out here…
“No, no, no, you aren’t getting it. Are you?” He smacks his palm repeatedly against his forehead as if I’m frustrating him. “I don’t want any of that. It’s you I need, you. Boss has sent me to get you, so don’t you fuck around.”
“M… me…” My vision blurs as I start to lose my cool. Ted is gone, but somehow this guy knows we are connected. Now I’m in trouble with the people that killed his family and no one is going to know where I am. “But I don’t have anything to do with it…”
“Don’t matter. You need to drive.” The guy narrows his eyes at me as if I’m stupid.
I reach across, trying to unclip my seat belt, but the guy isn’t about to let me escape. He yanks something from his pocket and swings it into my face. It’s metal, it’s heavy, it’s a gun. Oh my God, this guy has a gun!
“Shit!” The word squeals out of my mouth as I scoot towards the door. “Oh my God, please don’t shoot me.”
“I won’t if you just do as I say and drive.” His lips curl into a nasty looking sneer.
I know that I don’t have any choice, I just hope that someone, anyone has seen me so that they can call the cops for me. I put the car in gear and start driving slowly along the road, only picking up the speed when he demands that I stop fucking around, and I follow his instructions. The guy seems to know exactly where he’s going.
I tremble with sheer terror as I drive. I try my hardest to make pleading eye contact with anyone driving in the opposite direction, I want them to see the gun to my head, but no one seems to notice. The further along we drive, the more chilling it becomes, this might be the end.
I could die here.
Mentally, I prepare myself to say my goodbyes. To Alex, who warned me against all of this, who knew this was going to happen. To my mom, who is on the other side of the world and might not find out right away. And to Ted. Sure, we might have already said goodbye, but he’s bound to hear about this at some point and it will destroy him.
Why the hell am I worrying about Ted right now? I need to focus! He’s somewhere safe and I’m here stuck with a criminal in a car and a gun to my head.
“Wh… where are we going?” I whisper to the man, daring to dart my eyes over to him just the once. But I instantly realize my mistake when my eyes catch the gun once more. The man shakes it at me, reminding me that I’m not in the position to say anything right now, certainly not ask any questions. I suppose I’m fucked wherever we’re going, so the answer doesn’t matter anyway. I’m going to my grave site.