Limerence Turns Ugly

Chapter 12

RABBIT'S POINT OF VIEW

IN THE PARK

        I just got to the park by a taxi and was looking nervously around for a hiding place when I see an area with a few trees surrounding it. I walked over carefully while hugging the bag containing Snake's laptop in it. Just after I hid myself in the mini forest, my phone vibrated in my pocket. 

        
        "Where are you?"
        "I'm here, but I won't show myself I see you first. How many are you?" I was scared of being caught too.
        "Fine. We'll come out in the open just outside the mini forest, find us here." Then, I saw a man  walking towards the opening of the mini forest from the other side of where I was hiding. I was shocked when I saw the man holding Squirrel's arm while dragging her along to the bench. It means that they bring Squirrel along too, but Squirrel said they wanted to catch me, or is it a bait? Wasting no more time, I showed myself.

        "What are you doing with Squirrel here?" I asked as a spark of hope arise in me that maybe, just maybe Squirrel could escape.
        "In case you try anything funny. Now where's that damn laptop of Snakeman's?"
        "Snakeman?" I raised my eyebrow in question.
        "That friend of yours, now give me the laptop!"
        I walked slowly towards them but the man holding Squirrel demanded me to stop right where I am. "Throw it over here，"
        I stopped and prepared to toss the laptop, but my action was pause in midair when my eyes were locked at Squirrel's hand pulling something out from her pocket. A penknife! What was she trying to do?

        "What are you doing? Give it me now or I'll hit her!" The man gripped Squirrel's arm tighter with his strong hands and I saw her biting her lips with pain. When I wanted to toss the laptop this time, she shook her head ever so slightly that I almost didn't notice and mouthed "No，"
        I pulled the laptop in close to my chest and stared at the man with an angry expression that I hope is convincing to them, "I want you to release my friend first，"
        The man smirked, "Laptop first, then I'll think whether to release her or not，"
        "You have to release her，"
        The man rolled his eyes, "Of course, we wouldn't want to feed another mouth at our place anyway，" The man answered. I lifted my hands and threw the bag containing the laptop towards the man holding Squirrel and I saw Squirrel pulled out the penknife completely out from her pocket and brandished it straight to the man holding her and ran as fast as she can towards me while his grip around her arm loosen. When she neared me, I turned my body around and started to run to the center of the park where there is a crowd strolling under the evening sky oblivion about the danger we just encountered.

        "You all right?" I asked as I tried to catch my breath.
        "Yeah, just a little painful where he gripped me, his grip was like a crab's claw，"
        I laid my focus on her left arm where there was a bruise and sighed.
        "Why the hell did you gave them the laptop?!" She yelled at me suddenly after noticing me staring at her bruise. Everyone around us turned to look at us with curious eyes and I asked her to lower her voice.
        "Why?" She repeated the question.
        "How else are you going to escape?"
        'I have a penknife,"
        "You still need some distraction"
        "You can scream or something, you don't have to give them the laptop, now we don't have anything against them!" She tried to shout at me and lower her voice at the same time and it ended up sounding like a person with a sore throat whispering.
        I laughed and shook my head and handed her a bottle of ointment I got out from my pocket, "Here, apply this on your bruise, it'll get better."
        "What are you laughing at?" She demanded and suddenly her expression change, "Oh my god, are you okay? Don't stress yourself out!" She started to panic and apologized for shouted at me.
        "What? NO! I'm fine" I reassured her while I flag down a taxi which just arrived the park and we got in. "The Eiffel Tower" I gave the driver our destination and thanked him. Squirrel won't stop asking me if I'm alright and the driver looked back at us from his rear view mirror with a worried glance. "You alright, mademoiselle?" 
        "Oui, my friend's just overreacting after I saw a dog almost got hit by a car." I lied to the driver and glared at Squirrel.
        "Gosh! Is he okay?" the driver asked in concern while he made a turn and stopped in front of the Eiffel Tower.
        "Oui, he's fine, someone pulled on his leash just in time, or else...." I shook my head and asked how much is our fare and paid him. "Merci," 

        Sitting at the cafe under the Eiffel Tower, Squirrel resumed her interrogation on me, "Just tell me what happened? Are you okay? Why did you laughed like that? I'm serious when I said we didn't have anything left against them anymore," she said anxiously.
        "I made a copy of the whole file in my pen-drive, and I deleted more than half of the photos on the laptop"
        "You made what?" Squirrel stared at me with disbelief. The waitress who served our tea and cake noticed her and raised her eyebrow without saying anything and walked away.
        "Stop exaggerating everything, even that waitress looked at us like we're nuts! And yes, I did,"
        "Sorry. So what was it?"
        "I guess Snake has witnessed something, I'll show you after we get back"
        "Yeah! Detective time!"
        I rolled my eyes and took a sip from my cup, "How about Joey now, we had lost contact with them,"
        "I heard Snake's moaning sorrowful once. Oh ya, I've heard the mean girl's voice when I was there,"
        "Which girl?" I was thinking of the girl in the college, the meanest girl we've ever met, but I felt it was impossible to hear her sound in Paris.
        "The one who bullied us and was scolded by snake-"
        "Did she want to have her revenge?"
        "I think so, I heard her asking her subordinates about us,"
        "Us? As in me and you?"
        "Yup"
        I stared at the view in front of me with disbelief, after all these years you think anyone would forget about getting jealous with someone less said about getting revenge, "Anyway, I think we have to save Snake first,"

BACK IN THE HOTEL

       "So what do you think?" I asked Squirrel as she was scrolling through all the photos I've transferred to my pendrive while laying on the bed.
        "I think, we have enough evidence. Now we just need some time and safety to get to the police or we can have a plan and some of these photos to threaten them,"
        "I don't think--"
        "You know what we should do now?"
        "What?"
        "Eat, duh. I'm starving." Squirrel rolled out from the bed and switched off the laptop we brought along and hid the pen-drive behind the nightstand where we previously agreed to as a hiding place.

        After wearing our coat, Squirrel's cellphone rang, and she picked up, "Hello,"
        "How dare you?" Even her phone was not in loud speaker mode but I can hear the man's voice clearly.
        "What?" Squirrel shouted back.
        "Oh...don't pretend anymore, your friend gave us the same photos that were on Snakeman's phone! Ask her to listen,  I want to talk to her,"
        "Eh....it's not my fault, okay. That's what I found," I pretended like I didn't know that was a fake information.
        "You didn't even gave me all the photos am I right?!"
        "I DID!"
        "You two...better watch out, we're coming to GET you!" The conversation ended. We look at each other in silence.