Claws

Chapter Fourteen- Fake Criminal

Authors note-- Hey everyone!! This chapter is kinda short, but there's a very important piece of the story they discuss in this chappie, so, even though it may not be as interesting as the other ones, please read on because in a couple chapters, we'll find out where Sydney went and what happened to her :O Thanks! Comment, vote, fan!! 

 Fourteen 

 We both stood there in utter shock, staring at this crazy woman. We backed up against our car, unsure of what to do. So we stood with our mouths hanging open, acting like the total idiots we were. 

   “N-n-no,” Jack stuttered, “no, you don’t understand, there’s been a huge mistake!” 

   “Oh, I don’t think so! You little murderers deserve to rot in prison!” she yelled, grabbing Larrys arm and toting him towards the car. 

   “Ma’am, there’s seriously been a huge misunderstanding, we would never do anything to hurt Mitchell!” Jack insisted. 

   “I don’t believe you!” she screeched, “I’m calling the cops, I’m calling them right now!” 

   “I wouldn’t do that if I were you!” Jack warned, his voice on the edge of hysteria. 

   “Oh, yeah, why not?!” she demanded. 

   “Because we don’t deserve to go to prison, it wasn’t our fault!” 

   “Tell it to a judge!” she yelled, yanking out her ancient cell phone and flipping it open quickly, her fingers fumbling over the buttons. 

   “Stop!” Jack barked. She didn’t listen. “I said stop!” he yelled again, suddenly pulling a gun out of nowhere, pointing it hostilely at Carol and Larry. Carol screamed, dropping her phone and backing up until she was pinned against her bumper. 

   “Whoa, now!” Larry said, frightened, hands up in a defensive way. 

   “Jack!” I hissed. “What are you doing?!” 

   “Don’t worry about it,” he whispered towards me, too low for them to hear. 

   “Now, boy, let’s just put down the weapon--” 

   “Shut up.” Jack cut off Larry, his lips immediately forming into a tight line at Jacks agonistic demand. “Now, we can do this the easy way, or we can do this the hard way. The easy way? Either you two climb into your little mini-van over there and drive away pleasantly, either to buy us a tire or not, and you never ever call the cops on us. The hard way? You decide not to cooperate, I pull the trigger, you’re both dead as a doorknob. Got it?” 

  They nodded, dumbfounded. 

   “So, which is it gonna be?” Jack snarled, sounding truly menacing. Carol swallowed, eyes wide, and kicked the phone laying by her feet, over to Jack, giving up and backing away. Jack bent down, picked it up, and smiled slyly. 

   “Smart girl.” he comment, sliding his gun back down into his pants. Strange place to hold it, I must say, but when you’ve got no holster, what do you do? Of course, I didn’t even know where he got the gun... 

   “P-please don’t hurt us.” Larry pleaded. “We have two kids at home, an--” 

   “I’m not gonna hurt you, but I’d really love it if you’d take your little pathetic sob story elsewhere.” Jack snipped, interrupting him. Larry nodded, scrambling backwards towards the car. Carol almost immediately mimicked his movement, climbing in the passenger seat, slamming the door and locking the whole car only seconds before Larrys tires squealed and they peeled away. 

  I turned to Jack to find his face smug as he stared out after the Honda. 

   “What... the... hell... was... that?” I demanded slowly, confused, staring at the ground. 

   “Kay, chill.” 

   “No, I will not chill! You just pulled a figgin’ gun on that poor couple, and, I-I...” I trailed off, motioning towards the road while I spoke. 

   “Kaylee,” he smiled, coming up and putting his hands on my shoulders. “It’s not loaded. There’s nothing to worry about!” 

   “Where’d you get a gun?” I asked, ignoring his statement. 

   “I snagged it from that guy at the diner. He was illegally concealing a firearm, so I figured I needed it more than he did.” 

   “But, if it’s not even loaded... what good does it do?” 

   “Don’t you see? This is our way out,” Jack took the gun back out, holding and staring at it in awe. “When we pull this thing out on folks, they’ll run scared... but if we pull this out and threaten them, we’ve got nothing to worry about! They’ll never call the cops on us, and we can--” 

   “Wait,” I cut in. “so now we’re playing the roles of the killers who murdered Mitchell?” 

   “It’s not a role, Kaylee, people think we did it anyway. We might as well be convincing and use people being scared of us as an advantage.” 

  I shook my head, staring at the firearm in his hands. 

   “I’m sorry, Jack, but this is absolutely crazy. You’ve officially crossed over the line from ridiculous to insane. Congratulations on that, you want a medal or a cookie or something?” I asked sarcastically. He rolled his eyes, grabbing my forearm. 

   “Could you just go with it?” he mumbled. I wanted to jerk away his hold, irritated, but he gripped my tightly, walking through the tall grass. 

   “Where are we going?”

   “Well, we definitely can’t stay here, broken down on the side of the road. And going to any populated place would be a mistake since our faces are all over the news.” 

   “Okay, Sherlock, then what the hell is the plan?” I asked sarcastically. 

   “We are sleeping in the woods tonight.” he announced, trudging into the forest. 

   “Wait, wait, wait... what?” I demanded, stopping and pulling my arm away.

   “You heard me.” 

   “Have you gone completely insane?”

   “I’ll protect you,” he whispered, “I promise.” 

   “Yeah, that’s what you said last time.” I mumbled, my voice breaking. He didn’t respond. He just lifted my chin to lightly press his lips to mine for a brief second. 

   “Come on. Let’s go.” he said, taking my hand and leading me into the condensed forest.