If Marilyn Manson had 3 Days to live: The Conclusion Story

The Count

 Has anyone been taking in the foreshadow?

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I slowly shook myself into alertness, finally waking up. I felt recharged mentally, but my body still felt like I was clubbed with bricks. The bleeding in my arm was staunched, and I warmed up to normal body temperature, slowly recovering.

Zack was in the drivers seat, he was watching me wake up, "Hey there." He said cautiously.

"Hey." I rolled my shoulders, wincing, "Look, I'm sorry about yelling at you. You didn't deserve that, you were just doing the right thing, bringing me home and all."

That's when I looked out the window, seeing an unfamiliar parking lot. "Wait. Where did you bring me?" I looked more frantically in the car, "And where did Brian go?"

My eyes went back to Zack, he looked on my solemnly, as if he looked into a coffin with honor. "What's going on?"

He sighed, undoing his seatbelt and turning off the car. He snaked into the back seat with me, taking my hand.

"There's something we need to talk about."

He'd only said that once before- freshman year when he told me he was being abused by an ex-boyfriend. He only said that if he wanted to bring up something gravely serious. This time he held my hand, indicating it was about me.

My voice wasn't ready to speak and it whispered, "What is it?"

"Alice, I don't want to bring you home because you're going to be committed."

"Committed?" Jesus, my parents. I knew it. It was something they've always threatened me with, something like a dark cloud shadowing and haunting my conscience since childhood. They were old-fashioned 'respect-obey-and- you'll be okay' kinds of people. Running away had done it.

"Yes. I don't want it to happen. Neither of us do."

"Us? You mean-"

"I told him; yes. He was disgusted with it. He said he'd do anything to keep you out of there. He didn't tell me what he was going after in that apartment building, but he's coming back. Trust us, Alice, please. We're going to protect you."

"I don't need any-"

"Shit-LOOK!" Zack said, jumping back.

From down the street, like a shark in the water, doom arrived in the shape of a great white monster. It rocketed down the loop toward the entrance of the complex. It was the white van after me.

"Shit. Zack, what do we do?!"

With consideration on an impulse he said, "Come on, we'll hide in my building. It's right across the street, we'll make a run for it."

We were in a parking space between two other cars. Zack smartly undid the back window and we slipped out. I could run just fine, but Zack insisted on grabbing my hand and leading me on. We darted across the street and into the open lot of his building, our targets were different from each other.

"Zack, you're a co owner, do you have a key to the front door or something?"

"No, I only have my ID and our machines aren't running yet. Sneak into the back here."

Zack was skinny enough to slip through the crack in the chain link fence. I put my foot on the chain and hoisted myself over, not sparing a second to measure my chance of doing the same as him.  He spotted me down and we took a second to catch our breaths.

"Look, " I said, nodding at his Chevy in the other lot. "They know that we were there. They're going through everything and shaking your car out like a handbag."