OF THE NIGHT ∘ Seth Gecko

09 | Unreal vs. Real

( Warning: over half of this chapter has descriptions of torture in it. If it's something that makes you uncomfortable, comment or message me and I'll just summarize this chapter for you, so you'll know what happened without having to read the descriptions.)

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CHAPTER EIGHT
UNREAL VS. REAL

HARRISON ASHFORD IS not only the man that is standing in front of me but also the name that crossed my mind at least once a few days after I turned in my old gun and badge. The lanky man with shaved head and cleaned to perfection leather boots is glaring at me. The one and only time when I saw him this angry was when he was convicted, and even that was through a TV screen. I was long unemployed when they put him behind bars.

My heart drops all the way to the floor as I stare at him, scared and confused. He isn't supposed to be here — I left everything that had to do with him in my old unit, not to mention he's supposed to be in jail. It's too weird for me to understand this, too unexpected for me to figure out what is happening or wrap my head around this. So, uselessly, I stare at him wide-eyed.

"Dawson," he says my last name in disgust and the shadows that hide parts of his features make him look scarier than ever. 

When he takes a step towards me, something inside of me shakes up and I realize that I need to find a way to defend myself. Harrison is much taller than I am, so that's currently his first advantage. Carefully, I reach back to find nothing in the back pockets of my jeans. Even though he hasn't done or said anything, I can feel my time running out by the second. Then, I reach into my front pockets, but there is nothing there as well. No gun, no knife, no stakes. 

"What do you want?" I ask and my voice breaks in the middle of the sentence. I'm trying to stall or distract him until I'll figure out what to do.

"Give you what you deserve for fucking putting me in fucking jail," his voice rises as he speaks until he's screaming in my face.

The volume of his voice makes me flinch. This isn't supposed to be happening, it can't be. My gaze wanders around as I look for anything that could help me or anything familiar; buildings, people, objects. However, I can't see anything aside from the criminal in front of me. 

Leaning towards me, he whispers angrily, "Do you have any idea what you did to me, you bitch?"

The only thing that I can think about for a moment is how strange it is that the Titty Twister is gone. So are the cars that were standing around it, so is Jacob's RV. It all escapes my mind the second that the man in front of me headbutts me. I can feel my head hurting all over and myself falling. Then, I feel my fingers are touching sand and something cold is pressed against the back of my head. 

Immediately, two things stand out to me. One; getting headbutted should hurt differently than my head does right now. Two; feeling the sand and the coldness seems to pull my mind somewhere else. However, before I can realize what exactly is happening, a dizziness and a sharp pain in my stomach pull me back to my current situation.

My body folds upwards in an attempt to protect myself as Ashford's boot moves away from my body. Using the opportunity, I try to roll away from him because I know trying to stand up will take too much time. However, as soon as I'm lying on my stomach I feel my hair being roughly yanked. The pain is awful, it feels like someone is cutting into my head and I scream in pain. So, this is how I die, I realize. I am pulled up until I'm standing straight again. Another yank on my hair makes me stumble into Harrison, who immediately pressed a knife to my throat.