Rim Of The World

part eight

-"be good, babygirl."

-"noooo!" i screamed, as the officers dragged my brothers body away from mine.

——————
-"hey," a voice woke me up from my nightmare.

my eyes fluttered open seeing, a half asleep, gabriel.

-"you're fine." he mumbled, pulling me closer.

i smiled up at him.

i don't think i'll be able to fall back asleep, dariush snores like an old man.

[WOOSH]

everyone jolted awake.

-"we gotta go."
——————
-"shhh." zhenzhen hushed us as we hid behind the sheets.

-"do you see anything?" dariush whispered-shouted.

-"shush." zhenzhen hushed again.

something dropped on the floor. so i knelt down going to pick it up.

a shotgun shell

why would there be one out here?

i stood up and looked around, noticing everyone had disappeared.

-"guys?" i whispered-yelled.

i turned around seeing a tall man.

shit

he grabbed me and put his hand over my mouth so i didn't scream.

he pushed me towards a group of people holding shotguns at others.

i couldn't make out who the people were.

-"wait! you know this guy?"

gabriel

i struggled against the man.

-"found another one." the man shoved me to the ground.

i looked up and saw gabriel.

he looked so helpless.

i scrambled to my feet and stood beside them and held my hands up.

-"i don't think anyone needs to be hurt tonight."

we all relaxed and put our arms down.

-"but i'll be wanting that."  the stranger pointed towards alexs neck.

-"the key?" alex asked.

the man nodded his head.

gabriel stood in front of me, noticing one of the men were staring. making me uncomfortable.

i held his hand.

-"no!" alex stated. we all turned our heads.

the man lifted his eyebrow as if he didn't hear him right.

-"look, that key stops this thing and someone's getting paid. hand it over." the man put his hand out.

-"no, i made a promise." alex declared.

-"look, you could hand it over or," the man took out a knife, "i could just take it."

i held onto gabriels hand tighter.

-"c'mon alex!" dariush yelled.

alex dropped the key into his shirt.

-"i trusted you."

-"cemeteries are full of people who trusted me." he said evilly.

the man was about to step forward when one of his henchmen got stabbed my the alien.