For The Ones We Love

Duel

The boys didn't hesitate to start the battle with B.D. Breaunna charged toward Bahja, and tackled her to the ground. That's when Aaron, Jared and Zonnique came off their pedestals, ready to fight. "I got this one," Ray said, as he rolled up his sleeves and ran towards Aaron. Prod and Roc teamed up and went for Jared, since he was the strongest guy. Prince stood their for a second, not knowing who to fight. "Prince! Come untie us!" I yelled over all the commotion in the room. He ran over to us, and untied us one by one. For the first time in hours, I wiggled my hands. I thanked Prince, and glanced at the girls. "Y'all ready to kick some ass?" They all nodded. In the corner of my eye, I saw Zonnique and Bahja teaming up on Bre. Before I could make any moves, Laurielle sprinted over to them. She pulled Zonnique up by her neck, and looked her in her eyes. "This is what happens when you mess with me and what's mine." I could see the look of fear dash across Zonnique's face. Laurielle head-butted her, causing her to fly backwards. I ran over to Laurielle and high fived her, but we weren't in the moment for long. I felt someone forcibly take me by my arm, and swing me across the ground. My skin skidded across the rough wood floor, causing it to bleed. I looked up to see who did it. Jared. "So your just gonna beat on a girl now? Is that right? That's pretty manly of you." I could see that pretty much pissed him off, which is exactly what I wanted to happen. He stood above me and attempted to punch me in my face, but I rolled out of the way before he could do any damage. I stood up, and dusted myself off. "You know, if you're going to fight a girl, you should at least fight better than her," I said in a mocking tone. I could basically see the steam come out of his ears. He charged toward me like a bull, but I grabbed his wrist, and flipped him before he got the chance to hit me. He looked up to me from the ground. "When did you learn how to fight?" I shrugged, "I've taken some karate classes back in the day. Aren't Roc and Prod supposed to be taking care of you anyway?" He pointed his finger, "Take a look for yourself." Prod was slumped against a pile of boxes in the corner, and Roc was no where to be found. I quietly shrieked, and I could feel all the color in my face drain away. It made me feel uneasy to see my boyfriend in such a state. I couldn't focus on anyone but him. And that's how Jared got me. He tackled me, and pinned my arms down to the ground, and raised his fist above my face. "Trust me, Amber. This is gonna hurt me much more than it's gonna hurt you." I saw his fist come come hurdling straight for my face, and I closed my eyes, but right before it crashed right into my nose, it stopped. I opened my eyes, and Jared was lifted off me. I sat up to see Jared being lifted off the ground. By Roc. "Now Jared, he said laughing, "How many times have I told you not to beat on girls? Some people just never learn." With one hit to the jaw, Jared went flying backwards into a pile of crates. Dust and debris flew everywhere. Roc shifted his attention from Jared to me, and helped me off the floor. "Serious case of déjà vu, huh?" Roc said, embracing me in a hug. I smiled, and kissed him lightly on the lips, too fast for anyone to realize. We weren't there for long until I heard someone across the room scream. We both whipped around to see who it was. It was Bahja; she was wrestling Jamaya. And it looked like Jamaya was winning. Jamaya forcibly ripped the crystal from around Bahja's neck. She shrieked, "Give me that back dammit!" Jamaya held it above her head, "Why? Oh wait, it's because your nothing without this necklace!" She threatened to throw the necklace. Bahja shrieked. "Stop it!" She sounded like she was about to cry. Jamaya stood their with the necklace at hand, not knowing what to do. That's when an idea struck me. I noticed that Jamaya was facing toward me, but Bahja was facing away from me. I started flailing my arms around, trying to get Jamaya's attention. She finally looked at me, and I pointed in Ki'loni's direction. I was trying to get her to throw the necklace to Ki'loni, like a huge game of monkey in the middle. And Jamaya got the message. She flung the necklace in Ki'loni's direction. Bahja let out an ear-piercing scream when Ki'loni caught the necklace. "Someone get that back!" Bahja yelled. Zonnique ran for Ki'loni, doing as she was told. "Ki! Throw it over here!" Prince called. Before Zonnique could reach her, Ki'loni threw the necklace in Princeton's direction. Prince caught it, and Aaron came running to catch it. Out of nowhere, Ray came and tackled him to the ground, so that Aaron couldn't catch the necklace. When it landed in Prince's hands, he looked around, questioning what to do next. I signaled him to pass it to me. Prince threw it at me, and there was no one in my way to catch it. It was in my hands now, and a new plan was forming in my head. In the corner of my eye, I could see Prod regaining his composure. I quickly turned to Laurielle. "Laurie," I said in a hushed tone, "Keep Zonnique, Jared and Aaron at bay until the police come. I know Bahja is gonna come after me, so I'm counting on you and the others." She looked at me concerned, "Where are you going?" I readied myself to take off, "It doesn't matter right now. Just know that we're stopping B.D. right now." Laurielle looked down and saw the necklace in my hand, and I guess she saw where I was going. I looked over Laurielle'a shoulder and saw Bahja getting ready to come for her crystal. I ran over to Prod and grabbed his hand. He had a small knot on his head, but he was doing fine. I pulled him off the ground, and we ran out of the warehouse, holding hands. The warehouse was surrounds by a thick lining of trees, and a small road. I don't even know what part of California this was. The sky was tainted with hues of pink, orange and purple, so I'm guessing it was the late afternoon. After a few seconds of examination, I spotted the boys' car. It wasn't until we were in the car when Prod started questioning me. "Whoa. Where are we Amber?" I sighed and started the engine, "It's a long story, Prod. I'll explain it on the way to where we're going." I let him get in the driver's seat, and we took off. Once we were away from the trees, I noticed we were by the Pacific Ocean. "Step on it," I mentioned to Prod. I knew Bahja couldn't be too far behind. We started driving up a winding interstate, directly next to the water. There weren't many cars out on this highway, we were probably in a pretty remote part of the state. That's when I saw the silver Range Rover with the pink interior come speeding behind us. "She's here," I whispered. "Who?" Prod asked with a hint of concern, his eyes still on the road. I pointed in the rear view mirror to indicate what I was talking about. When Prod saw her, his eyes widened, and he stepped on the gas pedal even harder. After a few minutes, we were breaking almost a hundred miles per hour. I saw a ledge on the side of the highway; it was sort of like a fenced view of the water. I told Prod to pull over there. "Prod, stay in the car, okay? I'll be right back," I said, with the necklace at hand. He grabbed my wrist. "No. I don't want you confronting Bahja by yourself." He sounded very worried. I looked him in his eyes, "Craig, I know what I'm doing. I'll be fine, okay? This is the only way to end it." He stared back at me for a while, but eventually, he let go of my wrist. I unlocked the passenger's side door and walked to the fenced area, standing as close to the edge as I could. The same silver Range Rover pulled up to the boys' car. As expected, Bahja stepped out. She didn't hesitate to come over to me. It was the moment of truth. "Give me back the necklace," Bahja said in a serious tone, enunciating every word. "No." She glared at me harder, "Give. Me. The. Necklace." She stepped closer to me. I held the necklace over the fence as a threat. She gasped, "Don't even fucking think about it!" I extended my arms reach. "You think I'm kidding? Take another step closer and it's going down." Bahja and I stood there and intimidatingly stared at each other. I knew she was probably gonna come running for this necklace any minute, and as soon as she did, I was going to drop it. She put up her hands, as if he were surrendering. "C'mon, Amber," she said in a calmer tone, "Do we really have to go to such drastic measures? Why can't we stop all this right now? Just pass over my crystal, and all this B.D. mess will be over. Deal?" She smiled and held out her hand, like she wanted me to shake it. I smirked, "Oh, Bahja. You see, this whole B.D. mess will be over, but you're not getting this necklace back. Using a false sense of security, just so you can lure me into giving the necklace back, and you can just fuck me over? I don't think so. I've learned a couple of things from you, my dear Bahja. For one thing, I've learned to never trust a rat. Especially a pink one. And two, if someone fools you once, it's their fault. But, if someone fools you twice, it's your fault. And I'll be damned if you think you're going to fool me again." Her smile faded into a death glare. I can tell she wasn't too pleased by my rant. "Give it back!" She yelled, charging toward me. She can't say I didn't warn her. I flung the crystal off the cliff, right into the Pacific Ocean. Bahja screamed and fell to her knees. She put her head in her hands and breathed heavily. I watched as the crystal grew tinnier and tinnier as it got engulfed by the massive blur waves. Soon, crystal was out of sight, and gone for good. A wave of relief came over me, because I knew the hardest part of the battle was over. That was until I looked over to where Bahja previously was, and realized she wasn't there. The panic returned. Before I could even gather any real thoughts, I felt myself being pushed to the ground, for like the fifth time today. Bahja hovered over me, with a look of hatred in her eyes that I've never seen before. I'm pretty sure this was the scariest thing I've seen all day. "You've been pissing me off for too long now. It's time for me to end you." Out of the blue, she pulled out a small blade, and held it to my neck. Where the hell did she get that from? Why couldn't I get her off of me? Why wasn't anyone coming to my rescue? I was asking myself all these questions, but why did it matter? All I knew that Bahja was going to make sure that I was dead within the next five minutes. "And once you're out the way, Prod will forget all about you, and he'll come running back to me. Don't worry, I'll take care of him." She laughed, and began to dig into my neck. She sliced it slowly, just so she could enjoy every moment of the agonizing pain that I felt. I screamed as I felt the warm blood grace my skin. The deeper she cut, the more unbearable the pain became. I closed my eyes and tensed up, and tears rolled down my face as I waited for the inevitable to happen. Just as I thought all hope for survival was gone, Bahja'a weight was suddenly lifted off of me. I opened my eyes. My neck was still bleeding, but Bahja was gone. I turned around and saw her being gripped by her neck. By Prodigy. My eyes lit up at the sight of him. "Now, it's against my moral code to hurt a girl," Prod said, trailing off. I look of relief shot across Bahja's face. "Luckily, you're a monster." Bahja's eyes widened, as did mine. His grip on Bahja's neck tightened more and more each second. I could see her gasping for air. Prod had this look in his eyes; a look of vengeance, that even had me frightened. The color drained out of Bahja's face as she clawed Prod's hands, trying to get him to let go. Just as I thought Prod was going to finish her off, he let her go and she fell to the ground with a thud. He kneeled down next to her, and whispered loud enough for me to hear, "Your gender is the only thing that saved you. Remember that." He left Bahja alone on the ground to catch her breath. Prod looked over to me, and I guess he noticed I was still bleeding. He ran over to me and put his hand over my wound. I looked into his eyes, "I'm so happy you came for me." He smiled, "Of course I did! Why wouldn't I?" I lightly shrugged, "Well, it is your birthday, and you almost got seriously injured, just to save me. So I just assumed-" He put his finger over my lips. "Amber, I don't care how badly I have to get hurt. If it means making sure your safe, I'll do it. Do you want to know why?" I didn't speak, I just nodded. "Well, it's because, no matter how drastic the circumstance, we always do what it takes for the ones we love. Remember that, baby." I let Prodigy's words sink in. Every word he said was a million percent accurate. I know Prod would do anything to keep me safe, and I would do the same. I leaned in and kissed him. It was a kiss that said thank you, for being a best friend, a lover, and a hero, at the same time. I pulled away, and he wrapped me in his arms, as if he was protecting from all the dangers the world had to offer. I simply stared off into the sunset, as the breezy air blew through my hair. The sound of police and ambulance sirens grew more and more with each passing second.  I guess Laurielle called them, and sent them to us.  But, I didn't let that disturb the moment. Sitting here in Prod's warm embrace, watching the beautiful view together, made me realize that the storm was over, and my life would slowly return back to normal. Everything was going to be alright.

~~~~~

two chapters left...