𝐌𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐌𝐚𝐝𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬

12 | They Could Never Tear Us Apart

TOM

"Heya fellas," I said outstretching my arm to shake both of their hands. They did so politely with a bow, which I guess was customary for their culture. One was in a suit, the other was in some type of cheesy blue uniform, like he was operating a food cart here.

"Mister Holland, please forgive me. My boss does not speak English well so I will translate. Is this okay?" The shorter man said to me, as the one with the bald head who I presumed was the 'boss' stayed staring at me with a deadpanned face.

"Yeah that's all good with me. I'm thankful for the Triads to trust us to venture into business together. I'm glad we could work something out to help each other's import markets," I said to the short guy, looking at the other bald guy to make him feel included despite knowing he had not the slightest idea what I was saying.

Shorty then spoke some Chinese to Baldy to translate what I was saying. Baldy responded, Shorty answered back in Chinese and I was stuck here standing here like a bloody idiot being left out of the conversion.

"Is everything all good here? We all right?" I chuckled awkwardly, not used to doing business in a foreign language.

"Well, we are. You? Not so much," the short guy said reaching under his coat and reach for his belt. My eyes darted down quickly to see that he was obviously armed and ready to pull a gun on me.

As I pulled my arm back to grab my own gun, Shorty fell to the ground with a hole blown out the side of his temple and Baldy followed suit a mere few seconds later. They were both dead or near dead, Shorty out cold whilst Baldy bled out from his neck.

I ducked to the ground, cowering with my gun raised as I aimed it up and in the direction of where the bullets had come from. I hadn't heard a trigger, I had barely even heard the gun being fired. The marksman had obviously used a silencer. A fucking silencer...

"Tom, you need to get out of here!" A familiar voice yelled to me as they slid down the side of the truck and landed shakily on the ground. Y/N had fucking saved my life just now.

"What- What are you doing here?!" I said grabbing her arm and looking around us for witnesses. The people around us were carnival workers but they were still a fair distance away. They definitely could have heard the gun shot if it was quiet enough, but I think we are safe for now.

"I'm not fucking joking, you need to leave. Carnies hate the police as much as we do but they work alongside them to run these things. This carnival is crawling with cops," she said worriedly, pulling me by my arm through parked cars, tents and vans.

"H-how did you know they were going to kill me? How did you find us? Why were you even here in the first place? Are you following me?" I rambled, still in shock that I was on the verge of death and the woman who claimed to hate me, had saved my life.

"Shut the fuck up," she muttered.

She stopped behind a car and ducked quickly when she saw two men with torches walk slowly through a nearby aisle. Luckily, I ducked alongside her just in time for them not to see me.

"How are there police here already?" I whispered, crouching down and following her as she redirected us both the opposite direction. She didn't respond, she just kept moving silently. As we weaved between the cars and tents, I saw the fearful faces of a few 'carnies' inside them, watching us as we tried to avoid the cops.

"10-24 and 57, possible dead body in the area. Gun shots were reported by witnesses. I repeat, there is not a code 12677 for fireworks in the area at this time," one of the police officers said in the distance through his radio walkie-talkie. As we got to a clearer area, Y/N stood up and pulled me along to run through the makeshift car park filled with carnies.

Majority of the caravans and cars had power generators to allow the carnival staff to live for the duration of the fair so the sound of loud buzzing filled the area. That, along with the cheerful fun fair music, joyful screams and laughter in the distance. Amongst the noise, was a maze of power cords and extension leads cross the grass to try and not trip on.

"We need to split up. I don't want you getting caught for killing those guys back there," I said to her as I looked around nervously.

"I'm not fucking leaving you behind Tom," she snapped back at me.

"You have to Y/N. Trust me, I'll be fine, just go," I said turning at the next car and running in the opposite direction from her. I was running deeper into the maze of parked cars, loud generators and stoned carnival staff. Y/N, turned and ran towards the carnival, hopefully being able to lose the cops in the huge crowds.

As bad as this current situation was, it felt nice to hear those words come from her mouth. Perhaps not in such an angry and harsh tone, but the meaning behind it was nice; she didn't want to leave me.

"Police! Stop running!" A man said in the background as I sped up. I turned quickly to make sure he was talking to me and not Y/N, which was in hindsight not the wisest idea because he was definitely running after me. A part of me was just relieved they were chasing me and not Y/N.

I jumped and slid over the bonnet of the car in front of me, turning the corner quickly and covering my head as I heard a gun being fired. I fired back haphazardly without looking, hearing screams around me of innocent bystanders. I can't imagine how spooked you'd be if you were in a tent getting stoned out of your brain and hearing gunshots.

With my hand clutching my gun I swung my arm back again to fire towards the cop chasing after me, missing as I hadn't the slightest time to properly aim. The stakes were high, higher than they had ever been. I hadn't been this close to being caught for a crime before, I was actually getting fucking scared I mightn't make this one out alive.

"11-99 Requesting backup! Suspect on foot heading south!" I heard him yell behind me as I sprinted towards the edge of the carnival, seeing a metal fence in which the show ground was situated on far the distance. It wasn't too tall, I could easily climb it with a good run up which I had going.

Pulling down various obstacles as I ran past them, I tried to delay the cop from catching me. I pushed over various bins, pulled down makeshift clotheslines and even managed to knock down an old woman who was screaming for help. Sorry lady, but I'm not getting caught any time soon.

As I neared the fence I saw red and blue lights flashing in my peripheral vision, the police closing in on my location as my heart felt like it was beating out of my bloody chest. My mouth was dry, I was basically coughing from choking on the air and I couldn't feel my legs. Reaching the clear way I was blocked by two police cars driving in front of me, in front of the fence.

I skidded along the grass and caught myself on my hands as I tried to turn around, thinking I could run back into the maze of cars and lose the cops again. Except, now multiple cops were surrounding me as they pointed their guns.

I spun quickly to scan the area for any possible route out of this mess. I looked back around as the policemen started slowly inching towards me, demanding that I put my hands behind my head and drop to my knees.

This is it.
This is the way it ends for me.