Outlawry

Chapter 42 - Ava

It was him. He had shown up out of no where and somehow convinced me to dance with him. Internally, I was shaking the entire time.

As the song drew to a close, I had not gotten the information I wanted out of him. "What are you doing, Luther?" I asked him, seizing the moment. "What is it that you're trying to accomplish?"

He looked up at me and tossed me a devilish grin. "You." The song ended and he pushed me off of him. "I'll see you soon, Ava Lane." He started to walk off. I heard him mumble under his breath. "Very soon."

"Me?" I whispered to myself. What does killing my friends and poisoning everyone here have to do with getting me?

It struck me. He was going to take away anyone who cared about me so that I would have no one else but him. Then that means...

Nate. He's going to kill Nate. That's why he tricked him into taking the ipecac syrup. It must have been in that punch. He did it so Nate would leave early and be alone.

I have to stop him, I thought. I chased after Luther out of the dance, but when I left the school, there was no one in sight. Nervously biting my nails, I ran out to my car. I quickly started it and pulled out my phone to look at Nate's address. It was a street name I was not yet familiar with. Squinting at it, I started out of the parking lot and put it into my GPS.

On my way there, I dialed 911 and informed the police of what I knew.

"Luther White is planning on killing Nate," I explained to them. I told them Nate's address. "He is on his way there right now. He has someone who is harboring him. His name is Antonio Gomez and he lives on East Mountain Drive. I do not know his exact address."

"Thank you Miss Lane. We are on our way. Please do not exit your vehicle."

"Thank you." I hung up the phone. "Yeah right."

After a few more minutes of searching, I drove down a long, dirt driveway and up to a large, cabin like house. Nate's car was parked in front of it. I got out of my car and ran to the house.

There was some sort of commotion going on upstairs. I'm too late... I thought. I sprinted up the stairs and ran down the hallway to where the light was. I opened the door to find Nate tied to his bed and Luther holding a knife to his face. Broken glass and liquid lay on the floor, clearly not broken by accident.

"This is your punishment..." Luther rasped to him.

"Luther, stop!" I screamed. He looked up, a look of pure and utter shock spread across his deranged face. The insanity in his eyes overwhelmed me as I looked onto the scene in horror.

"Ava, help me..." Nate wheezed as he tried moving his hand toward me. I turned my attention toward him. The side of his head had been badly injured, for blood was leaking out near his temple. He would surely pass out in a few minutes if the bleeding didn't stop.

Luther glared at Nate, and wrapped his fingers around his neck, chocking him. I brought my hands to my mouth and gasped.

"Stop it, Luther," I said, hoping to convince him to let Nate live. "It's no use. The police are coming."

Luther smirked at me, making me shiver at the sight of him. It was at that moment that I was truly afraid of the boy that I thought that I had grown rather fond of. The boy who I had grown to trust. The boy who I kissed. The boy who loves me. And in a single moment, all those feelings were broken by a single sentence. "The police won't get here before I kill him."

As he said the words, he lifted the knife and prepared to plunge it into Nate's chest. Nate looked up at him, bug-eyed, preparing for his doom. Panicking, I started towards him. I had an insane, spur of the moment idea to stop Luther, to put myself before Nate and hope he would realize that this is not the correct way to my heart. I hadn't realized that Luther had closed his eyes, however. And as soon as I did, it was too late.