The Puppet Factory

Part 5

"Watch it will you!"

"Sorry Boss. She got you good though, didn't she? She got both of you." The driver snickered as I went back into my normal position wondering what they were talking about.

"Yeah well it won't happen again. Next time I will let the kid kill her boyfriend instead of intervening to ensure that I'm not at the receiving end. Tch! Damn spoilt brat." The leader grunted as he gripped his thigh.

"I said it before and I'll say it again, she didn't know what she was doing and just got lucky enough to hit a living target."

The window looker hummed in agreement with the friendly strangers words as he watched the passing world around us. I should probably be doing that too.

"He's right you know, we all know who she was really aiming at..."

A small light bulb went off in my head as I looked at the friendly strangers' forearm and the leaders' thigh, in the little light given off from passing street lamps, both were soaked in a dark red substance. I turned to the friendly stranger with a slight scowl.

"You lied to me."

His jersey was not torn like mine-it had an unmistakable gunshot hole through it! How did I not notice or bother to look for it before?

"Yes I did. My health is not something that you should be worried about, Faith."

A frown fell upon my face. Well I get that... I'm not supposed to care about what happens to these people, I'm their hostage! I should be happy that my sister got a lucky shot, I'm not tied up or blind-folded so I should try get out of here... So why am I not?

Shaking my head I grabbed the small first aid kit and looked inside. Taking out a pair of scissors I carefully cut away at the fabric of the leaders pants.

"What are you doing?"

"These bullets aren't going to remove themselves."

They didn't have any nor was there a need for sedative drugs; he barely flinched as I cleaned the wound, he didn't put up much of a fight when the bullet head was pulled out either... Has this happened so many times before that the pain has dulled down a bit for him?

I prepared myself to work on the friendly stranger as his leader dressed his own wound. There was a shift behind me, I found the friendly stranger being hand cuffed by the window looker. His hands bound to the front before rope was tied around his elbows, keeping his arms firmly at his sides.

"I have the tendency to, attack." I slowly nodded after he explained.

"Might want to give him something to bite on too; my man's a bit high pitched. Don't want em destroying your beautiful little ears now do we?" He's partner added. I stopped digging through the medical box to slowly turn and stare at the window looker who went back to his previous activity. I knew it, something about his voice...

"Hey umm... May I use your mask for a second, please, Chad?"

"Yeah sure, why not?" When his balaclava was removed, then only did he realize his mistake.

"And he blew it."

The only female in the car besides me sighed as the driver handed her two rather thick wads of money.

"Well, shit."

"'Well shit' is right!" I bitterly chuckled, full on glaring at the normally quiet boy next to me. Chad is known to swallow some of his 'i's, 'a's, and 'h's in the words 'is', 'as', and 'have'. He doesn't do it all the time but more often than not so I caught it.

The friendly stranger mumbled something along the lines of "told you so" as I dangerously waved the scissors in Chad's direction.

"You, my friend, have a lot of explaining to do when we get to wherever it is that you're taking me. If I'm not satisfied with the story, you will have an early death. It will be slow and tortuous! I'll see to it myself."

In my raging state of emotion I turned my whole body around to face the friendly stranger so that I now sat on his legs with mine folded in on either side of him, just in case he decided to kick. Don't ask how I turned like that inside a car. Getting right to work I cut his sleeve before cleaning his forearm.

"Wow, Faith. Are you forgetting you're only wearin' a gown?" I froze as I reached forward to remove the bullet. My face grew hot. Chad was right. I am stradling his partner...

"Keep your mouth shut boy." I clicked my tongue and turned my head away before tugging on my soft gown. It had ridden up quite a bit due to my stunt, and I'm not wearing anything under. Absolutely nothing. The friendly stranger cleared his throat.

"I didn't see anything, so don't worry."

"... If I cut them off right now, would you still have the balls to lie to me?"

Without waiting for an answer I began the process of finding the bullet. Much like his leader, the friendly stranger didn't make as much noise as I'd expected. But he wasn't kidding when he said he fights back. The time that I finally got the damn piece of metal didn't come soon enough.

"I'm nearly done. You're lucky; it was only a part of the bullet head that got you; the rest must've broken off before. There is also the fact that you lost a lot of blood but I blame that on your stubbornness." I tugged extra hard on the bandage to show my irritation. Yes, I lie to people, but I don't like it when they do it back!

Chad gave me the key to unlock the handcuffs after I'd untied his partner. The friendly stranger that seemed to lie about everything was still recovering from my unannounced armature surgery; yeah both he and the leader obviously needed stitches. His chest rose and fell as his breathing thinned out more and he rested his head on my shoulder.

Shocked, I didn't move. Never thought he was this exhausted. Then again I'm most likely responsible for delivering the last blow.

Huh, causing others pain... It's a great way to cover up embarrassment.

Is that why people hurt others oh so often? They're all just trying to hide something, attempting to cover up a mistake? If that's the case then what had Trinity done? What would she have hidden if she successfully killed the friendly stranger?