To Kill The Messenger

Chapter 5 (The Unfortunate Event)

"Lunette..."

Whitney hid behind the couch while her friends all went a different way. Taylor let out a loud shriek when Mr. William ran directly towards her. She ran for the front door, but she couldn't get there before Mr. William tackled her to the ground. She screamed as loud as she could, trying to wrestle the knife away from the old man's grasp but to no avail.

"Get off her!" Naomi screamed, breaking a glass vase on Mr. William's head. He dropped to the floor and Taylor crawled away from under him, towards the door.

Mr. William shook his head and reached out for Taylor's ankle, grabbing it to stop her motion. He received a kick to the ribs by Naomi, but Taylor's ankle was still held tight in his grasp. Whitney peeked from behind the couch to see Mr. William reach with his other hand and pound down onto Taylor's leg. She screamed, Naomi screamed, and Whitney jumped out from behind the couch when she saw the knife go into Taylor's leg. Taylor's scream heightened, and the pain increased when the knife was pulled out. The bloody knife dashed across Mr. William's body and slashed Naomi on the ankle. She tried to attack him, but with his attention turned to her, he grabbed her by the neck. Naomi was trying to yell for help, but her windpipe was being pressed against by the old man's very large and still strong hands.

As the man was getting back to his feet, Whitney jumped on his back and wrapped her arms around his neck, choking him almost as tight as he choked Naomi. Naomi was released because of this sudden attack but this attack didn't last long. Mr. William headbutted her with the back of his head hitting her face, and then quickly flipped Whitney from his back to the hard floor with a giant thud, and a smaller thud right after. The smaller thud was the sound of Whitney's cell phone falling out of her pocket and to the ground.

Whitney's heart was almost knocked out of her chest when she hit the floor so hard. Her vision was somewhat blurry as she stared up at the ceiling, but it quickly returned to normal and Mr. William entered her field of vision with the knife pointed down at her.

His smile was sinister until the phone rang. When that happened, confusion took over. Mr. William paused and looked towards Whitney's fallen cell phone. He bent over to pick it up, looked at the name and hesitated to answer. "Hello, Whit-?" the woman on the other end of the phone stopped. Maybe it was Mr. William's heavy breathing that threw her off. "Whitney, are you alright?"

"Who's this?" Mr. William said, slightly recognizing the voice on the other end of the phone.

"Who is this?" The woman on the other end answered his question with her own. "Look, Mister. I'm not sure what you want, but please don't hurt her. Please don't hurt anyone. I'll give you whatever you want, just please leave my baby and her friends alone."

"No! They should've left me alone!" Mr. William screamed into the phone before hanging up, tossing the phone to the side. "You should've left me alone-!"

Mr. William was blindsided. Tackled, and sent to the floor along with his attacker. Naomi scrambled to her feet. Still trying to catch her breath, she stared for a while at the scuffle. Some guy jumped through the broken window and just attacked Mr. William with blinding speed. Naomi looked around for something that would aid the young man in his fight against the bigger older man. Whitney jumped up to do the same.

A muffled booming sound echoed throughout the living room with every punch the two men threw at one another. The younger man was starting to give up the advantage when Mr. William wrestled himself to his feet. Taylor continued to cry out for help, as blood poured out of her leg so that drew Naomi's attention while Whitney jumped to the boy's defense, kicking and punching Mr. William in the back. Mr. William threw a blind punch that caught the boy in the ribs, and then smacked Whitney as hard as he could to stop her from attacking him. He then grabbed the boy, picked him up and dropped him to the hard wooden floor- not once, not twice, not three times, nor four. Five times the boy was slammed to the floor back to back. "Stop it!" Naomi screamed out.

BOOM

The loud sound echoed throughout the house for what felt like an eternity and everything fell silent afterwards. Mr. William paused, Naomi and Whitney watched in disbelief as Mr. William dropped down to his knees with a bullet hole in his chest. His eyes were wide, and his breathing was slow and heavy. His eyes rolled to the back of his head, and his face smacked against the wooden floor. Whitney, Naomi, Taylor and the boy Drayton looked up to see Lunette standing on the staircase with Dwight Chalmers' desert eagle handgun in her hand, light smoke protruding from the shiny muzzle as it shook in her nervous hands...

The police came about three minutes after the gunshot rang. After a while, Drayton was being lifted onto a stretcher and carried out as Lunette was being questioned by police officers that repeatedly told her than she was in no trouble. She acted in self-defense. But even knowing that she probably wouldn't face any repercussions for this, she teared up. She killed a man. Mr. William's body was already entering one of the three ambulances that was parked outside now. That ambulance left already, and now Drayton's ambulance was getting ready to leave. Lunette stared down to the floor, not uttering a word even when Whitney's parents approached her inside the house to comfort her. She didn't speak.

* * *

Drayton Porter woke up in a hospital bed in so much pain, he nearly screamed when his eyes opened. His mother was comforting a young woman, speaking to her and wiping her tears. Drayton wanted to cough so that his throat would be clear before he spoke, but when he coughed, the pain in his ribs intensified and he groaned loudly.

"Dray!" The young woman next to his mom said, rushing over to him. "I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm sorry." She sobbed at his bedside. She leaned on his chest, dampening his shirt and the weight of her head on his chest hurt him even more.

"For what?" Even talking made Drayton's ribs hurt. A few of his ribs were cracked, or maybe broken. It was painfully obvious. His face felt bruised, but he couldn't see himself. He only felt the swelling in his face.

"I was so mad at you... I didn't want anything to do with you. But then... when your mom called me. She didn't even know that we weren't speaking. She was crying, telling me that something happened to you..."

Drayton wanted to interrupt her, but he knew it would hurt him to speak so he let her continue... "I can't believe this happened. Not to you. You don't know how bad I felt. After ignoring you all day for something so petty... I don't know how I would've been able to live with myself if you... If you..."

"Don't worry... Eunice." Drayton said. "I'm alive. Are those girls safe?"

Drayton's mom nodded. "They're safe. That man that attacked them is dead. What the hell is the matter with you attacking a man while he's holding a knife? You could've been killed. You couldn't have tried to calm him down at least?" His mom's voice went from compassionate to upset.

"I thought I did the... right thing." Drayton winced in the middle of his sentence. "That guy would've stabbed them. He probably would've... killed them. I- I felt like the situation was past the point... of talking. I had to act quick or else he would've done something bad."

"Hello, Mr. Porter." A nurse walked into the hospital room with a smile that brightened up the room a little bit. "Mr. and Mrs. Chalmers would like to talk to you..."

Letter from the author.

This is the end of Part 1. Part 2 will begin in about 2-3 weeks because the work never stops. Lol. I would like to take the time out to thank each and every one of the people who had taken the time our of their probably busy days to read my work. "To Kill The Messenger" is just beginning, and now it is time to deal with the aftermath of this situation. How will Lunette go on with this moment haunting her dreams nearly every night? Will Whitney ever be left alone again? Does Mr. William have any family members that might want to harm these girls or Drayton Porter, the seventeen year old boy dubbed as the hero? A lot of people were affected by the tragic happenings of that fateful night. We'll see how things unfold. If you don't already, follow me on Wattpad for updates, and also... I would appreciate if you checked out my other stories (including Benny's Story where you get the chance to see first-hand what happened to Taylor's parents three years before the events of this story) Make sure to vote if you enjoy my stories. Thank you all from the bottom of my heart, and the next chapter will be uploaded before you know it.

-Sincerely, RJ Pritchett