"So you won't be joining us for thanksgiving?" Arabella pouted on the other end of the phone
"Look I would if I could, but Lucas invited us to his family's home in Vermont" I lie
"Remind me to kill him next time for stealing you on our most cherished holiday" I chuckled "Bella I haven't been able to get drunk with you since I was twenty one on thanksgiving"
"I know, I know, you're a mommy. Nobody likes to see the alcohol go to mommy's head" I leaned back into my chair as i sighed
"Mom is going to be pissed you know? I'm hosting for the first time with my fiancé!" I laughed at the surprise from her own voice
"Look I'll send over a pie, but I just can't get out of this dinner with Lucas" I hear a knock at my door and there he stood confused
"Seriously his moms more stern than Mama Jones" Lucas walked in plopping himself down on the leather chair ahead of me
"Alright, you owe me though!"
"Bye Bella" I ended the call breathing out
"So why are you coming to Vermont with me?" He smiled as I shook my head "Avoiding thanksgiving, it'll just be me and Joely" he looked at me confused
"I love Bella and her family, they are my family. But I just know I'll be overwhelmed"
"You're welcome to come to my families thanksgiving, my mother loves children" he smiled "I can lie and say your my girlfriend, it would be a thanksgiving miracle" I laughed slightly and he stood
"I'm going to make a small turkey and sides for us. I won't rob Joely of the food" He rose a brow
"You know damn well she'd eat a pb&j and be happy. Your just doing this to prove some point? That you can do things on your own?" I rolled my eyes
"The offer stands, I leave tonight!" I shook my head "Very kind of you, thanks for letting me use you for a lie" he saluted to me
I spent every thanksgiving with the Jones, since I was seventeen years old. I hated blowing them off, I needed thanksgiving with just me and my girl. No stress or pressure of family
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Slamming the door to my Uber I rushed through the cold air that swarmed Boston. My apartment was just around the corner, so the walk wouldn't be too painful
I entered the store grabbing a cart. It was an insane idea to find a turkey the day before thanksgiving, especially in a city. My best luck was ordering a thanksgiving dinner from Boston Market and being depressed.
After narrowing down my list. I knew it was time to face it, the truth. It wasn't like I was trying to spring for some massive bird, just the tiniest one they had. I didn't even like turkey, but it was Thanksgiving.
I walked over seeing the spread left, and there it was "oh thank god, there would've been loads of tears if I didn't have you" I heard a slight chuckle
"You haven't changed a bit have you" the voice pierced my ears as I looked to him "You look like a ghost appeared Hope?" Theo smirked at me
"Maybe it has?" I mused and he scoffed
"What's with the small sad turkey?" He then rolled his eyes "Hope you're seriously not coming tomorrow? I thought Bella was just bull shitting because you've never missed. So these are your other plans?"
"Look I do have other plans and I'm sorry-"
"Is this because I'm here? You can't spill the tea in-front of me. Come on Hope, it's ridiculous your not eating a whole turkey by yourself" he reached for the bird as I moved it in a different direction
"Hey! This is my turkey!"
"I can't let you celebrate this holiday alone like you used to" I shook my head "I was never alone, I would go to the soup kitchens and see Sylvie who'd serve me!" I hugged the plastic wrapped turkey against my chest
"Look, don't not come because I'm there. Bella sounded sad, she claimed you were going to Vermont, clearly you aren't" he pointed to my cart
"Theo I'm not coming, I'm doing other things. End of discussion you can't make me come!"
"You know I can" he winked at me and I wanted to chuck this turkey right at his face "Come on, I made your favorite, lemon meringue pie"
"That's not really a thanksgiving dinner food Theo, and why? To get in my good graces? Apologize for disappearing from your family for years. You ghosted your own sister, I mean you suck" maybe I was a little bit too honest
But I shouldn't care, he shoved family aside like it meant nothing to him. I placed the turkey in my cart gazing back up to him "Goodbye Theo"
I pushed the cart away from him and soon his hand stopped it "Hope, I get it. I do suck and I know that. Why do you think I'm here. My baby sisters engaged and marrying one of my best friends. I missed so much of their time together, I owed it to them to come" I scoffed
"Don't tell Bella you saw me, I mean it"
Exiting the store with my paper bags in hand I moved quickly down the sidewalks. The streets were filled with people stressed from exiting the office, on a run or like me rushing to get ready for the holiday. Though it would simply consist of me, Joely and Charlie Brown.
The one good thing about my childhood I can recall was Charlie Brown, Julie would play it on the tv as her and Hyram would bicker over whether the turkey was at the right Temperature or not. Thanksgiving was the only holiday where I didn't feel alone, because I had the peanuts characters.
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The air around me was cold, and I couldn't lie I was freezing my ass off. Sometimes my outfit wasn't ethical and I knew that in the colder seasons, luckily a bandana or mask made it tolerable most days
The room I'm observing is empty, and so is my thoughts. Sometimes when I'm on these missions I lose patience. I plug in my earbud to my left and then to my right, the lyrics fill my head as Fleetwood Mac floods my brain
As I keep watch I see the light turns on in one of the rooms as two guys in suits appear. In the first man's left hand is a silver suitcase. The man on the left is familiar. He torchers his wife Ivey each night he gets home. I grew up knowing her, she doesn't have the courage to leave him. That's how I know him, and here he was a part of an even bigger scheme
Beside him is my target, Damian Holmes. He killed his wife and got away with it. I watched it happen in my own courtroom, but I knew there was more. He runs a drug ring, with strings of trafficking and debt attached. That debt, is death
I focus the sniper on him as he moves
I grab the gun from my pocket and turn behind me to see him again "Why the fuck are you here" he holds his gun pointed at me taking the advantage of standing
"I have a more serious question, is that an iPod shuffle? What is it 2008?" I stare down at the silver square and back up to him "How could you hear me?"
"Sixth sense? This is my job and my kill. He's harmed so many women it's time he pays" he sighed shifting his gun from me to my target
"Don't. Do. It." I stood before he could pull the trigger and stood in-front of the gun
"I'll pull it, you know your a golden kill. Angel you have people searching wide and far for you"
"And are there people searching for you? I never did catch your name the last time?" He lowered the gun towards my foot
"Amartolós" he stared directly into my eyes as I look at his, a sea of darkness with the reflection of me "You're a sinner?"
"What's on the shuffle?" I looked back to my target as he now sat still at a table negotiation with Mark, Ivory's husband
"I have a job to do" I felt his body behind me as he looked right over my head "and what's on the shuffle?"
"You think it's something mysterious?" I mused and turned to him dagger in hand. Before I could get to his shoulder her grips my arm forcing me to drop my weapon and me to swing over the roofs edge catching myself before a ten story plummet to my death. I pulled myself back up staring at him now more enraged than before
"I thought we were friends?" He pouted "so you really aren't going to tell me what's on the shuffle?" He leaned against the back door waiting for an answer, as I waited for him to leave
"You almost got yourself killed last time, you are a rookie. I can't have you slacking around"
"What's on the shuffle?" He repeated
"Fine! It's Fleetwood Mac? You happy!" I turned my head back to see a now vacant room, but shadows of movement in the bedroom
"I expected Freddie Dredd" I tune him out as I jack up the volume of the shuffle. As I focus in, I notice something as they come back out
That something, is our eye contact. Without a second thought I pull the trigger on Damian watching him fall. In turn I receive a swarm of hidden men
"RUN" I dive to the door as the gunshots begin and I'm left on top of Amartolós. We open the door rushing down the stairwell, which comes to a hault "FUCK"
"The elevator" he replies in realization, this city's biggest fire hazard was this building "Go! Go!"
His hand guides my back as we reach the elevator. I press the ground floor button frantically "they will be at the bottom" I warn
"I know, I'm not a rookie" his tone has turned cold as he leans back "you caught me at a moment"
"Sorry to bruise your ego" I whisper and as we move my back meets the wall as he closes me in
"Ego isn't bruised angel, remember in the end... you're my main target" I rose a brow sighing
"Then why don't you just kill me now?" He leans in as his black mask caresses my hood and his lips meet mine
"Because I stalk my prey before I kill them" he kisses me and stepped back as the elevator came to a rapid stop
"You have some pretty big words huh big boy? Glad you got your spunk back" he looked to the ceiling and back to me
"They've stopped us" I give him an obvious look as to which I already know
"But I don't hear anything" he leans his head against the wall for a few moments and turns back to me "I think-" The cabin jilts as I grip the railing.
"I think they are cutting the cables" I look around me for any exits, but there was no time to escape.
Amartolós laid flat on the ground spreading his limbs a part "Climb on top of me." His voice in warning as I remain still.
"This is the moment you kill me, huh?" He kicks my leg knocking me to the ground. I don't have time to think before he's shouting at me again.
"Get on top of me now!" I lay against him wrapping my arms around his "Don't think for a second I'm enjoying this" he mumbled.
What if I died? The thought finally came to mind, a situation I never thought of. Me falling to my death in an elevator shaft "Angel?" I looked back at him and clung to him as we jilted again "when we fall support my head" I nod.
This time the whole elevator shifts as I squeeze him "I never thought I'd see you scared?" He mused "okay Mr.Tough guy, I don't want to die. There you have my confession!"
I hear the noise of a weird spring and realize that's the brakes failing, we really were going down "Angel?" He whispers this time as I look to him "you're shaking" I look to my body not even realizing
"I have people who depend on me" he sighs
"We aren't going to die, it's ten stories not twenty" his voice is filled with confidence, but I saw this man almost get shot twice "plus I'm not going to let you die before I kill you first myself"
"You're just waiting for my vulnerable moment?" He stared into my contacted eyes, blue as the ocean, but in reality they were brown and cedar-sighted
"You are always vulnerable angel, you just don't see that" we listen as the last chord snaps
We don't scream, not a sound heard besides the eerily sound of metal scrapping at a bionic speed causing my ears to ring. But within a few moments, we meet the ground.
I stay clung to him for a moment. My head recovers from the noise slowly, as the sensation of the ringing prolongs. My hands were still wrapped behind his head still. I let go sitting up as his eyes remain shut "fuck, Amartolós?"
I slap his arm and was given no response. I reach for his wrist as his pulse was still there. He was just unconscious- wait.... he's unconscious
I stare at his mask, wondering who the bastard behind it may be. My hand reaches for it and as my fingers make contact, my hand his gripped away "Just because I'm half dead"
"Doesn't mean you get to know my identity" he yanked my hand off tossing it to the side "Hey sunshine, glad to see you're awake!" He stared down at me against him "right...."
I awkwardly peeled myself off of him and stood lending him my hand which he accepted "So how long til you think they figure out we're not dead?"
"They'll wait for a few minutes, they'll be celebrating my death" I dusted off my hood and looked to the challenge of the elevator doors.
They were cracked open, but enough to squeeze through "Give me a boost" he looked at me confused "cup your hands together and lift me up, I'm going out through the roof"
He lifted me up and I pushed the ceiling panel out. It smelt like burning rubber intensely. I turned back to him as he grabbed the ceiling by jumping and watched as he managed to lift himself out
"You can stop watching me now angel"
"You really think much of yourself, I was just watching to make sure if you needed a hand" he stood in front of me again nodding his head
"Yeah that you've got my back"
"In one way or another"
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Authors note:
Remember to vote- I hope you enjoy. I seriously never know but just go with the flow of things!