Warning! Themes of depression and suicidal thoughts. Don't read if this will make you upset or uncomfortable in any way.
I took a deep breath and pushed my glasses up my face. I was just about to start the car when Luke opened the door and slid into the passenger seat next to me. "Where're you heading?" He asked looking at my shaking hand trying to put the keys in the ignition.
"I just need to pick something up of a friend. I'll be back shortly." I reassured even though I was lying through my teeth.
"I don't think it's a good idea for you to be alone right now Kenzie." He sighed reaching over and starting the car for me. "You've just buried Blake and your son I don't want you to do anything stupid." I had to weigh up my options. If I allowed him to come with me he might ruin my plan but if I try and argue it might just make him more suspicious.
"Fine but you stay in the car." I warned and he breathed a sigh of relief while nodding his head at me.
"Okay." I pulled out of my parking space and onto the road which was extremely empty considering it was only ten o'clock at night. I noticed a black Chevy tailing us and got suspicious. "Is your seat belt fastened?" I asked trying to lose whoever was following me. My guess is that it's a journalist. I heard the click of his belt never taking my gaze away from the reflection in my wing mirror. "Hold on," I smirked.
"But Kenzie you're belt isn't on." I just shrugged and pressed my foot down heavy on the acceleration taking my speed right up in a matter of seconds. The car behind me did the same thing and I groaned internally. There was no way I could lose this thing with Luke's extra weight in my car. "Luke do you trust me?' I wish I had of left him alone.
"What kind of question is that. Of course I do."
"I'm about to do something really dangerous Luke, I'm sorry." I had never done this with someone else in the car because if it goes wrong it's deadly. "Ever heard of power shifting?" He shook his head and I pressed even heavier on the acceleration. "It's where you change gears without letting up on the acceleration. You have to be lightening quick otherwise you'll likely end up dead."
"Do it." He gulped and I silently thanked him for his verbal permission, it made me feel a whole lot better.
Thankfully we lost the car and made it to our destination in one piece. "Wait here." I instructed before getting out of the car, slamming the door behind me and walking over to the person I was meeting. "Do you have it?" I deadpanned wanting this over with as soon as possible,
"Do you have the money?" I handed him the five hundred pound in cash that he requested and in return he tossed me a black backpack. "Good luck Mac." He smiled giving me a quick hug before walking away.
"Thanks." I shouted after him before going and getting back in the car.
"What's in the bag." Luke asked, wearily eyeing the back I was griping tightly.
"Nothing for you to worry about." I dismissed throwing the bag into the back out of his reach. Just incase he was tempted to look. The drive back was relatively peaceful until I came to a group of people all crowded around the bass of a block of flats. I stopped the car shaking Luke from whatever daydream or thought he was in.
"What do you think's going on?" Luke asked and I shook my head.
"I'm guessing it's got something to do with her." I said pointing to a woman standing on the ledge of a block of flats. Without saying another word I grabbed my bag and got out of the car leaving Luke scrambling behind me. I marched straight over to the police I could see. "What the hell are you doing down here and not up there?" I fumed trying not to get in trouble because that was the last thing I needed right now.
"Ma'am please calm down." A middle aged officer sighed at me. "She has the doors locked from the inside and there's no way to get to her without alerting her of our presence which is too risky." I couldn't believe what I was hearing.
"So you're just going to leave her to get on with it?"
"No we're waiting for a negotiator to come and try to talk her down. There's no safe way for us to get up there." I looked up and saw a drainpipe that I could climb up to enter the building through a second floor window. If nobody else is going to help her then I am.
"Okay." I dismissed pulling both of my backpack straps onto my shoulders and tightening them as much as possible. I pushed past the police and over to the drainpipe and gripped it tightly. I used my strength to pull myself up and began climbing up to the second floor ignoring shouts coming from people on the ground beneath me.
When I reached the first available window I tried to pull it open seeing that it was slightly open but it was locked in place and not budging. I tried my luck at the next set of windows on the floor one above my current one. I groaned when I realised those windows were closed completely and I really couldn't be bothered to climb up another floor with people still fucking shouting at me. I wrapped my right arm around the back of the pipe and grabbed my own t-shirt to make sure I wasn't going to fall a I pulled my left hand back into a fist and then pushed it through the window in one sweep cutting all over my hand. It would probably bruise as well.
I removed one leg from the wall and put it up through the space where the window once was and used my hand to pull myself up falling through the window and onto the carpeted floor rolling into the back of a couch. Making my way out of the apartment I made my way over to the stairs and started to run up them as fast as I could to make sure I got there in time. Thank god for Bret making me do stair drills. I quietly pushed open the door onto the roof and carefully shut it behind me making sure not to make any noise. I saw the young girl stood at the edge, her back heaving up and down as she cried. She stepped down and turned around looking at me shocked. "What are you doing here?" She snapped at me standing back up onto the edge.
"It's not worth it you know." She shook her head at me.
"I need to do this and it's got nothing to do with you. I just wish I had gotten drunk first." I slipped my backpack from my shoulders and onto the floor walking over and standing on the ledge with her. "Get down, are you stupid you could fall."
"We could do it together if you want?" I offered. "Take my hand and jump if that's really what you want to do." I held my hand out for her and she looked at me with tears in her eyes grabbing my hand and stepping backwards pulling me back down onto the roof with her. "What's wrong?"
"I can't do it. I'm too scared." The tears started to roll down her face.
"Sit down." I told her also taking a seat on the floor and reaching over for my bag pulling it into the middle of us. "Are you sure this is what you want?" I asked and she nodded her head. I reached into my bag and pulled out a gun and a full magazine. I loaded the magazine into it and placed it on the floor facing away from both of us.
"What on earth is that?" She sounded scared.
"It's an M9 Beretta. It's yours to use on one condition."
"Okay but first let me ask how you managed to get one of them in the UK." She still sounded apprehensive about the entire thing.
"I got it from a friend. I know how to use it don't worry. I was going to kill myself using this gun." She gasped and I just shrugged my shoulders. If I expect her to give me an honest answer then I must also be honest and forthcoming with my information. "Now it's your turn. Why do you want to kill yourself." I reached into the bag and pulled out a bottle of Jack Daniels and took a drink before placing that in the middle of us both as well.
"My boyfriend just died in a car accident. I was the driver."
"That sucks." I mumbled. "It wasn't your fault though."
"His parents are very racist and are always blaming me and saying horrible things to me. They told me I should just go die." I looked into her glassy eyes and saw nothing but hurt. "I am a good Christian women, I have never done anything wrong in my life and I do not deserved to be treated like that because I am black."
"Have a drink." I offered handing her the bottle. "I know you said you're a good Christian but you look like you could do with it right now." She hesitated before taking a drink from the bottle and grimacing at the burning feeling.
"What happened to your hand?"
"Well you kind of locked us out of the building so I smashed a window to get in instead."
"But there are no windows on the ground floor that's why I chose this building."
"I climbed up to the third floor. How did you manage to get everyone out of the building."
"I told them I had a bomb." She giggled drinking some more from the bottle. "Okay I'm ready." She sighed picking up the gun and I immediately took it from her hand. "What are you doing." She whined and a small smile played on my lips at the fact she was already half way drunk.
"We do this together or not at all." I shrugged at her and she shook her head.
"But you have no reason to want to die. You own two massive companies and have more money than you could ever need. You're getting to travel the world with a band and have pretty much the perfect life. Why would you want to end all of that?"
"I sometimes wish people could have as much money as I do just so that they can see it doesn't bring you everything you want." I sighed. "My parents are both dead, my brother is dead, I have killed before, I have been shot at and today I have just buried my husband and our new born son. I think that is more than enough reason."
"I'm sorry." She mumbled looking down at her lap.
"Yeah," I breathed, "So am I." We sat and drank and talked for hours on end.
"So what do you work as?" I asked hiccupping slightly and she laughed at me.
"I'm a trainee nurse. It was how I met my boyfriend."
"Wow. You have to be really smart then." She shrugged and reached over taking the gun out of my hand where it had been placed for the last three and a half hours. "We die with the same bullet." I reminded her taking a deep breath to prepare myself as the tears welled up in my eyes.
"How do you take the bullets out?" She whispered and I rushed to do as she had asked. "Thank you."
"What for?"
"For being there when I needed someone. You don't even know me and you've been more help in these few hours than my family have ever been. You don't even know my name."
"Then tell me." I laughed. I could tell she was going to pass out at any moment now. I had forgotten she had never drank before.
"Melissa." She managed to mumbled out before falling forward into me. I gently placed her head on the floor and packed everything back up into my bag loosening the straps again before pulling it onto my back. I then picked her up from the floor and began carrying her bridal style down the stairs and out of the front door where we were greeted with cheers and applause all around. Luke rushed over to me with a paramedic right on his heels who tried to take Melissa from me arms. "Don't touch her." I snapped taking a step back. Luke wrapped an arm around my waist.
"She needs help Kenzie, this man can take her to get help." He whispered in my ear and I knew he was right but wrong at the same time.
"Yeah you're right she does need help. But not the kind she's going to get from wherever he takes her." I was glaring at the paramedic who did not utter a single word in response. A young black women forced her way through the crowd and barrier of police officers coming running over to me and hugging me. "Thank you for saving my sister." She cried. I handed Melissa over to her sister and began to walk away knowing there was nothing else I could do there anymore. "Wait what was your name?" She shouted at me.
"Don't worry about that." I shouted back not turning around to look at her as Luke took my hand and lead me back to the car. The drive home was almost silent until we got into my bathroom and he was helping me to clean up my bloody hand. "That was a brave and stupid thing you did back there Kenzie." He sighed dabbing a wet cloth over my hand.
"I know but it was worth it." He smiled at me and kissed my forehead. "Stay with me tonight?" I asked quietly. "I don't want to be alone."
"Okay." He said picking me up and carrying me to my bed before climbing in next to me. I could feel the warmth of his body pressed up against mine as he wrapped an arm around my waist and it brought me an odd sense of comfort.
"Thank you." I whispered.