“Set Fire to the Rain”
2012 Copyright All Rights Reserved
Chapter 29
Everything grew quiet. The silence in the sterile hall ways was profound after the chaos that had ensued only moments before. Amari stood there, taking in the motionless bodies that littered the form and couldn’t find a drop of regret in her heart for a one of them.
In her eyes, they deserved it. The relentless hell that those solders put her and all of the other Lyrics through, day after day warranted justice and sweet justice had been served, as evidenced by the hall that was now painted crimson red.
Letting out a deep breath of satisfaction, she forced herself to turn away from the death and the gore. “Alright guys,” she whispered as she rounded the corner, “Time to move out.”
As soon as her eyes landed on the group, her heart skipped a beat. She closed her eyes for a long second, opened them back up and prayed that she was just seeing things. She had to be. Unfortunately, when she opened her eyes back up, she knew she was not seeing things.
Placing her hand on the wall, she struggled to steady herself. “Where… is Hope?” She finally managed to speak when she found her words. All she could picture was one of them cursed solders getting their hands on her baby girl and that…. that was more than enough to make her go crazy mad.
Bethany turned around and it was hard to miss the surprising gasp that she gave. “She was right here a second a go.” With a determined stride, she started down the hall in the opposite direction. “Hope? Hope?!” she cried out, getting louder and more anxious with ever new step that she took. Hope had been right behind her when they stopped. Where could she have gone?
“What do you mean she was right here a second a go?” Amari was looking at Max whose gaze was travailing back and forth between the retreating Bethany and the shell shocked Amari.
He didn’t know how to answer that question because when the shooting started, he covered his ears and closed his eyes, willing it all to just go away. He didn't hear nothing and he didn't see nothing.
“Max?”
“I don’t know?!” He yelled out, throwing in hands up in the air. He was ashamed because he was the guy here and he should have been the one watching out for the girls. He couldn’t even bring himself to look up look up at Amari, the one woman that has been the closest thing to a mother to him over the years. Because of him, her daughter was now missing.
He felt a hand settle on his shoulder and immediately pulled away from the surprisingly gentle touch. “I don’t know,” he reiterated, sounding very much like a scared little boy at that moment.
“It’s not your fault Max,” Amari said quietly. She was rearing on the inside but she couldn’t afford for Max to break down now. She needed him to both find her daughter and then get them all the hell out of here.
Keeping her eyes on Bethany, she touched his shoulder again. “Let’s go Max, we have to find her, okay?”
He lifted his head and stared straight ahead, refusing to look at her. She caught the way that he stiffened his spine and heard his slow exhale of breath. “Right,” he started, sheer determination lacing his tone, “We find her and then we get the hell out of here.”
Bethany turned the corner and was now out of her sight line. She knew that they needed to move before she lost her too. Holding up the gun, she cocked it and held it at the ready, the clicking sound resonating in the cold silence of the hallway.
Without saying another word, she patted Max once on the back and started to run. By the sound of his bare feet pounding against the tiled floor, she knew that he was behind her. They would find Hope, she told herself, they had to. She would be damned if they would make it this far only to fail in their mission now. They were getting out of here even if she had to kill them all with her bare hands.
They were leaving this place and they were never going to look back.
******************************************
“Let me go,” Hope all but demanded as Joey drug her haplessly behind him. They were moving through yet another darkened hall and she could barely see the back of his head in front of her. His grip on her wrist was bruising and at this point, she was beyond irritated with him.
He refused to acknowledge her; instead of listening to her, he increased their pace to more of a jog. “Joey please," she tried again, appealing to him. There had to be some of the old Joey in there somewhere. Some of the same sweet Joey that had so many times kissed her senseless after the football games, after school or when they were just making out in her room.
He suddenly stopped at the end of a hall and before she could process what he was planning to do she found herself roughly pushed up against the wall. She opened her mouth to protest and was abruptly cut off when his lips came forcefully crashing down against hers.
The shock that she felt was instantaneous. She felt pain under his crushing mouth. It wasn’t like all of the kisses they shared in the past, this one was nothing but pure dominance, him showing her who had the upper hand. He wanted her to yield to him and she flat out refused. It would be a cold day in hell before she ever accepted his kisses again.
When it was more than obvious that he was paying her no heed, Hope tried to use her arms to push him away from her. He read her intent and all too quickly barred her arms to her sides, restricting her of any movement. He never let up on his lip lock assault and even went as far as to bite down on her bottom lip, demanding that she let him in.
Mashing her lips together, she made an effort to scream but by keeping her lips sealed, the sound was more or less mediocre. She struggled futilely for several long minutes before she she heard another familiar voice call out in the distance. Her body locked up right then and there, not daring to move.
“Back away from her- now,” Liam said in a icy tone. Hope almost sagged with relief at the sound of his voice. Joey’s head lifted but his grip on her arms increased to such an intensity, she hissed out a ragged, pain filled breath.
Joey shook his head and muttered under his breath. “Some people just never learn.” He turned his head to the side and stared back at Liam. “She is mine and I’m taking her with me,” he told him very matter of factly.
“I don’t think so,” he responded. His eyes narrowed in on his hands and the way that they gripped Hope’s arms. “I’m giving you to the count of three to let her go and if you do, then,” he gave him a crooked smile, “I might just be nice enough to give you another five second head start to run.”
Joey’s taunting laugh filled up that empty darkened hall. “You think you’re funny,” he told him and in a move that was so quick, he flipped Hope around to the front of him and wrapped his arms over her chest, keeping her closely caged to his body. “You boy…” he added, “Can rot in hell.”
Liam smirked, “You first, maybe you can even tell the devil that I said hello, eh?”
“Ha!” Joey scoffed. “I‘m not going anywhere, I have what you want.” And to prove his point, he leaned over and pressed a kiss to Hopes cheek, making sure to flick out his tongue and lick up the side of her face, keeping his eyes trained on Liam. “So tasty.”
Anger rolled through Liam's blood. He saw nothing but red and then more red. To hell with a head start…. Joey was as good as dead. “One,” he started his count and held up his pointer finger as a sign. He stay rooted in his place and if the straight lines in his face was any indication, right now, he was every bit of the bad boy that his peers at school had coined him as.
Hope felt the tension in the air. It was thick and corded. She was nervous and scared, already catching sight of the gun that Joey carried oh his hip. She looked to Liam and with her eyes she begged him to back down; it was only then that she saw it; his collar was missing. Putting two and two together, it dawned on her that with his collar gone, he now had his power.
And with his power, they were all getting their asses out of here.
“Two,” Joey mocked the count down and started to cautiously walk backwards, not giving one iota of an inch on his hold of Hope. He wouldn’t let his father stop him from having her and he would be damned if he was going to let some flea bitten lyric stop him either. She belonged to him.
To hell with the preliminaries, countdown was over. Liam brought his hand up and then closed it, sending out a pulsing wave of energy straight to Joey’s skull.
The reaction was instantaneous. He released Hope and went to his knees, holding both sides of his head with the heels of his palms. He closed his eyes and his face grimaced under the strain.
Hope shot up and ran to Liam, wrapping her arms around his neck. She had never been so grateful in her life for anyone, than she was at that moment for him. As soon as their bodies touched, her collar snapped in two and fell to the floor with a loud clank. Their combined energies began to swirl around them, charging up the air to a whole new level.
Liam wrapped one arm around Hope, taking what solace he could in the fact that she was safe. She was safe in his arms. Still holding up his other hand though, he couldn’t take his eyes off of Joey. Remembering the way that he touched Hope, his precious Hope, and the pain that he saw in her eyes was almost too much. He squeezed his fist harder and sent out another excrutiatingpulse of energy, taking satisfaction when Joey screamed out loud and rolled to the floor on his back.
His screams wrenched the air, feeding Liam’s drive.
He hurt her, he hurt his Hope and he had to pay.
Hope watched on in horror. He was killing him. “Liam,” she tried to reason, “Stop!”
Liam’s concentration was focused solely on Joey and watching him as the life slowly drained from his eyes.
“Liam?!” She hollered again, grabbing his face in her hands. “Stop, we’re not like them. We’re not killers.”
He couldn’t stop. Joey’s screams had dulled to low moans and he wanted to watch his heart take it's last stuttering beat.
“Liam?!” She screamed desperately. “You have to stop!” She searched his face and when he didn’t stop and didn't even look like he was going to stop; she did the only other thing that she knew to do. She stood up on her tip toes and kissed him with reckless abandon. She didn’t know if it would work, but she had to try. Joey was delusional but he didn’t deserve to die. He needed to be locked up and some major psychiatric help, but not death. No one deserved death.
Warm lips touched his and he felt something in him crack wide open. It was mind boggling; it was like his soul just opened up and the heat of the sun rained down on him.
His fisted hand slowly began to loosen and he brought it up to her hair. He met her kiss and knew then that he would never be the same again. This blond haired beauty had not only changed him but she did the unthinkable; she opened his heart and made him want to care- care for her.
Pulling back, he looked down at her and lightly touched her cheek. “Are you okay?” He asked, his voice breaking at the end. Now that she was in front of him, he couldn't take his eyes off of her. God, he didn’t know what he would do if one of those bastards managed to hurt her.
She sighed, and dropped her forehead to his chest. “I’m fine,” she told him. “Better now that you’re here.”
She felt his hand rub down the length of the back of her hair. “You should have let me kill him.”
She squeezed her arms around him a bit tighter. “No,” she breathed. “We’re better than them Liam. We don’t kill, it’s not right.”
“I’m not sure that I can agree with you there Hope.” He bent down and pressed a kiss on the top of her head. “Some people deserve to die. He would have killed me if he had the chance.”
“I know,” she reluctantly agreed. She saw the crazed look in Joey's eyes but maybe if he had help, he could change. It was unlikely, but she could only hope that she was right, she had to believe. Joey had been raised to hate. The real question was whether or not that type of ingrained hate could be somehow be reversed. She wasn't sure but she felt that they had to try. It's what was right.
“There you are!”
Hope turned around at the sound of Bethany’s voice relieved voice. “What the hell have you two been doing?”
Liam turned Hope so that they were facing Amari, Max and her friend. Bethany glanced towards Joey and gestured in his direction, “Is he….”
She left the question open and Hope shook her head. “No, he’s not dead but he won‘t be getting up anytime soon.”
Amari turned her penetrating gaze to Liam and briefly wondered who this guy was. She noticed the way that he held on to Hope, figured that he was responsible for putting down the solider behind them and nodded her approval.
“Hey, some of the maggots are down here!” A burly male voice ground out and with one hundred percent accuracy, Amari whirled around, lifted her gun and took aim. One shot, he was down.
“Look guys, we need to move,” she turned back to the group.
Liam didn’t miss a beat. “Yeah, but come here first.”
“We don‘t have time,” Amari complained, walking over to him. She glanced at her daughter then turned back to Liam, confused. Liam touched the metal collar around her neck. It warmed and then cracked open, falling to the floor. He motioned for Max to come to him and repeated the process.
More boot footed steps started to hammer in the distance. None of them wasted any more time. Making a wide birth around Joey’s still form, they all jetted from the facility, Amari leading the way.
It was time to go home. All of them were finally going home.