Chapter 2 - Heart Break
I awoke to Melody screaming at me, “Get up! We have to get out of here!”
The smell of smoke filled my lungs as something heavy pressed down on my legs. “What the hell happened?” I asked, a little disoriented. I looked around and saw the entire house was on fire and a support beam had fallen on me.
“We can figure that out later, sis. Help me lift this beam off of you before the entire house collapses on us.”
I took a second and cleared my head before sitting up and pushing on the beam. Even with both of us, it was too heavy. To make matters worse, the fire was raging out of control, fueled by the old wooden house and made worse by the gasoline we poured all throughout the house.
“Get out of here,” I gasped, nearly choking on my words. “Find HIM for me. Please!”
Melody’s eyes lit up with rage and held-back tears. “I can’t leave you, Key. I’d rather die with you than live without you!”
She laid flat on her stomach, squeezing underneath the beam. “Help me lift it, you lazy coward!” she screamed. Pushing up with the beam on her back, it began to move just enough for me to pull my legs free.
“Great, now what?” I asked, struggling to breathe in the toxic air.
Both on our hands and knees to avoid the smoke, we began crawling toward the back of the house where we knew a back door would be present. It was the only part that we didn’t use gasoline. We hadn’t used the back door, so making sure it burned down wasn’t necessary...lucky for us.
The pain in my legs was ever present with each move, but we made it to the door. Just as we opened it, two things happened - neither of them good. First, the ceiling began to break apart, meaning that we only had seconds before it’d cave in on us. Second, bullets came at us like angry hornets, shredding the door and sending us back inside.
“Damn it! How did they know we were bringing him here?” Melody cried out, angry, but seemingly impressed with their underhandedness. “We took all of the precaution we usually do. Every track was covered. Nothing should have led them to this house.”
That’s when I realized what they had done. We’d been taking Luc’s partners and employees at such a high rate, they knew who else we’d target. “There was a tracker inside of that guy, Melody. They’ve probably made sure that everyone connected to Luc has a tracker on them by now.”
“Shit! How did we not see this coming?” she said, biting her lip. “You know what? Screw these mother fuckers! Try to mess with me and my sister? HUH!?? DAMN IT!!!”
I knew what she was doing and I could see no other choices. If we stayed in the house, we’d die. If we left the protection of the house, we’d die. “Let’s go out together,” I said, nodding my head.
Melody ripped the door open and together, we charged the dozen or so men that hid themselves behind expensive black SUV’s. Armed with only knives, bullets sprayed at us. Most of them missed, but pain filled both of my legs, my arms, my chest, and buzzed passed my ear. I’d been hit, but I wouldn’t look down. Adrenaline was flowing through me. I’d let that keep me going until I killed as many of Luc’s goons as possible.
Melody was in pain, too. I could hear grunts and yelps of pain along with the sound of bullets hitting bone. It only took a few seconds to reach the vehicles, but it felt like minutes. We jumped over the line of cars in one quick motion, cutting down each enemy one by one. When Melody slit the last of their throats, we looked around and noticed the assassins on the opposite side of the house coming to help.
My vision went blurry as I saw Melody hit the ground and my body followed, collapsing right next to her. I had only a second to see the damage when I realized we’d both been shot at least twenty times. We were both dead.
Voices screamed at me as I lost consciousness. The last thing I heard, “Burn their bodies and let’s get out of here!”
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I opened my eyes and sat straight up, the full moon’s light shining down on me. The pain was gone, my wounds were healed with no proof of ever having been shot. All of my old scars had vanished. Even my clothes were different. I was wearing a white flowing dress that fell to just below my knees and two white and very girly heels on my feet.
I blinked away the sleepiness in my eyes and focused on my sister, who was already on her feet, walking around. She seemed angry and a bit confused and I couldn’t blame her. She was wearing the exact same thing that I was and her hair had been dyed back to it’s natural black color. She looked beautiful and it drove her crazy, especially since we’ve always tried so hard not to look alike. Being identical twins isn’t always fun, you know?
“Key!” she yelled as loud as she could. “You’re finally awake!”
“What - what happened?” I asked.
“No idea. I woke up a few minutes ago and have been trying to figure that out. We were dead, right? I could have sworn my body was swiss cheese.”
I pulled up my dress and checked my legs. They were perfect. Not even a hint of the support beam that fell on me or any of the bullets I knew should be there. I just shook my head and stood up. I was surprised that I wasn’t tired. Since we were little kids, Melody and I were always tired. We didn’t take breaks or vacations. We were always doing something and could never catch up on sleep.
“How do you feel?” I asked, wondering if she had the same feeling.
“Perfect,” she answered, shrugging her shoulders. “This is the best I’ve ever felt. I could take on a fully grown elephant with this kind of energy. Something is bothering me, though.”
“What’s that?”
She pushed her long hair out of her eyes and said, “We were in the middle of the desert, Key. This place looks similar, but it’s not. Even the sand here is softer. It’s more like the beach than desert. And do you smell that? Saltwater is close.”
Indeed, I could smell the sea. And if I listened closely, I could hear the gentle crashing of waves not too far away. “Over there,” I shouted. We ran over a small hill and glimpsed a huge beach with a single campfire. The ocean was clearly visible in the moonlight as well as a single figure in front of the fire.
Wordlessly, we crept toward the camp fire. We positioned ourselves so that the person wouldn’t see us coming. There was no telling whether he or she was one of Luc’s people who came to look for us.
As we closed in, we moved apart, with me to the left and Melody to the right. I approached first, noticing it was a man dressed in dark clothes, grabbing his left shoulder and pulling him back to the ground, my knee quickly pressing against his chest, pinning his left arm as well. Melody jumped in quickly, securing his free hand.
I was a moment away from snapping his neck when he screamed, “Stop! It’s me!”
“Jake?” We said at the same time. It was him.
“But, you’re dead! We saw you get blown up!” Melody said, trying to hold back her emotions. Those two always had an odd relationship. He was hard on her, trying to get her to mature faster than she was ready for. And in turn, she was hot and cold with him, never showing too much emotion, but never pushing him all the way. But, I’d never seen her like this with him.
“Likewise,” he chuckled. “I watched the house burn with you inside before-”
“You watched the house burn?” I said, completely confused. “You weren’t in the car when it exploded?”
“Uhh-” he stumbled, sounding and looking like we were interrogating him. “Well, I was, but I can’t really explain to you what happened.”
“Can’t or won’t?” Melody said, her tear soaked cheeks catching the light of the moon.
“Both,” he answered plainly. “I’m sorry, but I can’t tell you what happened. The only thing I can say is that we are out of danger and can now go after HIM without any pursuit. That’s what matters most right? That we’re all alive?”
“Fine, old man,” Melody said, spitting on the ground. “One day, I’m going to beat it out of you, though.”
Jake just laughed, “Don’t worry. When we find HIM, all will be revealed. I just can’t say anything now. It’d just complicate things in so many ways that you’d wish I hadn’t said anything. So, please, just trust me.”
“Where are we?” I asked, trying to change the subject.
“Northern Florida,” he replied with a bit of hesitation in his voice. “Don’t ask me to explain that either, because I can’t. All I know is that our target is only hours away. There’s a car in the parking lot about a mile away. We can use that.”
Melody and I shared a look of confusion. I knew he was hiding something important, but he was right. We weren’t dead. And Luc was going to pay for what he had done.