ALSO, this chapter was really hard to write, please do vote and comment and let me know how it was, I'm literally sweating.
If there's any mistake, please point it out ^^
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Dedicated to:TheLazyishWriter
Boy, I think I might be in love with you XD I can't thank you enough for your tremendous support and love and beautiful comments!! Staw awesome mon amour!!
"I will fight for you no matter how hard the battle is."
~ Pinterest
Carlton's POV
"Father? Where are Mom and Caden?"
A self-assured voice speaks from a distance, "How many times do I have to tell you, kid, they left."
"But why?! I thought we were a family! Family always sticks together! Just like in this picture I drew in class today with my crayons. Mom and Caden and I and you are all holding hands and going around the mulberry bush–"
"Carlton, go to your room! Now!"
Everything around me was bright white, warbled patches of different colors floated in front of my vision.
"...he's waking up..."
The voice seemed to have come from far away. I began to twitch my eyelids, felt the gentle rush of blood in my fingertips and toes, endeavored to turn my neck around.
There was a throbbing pain that shot up both of my arms, causing me to squeeze my eyelids but not being able to open them yet.
I started to become aware of my rhythmic heartbeat, and the moderate humming in my ears. Where was I?
"He's up!"
I felt a presence in front of me and right before I could try to look up at this person, something hit my jaw vehemently and my head jerked left.
My eyes snapped open and I began to cough, my chest heaving painfully. I tried to lift my hand up to touch my jaw, that was just brutally punched, and it was then that I realized what was going on.
I was sitting on a chair, and both my hands were handcuffed behind it. All my efforts to break free were vain. Why do I always end up getting handcuffed for no apparent reason without even knowing what the fuck is going on?
Lifting my head up, I found another chair, a few feet away, with a man sitting on it. He had a prominent scar through his eyes and long black hair that fell to his shoulders. It seemed like we were in a room without windows, a very old, grimy room with nothing but a white overhead bulb, on a ceiling that was very low.
A single door stood bolted shut behind the man. Several other men were standing all around the room, most of them wearing black clothes, armed with pistols, silver grillz shining dangerously under the weak light and tattoos snaking down their arms, screaming experience.
"Done lookin' around?" The scarred man on the chair said, his smug grin exclaiming accomplishment. He juggled a dagger in his hands as he sat back with one leg propped on his knee.
And then I saw it – on his wrist was my limited edition, pre-ordered Tag Heuer watch!
No one takes my limited edition Tag Heuer watch!
"Where am I?"
"Now, young man, there's no reason to be afraid, we're not gonna hurt you." He smirked. "All you have to do is tell me who you are, how you are related to Mackenzie and where she and her friends are staying. We'll let you go unharmed."
"So there's a possibility that I'll be harmed?"
"What?"
"You said...that if I tell you, I'll be unharmed. What if I don't?"
An annoyed expression invaded his features before he stopped smiling and got right down to business. "Who are you?"
I smiled through my fear. "Let me just say, that scar looks pretty badass."
"How are you and Mackenzie related?"
"Hey!" my face lit up, "How about I call you 'Scar', has a nice ring to it!"
A few men chuckled under their breaths until Scar looked at them with a pain-inducing glare...then they stopped.
He wasn't sitting anymore; he rose up, towering way above me, sporting his dagger and waving it in front of my face on purpose.
"I'm gonna ask you one last time and then you will bear the consequences." Scar spoke huskily to scare me.
He walked closer and brought the sharp weapon one inch away from my right eye, the tip of the knife was close enough to blind me for life with one small miscalculated move. He was threatening to scar me too. "How are you and Mackenzie related?"
I blinked with a grimace, glaring straight into his eyes, "I told you, that scar looks pretty badass, I would like one too."
Scar was clenching his teeth with rage, his hand which held the dagger was shivering. I knew he wouldn't do it; instead, he growled and punched me angrily.
Pussy.
I moaned, straining against my handcuffs and spitting blood down on the rough, stone-ridden ground.
He then held both my collars in his fists and brought his face unnervingly close until I could spot the scars that were unnoticeable before, "Listen, boy, I have painful ways of information extraction up my sleeve!"
"Then use them, asshole."
He pushed me firmly back against the chair, a low grunt escaped me when my arms that were twisted and handcuffed behind me haphazardly, grazed against the edges of the metallic chair. My shoulders throbbed unbearably, craving to break free of the position they were in.
Scar was not enjoying this. "Why were you calling her Breanna?"
So he was stalking us?
I noticed a loathing sneer on his face when I looked up through my hair strands that had fallen all over my eyes, and my lips parted in shock. He was hastily wearing brass knuckles on his fingers.
Once in high school, I stole a pair of brass knuckles from my father and used it to punch the fuck out of a guy and almost killed him. They were no joke. One hard hit and I would die!
I was already tasting blood in my mouth; maybe I took it too far with the arrogance this time.
Bracing myself, I waited for the nauseating punches. There was no way in hell Scar was getting any information out of me. He either needed to stop trying or kill me to end this.
He tried to petrify me by knocking the brass knuckles together to create a clanking sound that echoed throughout the small, dark room that smelled of mud and grime accumulating for years.
His hand went up, ready to bash my teeth out when all of a sudden, he stopped.
There was a knock on the door behind him and a man came bursting in, "Boss! We're under attack!"
The room full of gangsters dissolved into chaotic murmurs. Scar's face went as pale as day. He turned around to give me a death glare as if asking me to explain.
"I had nothing to do with it!" I yelled, equally confused.
He said something to a man behind me in a language I didn't recognize and gestured everyone to follow him out of the room.
They were not even out yet when I began to hear gunshots and ear-splitting screams coming from outside. With a loud thud, the door was shut.
I was now alone with the man behind me who brought a cloth to my face and heedlessly tied it around my mouth so my yells were muffled. He turned his loaded pistol's safety off and pressed it to the side of my head. "Don't fucking talk."
Yeah right.
Stifled noises of thousands of firearms and bullets could be heard from every direction, men shouting in pain. And those weren't petty low range pistols, they were literally assault rifles! At one point, I thought I even heard a grenade going off.
If I had caught myself in the middle of a gang war, shit couldn't possibly get worse.
I tried shaking my hands to get rid of my handcuffs even though I knew that was not how it worked, but at that moment, my heart was hammering loudly against my chest, sweat dripping down my forehead in fear.
The noises seemed to get closer and the man beside me was becoming anxious.
We both gasped loudly when something knocked really hard on the door and moments after that, through the little crevice below the door, blood began to spill into the room.
"Fuck this shit!" the man yelled over the noises. He left my side and began to skulk slowly towards the door, gun in hand.
I couldn't believe what I was seeing; my eyes were wide enough as I calmly sank back into the chair, unable to move.
The man slowly opened the door when the noises outside seemed to have stopped. A body of a guy slopped into the room grotesquely through the door.
I looked away immediately, not able to perceive the horrid scene in front of me.
Just when I thought it was over, one gunshot later, the man who held me hostage was on the floor in front of me too, a pool of blood beginning to surround him.
I blinked fast to prevent myself from passing out. The harsh breaths escaping my dry throat were not enough to keep me from freaking out.
My hands were tied, my mouth gagged, there was nothing I could do but watch two guys, who shot these men, trudge into the room, stepping over the two bodies to walk towards me.
Both of them carried rifles. One had a gas mask on and the other, a white face mask. Smoke emanated into the room through the door behind them, possibly from the gunshots and grenades.
For a few minutes, all I could do was blankly stare at them trying to calculate what the fuck was going on.
The guy in the gas mask touched the dead men's stomachs with the muzzle of his rifle before they both grabbed their masks and pulled them right off.
And who else could it have been?
I whined loudly and rolled my eyes in annoyance.
"Yo!" Ace grinned at me as if he hadn't just ambushed the mafia, "You don't look very good."
I raised an eyebrow at him.
Yeah, no shit.
Raymond leaned down, holding the white mask in one hand and pulled the cloth off my mouth with another rather carelessly and angrily. "What did you tell them about Mackenzie?!"
He seriously needed to give me a break with this pointless egotism.
"Nothing!" I yelled, my lips twisting into a sneer. "You are not the only one who cares about her!"
This really seemed to piss him off. "Lose the fucking attitude!"
"Guys!" Ace bawled, "If you haven't already noticed, we're halfway down an ambush!"
We both stopped but continued to glare at each other detestably.
Ace sat down behind me and messed around with the handcuffs using some kind of tool, chanting, "C'mon, c'mon..."
I could still hear a few gunshots in the distance and Ray kept glancing at the door, which led me to believe they did not come here alone.
Finally, a click echoed throughout the room as the handcuff lock gave away, followed by Ace's cheer.
"Let's go," Ray said sternly, wearing the white mask on his face, as he led both of us through the door. I hated that he was in control.
Now I owed him, fucking great.
Ace wore his gas mask, removed a pistol from his belt and tossed it towards me. Loading it, I followed Ray with Ace following close behind me.
He opened the door and we stepped into the dimly lit hallway. I inhaled sharply when my eyes landed on several bodies strewn across the floor, blood splattered everywhere. I smelled the thick smoke, making me cough from the eerie, disgusting smell of massacre.
It was a sight I never wanted to see again, this is exactly what I was trying to run away from. I knew in my heart that these men were gangs of the mafia and had committed horrible crimes. But still, seeing someone I didn't even know, lifeless, always had a great impact on me.
This is what I was running away from.
Maybe Alexandra Bancroft was right, I needed to embrace who I was. And no matter what, I will always find myself coming back to it.
The scene had fallen silent; an occasional gunshot reverberated in the distance. We made our way tip-toeing down the hallways, marking our steps as we avoided blood and human flesh.
The hallway ended and we were out in the open now. All I could see in front of me were shrubs and trees leading into the woods. The night sky was pitch black, starless, mesmerizing sounds of crickets chirping filled the thick, cold NYC atmosphere.
My clothes were drenched in sweat, sticking uncomfortably to my body. A shiver ran down my back as we exited the ramshackle building, the cold of the night hitting and numbing my damp skin and I suddenly got an urge to curl up into a corner and allow my heartbeat to settle.
Dried leaves crunched below our shoes as we slowly made our way towards the woods, looking around frantically.
Something didn't feel right about the uneasy silence lingering in the air.
"Look out!" Ace yelled from behind me.
Before I could budge, the silence was broken by heavy sounds of assault rifles and bullets zipping in our direction from the woods on the right. I gasped loudly with dread and shielded my head with my arms.
Almost immediately, Ace grasped my collar and pulled me back inside the building. I fell backward on him, my vision leaving me for a couple of seconds when I hit the back of my head on the ground.
When I looked up, Ray had run forwards instead of back inside the building and had taken cover behind a tree trunk.
Thankfully, none of us seemed like we were hurt.
I was still breathing and coughing like a maniac while Ray peeked from the tree trunk, his rifle in hand, aiming at the men hiding inside the forest. He started shooting at them, taking cover, and then shooting again.
Ace patted my back, asking if I was okay, aiming his gun back into the building hallway to make sure no one was behind us.
But I couldn't take my eyes off of Raymond. His stance was confident and unyielding as if he was determined to take down every single man hiding inside the woods.
My heartbeat was ringing in my ears, threatening to deafen me.
Ace looked back at Ray, speaking with gestures I couldn't understand. Ray signaled back with a gesture and began shooting at the men again. Bullets hit the tree trunk that he was hiding behind, dangerously close to striking him and yet he held his position as he reloaded.
Ace grabbed the fabric on my shoulder and yanked me up into a standing position; he lifted his mask up a little to scream over the gunshot noises. "On my signal, run into the woods! Go straight and don't stop running! Mackenzie is waiting for you in a red car!"
When I didn't say anything, he yelled again, "Do you understand?!"
"Y-Yeah..." My stare remained fixated on how calmly Ray was handling all of this. I had no idea how I was gonna cross an entire twenty or so meters without getting shot. But both of them seemed to be managing the situation quite well and as much as I hated to accept it, I trusted them.
Just when my hopes began to get high, that we could actually escape this shitty predicament, I saw it.
A bullet struck Ray in his arm while he was shooting.
He didn't make any sound, or maybe I didn't hear it over the gunshots. He calmly propped his back against the tree bark, leaning his head on it, clutching the area where the bullet hit. His chest heaved as if he was breathing really hard.
Ace saw this but didn't panic. Instead, he took control of the situation by firing at the men. Then he looked back at me and yelled, "Go!"
I was starting to freak out. Ray was shot, Ace was on his own and asking me to run away into the woods. I attempted to argue that I wanted to help but realized that I would only make situations worse; they seemed like they had everything under control anyway.
There was just one problem – if I ran towards the woods, making myself a target, I could get shot multiple times and possibly die on the spot.
"Run! Now! I'm covering you!" Ace began shooting at the men.
Even though my head was hurting like the fucking devil, I whispered a silent prayer to myself, inhaled sharply and threw myself out of the building as fast as my body could take me. I ran with all the vigour and determination left in me.
I wasn't going to die here, not like this.
Several bullets zipped passed me but I refused to get distracted; I passed by Ray wishing I could stop to help but I had no other choice but to keep running.
The woods inched closer and closer and closer.
And just when I thought I had made it, I felt something burning hot strike my stomach.
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AUTHOR'S NOTE
*Evil laugh* Brownies, anyone?
Did you guys like the writing style in this chapter? Is there anything I should've changed? How is the pace of the story?
Oh and I hope you liked the character graphics in the introduction part :) When I add more, you'll be notified!
Thanks a tonne for reading! I really appreciate it! <3
Love, K!