Warning... contains scenes of violence.
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"I think she's comin' 'round."
I groaned softly and stirred as my consciousness began to lift from its deep slumber. My head felt heavy, although the ache had subsided somewhat from the night before. Now, it felt like soft kitten feet padding around in my head rather than tiger claws slicing off bits of my brain.
A thumb gently grazed at my cheek, and the familiarity of its touch heightened my self-awareness even more. I warmed into it and shed a tear of relief before I was even awake enough to open my eyes.
"Are you good, babe?" Ace's soft, husky voice speaking close to my ear is what brought me around fully. I became aware of the daylight that seemed so bright and sudden, and I squinted as I forced my eyes to open. "Just take it easy."
He knelt by my side as I lay on my sofa, and seeing his face brought on an uncontrollable hit of emotion. I bolted upright and snatched him to me. I bawled into his shoulder like a child finding its mommy after being lost at a show.
"It's so good to see you. I can't even explain..."
Ace wrapped his arms around me, and I tucked my head in to rest it on his chest, snuggling into the safe, warm space as if he were my big protective blanket. But as I began to relax and my sobs quietened, I noticed his heart was pounding against my ear. It was galloping. And there was a whisper of a growl in each of his breaths as his arms tensed tighter around me, almost crushing me against his sternum.
I wriggled as if to let him know it was time to stop cutting off my air supply, but his mind was elsewhere. I had to struggle to pry myself out of there, and he snapped out of wherever he had been and released me.
Ace's eyes were narrowed into a fearsome stare that spoke unequivocal wrath. "Was it Kyle?"
I stuttered for a moment. I hadn't noticed until then that Natalie and Eyeball were standing at the end of the sofa with their arms around each other's waists. I wiped at my eyes, a lame attempt to clean myself up, feeling embarrassed for my little breakdown. They stood quietly and appeared somber, and Natalie gave me a small smile as if to say, "It's OK."
"Tell me," Ace demanded.
I nodded, ever so slightly. "He jumped me at the train station."
Ace nodded back at me, and I sensed revenge at the forefront of his mind. I thought back to the time when Ace had beaten Lewis to the ground for holding a knife to my throat, and technically he hadn't even touched me that night, at least not on purpose. Kyle on the other hand... I hadn't seen myself, but I didn't need a mirror to know I looked bad. My jaw and my cheek ached to the touch, and the corner of my lip felt fat as I ran my tongue over the split. So, whatever insidious thoughts were prowling through Ace's mind right then, I feared them.
"Eyeball," Ace said, rising from his crouch. "Get in the car." He left my side and strode to the front door, and I saw him pat the back pocket of his Levi's, checking his switchblade was at the ready.
"Ace, wait," I said. "There's more you need to know."
He stopped and turned around to me, his fearsome stare more quizzical now. "Like what?"
"Eyeball, take Natalie out." Natalie had a quizzical look of her own. Lately, her suspicions about what we all got up to in the dead of night were becoming too apparent.
"Come on, babe," Eyeball said, and he led her away and down the hall.
"Well, come on!" Ace said, starting to get impatient.
I stumbled to my feet and went to him. "You can't do this. It'll only make things worse."
"Make what worse?"
I took a breath. "Kyle knows I've been boosting."
"What?"
"Well, he knows you stole that Chevy, and although he's got no proof, he knows. He wanted to me confess about it. That's why he grabbed me. I didn't say anything, but... he found my picks, and he's seen me catch the train a few times."
Ace started pacing around the room, rubbing his forehead.
"I'm sorry. I thought I was being careful. I screwed up."
"Fuck!"
"So, if you do anything to him over this, it'll only fuel the fire. And what's worse, I think he's teamed up with Joe. I think Joe offered to pay Kyle for any information he can get on us. I don't know if he already told Joe about what he found on me but-"
"How did he find your picks?" Ace asked curiously. "You keep them in your back pocket."
"Well... he... umm..." I felt short of breath just trying to say it, and that sent the message to Ace loud and clear.
"That fucker's dead."
Ace went for the door, and I chased him down the steps, fearful that maybe he actually meant it. "Ace... he didn't go through with it. His brother was there and... talked him around."
"Eyeball!" Ace's voice boomed around the neighborhood. He got into the '49 and fired the engine.
"Just stop and think about this for a minute. You don't wanna do something rash." I opened the car door to get in but stopped as Ace shot me a look. "You're staying here."
Eyeball skipped down the steps, leaving Natalie watching anxiously from the doorway. I scooted in next to Ace before Eyeball got in beside me, securing me in the middle. Ace frowned me a disapproving look, but his impatience to act won him over. He reversed out of the drive, threw the car into gear and then slammed his foot down on the gas, swinging out the ass of the '49 as it's tires snaked a fresh track of burnt rubber up the road.
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"Sorry about before," Eyeball said to me as we hit the main highway out of town.
"For what?"
"I thought you'd been in a fight. I didn't know you got fucking jumped..."
"It's no big deal. Don't worry about it."
I noticed the rearview mirror hanging off the windshield in front of me. I thought to look at myself but wasn't sure I wanted to. I finally decided to see, to make sure I wasn't insanely messed up or something. I raised my butt off the seat to peer at my reflection. The top of my right cheekbone was the darkest shade of purple and had swollen to the diameter of a golf ball. My jaw was also swollen, the bruise starting about midway on the bone, leading down to a gash at the corner of my lip.
I picked up Ace's arm and wrapped it around my shoulders so I could tuck myself back into the safety of his side. I felt him squeeze me as I shut my eyes tight. There's always something to live for. And now I knew what.
"Ace, what are you gonna do?" I asked the question delicately, trying to be non-confrontational. I didn't want to step on his toes, but at the same time, I was fretting about what was about to go down.
"You think he's still at the same place?" Eyeball asked.
"If he's not, I got a few places we can look," Ace replied.
"Ace, just promise me you won't-"
"Cassie," Ace said firmly. "What he did to you... This is how I handle things. End of fucking story."
Ace pulled over just inside the entrance of Kyle's street and sent Eyeball for a jog up the road to his house to check it out.
Eyeball got back into the car puffing, and he grabbed a cigarette off Ace's dash to light up as if it would supply him with the extra oxygen he needed. "He still lives there," Eyeball grinned through his smoke. "But he's out getting groceries for his mommy," he laughed. "He'll be back soon."
We rolled past Kyle's house and looked in. It was nothing flash. Just a regular, suburban, two-level home that was looking a bit worn around the edges. It wasn't at all what I expected considering the gleaming Chevy he used to drive around.
Ace reversed into a neighbor's driveway a couple of doors down from Kyle's and across the road. We were behind a line of fir trees that kept us concealed while offering us a glimpse of any cars coming down the street. After half an hour of waiting, Ace suddenly straightened his posture and the fire in his eyes intensified. It was the white Ford they grabbed me in, and it pulled into Kyle's driveway.
Ace and Eyeball got out, and Eyeball plucked up the baseball bat from the backseat.
"You're backup," Ace said to Eyeball. "This bastard's mine. And you," he pointed at me, "stay here."
I nodded, but as they crossed the road, I snuck out of the car. I went a couple of doors down into the front yard of the house that was directly opposite Kyle's place and peeked through the cracks of their little picket fence. I was really only a few yards away, and I had a good view of what was going on. My head spun as I stressed over what to do. My mind was screaming at me to go out there and stop it - to warn Kyle or do something, anything. But interfering would only get me in a world of trouble with Ace. I felt powerless. Conflicted.
The boys walked up Kyle's driveway, Eyeball with the bat slung over his shoulder and Ace with his switchblade flicked out at his side.
Kyle opened the driver's door, carrying his brown paper bag full of groceries, still oblivious that he had visitors. With a flick of the wrist, Ace flipped his switchblade into a stabbing grip and plunged it into the car's rear tire. Caught off-guard, Kyle stumbled to his feet, horrified as Ace slashed his tire open wide. Eyeball, looking for a bit of action himself, seized the opportunity to take a swing at the rear tail-light, and the glass shattered and fell.
"Assholes! That's my brother's car!"
Ace swiveled the blade in his hand again and pointed it straight at Kyle. "I'm gonna fuck you up! No one hits my girl and gets away with it!
Kyle put the groceries on the hood of the car and raised his hands in mock defense. "Dunno what you're talkin' about," he snickered.
Ace moved slowly towards him, focusing the blade on its prey.
"I knew you'd end up nothin' better than a petty thief, Ace. You always been petty."
"And you're a rabid dog that needs to be put down. I know about you. I've heard it from a few girls. Word's gettin' around Kyle, and soon, no woman will wanna go near you."
"Oh, come on - they all want it. Chicks like it like that. I told your girl I'd let her loose if she'd tell me a few things, but she wouldn't. You know why? 'Cos secretly, she wanted a piece'a this." Kyle grabbed his balls with a sinister laugh.
"Motherfucker!" Ace swiped wide at Kyle who jumped back as the blade came dangerously close to his chest. Kyle was quick to grab his own switchblade from his back pocket, and he held it out in defense.
The two began to circle each other, each vigilantly watching the other. I hate knife fights. I hate the damage they can do. Even the slightest touch can cause a gaping wound. Kyle swiped at Ace and I winced. The two poked and stabbed at each other, each trying to tear the other apart. I had to cast my eyes away. I couldn't bear to look.
But the tinkering sound of a blade hitting the concrete alerted my attention back to the scene. My heart heaved in my chest as I saw that Ace no longer had his blade. It gleamed on the driveway some distance from him as Kyle carefully inched forward with his still tight in his fist.
"Lost something'?" Kyle cackled.
Ace smirked. "I can even that up." He batted at Kyle's hand with a sharp, upward movement and, in the same moment, booted him hard in the nuts. Kyle's knife flew someway up the driveway and into the garden as Kyle grunted and buckled forwards in excruciating pain.
Did I mention Ace was wearing his steel caps? Yeah... even I winced.
Ace seized the moment and swung one of his fatal right-hooks at Kyle's nose. The force at which he hit him spun his rival full-circle, and Kyle's nostrils gracelessly sprayed a perfect arc of blood as he sailed around.
Kyle steadied himself and managed to stay on his feet, but it was apparent how much the pain from his balls was crippling him. Ace got him up against the car and started laying into his ribs, and Kyle's retaliating punches were strong yet scattery. It was like he couldn't focus properly. It was like he needed to take a minute. But Ace didn't come to play nice.
Ace grabbed Kyle by the shirt, and Kyle staggered as Ace whisked him around 180 before doing a running dive on him, driving him into the garage door. The tin made a terrible racket, and even more so as Ace repeatedly beat his head against it.
Kyle soon lost his footing and dropped to the ground, defenseless at Ace's feet. He got up on his hands and knees and tried to crawl, but Ace booted him in the stomach, putting him flat on the ground again. Another boot went in and another. Three, four, five.
There was one thing Ace took to that fight that put Kyle on the backfoot from the get-go. Rage. And if you have enough of it, it can give you inhuman strength.
All I could see of Kyle now was his messed up, greasy black hair and the blackness of his bloody face as he lay helpless at Ace's mercy. He wasn't moving at all; his coarse groans were the only sign that that mess of a body still had a life inside it.
Ace took a few steps back and bent to pick up his switchblade off the pavement. It was still open, and seeing Ace grip it in his bloody fist was like something out of a horror movie.
My heart was in my throat, my muscles so tense they felt weakened. Ace had said he wanted Kyle dead for this, and somehow, I knew in my heart that he meant it. I knew he was capable of it. Maybe because he had already proved it when he tried to kill Chris.
But I felt the decision wasn't only for him to make - here I was, watching it all go down, and all it would take to stop it would be for me to run over there and interrupt. Ace could do it, for sure, but I doubted he could do it in front of me. That's why he didn't want me to go with him.
As these thoughts raced through my mind, I looked to Eyeball who's head was pivoting in all directions as if scouting that the coast was clear. He tossed his cigarette to the side and folded his arms, standing back as he let his best friend make his own decisions. The pressure to act was fully weighted on me. If Ace did it, I felt I would be just as much to blame for doing nothing. And yet, my feet felt set in concrete. I couldn't move. Kyle might have caused me much more harm if his brother wasn't there. He might have even killed me. And, if Ace let him live, he would still be a danger to me. A danger to any of us. To June. To other girls. And he was sure to tell Joe what we were up to, because he sought his own revenge on us - times two after being put on death's edge. I felt it in my very soul that he would not stop coming for us until he saw us burn, and it seemed to me that the only way to stop him was for Ace to end him.
Sense was at war with emotion, and they battled fiercely in my head. Ace inched nearer to Kyle, and as the sun caught his switch blade, the glare flickering off the cold steel, that's when reality set in. That's when I saw past that day and into a grim future where I had to live with the guilt of doing nothing as Ace brought forth the murderer that lurked deep inside him.
I jumped over that little, white picket fence and sprinted across the road. As Ace knelt down to Kyle, I was only at the tip of the driveway and realized I had left it too late. I wasn't gonna make it. I wasn't gonna save him. I wasn't gonna save Ace.
"That'll do, boy," said a voice. A middle-aged man in a white shirt and dungarees seemed to appear out of nowhere at the top of the stairway, right above the boys.
And he held a double-barreled shotgun aimed straight at Ace's head.
I was halfway up the driveway when I hit the brakes and froze, scared that any sudden movement might cause this man to squeeze the trigger. Eyeball got the shock of his life too and raised his hands in surrender. But there was only one person the guy seemed to have any interest in.
Ace slowly rose from his crouch and lowered the knife to his side, not taking one eye off that shotgun.
The man was tall like Kyle, but his shoulders were far broader, and I could see some facial similarities. Kyle's brother - who was with him throughout my ordeal - ran out of the house and came to a sudden halt behind his father.
"Get off my property," the man warned. "I'm callin' the cops."
"I wouldn't do that," Ace said, fists all bloody. "'Cause if anything comes of this, it'll open a can of worms that you'll never be able to close again."
"What are you talkin' 'bout, boy?"
"Kyle knows what I'm talkin' about." Then Ace pointed a finger at the brother. "He knows what I'm talking about. And I think Kyle knows it's best just to take his punishment and shut the fuck up about it."
"I ain't listenin' to this," the man said. "Now be away with ya. Or I'll blow your fucking head off!"
Ace inched back slowly, still watching the gun and collecting Eyeball on the way. And that's when I realized what had to be done. Perhaps it wouldn't stop Kyle coming after us, but I felt it would help June and others like her in the future. I thought perhaps something good could come of this mess.
As they walked down the driveway, I walked up it.
"Babe, get back in the car!"
I shook my head without looking at him, and strode onwards, staying focused on my purpose. I stopped just short of the stairway and looked up to the man and the brother, where they stood above me. The man's mouth went wide as he saw me, and even the brother looked shocked to see Kyle's handiwork in the daylight.
"Who's this?" the man asked, lowering his shotgun. "Gary, you know her?"
Gary looked solemn as he lowered his head and looked me right in the eyes. "Yeah. I know her." We've got some things to talk about, Pop."
The father looked at his sorry looking heap of a son who still lay at the bottom of the stairs. "Shit. Kyle? Was this you?!" The father's voice was layered so thick with anger that I thought he might stomp down his steps and drag Kyle back up them by the ear.
"It wasn't just him," Gary said. "I had a hand in it."
"Oh, Gary..." the father winced. "But, this isn't like you! What the fuck have you boys done!"
"I didn't touch her - honest. I only followed her. But Kyle's got problems, Pop."
"Shit," he grunted. "Get your brother inside. NOW!"
The man stormed into the house and I turned to leave, but Gary ran down the stairs and stopped me.
"Hey," he said. "Cassie... I just wanna say, I'm sorry. I didn't know he wanted to take things so far."
I said nothing, just nodded to say I understood. I think I had already said everything they needed to hear.
Ace, Eyeball and I went back to the car with not a word between us. Ace sat in his seat with a huff in his breath, and he closed his switchblade and vehemently hurled it at the dashboard. It hit the bottom of windscreen and chipped the glass, but that mattered little to him right then. I rubbed his shoulder, but it didn't seem to soothe him. He took the wheel and gripped it tight, and I noticed bruising on his knuckles under the drying smears of blood. He kept looking over at Kyle's place through the fir trees, and I could feel his struggle of wanting to go back there but knowing it was too late.
"Ace... you're bleeding," I said, noticing the bloodstain growing at his side.
"It's a flesh wound. It's nothin'," he said. And he fired the engine and planted his foot on the gas, taking us away from that place.
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I don't usually use gif's, but I had to use THAT one, right?? Hehe... maybe I'll get addicted now :P
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