"You trying to fucking kill me?" The gun tumbled from her hands and clattered to the ground as he lifted her by her neck until her feet dragged on the cement. "Trying to shoot me!" He laughed maniacally. "You're not the first and won't be the last!" He seethed. Saliva flew into her face as he dragged her toward the tracks. His grip tightened and her neck cracked painfully as she pounded his arms and chest with her fists.
"No." She croaked out.
"No? Now, it's no?" He snarled. Sid felt his grip loosen on her throat. Relief flooded her but only for a moment before she realized she was falling. Her feet were floating up over her head. She reached out but grabbed nothing but air. She landed hard, her head bouncing violently off of the rail.
No.
No.
Panic sat on her chest. Keeping her in place even though she desperately wanted to get up. But she didn't have a good idea of where she had landed and if she moved one inch in the wrong direction and hit the third rail, over seven hundred volts may course through her body. The fall didn't kill her but if her body made contact with that electrified piece of steel she would surely die. Her neck throbbed and pain shot down through her arms and legs whenever she tried to move. Kru leered at her angrily from above. Shouting at her.
"You're tough? You're just another stupid little bitch about to die. All this over your pops! Roland wasn't shit. Nothing but a pussy." He spat angrily in her direction. Sid couldn't feel if it hit her or not because her extremities were now beginning to go numb as the throbbing in her neck and head continued.
His screaming continued and the pain endured. She was on the same tracks where her father took his last breath. The lights above fading in and out as her vision blurred. Her plan could not have been going any worst, she thought. A rumbling started faintly against her back. Shock was setting in, she rationalized, but it soon realized that it at all. It got stronger. Her body vibrated. The train. Sid tried to turn her head to see which direction it was coming from, but she heard an audible crunch in her neck when she did, and her nerves sent shock waves of pain through her body. A scream escaped from deep inside her gut.
For a second she contemplated pleading for her life. Begging Kru to save her. Promising to stay out of his way or become one of his hands. Whatever it would take for her to not die here. For her to see AJ's beautiful face again. For her to wrap her arms around her Mom and make up for years of not doing so. For her to lay herself bare in front of Phil again, wrap herself in his arms, and experience a freedom she was robbed of for so long. Hot tears rolled down the side of her face, pooling in her ears. She ached knowing that she would not be able to do those things again.
There was no way she would ask Kru to save her life.
He couldn't have that power. For him to continue to believe he was some sort of savior was worse than death. She opened her mouth and released a scream. Like the last howl of a wounded animal before they accepted death.
She looked up at Kru as he stood there, almost salivating at her impending death. "I win. No matter what, I win." He bellowed.
As the rattle of the train grew nearer she closed her eyes and hoped her body would go completely numb before the train's impact.
"Nah, brother."
Sidney's eyes fluttered open. Kru spun around. His eyes, full of confusion, darted back to the wooden bench where the homeless man once slept to find it empty. Phil, layers of clothes draped over his hunched frame, stood in front of him now. Phil was noticeably in pain but he was on his feet, clutching his side with one hand while the other held the gun pointed directly at Kru. Phil clicked the safety off the gun.
"Muthaf—" Kru advanced on Phil but the gun sounded and a split second later Kru stumbled back. Phil hobbled forward, firing another shot which sent Kru down to the ground grabbing at his chest.
"Phil!" Sidney yelled from the tracks. Phil turned and started toward her but it was too late. The train clamored into the station with a gust of air, careening over the tracks, horn blaring.
Death should be quiet since life is so deafening. An instantaneous departure from the world into...peace? Turmoil? Or maybe nothingness. Whatever the afterlife was made of it should not feel like life. Absent of voices. It shouldn't still smell like living.
The thoughts ran through Sid's mind for a moment before she rationalized that maybe if she was thinking then she was also still breathing. She sucked in a breath. Her lungs filled.
"Grab my hand!" Phil shouted at her. She opened her eyes to see Phil flat on his belly. His arm outstretched toward her. She tried to reach for him. Wanted so desperately to but her body wouldn't move at all. She began to weep from a mix of terror and joy.
"I can't...I can't."
"Help! Somebody, please!" Phil called out. Sid could hear the train's motors and feel the heat of it idling on the track next to her. The train was on the opposite track. She heard people yelling mixed with excited whispers. It was only a moment before she felt hands on her. Three men had come to her aid and ignoring her screams and yelps, they lifted her up to the platform where more people had gathered to help. Her vision blurred but she could make out Phil's sweaty face close to hers and his hand caressing her face begging her to stay with him.
"Where's...Kru?" She croaked out but a quick glance to her right answered her question. He was an unmoving heap, resting in a slowly widening lake of blood. She couldn't look away. Tears erupted from her but she kept her eyes fixed on him. Not believing the possibility that it had worked. They actually did it.
"I'm sorry. It happened so fast." Large tears fell from Phil's eyes.
"It's okay. It's okay." She told him. Sid tried to move her arm, wanting desperately to pull him close again and confirm that she was really alive, but it merely twitched. Phil noticed and grabbed her hand, holding on tightly. She could see blood seeping through his shirt. She was sure his stitches had probably opened up. Him staying safe at home was all she wanted, but the irony wasn't lost on her that she would most definitely be dead if it weren't for him.
"Don't move." He urged her. She could hear the sirens flowing down from the street above.
Back at Tomi's place, Phil came bursting through the bedroom doors to talk to her soon after Kru's call. He was enraged and begged her not to do this. She was resolved and not able to be swayed. There was no other recourse that she could live with. In her short twenty-three years, life had dealt her just about all she could take. She could not continue on in that way. The only option was to either break and accept defeat or try to fight back. Sid was sure that they all collectively deserved a chance to fight. She would fight to make sure her father's death was not meaningless. That Phil didn't have to live in fear. That she didn't spend the rest of her life fearing a man with a scar who took her world from her. Kru belonged in the hottest hell she could imagine and she wanted to send him there.
Phil told her that he would kill Kru himself if she could just give him time. He was one of the only other people who had witnessed Kru's atrocities firsthand. He knew his brother had to die and he was on board with it happening but not if that meant putting her in harm's way. They yelled, screamed, and cried for an hour until Phil could tell that there was no way he would be able to talk her out of it. So, he pleaded to at least come with her. They both knew though, that the moment Kru saw Phil, the jig would be up. That wouldn't be a problem. Kru was narcissistic if nothing else. He wouldn't dare give a homeless person a dime let alone a second look in the train station. Phil lay on the wooden bench wrapped in clothing completely unnoticed by Kru just like they both knew he would be. He would back her up if needed but Sid was firm with him that she wanted to be the one to pull the trigger. If there was one person who had as much justification to take his life as she did it was Phil and she didn't want him to jump the gun. She had only witnessed a fraction of the torment his brother put him through. She was sure there was more and she did not know how Phil would react to being face to face with him again. Her neck was definitely broken and she didn't know whether life would be the same for her but... they made it through. She felt at peace knowing that Phil had been the one to close a traumatic chapter in both of their lives forever. She smiled through her tears. Phil smiled back at her.
"You did it." He told her.
"The safety was on. I didn't do it."
"Yeah, you did. You pulled the trigger."
Phil kissed her face as EMT's burst through the crowd of people around them. A brace was put around her neck and she was shifted onto a backboard. As she was carried out of the station she slipped in and out of consciousness. The last time she left this station she was in a state very much like this one. Alone and flanked by paramedics. Maybe she was delirious from the pain or the adrenaline was still pumping through her, but this time when she urged her hand to move, it did. She threw out her hand and grabbed at the rail as they passed.
"Ma'am, don't move please." The female EMT tried to calm her and return her hand to the board but Sid held tight.
"Phil? Phil!" She called out. Her eyes flashed around trying to find him. A moment later a hand rested on hers on the railing. Her eyes landed on him strapped to a chair being carried out alongside her.
"I'm right here. I'm not going anywhere." His voice was all she needed to hear to allow her to fully succumb to her body's fight for her to rest. They were carried out of that hell hole together, leaving their pasts lifeless, unable to do any more harm, on the platform below.
What are you feeling? Tell me! Tell me! Lol
Epilogue coming tomorrow 👩🏾