We were standing there in utter disbelief, practically comatose as we watched the police advance into the bank. Suddenly I heard coughing and choking over the phone and I realized he hadn’t died! “HOLD ON MIKE, I’M COMING!” I yelled into the phone, hoping he could hear me. Melanie was crying even harder now, realizing what I had, that Mike hadn’t died yet. As I ran out the front door, Melanie’s dad stopped me. “Nick, wait up. You’re not going to be able to get in to see him without a cop, plus you can speed with me as an escort.” He hopped on his cop motorcycle as Melanie and I got in my Camaro.
If adrenaline is a drug, speeding is my needle of choice. Add the fact that I had to get to my best friend before he might pass away, I was on overload. We roared down the road going 40, 50, 60 miles per hour on surface streets. Swerving in and out of traffic trying my best to keep up with what seemed to be a trained action hero on a bike. Her dad was making me wish I had a motorcycle. We hit the freeway doing 75mph and quickly accelerated to 90+mph. Melanie was trying to wipe her tears and hold on for dear life as we dodged cars that were doing their best to clear for the siren coming the bike. We got to our exit and as her dad took the corner, leaning into it like a street bike racer, I drifted around the turn, quickly recovering and resumed my speed of 65mph. The rush of racing through the streets was unbelievable but all I could think about was Mike lying there in his own blood, slowly bleeding out and the paramedics doing there best to save him. My biggest fear was not getting to him in time and the last thing he sees is some random guy, with a cold heartless face, doing his best to save him.
We rolled up on the scene. Blaring sirens and screeching tires were our theme song as we came in a movie-like entrance. I scrambled out of the car and ran straight for the bank’s front door. Another cop tried to stop me at the tape but I pushed right past him and rolled under the police line. Melanie was running right behind me as her dad pulled his badge and told the cop we were with him and explained the situation.
As I burst through the front doors, I saw paramedics working on Mike and cops were standing around taking statements and drinking water as if it was another day at the office. I ran and slid up next to Mike, looking at his wound. It was a small caliber round that had gone “through and through”, as the paramedic put it, meaning it had passed straight through without getting lodged inside of him. That usually would be a good thing but he had aimed for his heart, missed and it punctured his left lung while shattering his left scapula (the plate-like bone on the back side of your shoulder). The paramedic was having trouble stopping the bleeding. Some of the fragments of bone had shot back and punctured the backside of his lung and they believed they might have even entered the lung causing breathing difficulty. I asked if I could hold him. The paramedic said he shouldn’t move, so I picked up his bloody hand and looked at him in the eyes. He was barely conscious but he knew I was there. “Mike, why? We could have saved her. WHY?” I was trying my best not to cry but the tears were too much to hold back. He reached for something in his pocket with his other hand and pulled out an envelope that had been folded. He handed it to me with two words, “Don’t… trust…” then I watched, in disbelief, as the life of my best friend, the one who had always been there for me, my comrade, my brother, left his body. His eyes shut slowly and his arms went limp. I sat there in shock as the paramedics came and checked him. He was pronounced dead at 5:35 on a Sunday after noon.
I sat there, holding in my grief, as they put the sheet over him. Melanie was crying, shaking her head no as she came over and put her hand on my shoulder. Her dad had come in and saw them putting the sheet over Mike’s body. He just sunk his head. Melanie knelt down behind me and was crying on my shoulder. I sat still as anger and rage welled up inside me like water being stopped by a dam. All I could think about was Spaz and how he had caused this. I wanted to rip that twig limb from limb. He was going to break in my hands, his life for a friend’s. Citizen justice.
I got up, leaving Melanie there on the ground crying still. I put the envelope in my pocket. I would look at it later. I didn’t have time now. As I made a bee-line to the front door, her dad stopped me with his hand on my chest. “Where are you going?” “I’m gonna kill him.” I barged past his arm after he had asked me. He chased after me. “Don’t tell me that. Don’t stoop to his level. Be the hero NOT the villain!” I got in my car and peeled out. I had the smell of blood in the forefront of my mind, not only from the stains on my clothes but also the thought of Spaz’s demise. I was running through all the things I might do to him, thing’s to make him suffer, thing’s to make him beg me for mercy, which I was not willing to give. My blood was hot and my face was red with rage and vengeance. My hands were shaking while gripping the steering wheel. Millions of thoughts were flowing through my head all at once, then out of nowhere I realized… I had no idea where I was going.
I pulled out my phone and found the schools number. I called and asked for Don’s address but they wouldn’t give it to me. So I called Melanie. She was still at the crime scene while her dad was helping the cops settle things. “Melanie, do you know where Don lives?” She was taken back by the question. The tone in her voice indicated she was still deeply disturbed by what had happened. “Uh… Yeah… Why do you need to know that?”
“He’s going to know something that will help me find Rose. I’m not going to hurt him. Trust me.”
“Ok. Hold on. I have to get it from my phone.” I heard her pushing buttons for a moment. Then she came back and gave me the address. The good news was it wasn’t too far away. Bad news: I was going the wrong direction. “Alright thanks. Don’t tell your dad where I going. I need to do this alone.”
She hesitated but agreed. “Alright, fine. But don’t kill anyone. There’s been too much bloodshed for one day as it is.”
“I can’t promise anything.”
“Nick!...” I hung up on her. I didn’t need her to try and talk me out of anything. I had made up my mind but it was still just a thought. I turned onto Don’s street. I was repeating the number Melanie had given me, in my head until I found it. “Ah, there you are.” I said as I pulled up to Don’s house. I noticed his dad wasn’t there and he was getting out of his car as I stopped. He had gotten to his front door with a few bags of groceries and was trying to unlock his front door as I walked up. I turned him around, grabbing at his shirt, and threw him up against the door, causing him to drop his bags. “WHERE IS HE?!?” I yelled. Don didn’t know what was going on. “What are you talking about?!?”
“Spaz! He has Rose. I’m only gonna ask you ONE more time… WHERE IS HE?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, but if Spaz kidnapped anyone, there’s only one place he would have taken her. I’ll show you if you let me put these in the house.”
“Fine.” I didn’t have any other choice. I grabbed a couple bags for him and brought them into his kitchen. From there, we got in my car and I pulled away from his house. Don said, “Drive that way.” So I did.
The drive took about 5 minutes to get to the abandoned warehouse that Don had brought me to. “This is where we would come to hang out. We could do anything we wanted here. No one ever comes by, and even less know about it.” I pulled up next to the giant, ominous, dilapidated building. We got out and Don took me around back to show me a secret way in. “Follow me.” We went up an old fire escape, and entered through a broken, rusted shut, window. The place was dusty and stuffy. It was obvious no one had used this place since the early 1980s. We came out onto a catwalk that went across the entire warehouse. We could see everything from up here. There was a ladder down on the other end of this football-field-length pathway. It led to a lower observation deck. It was apparently the office level of the business that use to use this place. From there, a staircase that went down from the back of the platform to the bottom floor. Down in the middle of this massive room, where some light from holes and windows in the roof illuminated the floor, I saw her.
Rose was tied up to a chair. Her feet were bound to the chair legs. He hands were bound behind her back. She had duck tape over her mouth. Her head hung there, as if she was asleep. I prayed she wasn’t dead already. Don turned to me and whispered. “This is where you and I say good bye. I don’t want anything to do with this.” He turned back to the window and climbed out. I was on my own. I looked around for Spaz but I didn’t see him anywhere. I made my way to the ladder and climbed down. I heard a tool fall to the ground on the other side of the warehouse. I stopped and hid. As I looked over there, I saw Spaz stumble out of the dark holding an aluminum bat in his hand, resting on his shoulder. He was speaking to Him self. “Oh! Crap. Well that was a close one wasn’t it?” He turned and walked over to Rose as I worked my way quietly down the stairs. “WELL my dear! This was an ingenious plan, now wasn’t it? Pretty much what ever happens, You both lose! Hee hee hee hee…! Man! Gotta love his planning.” I assumed he was talking about some sort of plan Robert had come up with before the incident outside of Melanie’s house a month or so back. I hid in the dark at the base of the stairs, watching and waiting patiently for my opportunity to strike. Spaz shook Roses head trying to get her to wake up. “Hey! Wake up! I’m not here just to talk to myself now! Come on…” He smacked her across the face. I could tell she was obviously awake by her reaction to the slap. Her head jerked towards where I was hiding. She was in tears, probably had been for quite some time. I wanted to move right then and kill the s.o.b. for hitting her, but I told myself to calm down. Deep breathe. Be patient. Wait for the right moment. He will get it in the end soon enough.
Spaz kept talking about seemingly random stuff, as I took deep breathes quietly. “Oh, don’t be down, love! This goes BEYOND you. You and I, we’re just pawns. Although we didn’t plan on a traitor…” he stopped his passing and stared into space, thinking of some one. Did he know about what Don had done? Or was he thinking of someone else? If it was someone else, who? “… ANYWAYS! That’s beside the point. We are going to WIN and you will lose. That’s it! The game is check mate at this point.” I came up behind him with a broken 2x4 I had found by the stairs. “Actually, it’s Game Over.” I hit him in the face with the piece of wood, knocking him down and out long enough to untie Rose. “Rose. Rose? Are you ok? Did they hurt you?” She was obviously tiered but was rapturous to see me. The ropes were tied tight around her feet, cutting off circulation. The same was done to her wrists. I pulled out a pocketknife I had on me and cut the ropes with the serrated part of the blade. I had just gotten the ropes free when she got up and threw her arms around my neck. She started crying tears of joy harder than I have ever seen her cry before. I held her tight as she sobbed into my chest. As we hugged I looked down at her. She looked up at me. I smiled and removed the duck tape from her mouth. “That better?” She replied in an exhausted, raspy voice, “Much. Thank you Nick.” Just then I saw Spaz starting to get up. I saw he had a shank in his hand. “Can you walk?”
She replied, “Yes, why?”
“Good. My car is right out the front doors there. Run.”
“What?” Just then Spaz got up and took a stab at Rose. I moved us out of the way and pushed her towards the front bay door. Spaz was up and ready to fight. Rose ran towards the bay door but turned around to watch the brawl. Spaz threw a left jab followed by a right hook with the shank. I dodged both followed it up by a swift kick to his gut. He stumbled back but recovered quickly. As I rushed forwards out of pure hatred for the guy, Spaz thought he could stab me in the chest but I grabbed his fist that was holding the sharp shard of metal and hit him in the face with my elbow. He still wouldn’t let go. He reached around with his other hand, grabbing me from underneath the chin, kicking me behind the knee on my back leg. He threw me to the ground and knelt down on top of me. His knee dug into my diaphragm as I tried gasping for air. He looked at me as I tried to maneuver his knee off of me with no avail. “You know, we have BIG plans for you, but I’m gonna have FUN messing you up before hand.”
He brought his hand above his head, poised to plunge that makeshift dagger into my flesh. I could hear Melanie gasp over in the corner as Spaz brought his fist down upon me. I threw my hands up in a scissor-like formation, blocking his shank from piercing my chest. I grabbed it and pulled it above my head. He brought his hand up again and swung down at me more forceful. I moved my upper body as best I could to one side while knocking his arm off to the other side. When his shank hit the concrete floor, his hand slid down the blade and cut his hand. “AAAaaaaaaahhhhhhhh….!” He yelled. I took the opportunity to get up. He was wide open to attack, so I hit him in the crotch, causing him fall over. I rolled on my stomach and slowly got up, recovering from the knee in my abdomen. I was coughing and gasping for air as I got up. Spaz, who was trying to recover from the world worst “nut-tap”, started to get up also. As we stood up, he was holding his hand as it bled all over the place. “Is that all you got?” He said, sarcastically. “Oh, I’ve got plenty left where that came from.” He took a swing at my face, but I moved out of the way of his fist and moved it in the direction of it’s own momentum. I punched him in the kidney and followed up with a gut shot. I continued with a sharp jab to the chest and to the face, gaining ground, moving him backwards with each punch. I kept hitting him in the chest, stomach, and face like a machine gun, one right after the other. It was pure rage. Each impact represented something that was pissing me off. I finished with a roundhouse kick to his gut, throwing him back 5 feet. His momentum had flung him into a workbench, breaking it with a loud crash.
The warehouse went silent. Only the flapping of bird’s wings were audible in this dusty, god-forsaken, dilapidated husk of a building. I wiped the blood spatter off my face and walked over to check Sapz. He was out cold. Still breathing, unfortunately, he would live. I turned to leave and saw Rose was still inside. “I thought I said to go to the car?” She ran up to me and gave me a desperate hug. “You did… but I couldn’t leave you in your time of need.” It took me a minute to realize what she was saying. Then I hugged her tight, trying to hold back my tears at how much she cared about me. Time of need was right, a bit of an understatement but accurate nonetheless. I asked her, “Are you ready to go home?” “Please.” She said, as if begging to leave. She smiled as I put my arm around her and helped her to the exit.
We walked slowly to the bay door, outside of which was where I had parked. I was in pain and she was exhausted. We looked like two weary travelers making the long trek back to once where we had come. I was supporting her as we walked to the exit, but as we got close, the door opened. The sun was setting at this point in that direction and we were blinded after being in the dimly light warehouse for some time. I saw two figures walk in. A bigger man came in first with a smaller man holding something to the bigger man’s back. After a few seconds I realized the bigger man was Don. I still couldn’t tell who the smaller man in silhouette was. Then an all too familiar voice spoke, breaking the silence. “Good to see you again, Nick. Did you miss me?”
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