Out Like a Cigarette

“What are we going to do?” Jake asks as we walk. We were going to a point about two miles out of town, right by a graveyard. We were meeting one of Kyle’s ‘people’. One of the people he controlled manipulated and morphed into something worse.

“I am going to demand to see Kyle, face to face, and then we leave.” I tell him.

“Okay…” He didn’t like the plan. At all. Especially since Kyle would want to meet me alone, and I would do it. We finish our walk to the meeting point without speaking much. We arrive with time to spare.

“Anya, I love you so much. Please, be careful with what happens tonight.” Jake tells me, using my name for the first time in years. I look over to see him already looking at me, worry lining his face.

“Don’t. We aren’t going to die.” I tell him truthfully. Kyle wouldn’t be stupid enough to kill either one of us. Maybe rough us up… A lot…

“But worse may happen.” He says, deadly serious. No. Kyle will not do that to us.

“Don’t think that.” I hiss.

“It’s true.” He says back, harshly. Walking over, he wraps me in a hug, holding me closely for a moment before letting go, just leaving his hand at the small of my back.

“How cute.” We hear a sarcastic voice say. Surprised at the apparent audience and familiar voice we look to see Kyle himself there. With someone beside him, holding another person with a fabric bag over his head up by his shirt. “So, who’s your new boy toy? You never let me in that quickly. In any way.”

“What do you mean?” I ask, freezing up on the inside. He was talking about Jace. Jace was in trouble. Oh fuck, oh fuck.

“This, attractive boy right here. He’s your guys’ new bestie. Why would you do that to him? It’s just not fair he is going to pay for your past. For your mistakes. For you leaving me. For you screwing me over. For you screwing us all over.” He says, his words getting louder and more angry until he was shouting, a deranged look in his eyes.

“He wasn’t there. Take me or Jake, but let the innocent be. Remember the rules?” I ask, struggling to keep my cool. Jake remained silent knowing that if he spoke Kyle would do something drastic. He only let me speak to him as an equal, the drugs having made him completely insane years before. Lucky I was his favourite dealer.

“But the innocent are only innocent if they don’t associate with the guilty. Guilty by association, right?” He said, a psychotic smile adorning his face.

“No. We aren’t the damn legal system.” I say. He throws the guy, Jace I guess, to the ground and kick him. “What the fuck are you doing?” I says sharply, my cool face failing for a moment.

“You will not argue with me! You will do as I say, or he dies, got it?” He screams at me.

“No, I do fucking not have it! If you hit him I swear on your life that I will cut your balls of and feed them to you, is that understood, Kyle?” I say, stepping closer to him in order to show him I wasn’t messing around.

Out of nowhere I see someone from the corner of my eye go flying toward Jake, then I am tackled to the ground, some huge gorilla of a guy above me, pinning me down. I look and see Jake fighting the other, and when I check the other direction I see Kyle stepping on Jace’s rib cage, crushing him. I start fighting the guy on top me, struggling to get a shot at his balls, so I head butt him. It probably hurt me more than it did him. I continue fighting, though, eventually kicking him somewhere. Not sure where, but it made him flinch away and I made contact with his balls, before getting him off me and hitting his head with my elbow, effectively knocking him out. I hope that’s all, at least. I rush over to Kyle, Jake was currently beating the shit out of the other guy.

“Kyle! Stop!” I say, grapping on to his arm and pulling him as much as I could away from Jace. Jake suddenly appears and he and Kyle start fighting, throwing punches, kicks, attempting to trip the other or wrestle him to the ground. As they struggle I go check on Jace.

“Can you see, talk and move?” I demand as I pull off the bag covering his head. He blink, moving a bit.

“I can do all three, but it hurts like a mother.” He says, wincing. I nod, turning my head to see Kyle running, Jake on the ground. I help Jace up as quickly as I could and help him over to where Jake was. When we got close enough we see that there is blood. A lot of it. He was also groaning. I set Jace down next to him and go to collect Kyle’s guys. I see that the one Jake was fighting had disappeared, but the one who had pinned me was still on the ground. I check for his pulse, and feel it, but barely.

“Guys, I am going to go run and bring the car out here, it’ll take about fifteen to twenty minutes. Don’t try moving and if he wakes up knock him out again.” I order, pointing to the human gorilla.

After they nod I set off running as fast as I could to the car. It takes me a little over ten minutes to get to the car, and I spent another three, at least, fumbling with the keys and getting the damn thing started. Rushing always makes things ten times harder. Finally I get it started and I drive as fast as I dared off the end of the road and through the forest. No more than ten minutes later I pull up right next to where Jace and Jake were, so I got out of the car and helped them into it one at a time.

“Jace, sorry, but I am putting sleeping beauty in the backseat with you. We are just going to drop him off at the hospital; I’ll take care of you guys at home. Just check his pulse every five minutes or so and tell me if you still feel one.” I tell him before going to attempt to get Gorilla Man to the car. It took a lot of effort and time, but it eventually happened. If his pulse wasn’t so weak I would just leave him, but since I hit him and knocked him out it’s my responsibility to make sure he lived. After shoving him in the back with Jace, him helping as best he could by pulling I get in the drivers seat, Jake passed out next to me, and set off.

“I think I earned the right to know what the hell that was.” Jace says, meeting my eyes for a moment in the rear view mirror. “So start telling. Now.”