Seize Control

It had been a long time since she'd last been able to spend time with Kip so when he called to invite her over during her second week of summer break, she jumped at the chance.

She was dressed and ready to leave her house within fifteen minutes of him calling. When she reached his house, he was sitting on the front steps waiting for her. He smiled as she got out of the car, but it didn't seem as genuine as usual.

"Where the hell have you been, Epps?"

"Where the hell have you been, Teller?"

She grinned. "At home doing nothing. I've officially graduated high school and now I have all the time in the world to lay in bed and eat ice cream while I watch tv."

"Wow, don't get so wild with all that new freedom you have."

"Oh, shut up. So what are we doing today?"

"Well my idea was laying in bed and eating ice cream while watching tv. But you kind of stole that so....."

She rolled her eyes at his joke. "Alright then, let's go to the diner and hope none of the guys are in there."

He shrugged his shoulders and stood up. "Fine with me."

The ride into town was unusually quiet and even while they were inside the diner, Kip didn't say much. He only half-heartedly laughed when Juliette made a joke and he only ate half of his pancakes, which was highly unusual.

When they returned to his house, Juliette kicked off her flip flops and flopped down on the sofa, propping her feet on the coffee table. "What movie should we watch?"

Kip only shrugged his shoulders. "It doesn't matter."

"Alright, what's up with you?" she sighed.

"What do you mean?"

"You've been acting weird all morning! What's the deal?"

He shook his head but his eyes dropped from her face, which she knew meant something was definitely up with him. She grabbed his arm and pulled him down next to her on the sofa. "It must be serious."

"Honestly, I don't even know how to tell you. I've been dreading it all week."

"Just say it, Kip. No sugar coating."

He exhaled loudly and blurted out the words. "I enlisted last week."

"You did what?" She wasn't sure she had heard him correctly and she hoped she hadn't.

"I enlisted. In the Army. And I, uh, I'm leaving for basic on Saturday. After I finish all my training, I'm gonna be deployed straight to Iraq."

She just stared straight ahead in disbelief. Deployed. Her closest friend was going to be dropped in some strange country in the middle of the desert with a good chance of getting shot or blown up.

He grabbed her hand where it rested on her thigh. "Look, I know how you are and I know you're going to be worrying your ass off, but I'm gonna be fine. You don't need to stress about it."

"How could I not stress about it, Kip?! You're gonna be going right into the middle of a fucking war!"

"I knew that when I signed up."

"Then why did you?" she whispered pitifully.

He gave her a sympathetic smile and pulled her into his arms, stroking her hair comfortingly. "I'm gonna be fine, Julie. And you're gonna be fine without me."

She shook her head in protest. "But I don't want to be."

He pulled back and grabbed her shoulders. "I'll write or call whenever I get a chance."

"Promise?"

"Absolutely." She still wasn't satisfied but she knew it was better than nothing. Kip felt bad that he had made her upset. "Come on, let's go for a run before you have to get ready for your date."

"Or we could just sit here so I can hug you for a little bit longer." She once again wrapped her arms tightly around his body, burying her face in the crook of his neck and he sighed with a smile as his arms went up to hug her in return.



After the stressful news she'd received from Kip earlier in the day, a night out with Silas was just what she needed. Dinner and a movie. A perfect end to a not so perfect day.

"That was the shittiest movie I've ever seen."

Juliette laughed. "I told you it would suck. You should listen to me more often."

"Yeah, yeah." He sighed, grabbing her hand as they walked across the parking lot to her car.

"Hey Silas?"

"Hmm?"

"Stay with me tonight."

"Jules, if your mom caught me in your house-"

"She won't."

He grinned and stopped walking, pulling her into his side to kiss her. "You know I can't say no to you."

"Good. That's what I like to hear," she joked.

When they finally reached her car, he opened her door for her before going around to get in on the passenger side. As they started the drive through town to go back to her house, she turned the radio on just loud enough to hear the oldies songs flowing through the speakers.

Silas reached across to take her hand once again, lacing his fingers with hers. "I love you, Julie."

She glanced over at him with a huge smile. "I love you too, Si."

"Isn't that sweet," came a deep voice from the back seat. Juliette screamed in surprise but when she turned her head to look at Silas, the stranger held up a gun between the two seats as a warning. "You drive until I tell you to stop."

Juliette knew better than to turn her head to look at the man, but evidently Silas didn't. The man in the back seat forcefully brought his fist forward, colliding square with Silas's nose. She gasped and tried her hardest not to turn her head even slightly while Silas groaned in pain and attempted to stop the blood now pouring out his nostrils.

"Keep driving," he commanded harshly.

"Who are you?" she asked, her voice shaking. She glanced up into the rear view mirror but because it was dark, she couldn't see any of the man's features.

"I didn't tell you to talk!"

She bit down on her bottom lip and kept a tight grasp on the wheel as they continued on down the road, away from Charming. The silence was suffocating inside the car and she wanted so badly to reach out and grab Silas's hand, but she refrained, not knowing what the man in her back seat was capable of.

The road was completely barren with the exception of the old camaro. Juliette had no idea where the man was forcing her to drive to, but she didn't dare ask any questions.

They'd been driving for what felt like an hour when she spotted a set of headlights parked on the side of the road a little ways ahead. The man in her back seat tapped her shoulder with the muzzle of his gun. "Pull onto the shoulder up here." At the headlights, he meant. There was someone waiting just down the road and there was no telling who they were or what they were planning on doing.

She had no choice but to obey the orders of the man with the gun. As soon as she had stopped the car, he leaned forward between the front seats and slammed the car into park, barking orders at the two teenagers to get out of the car. Juliette's door was swung open and she was yanked out of her seat by a tall, extremely strong man with an even bigger gun. His muscled arm wrapped around her neck and he held her so tightly against him that she could barely move.

The man from her back seat had crawled out of the car and gone around to the passenger side, grabbing Silas by the back of his shirt and shoving him down onto his knees in the dirt beside the car. Juliette was pushed over to the other side to stand in front of him and the man grabbed Silas by his hair, yanking his head back so that he was staring directly up at her.

"What the fuck are you doing?!" she asked hysterically.

"Julie-" Silas started, but was cut off almost immediately by the tallest man yelling at him to shut up.

A third man stepped up behind Silas and smirked at her as he raised his gun. "Say goodbye."

Juliette was screaming before he'd even pulled the trigger. She looked down at her dress, now splattered with blood, before her eyes turned to the ground in shock. Her boyfriend lay face down in the dirt, streams of dark red flowing away from the large wound in the back of his head.

She sobbed as her knees weakened and she dropped to the ground next to his body, tears streaming down her face. She ran her fingers gently over his bloody cheek but almost immediately afterwards, she was yanked up by her arms and thrown over the shoulder of the largest man, who carried her over to the waiting SUV.

She tried to put up a fight as they shoved her into the back seat but the man who'd pulled the trigger grabbed her by her long braided hair and slammed her face into the side window, knocking her completely unconscious. Her limp body slumped sideways in the back seat as the SUV pulled away from the scene, leaving Silas's body and her old camaro on the side of the deserted road.