Breaking Hearts Still Looks Pretty Cool

“DUDE!” the deep voice of the brawniest member shattered the stupor I had gone into when Matt tossed his ski mask aside.

“We aren’t supposed to take those off!” said another, waving his arms in an infectiously frantic manner, “they’re going to be able to make a positive identification of us!”

The eyes, the only visible parts, of the others, were all fraught with agitation mingled with strange terror as they regarded who was evidently their superior.

“Calm down,” and with a gentle wave of his hand, they obediently hushed their utterances. “We’ll still get the cash, but I don’t see why we shouldn’t torture the boys in the process,” a grim, creepy smile twisted unnaturally on his thin lips, making my stomach turn. Even in my state of severe danger, I didn’t like to think of anyone trying to hurt my boys. My boys.

I thought that from the unenthusiastic body language of his accomplices, their faces would be full of suspicion and apprehension. They exchanged indecipherable looks.

“Well,” Matt amended; clearly enjoying the chance for a monologue of his own, “perhaps one boy in particular...” he looked evilly at me.

I could only be totally confused. The only person I could think of that Matt may want to bring harm to, whether directly or indirectly, was Gerard. The problem with that hypothesis was that the boy who would be most harmed by any harm that came to me would be Mikey...and why would Matt want to hurt him?

“What do you mean?” I asked, and the words tumbled out in an almost indistinguishable rush.

“You’ll see,” he said confidently, and then turned to Annabelle, who was cowering next to me.

“You,” he addressed her as if she were something completely and utterly deplorable, “are unfortunately not of any use in my future plans,”
A jolt of terror sprung into all of my limbs and I looked from Matt to Annabelle with eyes full of panic and question.

“I’m not leaving her,” Annabelle’s voice quaked,

“No,” I added, sounding equally tremulous, “You can’t separate us,”

Matt sighed theatrically, and turned to his ‘friends’ who seemed slightly more at ease with the situation now.

“A little hand please?”

One of them walked forward dutifully, holding out a small black phone that I recognised to be my own. Matt smiled and took it from him.

“I’ve known these two since high school,” he commented drily, with the calm air of someone telling a perfectly unremarkable tale. He gently removed his gun from his belt in such a way that Annabelle and I could not fail to miss it. I gulped and tried to stop my limbs from shaking. Annabelle clutched my hands, and her nails were digging in but that pain was nothing compared to the agony elsewhere.

“Really?” the response was only vaguely interested.

“And Connie dearest here was the love of my life,” he chuckled to himself, “Unfortunately, she was the love of someone else’s, too...”

“You’re making a mistake!” I tried to call. He had to know that he couldn’t use me to hurt Gerard; whatever plan he had was already null and void.

“Shut up!” he turned the gun on me and I had no choice but to fall silent.

“Do you know, Connie, how he sees you?”

Judging from the fact that he told Mikey to go ahead and take me, I would assume that Gerard saw me as a friend, at best, and more likely as his ex girlfriend.

“Like a fucking possession!” Matt answered his own question, “even though he wasn’t with you he told me that I couldn’t have you, do you want to know his exact words when he found my...scrap book?”

Despite my best efforts to suppress my curiosity, I did want to know.

“He said to me ‘she’s mine, she’ll always be mine, don’t you ever go near her again,’”

My breath caught up in my throat with a strange mix of emotions. I could imagine the words coming from Gerard’s house and didn’t believe that they actually did simultaneously.

“Looks like I’m breaking that little injunction,” he laughed lightly, “and I think that Gerard needs to be shown that...he should have gotten our little note by now,”

He met my eyes and pressed the green button on my phone.

“Hello, Gerard?” he said into the handset, his eyes glinting malevolently, “Guess who...”