CHAPTER 19: WHO AM I?

Chapter 19

I got dragged on the cold ceramic tiles- still feigned unconsciousness. Escobar and Pete (the name of the leader), talked on. I hit my head against something, a furniture, maybe. The pain rang through my spines and twitched. Pete dropped me immediately.

‘I think she’s awake!’ He said. Sounded scared.

‘She is?’ Harry asked.

‘Yeah. I think she moved. Just now.’

‘You think?’

‘Hey, guy, listen. You can’t just treat me like I am a fool. I know what I saw.’

‘So, you did see her move?’ Harry asked.

I knew that voice. When Harry wants to mock you, he does that.

‘I didn’t see her move. Okay? I was dragging her like this,’ at this time, I opened my eyes slightly, just in time to see him demonstrate, ‘and suddenly, he leg moved in my hand.’ He bared his palm.

‘Listen, dude…'

‘Pete. My name is Pete. Stop calling me dude.’

I hired your boss, Jacob, who hired you. So, to you, dude, I am the boss of your boss. So, shut your fucck up and drag that bittch along.’

There was silence. Pete obeyed and came back for my feet. I was dragged along. My brain was searching frantically for answers. Harry was dead- how could he be alive? Dave killed him, dissolved him and he was never found. But as much as I tried to arrange how the pictures could tell a story, there was always a missing reel. After some seconds, I opened my eyes a little bit and saw the two guys, obliviously strolling away, with me, trailing behind. My eyes quickly scanned the area, and right in front of me, lay a dead guy with a gun beside him.

I was dragged along the way of the dead body, my prayers were answered. What I need to do is grab the gun and shoot down the idiot. First, it must be Pete, then Harry, in his leg- I needed answers from him. I got my hand ready as I was near to the dead body. Pete passed the dead body and trailed me along- my eyes on the gun. As soon as I was about to reach the gun…
‘Stop!’ Harry said.

I quickly closed my eyes.

‘What?’ Pete said and dropped my feet.

With a squinted eye, I saw Harry come towards the dead body and retrieved the gun.

‘You saw what she did back there, didn’t you? Did you, for once, think that she might be pretending?’

‘I knocked her real good. She should be dead.’ Pete said and moved towards me. He kicked me hard by the ribs. I absorbed the pain.

‘Regardless, it’s better to be safe than sorry.’ Harry said and held on to the gun.

I was shattered. My plans went numb. Pete grabbed me by the feet and dragged me along. They both talked on.

‘Why do you want to keep her? We should just kill her.’

‘I want her alive.’ Harry said. ‘I need her to see my face. I need to see how surprised she would be.’

‘I don’t know where the sudden change of heart came from. When you asked us to retrieve the money, you asked us to kill her.’

‘But you didn’t.’

‘I wanted to. Jacob warned me not to.’ Pete replied.

‘Yeah, I understand. She has that effect on everybody.’ Harry smirked.

‘Even you?’

‘Yeah, even me. Until I realised she was fuckin’ one of my friends, Dave.’

‘But, Jacob said it was Dave that saved you, when this bittch wanted you dead.’

‘Dave went for the money. He wanted to kill me for her, back then, but ended up outbidding himself.’

‘You offered him cash?’

‘Not directly. You know, if I die, this bittch is entitled to some cash. So, when I learnt she wanted me dead, I asked to feign dead. But I asked Jose, my lawyer, and Dave, to talk her out of the money. My bank manager collected some, Jose was to collect the other while I left her with peanuts. But Dave got greedy, he killed Jose and made off with the bitch and my remaining money. Jose didn’t get to help me retrieve my money.’

‘Wow! Some plan.’

‘Yeah. So, when Dave helped faked my death, I moved to Mexico. The bank manager sent back my money, but Jose couldn’t- Dave had him killed and escaped with Kate. I didn’t even know that Dave killed Jose, because Dave told me that Kate escaped with the whole cash. I paid him to help me track her down, but Dave was fuckin her in a fuckin small cottage. So, I hired another investigator to investigate Dave. That was when I realised that Dave harboured Kate.’

‘What a puccie!’ Pete said.

‘Yeah, a stupid one too, right?’

‘Yeah.’

‘By the time I would move on Dave, I realised the whole cottage was burnt down. It wasn’t easy…’

‘So, you hired my boss, Jacob.’

‘Yeah. I did.’ Harry said.

‘And he delivered. Jacob never failed.’

‘Unless he lied that you killed the bittch. Seat her the fucck down in the chair and tie her down.’ Harry said.

‘You know, this bitch can kill anyone with her beauty.’
‘True that.’ Harry said.

‘So, my boss just got pussy*whipped. Anybody would, with this dame. I feel like I should have my way too.’ Pete said.

Harry was silent.

‘Hey boss, I said…’

‘I heard what you fuckin said, you retard. The answer is ‘NO’. Don’t fuckin rape her, okay?’

‘That’s bad. I was looking forward to it.’

‘You better look backwards about it. Please, put her on that fuckin chair and…’

‘Tie her! I get you, the first time.’ Pete interjected and grumbled.

I opened my eyes a bit and saw him bending over me to collect me. I got ready. He held my hand and dragged me to his shoulder, such that my head was at his back, and my hands dangled towards his waist. As he took me to the chair, I stretched my fingers to read the gun by his back, but they were short. With his hands tightly wrapped around my waist, I couldn’t have dragged myself to reach the gun, otherwise, he would drop me before I even moved. As he approached the chair, my head searched frantically for a way out- there was none. Except if I would risk going for the gun. But my guts knew it would fail, by 89% possibility.

He got to the chair and turned to face Harry, who was seated, ready for me at the opposite chair.

‘After you’re done with her, can I fucck her?’ He asked.

‘If you can fucck the dead, yeah, you can.’ Harry answered coldly.

‘There’s always a first time. With this one, I wouldn’t mind.’ He said.

As he was about to put me on the chair, my plan was to try do something- anything to distract him. Maybe, I could escape. Pete was huge, I wouldn’t have stood a combat with him. As luck would have it, I slipped a bit off his shoulder. He quickly readjusted- just enough for me. I went straight for the gun. Immediately I removed the gun, he realised the danger. He jerked and tried to drop me. Like a mad bittch, I rolled off from his shoulder to his side, cocked the gun and fired straight beneath his chin. All these before I even touched the floor. He fell sideways.

As soon as I touched the floor, I rolled to face Harry and fired sporadically through his direction. I didn’t aim at anything or anyone, but if it killed him, it would be best for me. But it didn’t. By the time I was clear to see what’s up, Harry had dropped his gun and cowered into his chair. Both his feet up, his hands clamped his head. I stood up slowly.

‘Hello, Harry. You miss me?’ I said as I rose, slowly, still pointing the gun at him.

There was grip on my feet- it was the dying Pete. I didn’t think twice, I fired twice to his head. His grip loosened. Harry tried to use the time to go for his gun, I fired two shots into the air. He went back to his cowering position.

‘Don’t even think about it.’ I said and moved over to him. ‘Now, you’re gonna take me to Jacob.’ I raised his big hat with the muzzle of my gun. ‘Or, it is Fredrick, now?’

END OF 19