Another group of criminals joined the scene and Don was dropped in front of one of them. This man in a black hat with a brown ribbon and a white jacket bent over, grabbed Don by the hair, and picked his head up. “Do you know who I am boy?” From the sound of his voice, it was clear that this man was old. But still, Don could not see all of him because his vision was smoke and fog. “My name is Chaplain,” he began. “I have a daughter, had a daughter, about your age. Her name was Caroline. I lost her last year after she ended her own life so morbidly. Do you know why? Because of some worthless punk that broke her heart. I am going to make you remember her name boy and make you wish you never touched my baby girl.”
It was had to recall one girl out of the hundreds he had been involved with over the last few years. Whatever happened to her was not directly his fault, but maybe it was probably best that he paid for the heartbreaks.Don looked up at the man lazily, unwilling to put up a fight, just waiting to receive his punishment.The Gringo brothers came up to Chaplain, impatient and gnarling about something. “ We had a deal, old man. We handed you the guy, now where‟s our money?”At the time when this was happening, the overturned Cadillac was filling with smoke. The driver suffocated to death beneath the heat and smoke. The car wasn't safe as distance had suggested and when it exploded in fury, a noxious cloud of smoke swept the area and clogged the air. Even the snipers on top couldn't see what was happening down in the smoke. The chaplain pulled the gun on both the Gringo brothers. The gunshots triggered chaos. Everyone was now shooting whatever thing touched him first. The chaplain never intended on holding his end of the bargain. The Gringo brothers were not to be trusted. And now they were dead.The smoke was clearing, there were a few bodies here and there. Chaplain‟s men had surrounded the area. But now, looking around, the Hassien brothers were missing. They escaped amid the chaos. They were still in the harbor, hiding, knowing that they would suffer a slow painful death.Both were unarmed. Both were scared. Not of death but of losing each other to it. There was still too much that needed to be said. They were both running for the docks. Maximus was losing speed, slowly and his brother tugged on his arm hoping to disappear before the snipers caught up with them.Suddenly Maximus let go and almost toppled to the ground. Weakly he fell against the side of the container. He was sweating and out of breath. “I don‟t feel so well,” he said.Don stopped, hurried back, and assessed his brother. Something had happened to him. Over the jacket was a blood patch. Beneath that was welling blood from a bullet wound. It must have happened in the smoke. Realizing that he had been shot only weakened him faster. “It‟s not that bad” his brother reassured falsely. “We are going to make it out of here.” He pulled his brother to his feet and helped him a few meters.“It‟s no use. Am slowing you down.” Again he fell to his knees. “Just go, I‟ll buy you some time.”“Am not leaving you” he insisted. “Now pull yourself together little brother. We‟re going to make it out of here.”“I am not giving you a choice. I can already hear them gaining on us. Leave while you still can. I‟ll find someplace to hide”“Listen to me! Am not leaving you.” He helped him to his feet but this time he picked him up slowly, onto his shoulders, and moved as fast as he could. “Am not leaving you”They could see the docks and the water roaring against the land. They were about to leave the shelter of the shipment containers, into the open, and deep down Don knew that they could not make it to the water. As they passed the last container, they could see blood, everywhere on the ground. The human cargo. Dead bodies had been piled into a heap and he froze for a moment. He felt a chill go down his spine. Even he, a ruthless criminal, realized his limits at that moment. The human cargo had been butchered, massacred, and heaped like a waste. But here was salvation. Here they would hide beneath the dead bodies and wait.It wasn't long before they were surrounded. The breathing labored beneath the dead bodies. But any slight movement would expose them and get them killed. Chaplain‟s men were looking for them in number all over the harbor and they both knew that they were defenseless. There was a vibration on the ground, they felt it, followed by repeating bleep sounds. A large heavy machinery was backing and turning near the containers. The human cargo was to be scrapped and cast into the water. They felt it, the vibration, as it approached and a sick horror made them realize that nothing else mattered at this moment. If the machine wasn't going to crush them to death, then the water was going to kill them.A hundred times and over sheer force touched the bodies and effortlessly pushed them with ease. The few meters until the drop into the water felt like a mile of excruciating pain. The bodies around them were either breaking or being squeezed.The machine kept going until Maximus couldn't take the pain any longer. The bullet wound plus the situation at hand. Suddenly a scream escaped from him, but at this point, the machine was loud enough to quench that scream and every other which came after.
Finally, there came the fall. The bodies plunged into the water, splashing first and then sinking below with bloody matter resurfacing into a steady current. The last of the bodies sunk into the water and all movements withdrew out of sight. The chaplain's army retreated.They were both drowning, sinking together with the other bodies. This was all Don's fault. He knew it. His brother was dying because of his wrongdoings. He had failed to keep his promise, to keep his brother safe. It should have been him with the bullet through his chest. And suddenly, as his consciousness faded away, they could hear the whispers again, condemning him because of what he had done.He willed himself at that moment, with everything he had, with every breath he had left, to save his twin brother. Each passing second the current drifted them closer to shore on the other side where a boundary of a sensitive area of trees separated a roadway.When he could open his eyes, in a strange hour of the night, he could remember clearly, laying on the shore, with his brother beside him, thinking, hoping that nothing separates them. Blearily Don could see next to him, his brother‟s cheat heaving weakly and he remembered whispering the promise he made many years ago. „We will never be apart, like the moon and the stars. We will keep each other safe.Flashback Fred came back home and stopped a distance from his house. He was drunk and could barely stay on his feet. He felt the dots of rain that started falling from the distant black sky and immediately he spit, then cursed for nothing in particular. He staggered a little more and almost dropped his bottle of beer. He let out another diatribe of insults but almost immediately realized that he was alone in the street, then he quietly matched to the door of his house.At that time of the night, he thought the children were fast asleep but they were still awake and cheerfully playing in their beds. Their mother was somewhere in the house and she was preparing food for her husband, their stepfather. Fred's arrival was announced by the careless manner in which he barged in. His beer was spilling all over the floor and the smell of him was stale.He saw her in the living room. She simply tried to avoid him and this enraged him. There was a look of disgust on his face and a moment later,
Doctor AntoinetteBeauty, divine, an emblem of virtue and purity. Now in the mid-morning, the Cafeteria lights had overemphasized her loveliness, her hair, and her skin. Doctor Antoinette. She would choose to be called something else in any other place. Without the scrub, she could make any man melt because of her beauty. The only consolation she would have at the hospital was seeing Erick, her only brother, and Laura during her lunch break hours.On the 4th of October, her friend, and nurse, Isabella had gone missing. It had been three days now. Because of it, she would have to lie as good as she breathed and pretend her day wasn't as bad as it really was. Laura and Erick were waiting in the Cafeteria and she joined them there.“You are late, again. We've been waiting forever out here.....” Laura started.“Am sorry” she said as she sat down, she laid the coffee cups on the table and slid one gently to Erick, “I truly am. It's just that I've been getting a lot of work lately. I'll mak
Meanwhile, hundreds of miles away, in some criminal facility, the innocent nurse Isabella was being held captive. There was a man who was slowly dying in a bed because of the damage from a bullet wound. He had tubes down his throat and machines connected to his lifeline.“I cannot save him, am not qualified for this. He needs a doctor, not a nurse,” she protested against the man in the room.“Just keep him alive long enough for the doctor to get here”“I don't think I can do that either. He's lost a lot of blood. It'll be a miracle if he makes it through the night.”“I've got it handled. I've already sent someone to bring the doctor,” he said. He sat down in a chair across the bed with a file in his hands.“You mean to kidnap her,“ she corrected. “Listen, sir, Selena is my friend and I wouldn't want anything to happen to her.”“No one is going to hurt her,” he told her over the rim of the file, then drew his eyes back to the contents of the file. “ Doctor Selena Antoinette Grey. Surgi
On the highway, in the ebbing light of the evening sun, a gruesome and pitiful picture had been painted. Against the light, a car was speeding but every other thing around it seemed so peaceful. One could almost imagine a song playing, soothingly in the background as the lurid sunset animated the face of the troubled driver in the moving car. If only the car could fly when she needed it.In moments like these, the mind rebels and let‟s you picture the one you love, leaving you, no longer to be there with you. And instantly you are robbed of the memories of their smile, the way they make you happy. All the while, Selena kept crying because of the morbid thoughts that plagued her mind. If she wasn't going to get to Laura and Erick in time, then she was going to lose them forever. She tried to call again, hoping that she wasn't too late.Her wet eyes flickered to the gas meter absently only to realize that the car would stop any minute. She was out of gas and........out of options. But t
Selena woke up and she was wise enough to remain silent. On the other side of her bed, she could feel a woman, a captive just like her, Isabella. All around the room was a dull gloom and a quietness that could echo any attempt to escape. But before she did, she wanted so badly to embrace Isabella whom she was finally reunited. She couldn't piece together how the criminals managed to kidnap her and how she fitted in all this.A creaking door bludgeoned Selena‟s gaze there. A faint light came in with the opening door and a shadow was blocking part of it, a frame of a man. His eyes had at once revealed horrible savagery in them and she found herself wondering about the evil that was going to be done to her.“Why am I here ?”“My brother is in pain. He is dying-”“You should have taken him to the hospital if you cared about him”“Doctor, my men will get you all the equipment you need to save my brother. But not here. We will go someplace safer” he said, “We need to leave before the sun co
The women were given separate rooms, against their will. Selena‟s had a colorful view through a clear transparent window. Everything in the room was covered in white. The bedding was silky white. The pillows where she would moan over the next several hours were snow white and furry.Shades of gray blended with the onset of a storm as misty clouds lanced into view, then thicker they grew out of form. Memories of her family yet again robbed her of sleep. How long were they going to keep her here?She tossed and turned in bed. Heart hammering against her chest. This was a terrible nightmare but she was fully awake. She got out of bed because of the thunder and lightning and walked to the window. Droplets of rain clung to the glass like teardrops. From down below, her eyes suddenly caught the display of muscle cars round about the fountain of water. The cars would make any other girl strip naked, but not her and she looked away. She hurried to the door. No one had the right to keep her aw
“What did you expect, that my past could be as good as yours?” he screamed at her.“I don't care. It's none of my business. You can sleep with anyone you want, ”“You don't get to say that. You don't know what I've been through-”“Is that supposed to justify you sleeping with a hundred women?” she snapped back. “Oh, so you do care after all?”“Am not doing this with you,” she warned in a calmer tone. “Just get out of my room or do you prefer to take away my privacy too as you have done my life?” He glowered at her. “You are going to regret this”“What more can you possibly do to ruin my life mister?” she opposed.“From what I gathered, you had a deplorable life and I just saved you from it.” “Did your little files tell you that?” she mocked with eyes of contempt.“Yes, I've got files on you and everyone else if that's what you want to hear,” he told her, “And I don't have you here by choice. My brother is dying, that's the only reason you have to save your purpose-”“Then what happ
LIFE AT THE ESTATE *. *. *. *. *.Isabella watched from the corner of her eyes. They had both chosen this one spot for the past few days. Looking into her eyes at this moment, she could see a glimmer of peace as the evening sunlight exaggerated her face and the soothing wind brushed a few strands of hair out of fashion.“Are you alright ?” Isabella asked finally.“Yes, everything‟s fine.” It didn't matter how hard she tried to conceal it, Selena still felt estranged from this world. But she would find a little peace of mind in this timely aura of the evening light. Here she could see over the trees, into the sunset, and savor the memories of home. Beads of clouds looped through the sky in a breathtaking display and the two women, falling headlong in love with the scene, would gaze fixedly in silence.“It‟s not so bad out here”“No, it‟s not” Selena agreed, still in oneness with the aura.“I mean out here, in the estate” Selena gave her a pensive look.“I know we are being held here ag