25. You Better Run, Girl
We pass out in my bed a couple hours later, hot and sticky, totally eliminating the shower we just took. My pussy is tender from so much abuse. I blush at the thought that eventually he is going to sell this bed to some unsuspecting customer who will never know I took the store owner”s cock doggy style while he recorded it.
Luke”s soft snores beside me bring a smile to my lips. The white glow of the digital clock reads three am as I slip from the bed and pull on some clothes, avoiding the used vibrator and dildos that litter the narrow pathway next to it. Rethinking, I snatch them up and decide to wash them after I go pee rather than in the morning before the store opens.
I startle at the loud crack crack crack sound from outside and glance back at the large windows at the front of the store. Nothing moves. I glance at Luke, who’s still snoring away. Must have been a car backfiring.
Pushing open the bathroom door, I get a chuckle out of the sight of myself: wavy hair knotted and tousled, sleep shorts and Luke’s tee shirt on, my arms laden with a bright assortment of colored silicone cocks. A warm feeling spreads in my chest and a sense of... contentment. Happiness. Maybe even a little relief that for now, it”s okay to be... stationary. Soon, I’ll have to move, but not just yet. I revel in the feeling and dump the cocks in the sink, shaking my head with laughter at our earlier ridiculousness.
Smiling, I slip into a stall to do my business.
Muffled shattering glass snaps my head up. What the fuck was that? It sounds like it came from outside. Heart pumping, I strain my ears as I yank the shorts up. Silently letting myself out of the stall, I check the glass on the bathroom window. Intact. Cracking it open, I lean out and look down the drive that runs next to the shop, checking out the glass on those windows. Everything looks normal. From where I lean out, I can make out the black Escalade parked out front. No one gets out, but the hair on the back of my neck stands on end. Weird.
There’s a heaviness in the air, and my skin prickles like my body is picking up on something my mind is too slow to process. I should wake up Luke. Padding over to the bathroom door, I wrap my knuckles around the handle.
Luke”s scream rips through the air. ”RUN, CARMELLA!” The pop of gunfire goes off in the other room, making me jump away from the door. Heavy foothills run up the hallway, followed by another set. Shaking, I take a step back.
”FUCK! MOTHERFUCKERS!” Luke yells. The sounds of more crashing comes from behind the glass mirror. Luke’s bedroom. More breaking glass. Several people are running now. Muffled, aggressive voices fill the hallway. ”Fucking grab him and shut him up. Bring him out here and find the fucking girl!” a deep voice orders.
My knees tremble as if plugged into an icy current. Shakily, I suck in air. Think. Where to hide.Oh God, Luke. I spin as panic begins to set in and I freeze. I’m horrified about what’s happening in the hallway, for Luke, for me, for what could happen. There is nowhere to hide.
Thick, heavy hits and groaning come from the hallway. More thuds. A hushed, harsh voice laughs. “That’s what you get, bitch.”
A heavy thud slams into the wall connected to the bathroom, followed by silence. Dread creeps across my skin in the void of noise. I can hear myself sucking in ragged breaths. Slapping a hand over my mouth, I manage to get my feet to move and scramble across the bathroom. Crawling inside the cabinet under the sink, I shove aside cleaning bottles, my makeup, and bite down on my knuckle as tears spill down my face. My mind races a million miles ahead of me. Where are Luke’s friends?
A low moan softly fills the air, and the sounds of something being dragged fills me with dread. The hot wetness of my tears cools on my face as I curl my body into a ball. My bladder threatens to give out as the bathroom door creaks open and footsteps shuffle in quietly.
BANG! I flinch.
A bathroom stall is slammed open and a man chuckles. ”Girly, c”mon out. We already know you”re here.” Silence. “Come out now and make this easy on yourself.” Cold sweat drips down my back and an uncontrollable tremor shakes me.
“Take those two,” another deep voice orders.
Silence.
BANG.
BANG.
BANG.
Silence.
I shake as my lungs cry out for air.
“Fuck, the window is open,” a deep voice says.
“You think she got out?”
“Greene, go tell Jay and take a couple guys; see if she’s hiding outside.” The bathroom door opens and shuts.
The darkness of my place under the sink closes in around me. This is just like all those times you hid from Gloria’s boyfriends when they were on a binge. Just breathe and let it out. I repeat the phrase a couple times in my head, willing my body to obey.
”Fuck, man, look at all these cocks. You think they’re all for her? I need a girl like that,” says one voice.
The deeper voice replies, ”Na, he”s a fuckin’ fag. You see how fast he went down? Wearing all that fucking jewelry, I bet he likes it up the ass.”
BANG. I jump. That’s the last stall. Please don’t let them look in here. Please God, don’t let them look in here.
”You don”t know. She could be putting more than one in each hole.”
”You watch too much porn. Real bitches don”t do that.”
”Yeah, they do.”
”Name one.”
I squeeze my eyes shut as tears leak down my face. Please don”t let them find me. Please.
Silence.
”See, exactly my point. C”mon, she”s got to be around here somewhere. Let’s go check the other bathroom.”
The bathroom door creaks as they shuffle out and it thuds closed.
Gulping down air, I stay quiet. Voices from the show floor echo back to me. My ears strain to catch the words, but they”re too muffled.
I need a phone, and I need to call the cops.Cops... fuck. I can”t call the cops. Can I? Will they know it”s me? Will they want to talk? Fuck. I squeeze my eyes shut and pull at the roots of my hair as frustration and helplessness rocks me. Fuck me. Fuck my life. Fuck my fucking aunt. Fuck. Fuck. FFFFUUUUCCCCKKKK!
Luke. He could be dead. Cold dread wraps its icy fingers in my belly. He needs help. My whole body trembles as fear turns my bowels soft. Think. Luke was in his bedroom when they got him. Was he coming to get me? Running. Running to get his gun. The gun. My eyes snap open.
I need the gun.
The gun is in the nightstand. The bedroom is right next door. Get the gun, look for the phone. Help Luke. That”s the plan.
Roughly wiping my tears, I crack open the cabinet door and look out. I”m alone. Quietly, I slide out onto the floor and sneak over to the wooden door. Wrapping my hand on the handle, I freeze and look up.
The silver door closer—the one that has squeaked every day since I got here—floats menacingly above my head. I pull it open slowly and a low creak fills the air.
“Did you hear that?” a voice asks from the kitchen down the hall. I curse and gently let the door fall back into the frame. Fuck.
I glance back at the window. It”s farther from the gun but closer to a phone. I could get help. Have someone call it in. Luke, please don”t die.
Pivoting, I”m up and scrambling out the window. The black Escalade looms up ahead. Maybe they don’t know? Maybe they were playing music and didn’t hear anything? Staying low, I sprint to the passenger side door. Oww, what is that! Sharp pain lances through the soles of my feet.The broken glass cuts into my flesh before I see it shining on the parking lot ground. The passenger window is shattered. I look inside the Escalade and nearly scream. My stomach rolls up on me and I puke on the concrete. There is a hole in the temple of boring guy’s face and chunks of brain and hair clinging to the inside of the vehicle. Dark blood hemorrhages from his nose like someone liquified the inside of his head. Shock is frozen on his face as he slumps in his seat. Rikki sits on the other side, and I think for a minute he could be sleeping if it wasn’t for his sightless open eyes and the glistening wet shirt stuck to his stomach.
“Hey, I found her!” a voice yells, and I whip around in time to see a shadow hurtling toward me from the back of Luke’s. Adrenaline floods my system as I push away from the car and run across the broken glass, no longer caring what happens to my feet. Pain shoots up my legs from my soles and I know I’m leaving behind a bloody path as I run. “Fucking bitch, get over here,” the man behind me yells, close enough I can hear his labored breaths. The closed businesses fly by me as my legs pump, putting distance between Luke and me. Lose this guy and get help!
I weave in between businesses and alleyways, hiding and limping when I can until I can’t see my pursuer anymore. I no longer care about the hamburger I’m making out of my own feet. I suck warm, wet, salty air into my lungs. Rounding the corner of the block, salvation appears. The neon of the gas station glows white and green with hope as the words Open Twenty-four Hours flash in the window. I limp across the parking lot.
Ripping open the front door, I hobble inside, startling the night clerk. “You have to help me!” I cry out to the middle-aged man behind the counter. His soft face is contorted by shock at my sudden appearance. “What happened?” he demands.
My chest heaves as I suck in another breath. He looks down at my legs and I follow his line of sight to the blood I’ve smeared all over the white-tiled floor. The sight sends more pain up my legs and I gasp. ”There’s a man following me. He’s coming. Call the police!”
The man nods and, instead of reaching for the phone, pulls a gun from behind the counter. “Get away from the door,” he tells me, motioning me to move deeper into the store. When he puts a phone to his ear, I hear the click of the safety being switched off. My body shakes as I limp toward the cold drinks. The clerk starts filling in the details of our situation to the cops. My mind races ahead again. “Tell them people are dead at Luke”s Furniture. Two.” I gulp. “Maybe three. They are several men with guns.” The clerk’s face pulls into a severe frown as he repeats the information, and I can feel the shock of the night slipping over me. I lean against the wall next to the drink coolers.
The ding of the store door opening startles us both. Spinning, I find the barrel of a gun pointed at me, my pursuer having finally caught up. “You have definitely made this harder than it needs to be,” he growls. Movement flickers out of the corner of my eye as the clerk jerks his gun up at the man standing just inside the door. “Put it down now,” the clerk orders, and my pursuer swings his gun toward him, taking aim.
Crack! A gun goes off and I scream as the man that chased me here falls to the ground and doesn’t move, a puddle of blood slowly forming around him. “I... I shot him.” The clerk pants into the phone. “He was going to shoot me. Oh God, I shot him.” My back hits the cooler doors, the coldness from the glass leaching through my shirt, as I slide down to the floor. Sobs wrack my chest as the red fluid grows around the downed man and the smell of copper fills the air. I wrap my arms around my legs, hugging myself into a ball. I can’t stop the tears.
The clerk rounds the counter and turns to me, phone pressed against his ear. The kindest honey-colored eyes I’ve ever seen look down at me. “Help is on the way. They’re coming. Are you hurt?” My chest heaves in a way I can’t seem to control and I nod my head. He tries to make a soothing hand motion but ends up just moving the gun in my direction, and I flinch. I think he realizes his mistake because he puts the gun on the floor as my gaze dances between him and the dead man.
He crouches down to my level. “Hey, it’s going to be oka—” Bang! The clerk glances down as a growing red circle appears in his abdomen before he falls to the side with a groan. Someone is screaming and my mind recognizes that it’s me. Behind him on the other side of the broken spiderwebbed glass door stands another man. He pulls it open, the bell going off above his head, and pauses surveying the scene. “Fucking hell, it’s a mess in here. Jay is going to be pissed.”
“Stop screaming!” he snaps, and I shut up at the sight of the pistol in his hand. His dark eyes burn into me from the depths of the black hoodie pulled up and framing his face. He pulls a phone out of his pocket and hits a button, and it goes through almost immediately. “I got her, but we have a problem. Dave is down and I have to clear the convenience store down the road. I killed the worker.” He pauses for a minute. “Well, someone get down here and pick us up.” He shoves the phone back in his pocket and points the gun at me. “You and I are gonna walk out of here nice and easy and then you’re gonna get into the car without a peep. You hear me?”
I’m frozen as he approaches and grabs me by the arm, hauling me to my feet. My legs shake as he drags me toward the doors.
A deafening gun shot goes off in the silent space and I cover my head as my captor howls and stumbles into me, knocking me to the ground. “Motherfucker!” the man yells. Turning, I see the clerk lying on his side, gun in his outstretched hand, his other one pressed to his wound. He groans the word, “Go,” at me before pulling the trigger again. The shot goes wide, shattering the already cracked glass door next to me and missing the man in the black hoodie.
I’m out the door and running directionless as screams and more gunshots go off behind me. The only thought keeping me going is to put enough distance between the bodies and me. Panicked, I keep going through the night until a light looms up ahead, and I find myself lurking in the shadows at the back lot of Luke’s before I snap out of it. Guilt rears ugly in my head. I got that man killed. I brought these guys to his store and then I left him. Sobs rack my body. I shove down my mind’s attempt to recount the number of dead I’ve seen tonight. I’m cold. Really cold. Like somehow, the drink cooler has taken up space inside my chest and spread outwards. Thoughts race faster than my consciousness can hold on to one, like sand sifting through my fingers.
Luke’s sits still and silent. There are cars in the back I don’t recognize. An engine revs and lights flash as one flys into the back lot, and I shrink down behind the thriving ivy that attempts to overtake a fence and part of the shop’s roof. In the shadows, I watch as a guy hops out and runs inside.
Luke.My original idea comes back to me. Get to a phone and help Luke. I’ve done all I can for the first part. Now the second. My eyes scan the back parking lot and I try to come up with a plan to save us both.