Chapter
24
Brian winced, waiting for the bullet to plunge into his flesh… but
surprisingly, nothing happened. He
waited a moment, then cautiously opened one eye. He saw Charlie staring at him, the gun still
raised and aimed, a vile grin spread across his face.
“Guess my aim was off this time, Littrell,” he commented,
snickering. “But maybe next time, I’ll
be right on target.” With that, he
lowered the gun and laughed at the frightened expression that came over Brian’s
face.
Brian knew that Charlie could have killed him right then if he had
wanted to. He knew that Charlie missed
him on purpose, just to toy with him, to torture him a bit longer. When would he finally strike?
As these thoughts ran through Brian’s mind, his whole body began to
shake with fear, and his blood ran cold.
He began breathing hard, and suddenly, he found he could not catch his
breath. With panic, he gasped for air,
twisting and turning on the bed, fighting for air. His heart pounded loudly in his ears, his
pulse rising as he struggled to breathe.
“Please… don’t let me… die,” he gasped, his terrified blue eyes staring
pleadingly up at the three men, who stood watching him, unfazed.
Charlie rolled his eyes. “Nice
one, Littrell. Don’t know what you’re
trying to do though. Nothing’s gonna get
you out of here alive, so don’t even bother.”
Still gasping, Brian let his body relax and slowly tried to take in a
breath of air. It worked, and
eventually, his breathing slowed to a normal pace, and he fell back against the
bed, weak and exhausted.
***
Brian jerked up suddenly and realized he had fallen asleep. He glanced worriedly around the room and
caught sight of Charlie sitting in a chair across the room, his eyes fixed on
Brian. He said nothing, just stared
menacingly at him,
Just the sight of Charlie made Brian shudder, and he felt his heart
rate go up with slight panic. As he
felt his heart racing, Brian remembered with a start that he didn’t have his
medications with him, the ones that he took for his heart condition. He knew that all this stress and fright
could not be good for his heart, which had been weak his whole life from the
hole that had been in it since birth.
He shuddered to think at what might happen if he went too long without
those pills.
As if in response to his terrifying question, his heart began to
flutter. It did that sometimes when he
was nervous, and he never thought anything of it. But what if this was a warning sign that
something horrible would happen to him if he didn’t get to his medications? He didn’t want to even think about the
possibilities. But, if he was going to
die anyway from a bullet, it really made no difference to him if his heart gave
out first. At least it would be a more
peaceful death.
Brian cringed again, and tried to push his grim thought of death out of
his mind. But still, he knew they would
still be there, in the back of his mind, for as long as he was in that
situation, where he could die at anytime.
“What’s the matter, Littrell?” Adam asked tauntingly. “Ya scared?”
“Of course he’s scared,” Tom said.
“He should be,” Charlie added, his eyes gleaming as he watched Brian’s
eyes flicker between the three of them.
“Well… you see… I have a heart condition… and I have these pills that
I’m supposed to take…” Brian said, trailing
off as he watched them closely. He
doubted they would care anyway, but it was worth a chance. If they wanted to torture him there for a
prolonged time, they would need to keep him alive. And if they were going to keep him alive,
they would need to make sure he got his pills.
However, they didn’t seem to consider that. “Who gives a shit?” Charlie asked,
snorting. “I sure as hell don’t. Doesn’t matter if you die from me shooting
you or by having a heart attack.
Actually, the heart attack might be better. Then maybe we wouldn’t get the blame once
they found you… That is, if they
find you.” He laughed evilly.
Brian’s eyes filled with tears as he realized these men had no
compassion. He shouldn’t have even said
a word, for now he feared they might just keep him there until he really did
have a heart attack or something and die.
Considering this, Brian decided he would rather have them just shoot him
then and get it over with suddenly, rather than die a slow and painful death
from his heart failing him.
More depressed than ever, Brian turned away from the faces of the three
men he hated more than anything in the world and drifted off to sleep.
***
“Hey, Charlie, we’re almost out of food,” Adam complained, awhile
later, sticking his head into the small dorm refrigerator they had set up in
the basement, as Brian lay sleeping.
“So get your ass up and go get some more,” Charlie ordered, annoyed.
“You want me to run to the grocery store?”
“That’s exactly what I want you to do, idiot,” Charlie snapped. “Now get going. I’ll be ready for dinner soon.”
Adam said nothing, just left to run to the store.
Once he was gone, Charlie yawned.
“I think I’m gonna go take a nap.
Wake me up if the kid wakes up, okay, Tom?”
“Sure,” Tom replied. He
watched as Charlie disappeared up the stairs, to the bedrooms upstairs, leaving
him all alone with Brian.
As Tom sat there, his gaze fixed on Brian’s still form, he fought an
internal battle. Could he really sit
there and let these two killers do this to this poor kid? He had already let them hurt the poor blonde
kid, Nick. He couldn’t let it happen
again to this one, could he? Could
he? Tom shook his head. He didn’t want it to happen. This kid had done nothing wrong; he didn’t deserve
what they were putting him through.
Tom realized if they let Brian go, he’d be sure to go to the police
first. Then he, Adam, and Charlie would
be arrested in no time. But… if they
didn’t let him go and killed him instead… and then were caught, the penalties
would be even worse. That is, if
they got caught. Sighing, Tom knew that
it was unlikely he would make it out of this without getting caught. The chances of him getting arrested were
much higher, and maybe if he let Brian go know, while he was still in fairly
good shape, his jail sentence would be lighter.
Tom knew what he had to do. He
couldn’t let this go on anymore. He had
to get Brian out of this mess, both for Brian, and for himself. Before he changed his mind, Tom hurried to
the phone and punched in a number.
***
