Chapter 8
By Bianca
Nick watched as Trent grabbed at his chest and then stumbled backwards
into his own arms. He caught him and
then gently lowered Trent’s lifeless body to the tiles. He couldn’t hear anything; it was as if he
had been rendered deaf. Then, suddenly,
all the sound came back and he could hear a final breath escape Trent’s
lips. Horrible laughter. Screaming.
Looking up at Nate, Nick watched in terror as he pointed the gun at his
head.
“I think you should behave,” he said hatefully before putting his gun
away. “Clean this shit up.”
“Trent!!” came Jordan’s horrified scream. She was standing at the end of the aisle and
bolted to her husband’s side when she saw him fall. He was already dead, but she was trying
furiously to get him to wake up. She was
begging and sobbing; barely understandable.
“Please, Trent, wake up…don’t leave me.”
Not knowing what else to do, Nick pulled Jordan to him and tried his
best to console her. It proved no good;
she wouldn’t let him touch her. Instead,
she sat down beside Trent and grabbed his hand.
When Nick touched her shoulder, all she would say was “Leave me alone.”
Nick slowly made his way to the front and found everyone staring at
him. Ethel’s face had paled a great deal
and she didn’t look well at all. Kim was
now crying and clinging to her manager.
Everyone else averted their eyes.
Reclaiming his seat beside Brian, he tried his best to force a smile. “How ya holdin’ up there, man?”
“I think I should be asking you that question,” Brian’s voice was
weaker than before. “Man, when I heard
that gun go off, I was scared to death.”
Nick finally realized how close he had come to facing death. Nate could have easily pointed the gun at him
and pulled the trigger without even thinking about it, but instead he spared
his life and took Trent’s. That
realization hit Nick like a punch in the stomach and he suddenly started
crying. He felt Brian reach his and out
and that just made him cry harder. He
had to get them out of there.
***
Ella watched at David began to awaken.
He groaned painfully and looked around, trying to gage his
whereabouts. When he realized that he
was bound with tape, he began to heatedly thrash as best he could to try and
free himself. His movements proved to be
in vain; he was bound too tightly.
Narrowing his eyes, he searched the stock room for Ella. When he spotted her, he began to thrash
around that much more. He was going to
get out of that tape if it killed him.
Ella crouched down and tried to make herself blend into the
background. She knew David had seen her,
but she hoped and prayed that tape would hold him. She wrapped her arms around herself when she
felt an unexpected chill creep down her spine.
Oh how she wished she had a coat.
It would probably be no help, but she still wanted one. Her mind raced as she tried to think of a way
out of the stock room. She had heard
Nate’s gun go off a few minutes earlier, then screaming followed. She knew he had shot Trent for it was
Jordan’s blood curdling screams that pierced the air around them. She thought for sure someone would have heard
that horrible scream.
Ella raised her head and began to search the large stock room for
anything that could help her. She saw
nothing, but noticed that David was still trying to free himself from the
binding packaging tape. She knew that
eventually he would manage to get out; it wouldn’t hold forever. Then, she spotted a ladder at the other end
of the stock room. Maybe if she got on
top of the coolers she could hide among the boxes. Maybe then she could formulate a plan. There had to be a phone back there
somewhere. She knew she didn’t have much
time and knew she would have to move quickly.
Then she realized that even if she did get up there, David would see
her. “I’m gonna have to knock him out
again,” she whispered quietly.
She knew she couldn’t wait much longer.
David would be out of the tape if she didn’t do something now. So, not knowing what else to do, she picked
up the tray Nick had used before and brought it down against David’s head. It only took one blow to knock him out this
time, but Ella decided to add one more for good measure. “Just in case,” she said and brought the tray
down again. Then, wasting no time at
all, she bolted to the ladder and climbed up on top of the dairy cooler. There were numerous boxes up there and she had
to be careful not to knock anything down that would give away her hiding place. Once she was safely away from the edge, she
began to look through some of the boxes for anything she may be able to use as
a weapon.
Somehow, in her search, she had not seen the security camera that was
watching her every move.
***
“Nate! That bitch thinks she
smart! Get up here now!” Kelly called
from the office. She decided she would
take a peek at the rest of the store.
However, she didn’t realize there was a camera in the stock room as
well.
“What is it?” Nate asked with an irritated sigh. Kelly always seemed to get worked up about
the smallest things.
“Look,” she pointed to the top, right square of the quad screen.
Nate squinted his eyes and tried to focus on the camera, but it was too
small and too dark. He searched the TV
for a button to change the format of the screen. Finally he found it and changed it from a
quad to a single and then quickly scanned to camera 7. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing. David was bound in packaging tape and
couldn’t move. Then, Ella hit him with a
large metal tray. He knew there was no
way she had taped him up like that.
David was much larger and stronger than Ella and all it would take was a
good slap to take her down. He knew who
was behind it…
Not wasting, any time, he was back out on the front end of the store,
standing over Nick. “You think you’re
smart do you?”
“What are you talking about?” Nick asked, his voice flat and
emotionless.
“You know damn well what I’m talking about you little asshole!” Nate grabbed a handful of Nick’s blonde hair
and jerked his head back. Grabbing his
gun, he placed the barrel to Nick’s temple.
“Don’t think that I won’t blow your brains out in front of
everyone. Just because you are a hotsy
totsy rich kid, doesn’t mean shit to me.
You’re fucking with the wrong man here.
Look down there,” he forced Nick to look down the aisle in front of
him. “You see that dead jerk off? That’s what you’re gonna look like if you’re
not careful.”
Nick tried his best to keep calm.
He couldn’t let this man know how truly petrified he was. He could feel his heart beating in his throat
and his forehead and palms were covered in sweat. Nick knew damn well that Nate wasn’t just
talking to be heard; this was no bluff.
This man was crazy, but dead serious.
One man was dead and his best friend lie dying beside him. That was enough proof for him. “I-I understand…” he stammered.
“Good,” Nate growled. Then, with
no warning at all, he brought the butt of the gun hard across Nick’s face, knocking
him to the floor.
“Nate!”
“What?” he screamed at Kelly.
“What do you want now?”
“She’s on top of the coolers in the back,” Kelly called back. “Want to go get her down?”
“No, we’ll deal with her later.
It’s not like she’s a huge threat to us,” he stated plainly. “It’s pretty boy that I’m worried about.”
“Worried about?” Kelly scoffed and placed her small hand on Nate’s
chest. “You…worried?”
“He’s smarter than we think, Kelly.
And yes, he could be a real threat to us. Look at what he and that other guy did. He could come up with some other plan that’s
more effective if he really thought hard enough.”
“Uh, I don’t think he could,” she replied as she shifted her weight
from one foot to the other. “He’s scared
out of his mind. He’s too scared you’ll
kill him if he tries anything else. Look
at him, Nate. He’s like a puppy with his
tail tucked between his legs. You don’t
have anything to worry about.”
Looking out the tinted window of the office, Nate watched Nick
carefully. He was sitting with his knees
drawn up to his chest and his head was resting atop his knees. He was in no position to do anything after
the blow to the head Nate had given him.
He couldn’t even see straight.
Still, Nate couldn’t help but have his suspicions about the young
blonde. He may be scared of dying, but
he had no doubt that he was trying to think of a way out.
***
