injuries and I wanted to give him a little water. Our kidnappers
decided
that now was a good time to take a break for the night. As soon as
Terri
had launched our pills out into the nothingness, her mom went off on
her.
Saying that we needed to be alive. Marcus had slammed into Nick full
force,
knocking him out cold. To punish Kyung for opening her mouth against
Terri,
she was ordered to go find them. The bastards sent her off by herself
with
a flashlight and a blanket. She was told not to return until they were
found.
They dragged Nick's unconscious body over to where they set up their
little
camp. It was nearing sunset and they had set up two tents for
themselves.
Brian and I were about 20 feet away from them. Far enough away from
the
fire that they built as to not feel it.
Brian moaned softly and I glanced at him. He screwed up his face and
tried,
unsuccessfully, to shift himself into a more comfortable position.
"Brian, try not to move too much okay?" I said softly.
"Is Kyung back yet?" He whispered.
I shook my head. "I don't think Nick has woken up yet either. How are
you
doing?"
"Cold." He watched my expression carefully, knowing that I was
carrying
everything inside. "It's going to be okay. We can't give up."
I shook my head miserabley. Kyung was out god-knows-where on a
hopeless
mission, Brian was in serious trouble, and Nick wasn't even Nick. I
choked
back a sob. "He hit me." Now why the hell did I go and say that?!
That
was the least of what I was upset about. It was that he didn't know me
and
that he had looked at me like he wanted to tear me apart.
Brian reached over and squeezed my hand. "He didn't mean to sweetie.
You
know he would never to anything to hurt you. He isn't himself." He
remembered the look on her face and the hurt in her eyes after he had
backhanded her. It wasn't the sting of the slap, but it ran much
deeper.
Lizz knew that this wasn't really Nick, but she had been cut down when
she
was already at the breaking point.
Nick opened his eyes and looked around groggily. Almost immediately
Terri's
tear-stained face came into view. They were both inside a
blue tent.
"Why Nick? What the hell does she matter?" Terri wept bitterly.
Nick had stop and get his bearings, but then it all rushed back and his
face
flushed with anger. "You threw all our pills away! Terri, that is
murder.
I don't care what Lizz did, she needs those pills! And Brian! And
mine?
Why did you throw mine away?" He exclaimed.
"She took everything away from me. My job, my money, six months of my
life,
my Kurt, and now she is taking you away!" Terri yelled.
My Kurt?! Nick thought. "What do you mean your Kurt?"
Nick
asked, his eyes narrowed. "And what the hell are you talking about?"
"I tried to make you believe what a horrible person she is and that I
am the
good one here. And you still fucking want to believe that that little
bitch
is the better one. Tell me what is so damned special about her!"
Terri
glared at Nick.
Nick now knew that Terri had been lying to him about stuff. "I want to
know
the truth and ALL OF IT!" Nick bellowed at her. He expceted Terri to
get
all weepy on him, but instead she jumped up, her eyes wild.
"Alright! You want the truth. Fine." She stormed out of the tent and
marched over to where Lizz and Brian were sitting. She grabbed Lizz
roughly
by the arm and dragged over in front of Nick. She glared down at Lizz,
kneeling in the snow, trembling. "THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT BITCH!" She
screamed, kicking her in the side.
Lizz cried out and tried to curl up to protect herself. Nick started
to go
to her, but Terri held her hand up, stopping him. He didn't want to
agitate
her any further.
"Here's your truth, Carter. Seven months ago you tried to kill
yourself.
Lizz here tried to stop you by saying she was going to drink some
medicine
that would kill her. Well she was too late. She didn't quite do the
job
because you still took the pills. You both ended up in the hospital.
You
both almost died. I would have made a shitload of money off of both of
you
selling information to the National Enquiror, but you and your stupid
friends had to ruin that. See?! It is her fault. If she would have
stopped you, none of this would have happened." Terri screamed.
Lizz was still kneeling next to Terri, about 6 feet away from Nick.
She
looked at his face and it was drained of color. She bowed her head.
"No nooooo!" Terri snapped, grabbed Lizz's hair and jerking her head
back
up, forcefully. "You look at the misery you have caused him."
Lizz's tear filled eyes met with Nick's horror filled and she wanted to
die
right then.
"And you know what else I wasn't lying about?! The whips. She tried
to
escape. Why? Did she think she was going to try to rescue you guys?
Please. Well, since nothing we did to her made her learn her lesson,
we had
to hurt someone dear to her heart. You got whipped because of her!!
What
do you think of that huh?! She isn't so special anymore is she!"
Terri
ranted like a crazed lunatic. Then she stopped and smiled. "Even
after
that she still had some fight in her. You know what Nicky? I should
have
known all along that all it took was you. You were the one that broke
her
spirit Nick. It was all you."
She laughed at the stunned look on Nick's face. "Now, I'll be happy to
finish the job." With that, she turned on Lizz and attacked her with
wild
fury.
I felt almost as if I was detached from the entire situation. None of this
made any sense to me. This girl was telling me I tried to kill myself and then
Lizz stopped it, or at least tried to stop it and I caused her problems and
nearly killed her. Brian, well he just looked terrible. I remembered he
needed his meds to prevent fluid from building around his heart. It was
slowly taking its toll with him no being on his meds.
I was jerked back into reality when I hear Terri’s screams at Lizz. Lizz had
coward down into a ball, trying to protect her body from the blows that
Terri was pummeling. Blow after blow was thrown and every time her fist
connected with Lizz’s body, she cried out in pain.
Terri stood up and started to kick Lizz in the side. That was when I finally
couldn’t stand it any more.
“STOP IT, YOU’RE GONNA KILL HER!” I screamed. Terri laughed and kept
on kicking and stomping Lizz, half of the blows were hitting her and the
other half striking the ground beneath her body.
Seeing a large rock nearby, I jumped up and grabbed it. At that moment in
time, I didn’t care about anything but stopping Terri from what she had set
out to do. I heaved the rock at her, hitting her squarely in the back. Terri
immediately cried out and her body went limp. She landed on the ground, her
legs sprawled out in an odd position.
“I CAN’T FEEL MY LEGS!” Terri screamed.
I stared at her in disbelief. I felt a hand clamp tightly around my arm. I was
quickly spun around and was looking face to face at Marcus.
“What the fuck did you do to my sister?!” he demanded.
It didn’t help with Terri screaming in the background, I was groping for
words. Terri’s mom and that fat man rushed up to her, the look she shot at
me made my blood run cold.
“I was defending Lizz, an eye for an eye,” I spat back, staring at him
squarely in the face.
Marcus balled his hand up into a fist and punched me in the face, sending me
reeling backwards, landing ontop of Brian. I instinctively put my hand to my
nose and gasped when I pulled it back and saw the bright red blood.
“Come on Carter, let’s have at it,” Marcus taunted as he stood over me, his
fists tightly clenched.
I glanced over at Lizz, she was still curled up, Kyung kneeling next to her,
rubbing Lizz’s back. The anger was building in me and I knew I would have a
hard time controlling it. I looked at his waist when the campfire cast a
reflection of the gun in Marcus’s belt. Before I could change my mind, I
jumped up and grabbed for the gun.
My hands shook as I held the gun and pointed it towards Marcus. At first he
looked shocked, then he smirked.
“Carter, you don’t have the balls to use that,” Marcus laughed.
I swallowed hard. “I will if you push me.”
Marcus just stood there, laughing. “Like hell you will.”
He pushed me too far with his taunting. Making sure I aimed past him, I
closed my eyes and squeezed the trigger.
“Next one goes between your eyes.”
I think it shook him up, because his eyes grew wider. Terri suddenly became
eerily quiet. Her mother kept rocking back and forth and glaring at Lizz and
I.
“Just leave us alone!” I directed.
Marcus shook his head. “No deal Carter. You’re gonna pay for this, that was
assault and battery with intent to commit murder!”
“Well then, we’ll have a cell side by side cause there is no way in hell you’re
getting away with kidnapping charges!”
Terri’s mother started screaming at me. “What am I going to do now? She
can’t move! You’ve ruined her life!”
I narrowed my eyes at this woman that accused me of ruining her daughter’s
life. This same girl ruined Lizz’s life by taking something out of context for
money and had it published in a rag newspaper. Lizz’s life was forever
changed by that, it had to be. I shook my head sadly.
“Lady, you have absolutely no idea.”
Kneeling down beside Lizz, my heart broke as I heard her whimpers. I looked
at Kyung and mouthed the words, “how is she.” The tears in her eyes and the
shrug of the shoulders basically told me what I needed to know.
“Any luck with finding the meds,” I asked.
Kyung shook her head no. I could tell she was emotionally as well as
physically exhausted.
“Do you think she will be able to travel? Help must not be that far away,” I
stated as I looked over towards the glow of what had to be a town in the
distance.
“She has to be Nick, we have no other choice,” Kyung replied.
“Try and get some rest, we’ll head out when daylight hits,” I ordered.
“Shouldn’t we be worried about Terri and her family?” Kyung asked warily.
I looked over towards Terri and saw that the family was busy attending to
her. “I think they’re pretty much preoccupied.
Leaning against a rock, hanging onto the gun, I situated myself so I could
keep an eye on the three of them and Terri’s family. Folding my arms across
my chest, I was determined to keep awake. I was also determined to fight
that weird feeling that was creeping up on me again
Kyung knew she had to be professional, but it was hard when it was her best friend that she was trying to help. Terri had nearly beaten her within an inch of her life. Terri’s family were back in their own tents, tending to Terri. Nick had settled against a rock, watching all of them warily. He was shooting poisonous looks towards the tents and looks of concern towards Brian and Lizz. Kyung felt for him. He now knew the truth, but his memory was still shoddy. He knew Terri and her family had kidnapped him, Brian, Lizz and her. On the other hand he didn’t know her or Lizz or any part of the past seven months that had to do with that.
Kyung went back to Lizz. Lizz’s breaths came in short gasps and she kept drifting in and out of consciousness. Her right arm was broken, right in the middle. Kyung set it as carefully as she could, but Lizz still screamed in torment. Her shoulder on the same side was dislocated and Kyung had to pop that into place. Almost immediately Lizz passed out and Kyung used the opportunity to put her arm in the sling that came in the first aid kit that Nick had forced away from Terri’s mother. Lizz came back around shortly after. She still wasn’t breathing very well. Kyung was sure that more ribs had been broken and by the labored breaths, it looked like there might be a leak in one of Lizz’s lungs. Her face and body were bruised and even more blood coated Lizz’s clothes. Kyung wanted to cry. After an hour Kyung felt herself nodding off. She tried to fight it since she had to keep checking on Brian and Lizz, but with each passing second, it got more difficult. After awhile Nick came over and sat down by them. There had been no noise from the tents.
“Kyung, you need to get some rest.” Nick said softly.
“I need to stay awake and watch them.” Kyung argued, her eyes falling shut involuntarily.
“You sleep, I’ll watch.” Nick insisted. He was tired too, but he felt like he needed to stay awake and protect them. He had a huge headache and guessed it was caused by a lot of reasons. One, his memory was full of holes. At least he was on the right side now. Two, he was tired as hell. Three, he also kept getting dizzy spells. He was afraid it had to do with whatever he needed seizure medications for. The more he tried to make sense of everything, the more his head hurt.
