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A story I'm writing. Let me know what you think! heart
It was a cold Saturday night when Bethany Jones was walking the long distance home from the restaurant where she worked. She was wishing she had taken the ride offered from her friend, Matthew, but she had been her usual lone ranger self. As she reached for her cell phone to call her brother and let him know that she was on her way, she realized that she was being followed.
The shadows on the ground grew larger as she heard a low voice say to her, “What’s up, pussycat?”
She turned with a smile and replied, “Not much, hounddog!”
Her close friend, Joshua, had been the one following her. “What the hell are you doing walking alone this late at night?” he asked her.
She laughed lightly, “I had to get home somehow you know.” She said. “I’d rather walk than spend the night in the restaurant!”
He looked at her, a grin across his face. “Well, either way, I’m walking you home.” He told her. “I would rather get raped myself than watch you get raped!”
She smiled, “I love you too, bro.” she said to him. “So what are you doing out here this late? You’re not looking to pick up chicks are you?”
He looked at her with a scared look on his face, “What are you? A psychic?”
“Maybe,” She said slyly. “But seriously, did Matt call you?”
“Yeah he did.” Joshua said, “Because he’s smart enough to know that on a night like this there are going to be assholes roaming the streets wanting to rape an amazingly sexy woman like you.”
Bethany’s eyes went wide. “Who are you to call me sexy? You’re like my brother!”
Joshua sighed, “Yes I know…you’re against incest even though we’re only related through friendship and the fact that I was the one patching you up when you cut your arm open and your daddy didn’t wanna help you.” He said. “But I am merely stating a fact. You’re an insanely stunning, gorgeous woman, and it takes a lot for me not to rape you sometimes!”
They walked in silence for a little while. After a few minutes, Joshua took hold of Bethany’s hand and held it. Bethany was glad for this, as the little things he did to keep her happy were what helped her keep going. Even him just showing up to walk her home made her glad that she had him by her side at all times.
“We’re being followed.” Joshua suddenly said.
Bethany looked toward him, “What do you mean?” She asked him.
“I can hear footsteps behind us.” He said. “I’m hoping it has nothing to do with…”
Bethany was confused a bit. “With what, Josh?”
He sighed, “I owe someone a lot of money.” He said. “Are you armed at all right now?”
Bethany laughed, as she always kept herself armed with at least a hunting knife. And this was one of those nights where that was all she had. She wasn’t sure if she was going to need it or not at the moment though.
Joshua looked at her and said, “If anything happens, run your a** away. I can handle anything like this myself.” He looked away, “And I don’t want anything bad to happen to you. I would never be able to forgive myself.”
Bethany was impressed at his boldness. Growing up as kids, Joshua was an a*****e, not a brave teenager. He was the type to get angry but never carry out threats. He was an awesome person no doubt, and he loved and cared for the friends he had with all that he had, but still, he had never had bravery, ever in his life.
“You know what I would do if something happened to you though, right?” She asked him.
She never got to tell him.
Just as Joshua was about to answer they were both dragged into a nearby alleyway. Bethany could hear one of the guys saying, “We lucked out man, we got a nice piece of a** too.”
Bethany fought to reach her knife, which was strapped to her ankle. As three gunshots rang out, she kicked more, until she was able to grab hold of the handle of her knife.
She kicked whoever was holding her right where it counted, because they dropped her quickly. Both of them noticed that she had a knife and then they started to run quickly.
Bethany thought to run after them, but suddenly thought about Joshua. Hoping that he was okay, she ran to his side. She grabbed her cell phone and called for an ambulance. She looked at him, and noticed that he had been shot right in the center of his chest.
“Josh? Josh, can you hear me?” She asked. “Josh!” She started crying.
As the ambulance pulled up, thoughts of killing whoever hurt her best friend ran through her mind so quickly, she didn’t hear the police officer ask what happened.
“Kid!” The officer said loudly, shaking her back to her senses. “Kid, I asked you something!”
“My name is Bethany,” She said, anger rising in her body, “And I would prefer you use it instead of calling me ‘kid.’”
The police officer frowned, but instead of yelling at her, he merely said, “Okay, Bethany. What happened here tonight?”
As she told the story about what happened, her emotions changed from angry to saddened and back to angry again. When she finished the story, she asked, “Could you give me a ride to the hospital?” She looked at the ground. “If Joshua is going to die, I wanna be there with him.”
The police officer sighed, “Sure thing, Bethany.”
Inside Joshua Hamilton’s hospital room, Bethany could see that he was dying. The doctors were trying to keep him alive, but she knew he wasn’t going to survive the night. She sat next to him, holding his hand. She kept A Perfect Circle’s “Passive” playing in the CD player next to his bed, as though that song would help him live.
Since arriving at the hospital, Joshua had received open heart surgery to get the bullets out, but Bethany knew that she was still going to loose her best friend.
As the song restarted for perhaps the 30th time, Bethany stood up. Still holding Joshua’s hand, she looked down at him. She bent down and kissed his forehead, and whispered a promise to him.
“Those assholes won’t get away with this; I promise you this, my brother.”
As she stood back up, tears started to fall down more than before. Though this time, revenge was all that was on Bethany’s mind. She wanted them dead. She wanted to see their dead bodies bleed out until there was no blood left inside of them. She was tired of the passive-aggressive way of life that she had been living. No, she was going to take an aggressive pattern from here on out, starting with murdering her best friend’s murderers.
Joshua’s heart-monitor flatlined. He was dead.
Bethany walked into her apartment, only to be face to face with her pissed off brother.
“Where the ******** have you been?!” he screamed out. “Goddamnit, I was about to call the police on you!”
Bethany looked into his eyes. “Joshua was killed tonight. He died right in ******** front of me. And I would very much appreciate if you would shut the ******** up about the police.” She said. “I’ve had enough of them tonight.” She turned and walked into her bedroom. The clock on her bedside table said 5:48 AM. No wonder her brother was worried about her.
Bethany changed and grabbed a nine-millimeter gun out of her closet and strapped it to her ankle. She wasn’t taking any chances right now. She also grabbed her black trench coat and put it on. She needed it for tonight.
“Where are you going?” Her brother asked as she head right back to the front door.
“I am going to Darkside; See if I can find out who may have killed Joshua.” She spat out. “And if you’ve got a problem with it, the only way to stop me is shoot me, James.”
She walked out of her apartment. She was only half lying to James; she was going to head to Darkside after a quick trip to the local gun store. She knew they wouldn’t have a howitzer, and it disappointed her, but a nice shotgun would work just fine for her.
As she exited the gun store, she hailed a taxi; the walk to Darkside was much too far for her to walk, especially with a very heavy shotgun on her, hidden inside her jacket..
The ride in the taxi was the short, given the fact that there was early morning traffic and the club was a little ways away. Once she was there she had some business to attend to.
The bartender, Max, noticed her the second she walked in. As she walked towards the bar, he grabbed a Miller Lite from under the bar and handed it to her the second she reached him. “How’s it going, Bethy?”
Bethany glared at him before saying, “My name is BETHANY! B-E-T-H-A-N-Y! Not ******** Bethy. Got it Max?” The silence between them was only disturbed by Korn’s “Word Up!” and the chatter of the people surrounding them.
“Okay, Bethany.” he said, fear on the edge of his tongue, “Just calm down. What the hell happened to you tonight?”
Bethany drank the beer quickly. After finishing it, she said, “Joshua is dead.”
“What the ********…?” Max started. He handed Bethany another beer. “Who the ******** would have wanted to kill Josh?”
She started on her second beer, “Someone he owed money to I’m gonna assume.” she said. “He mentioned that he owed someone money before the two of us were dragged into a ******** alley.”
Max froze. “Who would’ve wanted to hurt you?” He asked. “No wait. You were with him, and they thought they were going to get a rape as well as a couple of murders in tonight, right?”
“Exactly.” She said, taking another drink from her beer. “They actually said that too. Can you believe it?” She paused to take another drink. “Do you have any idea who Joshua could’ve owed money to?”
Max looked at her and leaned down closer to her and whispered to her, “You know he was a drug addict right?”
Bethany was shocked. “He was a what?” She never thought that after all those years of knowing Joshua that he would ever resort to drugs for anything. He hated the fact that she smoked and drank. But drugs…?
“Yeah.” Max cut in through Bethany’s thoughts. “He got addicted to heroin after that big party a couple of months ago. The one that …”
“The one I refused to go to because I knew the cops would get called.” Bethany said. “God damn, how could I not know about this?”
Max sighed. “He didn’t wanna hurt you.” he said to her. “He knew that you would probably hurt yourself like you used to when you guys were kids.”
There was truth behind what Max was saying. When Joshua and Bethany were teenagers, it was always, “Joshua gets hurt, and Bethany starts crying”. It was the way they were. He got depressed, she cut herself. Which was one of the reasons that they had moved to East L.A., they wanted to start a life that wasn’t full of hurt.
Bethany finished what was left of her beer. “Keep them coming, Max, and keep going with your story.”
Max sighed and handed her another beer. “Anyway, Josh had been coming here about once a week, whenever he knew that you weren’t going to be here, and he would find a drug dealer and get some of the stuff from them.” He paused. “He begged me not to tell you. I would have if he hadn’t, babe, and you know it. But anyways, last week, he got the drugs but didn’t pay for it right then. He told the guy he would pay him when he got paid.”
Bethany stood up and grabbed Max’s collar so fast the bartender didn’t know what hit him. “Who was it Max? Who the ******** was it?”
Max stuttered, “ I don’t know who it was Bethany.” She loosened her grip, but didn’t let go. He groaned a bit, “I know someone who may know who it was though.”
She let him go. “The guys name is Randall or something like that.” He said. “Darius Randall. He’s got the hookup on how to get ahold of every damn dealer in Los Angeles, and if he can‘t figure it out, he can hook you up with someone who can. If anyone would know who this guy was, it’s Darius.”
Bethany searched her pockets for a cigarette. She found her pack of Newports and lit one up. She passed it to Max, who accepted it and took a long drag off of it. “Sorry about that.” She said. “I’m just really pissed off that I just had to watch Joshua die.”
“It’s cool. I can understand that you‘ll be like this for about a year or two.” Max replied as he handed her the cigarette back. She took a drag. “What are you going to do to the guy when you find out who killed him?”
Bethany sighed, “I don’t know yet.” She said, “But I know that guys gonna wind up with a shotgun wound somewhere.” She grinned. “By the way, I got a new toy before I headed over here.”
“Ahhh…you got the toy to help you seek revenge against our ********, huh?” Max said. “I can hook you up with some more firepower if you need it.”
Bethany’s eyes widened. “What kind of firepower?” She asked. “Because I could really use a revolver.” She said jokingly. “But seriously, what kind of firepower are we talking about here?”
Max chuckled. “I’m talking sniper rifles and AK’s.” He said. “Big ******** machine guns and assault rifles, as well as small revolvers and semi-automatic guns and s**t.”
Bethany was practically drooling all over the bar. “********, Max.”
Max smiled, “I thought you may like that offer.”
She smiled, “But I know you ain’t gonna be the one carrying this kind of s**t in your home, right Max?”
Max chuckled, “You’re smart. I got to give you that. But I keep them in a storage unit, just south of Rialto.” He said. “It’s a hell of a drive, but it most definatly would be worth it, considering how pissed you are at these people.”
Bethany giggled, “How do I get to your storehouse, Max?”
As Max gave her directions, she absorbed his every word. She was surely getting revenge on those drug dealing scumbags.
“You don’t plan on going tonight now, do you, Bethany?” Max asked her “You look like hell and you’ve downed 4 beers.”
“Max,” Bethany said, “I’m staying here until you have to carry me home.”
Max laughed, “You got a deal there, Bethany.”
Bethany woke up the next morning with someone drilling her skull open. Wait…No that was a phone ringing.
“Good morning, pumpkin.” Max’s voice broke through her hearing.
“It doesn’t feel like morning,” Bethany said, “It feels like I need to ******** die!” She groaned loudly. “How long were you here?” she asked him.
Max laughed, “Don’t you wanna know everything that happened last night?” He asked, “Or was the drunk acting something only I need to know.”
Bethany really didn’t want to know, but she just had to. “What all happened last night, babe?”
Max told her the grand story about how she nearly was taken advantage of by at least six men and how Max had to save her each time because of the powerful shotgun in her jacket. She listened about how he gave up and just took her jacket when Bethany disturbed him, “Where is my jacket, Max?”
“Relax, Bethany.” Max told her. “It’s in your closet; The shotgun is on the floor because I didn’t want it to fall and make a big bang!” Bethany laughed, “And the headache meds are right beside your bed. Look under the lamp but do yourself a favor and don’t turn it on.” Max added, “Also, I wrote down the directions to the storage unit and left them there too.”
Bethany found a bottle of Advil and a bottle of water under the lamp on her nightstand, as well as the directions. “Thank you, honey.” She said, “Will you be my wife?”
They both laughed and Bethany went back to sleep.
Later that day, Bethany got into her brother’s car and started driving. With the directions Max had left for her taped to the steering wheel, she would be able to travel from East LA to Rialto smoothly.
Her cell phone rang just as she reached the storehouse and she looked at the ID. It was an unknown number.
“Who is this and why the ******** are you calling me?” She said harshly.
“Bethany?” said a rough voice. “This is Darius Randall. Max asked me too call you about Joshua Hamilton’s death.”
Bethany’s emotions flared, but she kept her cool. “Yeah, do you know who’s behind this?”
Darius sighed, “I don’t know who did it, sweetheart. But I know someone who knows every drug deal when it goes down. Name’s Grady or something or other. I don’t know him that well.”
Bethany sniffled, and Darius must have sensed her depression, “If you would like,” He said, “I can help you take down the bastards who did this. I didn’t know Joshua all too much, but I know he was a good kid, and I don’t like when s**t like this happens.” Darius sighed. “This s**t is happening too much, and I’m wanting to show these bastards that they can’t just kill a person.”
Bethany gained her voice again, saying, “I would absolutely love for you to come with me when I figure out where these assholes are.” She sighed, “Can you text me Grady’s number? Or give him mine if he ain’t comfortable with me calling him.”
Darius laughed. “Don’t worry about that.” He said. “He’s meeting you at Darkside when you get back into town tonight. I told him to meet you there. Max mentioned that you were a frequent there.”
“How much has our loverboy told you about me?”
“A fair bit.”
Bethany exhaled hotly, “One of these days I’m gonna rape or kill that boy, I swear.” More likely rape, she thought to herself. Max was to nice to kill, and she was in love with the man, despite how she acted towards him sometimes.
Darius let out a small laugh, “Yeah I feel like that sometimes too.”
The two of them talked for a few minutes longer, then said their goodbyes as Bethany walked out of her car and into the warehouse. She looked around in shock. Then, a devious smile spread across her small face.
The walls were literally covered in guns. To Bethany’s left, it was covered in revolvers and pistols. To her right, shotguns, AK’s, and SMG’s smothered the wall. In front of her, was what looked like target practice. And Jesus was the target, as there was a poster of him, bullet holes all over the area around it.
Bethany went to her left and picked up a .357 revolver. She aimed square at the head of the Jesus in the poster. “Go to hell!” she whispered to herself, and she pulled the trigger.
She hit the poster dead in between the eyes of the man in the poster.
Bethany backed the car into her spot of the parking lot of their apartments. She’d loaded up on armaments, ammo, and more ammo.
“s**t,” she said to herself. “How in the ******** am I gonna get this s**t inside?”
She decided to keep the trunk locked for the time being, and she went to the apartment to get dressed. Her brother met her at the door.
“Going back to Darkside tonight?” he asked her.
She looked to him, “What do you care, bro.” she said. “I’m 26 years old. I can take care of myself.”
“Sure you can.” he said. “Then why did Max have to bring you home this morning at 7 a.m.?”
Bethany laughed. “Because I was drunk off of my a** and I told him to.” She walked into her room and closed and locked the door.
She opened up her closet and picked out a leather vest and pants. “Sexiness for Darkside.” She said to herself.
She stripped and redressed herself in her jet black clothing. She tied up her long black hair into a high ponytail and braided it to keep it out of her face. She strapped her knife to her left ankle and her pretty new revolver to the right, making sure that both were hidden from sight under her leather pants. She moved around a little bit and decided that she was going to need a belt to keep her pants up. As she strung the belt through its loops, her phone rang. It was Max.
“What’s up, honey?” She asked him.
“Nothing much, pumpkin.” He replied. “You coming down tonight?”
She laughed, “Do I really need to answer that babe?” she asked him, “You gonna let me hitch a ride?”
Someone knocked on her door and she answered it. On the other side of the door was Max, his cell phone glued to his ear.
“Yeah sure I think I can do that.” He said, “Since I’m in the neighborhood.” He closed up his phone and gave Bethany a hug. “How you feeling?”
“Only the usual,” She replied. “Pained, with depression tacked onto it.”
“Does that explain the sexy outfit?”
Bethany glared at him. “What’s that supposed to mean?’
“Well…” Max started, knowing that with her anger, he needed to choose his words carefully, “You look like you wanna get laid to help you feel not so depressed.”
Bethany looked down, “You mind ********.”
Max laughed, “It’s true though.”
 ShinedownCrazy · Mon Oct 13, 2008 @ 05:19am · 0 Comments |
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