Chapter Twenty Four

‘Ethan was a friend?’ Deke’s assuming voice filled my ears bringing me back from the guilt trip I was taking. Being Rachel Wood, Ethan’s girlfriend was nothing but bad memories.

‘Was…’ I dragged, restating the past.

‘So if this Ethan guy was going to help you both escape…why is he hunting you now?’ Deke was the only one with the strength to continue a conversation with me. Sean was immersed in deep thoughts while Rocky was just letting his tears flow.

‘The following year we planned the whole thing. Being a henchman’s son, Ethan was able to get us the blueprints of the building along with the weak spots of the security detail. His father was nothing but proud in helping us so that we get through with the whole plan. He was proud to have a son like him.’

‘Bet he was shocked to see how his son turned out to be…’ Sean suddenly let his sarcasm show.

‘Actually…he never did.’ Without my knowledge, my voice was breaking when I mentioned him.

‘What happened?’ Deke let out a slow whisper.

‘He was Ayu’s final test. Sebastian tricked her into killing him.’

At that instant, all three boys turned at the same time to face me. They shared the same state of shock. I was confused as to why they were shocked. Is it because they realized that Ayu had killed someone or that because Ayu had actually become a killer?

‘How did she even do that?’ Rocky’s feeble voice broke through the silence, stirring my heart even more.  

‘She actually had no idea that it was Ethan’s father. She was triggered by blackmail. She was told that she will be sexually misused. It was the one thing that always threatened her. The fact that someone else will own her body terrified her.’ I was blabbering out those words in a desperate attempt to console him.

‘So Ethan despises you. I get that.’ Deke cut in right on time to distract us. ‘But what I don’t get is, why Sebastian so pissed at Ayu. He made her kill him. Why would he hunt her down?’

‘Who is Garth?’ Sean suddenly spoke out. It seemed like he had been replaying all the incidents that happened at the mill. ‘He asked her if Garth deserved it. Who is he?’

‘He is the reason why Sebastian is hunting Ayu now.’ And silence fell again as I recalled.

~*~*~*~*~*~

It would’ve been any other normal night if Ayu hadn’t come running in, crying and panicking beyond limits.

‘Talk to me Ayu! Just talk! Stop crying!’ none of my words seemed to reach her. She was crying like a mad woman and she wasn’t even stopping to take in some breath.

Ayu - that is how she wanted me to call her. I have been doing so for the past year. Ever since she told me she has been trying to save me, we’ve gotten closer. The trust between us had grown evidently. It was because of that reason; she had come to me crying.

‘Ayu! Will you please stop this?’ I had lost it. I slapped her flat on her face and she stopped her crying almost immediately. She had finally remembered how to breathe and how to speak.

‘I…I…’ she was dragging too much and it had struck nothing but fear in my heart. She was also holding a gun firmly in her hands. The whole sight of her had nothing to give me but terror.

‘What did you do? Did you something regrettable?’ she was always open with her thoughts to me. Whenever I had asked to describe a killing, she had used the word ‘regrettable’

As soon as I finished my question, she nodded her head slowly, still completely immersed in terror and fear. My breath was heavy and my heart had started to beat fiercely. I knew this day would come. I just never anticipated it to be this early.

‘Who did you kill?’ this must've been the hardest question that I had ever asked.

And I never knew that the answer would be even worse.

‘I just killed Ethan’s father.’

It was only three days ago that Ethan introduced me to his father. Ayu and I hadn’t met him all along the process of hatching our escape plan. He had thought that it would be risky for us to be conspiring together. I was really happy when I met him and he blessed me calling me his future daughter-in-law and all. If only Ayu had met him too…maybe then she wouldn’t have shot him.

When these thoughts were rattling my head to the core, Ayu just decided to scare me more.

‘They know that we are onto them.’

‘What?’ it was all that I could manage when crying and worrying at the same time.

‘They know that we are trying to escape. Don’t you get it?’

‘What makes you think that?’

She took a deep breath before she stated the most convincing theory yet.

‘Why do you think that they had me kill him? He was conspiring with us right? They purposely wanted me to kill him. This is like some sick joke. Play all four corners at once but take out each piece separately.’

‘Look. Even if you are right about the whole thing, why kill him?’I still wasn’t completely convinced about this.

‘So that they can get Ethan to turn against us’

 Now my head had started to spin. All my hopes were shattered and there wasn’t anything else left for that I could wish for. From what seemed like a perfect little world in between a dark universe now everything just had come down crashing to the ground.

‘No. Ethan would not give us up. He won’t do that to us…to me.’ the last two words were barely a whisper.

‘In a normal day maybe he will not. I just killed his father Rachel. What for do you think they made me do this?’

My heart had now started to race uncontrollably. If she was right, then it was about time that Ethan had told them about our whole plan. My mind had thoughts racing from left to right still not able to make up my mind over what to believe. I had everything laid out in front of me when we heard an announcement over the addressing system.

‘Aysha and Rachel, stay where you are. I am coming for you with your friend, Ethan.’

‘Did I tell you that the boss man was here? That is his voice.’

And right then I knew what to do.

‘Let us make a break for it’

Without Ethan’s knowledge, Ayu had been showing me how to shoot a gun and also some of the moves that might come in handy during a combat. Also we had some guns that we had stolen from the artillery one night. It wasn’t something that I had planned to hide from Ethan. I had decided that it was one of the things that Ayu and I might hold onto as a secret thing between the two of us. With every event that had unfolded, I was left there to wonder if Ayu had taught me all this without Ethan’s knowledge because he didn’t trust him.

To come to think of it, Ethan wasn’t as close as I thought he was with Ayu. He never called her Ayu. She hadn’t told him to. Actually, he barely called her Aysha back then. It looked more like a professional relationship between the two and I was the only common entity holding it together.

Life lets you make some weird choices and I made mine.

It was a far yet a normal conclusion that we had agreed upon. We knew for sure that if Ethan had turned against us then he would’ve hatched open our entire plan to the boss man. So we had agreed to run an alternate path. Being around in the beaten up asylum for seven years had allowed Ayu to gain more knowledge about the surroundings than the blueprint could ever show. The way she guided me through the building had amazed me as well as had aroused many more doubts about her.

As we kept running in the opposite direction, I saw some sights that had disturbed me. Every known thug that I have thought to be around here was being gathered to hunt us down. They were all gathering so fast that the consequences that may arise after being caught made me want to kill myself right then. It also seemed a little unfair to me to escape while other girls like us was still caught in this ditch. I had comforted myself telling that we might not make it out after all.

With thoughts racing in my head, the world collapsed once again when we suddenly halted.

We were moving to the west side and the exits were still far away. Ayu had stopped in front of me to revisit the plan with me.

‘Alright Rachel…we need to plan this straight. The whole army of douche bags has lined themselves up to take down two petty girls. It is a little pathetic on their part. I mean how many people will they have any way to take us down?’

I am till date not sure what those words meant. Maybe she had tried to be funny to calm me down or whatever. It definitely gave me more things to worry about and I had gone paranoid.

‘Maybe because they know that they have a monster to hunt down?’

My own voice still echoes inside my head. The way I had spoken to her that day still haunts me and I still don’t know how I gave into the events that happened after.

‘Rachel…what happened?’

I had moved away from my crouching position next to her and stood with the gun in my hand pointed at her. At that moment I had been trying so hard to side with Ethan. With the things Ayu’s been teaching me and the secrets that I had kept from Ethan and to worsen it all, the things that Ayu had been lately learning from the douche bags we’re trying to escape from, everything had just messed up my mind so much.

Love and friendship are two things that can weigh you down in ways you can never imagine.

‘You have to put that gun down Rachel. This doesn’t seem like a good idea. We need the trust to work here now.’

‘Then you tell me what I want to know.’ I was like a terrorist demanding something.

‘Okay.’

She had been calm the entire time. It was like as if she knew everything that had been happening around us would happen eventually. She seemed to be in so much control that had made me suspect her more. So my first question was obviously…

‘How are you so calm? You seem very prepared. You knew this would happen?’

‘Rachel I had no idea! How am I supposed to know this? I cannot foretell future okay?’ she had seemed very sincere in her answer too.

‘Then how are you this prepared? You just felt that you needed to be?’

‘Yes. I kind of had a hunch. ’

Her answer threw me off guard. She was going on her gut feeling. For a girl who wasn’t even thinking about living, followed a hunch so that we may survive? How was that supposed to calm me down?!

‘Are you going to escape?’

She seemed perplexed at the mention of this question. ‘What are you talking about? We are going to escape Rachel. We will.’

That was the exact moment where I had lost my mind completely.

I had looked at the gun in my hand and I don’t know what kind of a brainstorm I had had but I just shifted its position and placed it under my chin. I had also seen Ayu’s eyes widening in shock and I had passed to a stage where I wasn’t able to tell the genuine quality of anything anymore.

‘Rachel! Put the gun down!’ Ayu couldn’t risk yelling as suddenly there had been some footsteps approaching. Even though we were well concealed, a shout out was all it took to bring us out.

‘I am not able to trust anyone anymore. Not you or Ethan. The two of you are two corners of my life right now and I cannot run to either of the ends? That is a stupid position to be in. I’d rather die peacefully while I am still in control of my body right? Isn’t that what you wanted to do?’

‘No…’

Just after the word had been mentioned, my eyes had been opened again.

 ‘What do you mean no?’

‘I don’t want to die….at least not anymore.’

And the surprises kept on coming that day.

‘Seeing how you cared for me these days made me think that if a stranger could care for me this much, how will my family be? Those are my boys out there…my friends…my family. They will still be waiting right? At least not forget me somehow. I just want to feel that care one more time, Rachel. I need to feel that warmth that you were able to give me, from them, one last time before it is lights out for my world. Until that happens I am not going to let death take me away.’

And her last line was the one thing that earned her all my trust.

‘Until that happens Rachel, until then and after, you are not leaving me either. We are going to survive this thing. I am going to make sure you are out here alive to live a life on your own.’

Right then I had dropped my hand down from my chin and ran up to Ayu to give her a hug. She had returned it with similar feelings radiating through her body. Before we moved on, she told me one more thing that confirmed my trust with her.

‘And Rachel…doesn’t give up on Ethan. He wasn’t really a bad guy. This bad circumstance has pitted him against us. Not in a million years will he ever forgive me for what I did. You on the other hand, he loves. If you ever have a chance…hold onto it please.’

Since that minute had occurred, I was with Ayu one hundred percent of the time. As we found ourselves running for our potential escape we had hit our first road block.

About thirteen to fourteen men were standing in the hallway with guns that were taller than us and looks, so deadly. I still don’t remember how I managed to get through that moment without passing out. Maybe what follows would be the reason.

‘Don’t try anything stupid guys. I will kill you!’ Ayu was all brave holding the Glock that she’d been training with. I had stood next to her, my gun half raised in fear.

‘Before you do anything stupid, hear us out.’ the one who had been standing in the front intimidating us with his six foot, 200 odd pounds body spoke out. ‘We want to help you escape.’

‘What?’ Ayu and I had let this word escape at the exact same moment.

‘We are done with this job. Honestly, all of us are here because of some shitty circumstance and we want out. And of you are initiating something like a battle of sorts, we want to help you. It is either do or die for us and we are up for it.’

“You want to help us out?’ Ayu had repeated those words to believe it herself.

‘We’ll lead the way. You keep up on your path. This is only half of us. I have the others posted at places to help you as you go.’

Ayu right then had shot a nervous glance towards me. I was in the same position as her but that buff guy made sure that we trusted his plans.

‘Look. We are prisoners in a way too. There are so many men that work under him, just because they have to. You aren’t the only victims of our actions. Our families pay for our mistakes too. Even now we stick around to keep them safe. When we realized that the “boss” would go to the extent of killing family to get what he wants from us, we figured we’d at least give him the finger before we die. What say?’

All that Ayu had for them was these words.

‘Lead the way gentlemen.’

What had followed was mostly a blur to my eyes but was crystal clear to my ears. A war, a revolt that none of the other men had anticipated had broken out just because three of us wanted to escape and it was brutal. No one was aware that the people fighting had rights of any kind. Both sides had been putting down each other like their lives didn’t matter or was worth even a penny.

‘Ayu this is too much to take!’ I had yelled at the top of my voice when we were hiding under one of the bunkers in a room when a bomb had just gone off outside.

‘We need to try and sneak out of this mess. Right past this pathway we will get out!’

‘You think we will make it?’

‘Together we will!’

With those last words, we had dashed out the room to survive. Unknowingly, we had run apart of each other even if we were actually running towards the same way. Somewhere in my heart I had known that Ayu will make it out without any trouble because she was and still is capable of it. So I had kept running on my path until I reached outside.

Surprisingly to my eyes, the entrance was empty. While the war had been raging inside, the entry gate has been left unguarded. I had ran to the gate and waited for Ayu to come. I was still positive that she will make it somehow.

And that was when the unthinkable had happened.

Standing down near at the gate, I had been able to get a complete view of the entire asylum. It was old and rotten just like the people who owned it now. When I was looking around, consciously looking for Ayu that is when I found her.

She was holding a gun at someone and at first I didn’t get a good view as to who it was. She was visible disinterested to pull the trigger on someone else with what she had done today. I was praying that she’ll somehow knock him down and escape. But she hadn’t.

She shot down that person in the blink of the eye and only when that person had started to fall I had noticed that it was Garth. Just when he had hit the floor, she turned around and started running the other way. The next thing that followed, still strikes my heart with fear.

Just as Ayu vanished from my sight, the whole building blew up into one big flame, throwing me almost a couple of feet away with the gate. The force was so enormous that it knocked me off completely and I think that I did pass out for a while. When I had come to, I was facing the stars up above in the sky. It had been so long that I even remembered the fact that the sky had been this wide and never ending. But the next sight that had come was gruesome.

The building that had held me captive was up in flames and crumbling down to the ground. Instinctively, I had started running towards the flaming debris in an effort to find Ayu. She was in the building for all I know when the bomb went off. But after a certain distance I couldn’t get any closer. The temperature was very high and the heat was just too unbearable.

With guilt and helplessness filling me, I had run away.

~*~*~*~*~*~

‘Whoa...Whoa…slow down there!’ Deke suddenly interrupted my narration. ‘Ayu could not have been in that building. She is alive if you had missed it. How did you run away leaving her?’ his attitude seemed to have come back but I didn’t mind it because he was finally fighting for her.

‘I had no idea that she was alive. With the look of the flames there, I was honestly sure that she was done for. Also, if someone had escaped this fire, one of the bad guys, I didn’t want to get caught.’

‘A little selfish aren’t we?’ he scowled at me and it did nothing but put a smile on my face.

‘I was just acting like how a survivor would act, Deke.’ I answered politely.

‘But you…’ before Deke could continue, Rocky cut him off.

‘Stop it Deke! She couldn’t have possibly gone into the fire and check for Ayu herself. Just be glad somehow the both of them are alive now.’

‘He is very special.’ Ayu’s voice just filled my head. Indeed he was.

‘I had honestly thought that she was dead, but she had somehow escaped and made it to Mia here. In spite of relishing the freedom she got, she kept her priorities straight. She had escaped that fire and had taken the time to find me and watch out for me without even letting me know. She never approached me though and it looks like she hadn’t found you too. She is always the martyr, trying to handle everything by herself.’ I let out what I felt.

‘That is who she is…she’s special that way.’ Rocky whispered with a hint of love and sorrow mixed in his voice.

‘Yeah we know who Ayu is…’ Sean now spoke out. ‘But it still doesn’t explain why they are after her.’

‘Remember the guy whom she shot down??’

‘Yes…That is supposed to be Garth right??’

With one last deep breath, I let it all out.

‘Garth was Sebastian’s brother. She killed him and he is now out for revenge.’