Chapter Twenty Nine

‘Can you really trust her?’

Waking up, startled, to the repeated echo inside my head, questioning the fact that if I should trust Ayu’s words was not how I expected my morning to be.

We were still in the shack where we poured ourselves out to each other and I made Ayu understand that how much I need her to be there in my life. She was reluctant at first but I got her to see my point and then we shared one moment of clarity, where she agreed to survive, and all else was just a blur to me. We ended up just talking after that. I rattled on and on about how life has been for us since she left and all the moments she had missed but would’ve enjoyed if she had stayed, momentarily forgetting all our sorrows and just getting to see her smile. I had no idea when we slept but we had drifted off to such a sound sleep, even the bright sun that was shinning right at my face didn’t wake me up. My head felt a little better though, probably because my concussion’s effect was leaving me. What hurt my head now was the nightmare that woke me up.

It was dark and I had no idea where I was in the dream. All I saw was my reflection in the mirror that stood in the middle of that dark enclosure. I’m trying not to be dramatic here but this dream was one for the movies. My own reflection started to question me about my happiness and my belief on the fact that Ayu will stay. Even if my heart had willing accepted her promise, the rational thinking part of my head didn’t want to give in yet. The whole dream I was trying to convince myself that she will in fact keep her promise, but all my reflection had for me was the one question that scares me the most all the time.

‘Can you really trust her?’

Can I trust her? Or maybe the question is, should I trust her?

Speaking of her, I got agitated for a moment. Where was she anyway?  I opened my eyes wider and moved my head around to find her. I felt pinned down to the ground by something. Only then I realized that it was her that was lying on my chest, snoring away in deep sleep. I hit my head sheepishly, smiling at my stupidity. Guess my head isn’t all okay after all. I tilted my head slowly to get a glimpse of her face and there it was for me to see. Her face was all calm and innocent, no worry lines on her forehead, no hostility on her face, it was nothing but peace radiating all over. Part of me wished that she’d sleep all the time just so she could escape the consciousness that held nothing but hell for her.

Guilt rode over my body, taking me back nine years, to the abandoned mansion where we played. She was right there with me and she walked away. I let her go to fetch something she wanted to show me. If I had held onto her, told her to go after the game was over, told her that I’d come with you and we’ll go together. There were so many things that I could’ve done but instead stayed put in my place of hiding just to win a stupid game. Who knew I lose my life?

I put both my arms around her and held her tight. I felt her warmth pulsating through me and her heart beating against mine. If it was any other day, it would’ve been the most perfect morning ever. Only any minute now, someone might come along calling. It’ll be either the bad guys or…

‘Rocky!!’ …or family.

Deke’s voice startled me a little but it did more to Ayu. She almost immediately sprung up and sat next to me all frantic and alert as if someone was going to attack us this instant. She got up in almost a split second that I barely grasped onto what had just happened. I slowly got up only to come face to face with her and meet the most terrified expression I've seen on her face, ever.

‘Hey, calm down. We are okay. We are still at home. Deke is searching for us I guess. It’s alright. Relax okay?’

I put both my hands around her in a desperate attempt to calm her down and bring the comfort level that existed between us last night. She was still not convinced that we were safe as she kept turning her head around in all directions. I held on and pulled her close, leaving only about a finger’s space between our faces to get her attention. When she landed her glance on me, she met with my eyes and at that instant, she calmed a bit.

‘I am telling you Ayu…no one is here looking for us but Deke. No one will come. We are home and we are safe.’

I honestly believed about what I told her. We were safe. But apparently, we weren’t from Deke.

‘OH MY GOD! THE TWO OF YOU?!?!’ his voice echoed so much that people from two towns over could’ve heard it. I didn’t know what else to do but sit with my mouth open in dismay and watch the dumbfounded expression that Ayu was having on her face.

‘Deke…shut up before you say anything.’ I started slowly so that I could spare some embarrassment for Ayu and not to mention the fact that these two aren’t really on cordial terms. Well, Deke wasn’t really ready to back down yet.

‘Bro, I know that you love her but man, is this the right time to be sleeping around with her? Don’t you see the gravity of the issue around us?’

‘What? NO!!’

‘No?  What do you mean no? You don’t understand what is happening around us? Are you just so blind about that, that you just want to score with her? Our parents are missing dude!’

‘Deke…you don’t understand.’

‘I don’t understand? Just because I don’t have a girl in my life that is actually my long lost love you think I don’t understand what is happening here? I get it man, you are desperate. But you, you stupid girl, even you didn’t understand?’ he suddenly changed tracks towards Ayu.

‘Deke stop!’

‘You are the reason that we are all in this mess. You still wanna mess things up by manipulating my brother for some stupid comfort? I mean, you can’t be this low. What are you girl? How can you be so screwed up?’

I lost it. He had no idea what happened and he just waltzes in to confront us. I saw Ayu’s face turned in the opposite side, possibly with disgust and that was the one thing I didn’t want I had to give him a piece of my own mind. I started moving as spoke my mind out.

‘Stop it you dumb idiot. You think you can be all authoritative over me? Who gave you the right to judge what happened here? You stupid son of a…’

What followed was the most unexpected of it all.

Zooming past me in a flash, Ayu jumped off the shack and flew right onto Deke, taking him down that very instant. Before I could even process that move, the very next second a bullet hit the wall right next to where Deke was standing a moment ago. I couldn’t believe it but we were being ambushed.

A rain of bullets followed as Ayu covered Deke on the ground. I gathered my senses as quickly as possible and moved deeper inside the shack, placing myself behind a half broken wooden wall. I could see them both still on the ground and hear Ayu screaming on top the bullet sound.

‘Stay down and keep your head low! Do not show your face up at any instant! Crawl carefully behind that wall and hide yourself! GO!’

Almost immediately after yelling go, Ayu moved with such speed that she actually vanished. I couldn’t find her anywhere from my vantage point. But I was able to see Deke moving slowly as the bullets hit. Right then, the shooting stopped and Deke, the smart ass that he is, jumped to his feet and slid behind the wall.

For about three minutes or so, silence engulfed the entire area. The only thing that kept me company was my uneven breath and exhilarated heart beat. Sweat was dripping from my face and running all over my back and my head was silently praying that both of them were safe. Before I could even finish my thought, I heard a huge thud that caught my attention.

Right across the shack, about twelve feet or so away, a guy fell out of the bushes that lined up the corner. He continued to crawl out into the open, looking upwards, anticipating the worst possible fate for himself. Unfortunately, I didn’t know that I should’ve been anticipating the worst too. For what followed definitely was.

Following him was Ayu, walking out of those bushes with a couple of guns in her hand. One looked like a pistol and I had seen enough movies to recognize that the other one was a sniper rifle. One of Sebastian’s guys had actually found us at our safe place. We weren’t really hoping that they wouldn’t know about this place. We only believed that Sebastian was the kind of guy who would be insane enough to keep his men in line till he got the revenge he wanted.

‘Ayu!!’ Rachel’s devastated cry to find her brought back my attention and took my heart rate further. She obviously must've heard the rain of bullets that hit us.

‘Wait!’ she screamed back to let her know that she was fine but by her tone I could tell, she still wasn’t sure about something. I didn’t have to think twice o confirm that the cold blooded Aysha had taken over her. ‘Are you the only one?’ she yelled at him.

‘You bitches can’t really escape all the time you know? We own you and we will take you back.’ The man yelled out specifically so that Rachel could hear too.

Stepping towards him, Ayu ducked and threw a punch so hard on his face that he turned around and spit blood almost instantly.

‘So it’s just you then…’ she signaled Rachel to come closer and tossed the rifle to her. She immediately handled it and held it like a pro.

‘What makes one of Sebastian's stupid dogs wander into our property?’ Rachel put on her ‘bad cop’ face too and I started to move out of my cover slowly now that they know for sure that its just him.

‘You better watch your mouth sissy… I’d rather not…’ the guy still didn’t let go off his attitude, even after losing all his guns to two people with the potential to kill.

‘I’d rather not bad mouth too much against her either.’ Ayu thrust the nozzle of the gun onto his forehead and stared him down.

‘You still don’t remember me?’

His question was too casual that it totally disturbed me.

‘Liam…’Ayu slowly let his name escape her lips, much to his delight.

‘So you do remember. That is really nice to know.’ His laugh was sinister and it disgusted me.

‘You know him by name?’ Rachel asked in shock.

‘He was…’

‘She slit and let my mate bleed to his death. So yeah, she remembers me.’

He was friends with the guy who almost violated her. I felt an insane rage rise up within myself.

‘It’s okay Ayu… it’s all in the past.’ Rachel tried to console her from her side.

‘Yeah it is lady. If only you could escape it that easily in reality. You know what I mean right?’ he kept staring at her with this evil grin on her face. ‘You couldn’t get sleep for almost a month after that. The guilt of becoming a killer swindled you inside out. I used to guard your door and every night I’d hear you scream. It was pure pleasure for me. It was exactly what I wanted for you after you killed him without mercy. All he wanted was a little harmless fun.’

Rachel stepped forward and hit his face hard with the rifle in her hand. He screamed in pain and it was the most wonderful sound I heard in a long time.

‘Aaahh…What do you cows want??’ he asked slowly, spitting more blood out.

Gathering her composure back, Ayu started off. ‘I know that Sebastian wouldn’t order you, so as even allow you to come and hit us where we live. He always has an agenda and he sticks to it. So you are not here to kill. What is your agenda huh?’

‘He warned you’ll be such a ‘smarty pants’ about the whole situation. You two know each other pretty well. You are always a step ahead of the enemies’ right? Hmmm well, you are right. I didn’t come here to kill. I was sent here to convey a message.’

‘A message?’ Rachel sounded like she couldn’t believe that.

‘Yes. Sebastian wanted you to know that he wouldn’t back down until you are dead in the hands of your beloved boys and that there is no escape. He said that even if he knew where you are, he knows that he’ll make you come to him because you will be that desperate that you will want to die. He also warned your friend here that she will meet her fate too. Finally, he expects that all of you show up at the old mansion from where you were plucked away by dawn or else he’ll kill every one of you without mercy.’

Ayu looked visibly shaken. She somehow knew that all this will happen yet she wasn’t completely ready for it. A part of me wanted to run to her and hold her tight but I stayed back, inside the shack where it was safe.

‘If that was your job to do why did you shoot?’ Rachel asked him.

‘I couldn’t resist actually…coming this close and not killing at least one of you? If I’d kill one of the three brothers’ maybe the other two will be motivated to kill her sooner than later? I don’t know, it’s been so long since I killed.’

‘How dare you!’ Ayu agitated.

‘There’s no doubt in my mind, I didn’t even have to think actually. I was already planning inside my head as to which one I’ll kill. You made it sure for me actually. How you cuddled up with that boy right there last night made it so obvious.’

Eyes widened I stood there frozen as he continued to explain his merciless scheme.

‘The two of you were kissing and steaming each other up like hell and it was almost short of being an amazing porno but you had to ruin that too!’

‘Y-Y-You were here since last night?’ Ayu’s voice now trembled showing her insecurity. It was almost embarrassing for her but more than that, she felt exposed of her vulnerabilities.

‘Oh darling, I’ve been following you since you escaped the ordeal at the mill.’

Ayu dropped her stance and took the gun off his head. She turned with his back to him and she was surely devastated.

‘That boy sure is in love with you girly. The way he was pleading and wanting you…wow, I pity him. But what I don’t get is why him? My pal was much better than him and with him all this emotion and crap would’ve never come along. It would’ve just been a night’s fun. You couldn’t even manage that for him.’

‘I’d shut up if I were you.’ Rachel warned him.

‘Yeah yeah, always show her off like this deadly weapon. She is nothing but a pussy. She has guilt and crap filling her till the throat and she’ll choke on it eventually. She is dying one way or the other and I will be there to watch it.’

Ayu put her down right when he mentioned his last statement. I had no idea what was happening with her and I desperately wanted to find out. I was however, frozen to my position. I found virtually no guts inside me to make myself move forward and towards her. Something told me the worst was yet to come.

‘So…I’ll let him know that you’ll be there to meet him?’ after a few moments of silence, he asked cunningly.

‘No. No you won’t.’ and without a second thought she turned around and shot him in the head.

As he dropped dead, time slowed down around me. I saw Rachel’s face painted with surprise and shock as she hadn’t anticipated it. Maybe she had thought that she wouldn’t kill someone with us being around. That’s when I turned around and saw Deke come out from his hiding spot. His face was deliberately terrified. All he knew was stories and its description of her that mentioned she could kill. He had seen it now and he was not happy. Only then I thought about seeing Ayu’s face and it was staring right back at me. It was almost like she was crying out loud to me saying that this is me and I cannot keep your promise. Once she turned away was when I came to terms with reality and my denial of it.

‘She just killed him?’ Sean couldn’t really believe the story entirely let alone the end.

‘She shot him dead in the middle of his forehead. She didn’t even blink, man! That was some hardcore shit!’ Deke’s narration was a little over the top but that was how he was feeling at the moment though.

‘You were shot at? Man…you are sure you’re okay?’  Sean was still coming to terms with the events he’d described.

‘I am fine. It was actually quick thinking on Ayu’s part. If she hadn’t been alert, those bullets would’ve surely hit me.’ A modest tone took over Deke’s voice. It reflected gratitude and regret at the same time. ‘I can’t believe after all the crap I've thrown at her, she still saved me.’

‘She loves you too. We are family Deke, even if you don’t accept that.’

‘It is not like I hate her completely. I've told you this before.’

‘Yeah you have but with no clarity.’ Sean started to dig deeper. ‘Tell me bro…why do you behave this way with her? When she does stick around, how long do you think that she can take this huh?’

The last question didn’t bring an answer out of Deke but prompted me to speak for the first time in all that narration.

‘She won’t’ I said slowly.

‘What do you mean by that?’ Deke was agitated right now.

‘Last night she promised me that she will try and survive the ordeal and come out of it alive after I told her that I love her. But this morning, once she shot the man, I knew one thing for sure. Her eyes met mine for a brief moment and that was all I needed to confirm the answer to the question that has been bothering me for so long.’

‘And that is…’ Sean dragged his words not liking where it seemed to be going.

‘I had doubts about trusting her promise to me. Now I know for sure… that I can’t.’

Silence persisted among the three of us as tears escaped my eyes. I haven’t cried out loud yet and I wasn’t ready to do it yet. This eerie silence was the best escape that I could possibly have because it was the only place in reality where I fit in now. Right then my head echoed the words whose answer I found.

‘Can you trust her?’

Looks like I can’t…