Second Chance

Chapter 48

"Touch her, and I'll kill you." I growled, glaring at both of the Descouche brothers.

I stood in front of Maria in a defensive position, ready to fight for her if need be. "Aw, that's sweet." Nick/Shawn mocked. "I can't see how you can take on both of us and win though. You're both at our mercy, and the only reason why you're alive is that you're actually cooperating, which we appreciate."

"Whatever you have planned for Maria, do it to me instead. Just let her go." I hated throwing myself at their feet like this, but the only other option was death for both of us.

Shawn/Nick snorted. "You're not exactly our type. You're girlfriend has a damn good body though, and we really want to get a better look at it."

"You're not fucking her! I won't let you." I declared, taking a step towards them.

"That's very brave of you," Nick/Shawn commented. "but there isn't really a whole lot you can do about it."

Shawn/Nick strode towards me, then grabbed onto my arm, trying to drag me back to the cell. "Justin!" Maria suddenly cried, as Nick/Shawn got ahold on her.

I suddenly remembered that I had Riley's pocket knife in my back pocket. I hoped desperately that it would give me any more visions or splitting headaches, but I didn't have time to worry about that. I grabbed the knife out of my pocket with my free hand, flicked it open, then stabbed it into Shawn/Nick's arm, up near his shoulder.

He screamed in pain, and let go of me. I took that opportunity to get to Maria. Nick/Shawn looked torn between keeping Maria or helping his brother, which gave me enough time to get her while he was distracted.

"Come on!" I cried, latching onto her hand.

We ran up the stairs, but the brothers weren't far behind us. They were screaming at us to stop, but when we burst through the door, they fell silent. I realized this wasn't the best plan ever, but what else was I supposed to do, let the brothers rape Maria? No, I would never let anyone hurt her in any way. I loved her, and I was going to do everything in my power to keep her safe.

She suddenly yanked me to the right, where I realized there was a small alcove in the wall, just big enough for both of us to squeeze into. Just as we disappeared into the narrow space, two sets of heavy footsteps came thundering down the hall. I held my breath as they got closer, praying that they would pass us and not see us. To my relief, they did just that, and continued on down the hall and out of sight.

We slipped out of our hiding spot, and went back to the door that led down to the cellar. I opened the door, and Maria went first. I followed closely behind, then closed the door as quietly as I could. When we made it back to the ground, Maria wrapped her arms around me in a tight hug.

"Thank you, Justin." She said softly, sounding as if she was on the edge of tears.

"No problem," I responded, hugging her back but trying to keep the smile off my face. "but we're not safe yet. We still need to make it out of the tunnel."

She pulled back and nodded, and I went over to the crate and scraped it aside. She went into the hole first, then I went after. Luckily there was a flashlight down here, so Maria turned it on and led the way down the tunnel. As we were crawling our way to safety, I was listening for any signs that the brothers had come back to the cellar. At one point I heard a faint thud, and with a lurch in my stomach, I realized I forgot to drag the crate over the hole again. They might have realized by now that we were down here. That left us with three options; one, we get our asses out here as quickly as possible and hope they don't catch us, two, I go back and scrape the crate back over the hole and hope they don't catch me, or three, I do something really stupid that I knew was the best option.

As we reached the hole in the pipe, Maria immediately climbed in, but I hesitated. Even if we escaped with our lives, there was a good chance that the brothers were going to escape soon after us. They had all the tools, and they now knew how to escape, thanks to DK. People like those two should never be allowed to roam free. They had to stay here, which meant I had to stay behind to make sure of that.

Maria turned to look at me. "Justin, come on, we need to go."

I shook my head. "No. You need to go, Maria. I have to stay here, but you need to be free."

"What? No! This was your idea, and now you want to go back on it?!" She demanded, scowling at me.

"No, one of us has to stay behind to make sure the brothers don't escape too. I'm dying anyways, so you need to let me go." I explained hurriedly, then started to kick at the roof of the tunnel.

"No, stop! Don't do this." She cried.

I felt the roof start to give way, and at the last second, I turned to Maria and gave her a sad look. "I love you."

The dirt from above then collapsed, covering the hole completely.