𝐃𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐲 𝟐 [elmax story, sequel]

Chapter 13: The price of love is pain

  Jane, Jayden and Nate had spent the night inside the car, organizing the next plan to save Max. After having an awful night sleeping in the car, the three of them woke up early to put their plan to work.

Bryan was always working on Sundays. Around 9 AM he walked out of his apartment to head to the bookstore. Something that caught his eye was the white car parked in a sideway. He had recognized this car from yesterday, when he was out of the pharmacy. Something was looking suspicious to him. He pretended not to focus on the car and started walking away. Bryan got a feeling something would happen if he let Max alone in the apartment. But first he had to test this white car. He took the turn to a narrow alley and spied from there.

Jayden had called Zoey and the girls after seeing Bryan leave to come and play their part in the plan. They arrived with Laura's Jeep and parked behind Jayden's car. Jane got out of the car together with Jayden and Nate and the group gathered in front of Bryan's building.
  "So, as you know, Zoey, Laura and Chloe are staying here in case something happens. That psycho is unpredictable." - Jane warned out. - "Nate, don't forget, you'll stay at the entrance over there to observe any movement and text me in the case of emergency. Me and Jay will go up there and get Max out of here."

When Zoey, Laura and Chloe were standing outside the building and Nate at the entrance, Jane and Jayden walked behind the building and took the fire escape stairs. Jane pushed a window in Bryan's apartment and to her luck it was open. She carefully sneaked inside with Jayden and checked the area and realized they were in the bedroom. They walked out of it and found the salon where the TV was on. Jane noticed red hair on the couch and ran towards it. Max appeared to be sleeping or she was unconscious, but either way Jane bent down and ran her hand on Max's hair.
  "Max! Wake up!" - Jane tapped on her cheek.
It took Max a couple of seconds before she slowly raised half of her eyelids.
  "There you are. Hurry up, we need to get you out of here now."
  "W-What?... Jane, is that you? Am I hallucinating or what?" - Max desperately tried to speak up.
  "Yes, it's me! This is real! You've been drugged. By that piece of shit, Bryan. Come on!" - Jane tried to be careful with her as she put one arm behind her back, making her barely stand up.
Meanwhile, Jayden had found the kitchen and was checking for anything incriminating towards Bryan. The first thing she noticed were the empty tiramisu boxes piled up on the counter. Then she opened the fridge and found multiple drinks with "Max" written on them. Jayden was startled and became furious by what she had discovered.

Laura, Zoey and Chloe were walking in circles on the street when they saw something, or someone, alarming. It was Bryan himself. He was walking towards the entrance of the building, but was stopped by the three girls on his way there.
  "Hello there!" - Laura tried being seductive.
  "What a handsome guy you are. Are you going somewhere?" - Chloe played with her hair.
  "Who the hell are you? Leave me alone." - Bryan tried going past the girls.
  "Oh, you're a hard type, I see. Just take us for a drink, what do you think?" - Laura stopped him by sliding her hands on his shoulders playfully.
  "I'm not interested, girls. Sorry." - Bryan pushed Laura's hands away from him.

By the time this confrontation had happened between Bryan and the girls, Nate was watching everything and going into panic mode. Without a hesitation, he sent a message to Jane saying "Code Red!!!".
Jane was holding Max steady with one arm, and the other she used to pick up her phone from the message sound she heard. As soon as she got Nate's text, she called out Jayden to help her keep Max standing together. Jayden hurriedly walked up to Max where she put her arm on her back.
  "Wait! We don't have enough time! We should lay her down on the couch again and hide somewhere. We can't risk it!" - As Jane laid Max down again very steadily, she looked at Max which was very much in pain, and tried to be comforting. - "Max, listen to me. You're going to pretend we were never here. Bryan's coming in here any second now and if he sees us, it'll be too dangerous. Okay?"
Max slowly nodded in agreement.
Jane and Jayden ran to the bedroom and hid behind the open door. 5 seconds later, they heard a door creak. Bryan was inside the apartment.
He was walking in loud footsteps in the salon where they assumedly stopped at the couch.
  "Max, is everything okay? Did anyone come in here?"
  "Huh? No. W-Why would you ask?" - Max sounded scared.
  "Oh. I thought I saw your ex walking inside the building and got tremendously worried." - Bryan came up to her and tried to touch her hand, but she moved it away.
  "What's wrong? You look afraid." - Bryan tilted his head.
  "It's just... that I... need some time alone. Can you... please go to work now?"
  "I will. I was just checking up on you. See you after work, okay?"
Bryan bent down to kiss Max on the forehead, but she moved her head the other way, feeling disgusted. She didn't want him anywhere near her, let alone touch her. Bryan, of course thought she was acting strange, but he didn't give much thought into it.
  "I must've mistaken your ex with someone else, then. Sorry for stressing you out for no reason, babe." - Bryan smiled on his way to the door.
He was very close to stepping outside the apartment when suddenly he heard a slight thud coming from the bedroom area. He hummed and turned his head around, unsure of leaving without a good look. So he didn't hesitate at all and slammed the door shut and locked it, making Max feel scared for her life. She thought something terrible was going to happen to the love of her life who was hiding from that deranged freak. Max asked him what he was doing but he ignored her and ran straight into his bedroom.

Jayden and Jane were trying to stay as calm as possible while the tall angry boy stepped more forward inside from the open door. Something about looking at Bryan from up close made Jane furious and it was eating up her so much inside that she wanted to jump at him and snap his neck, but she resisted. When he finished looking left and right, under the bed and inside the closet, he turned around trying to think of what to do. That's when he remembered the door was open when he got in the bedroom, so he made a few steps towards the door knob, pulled it away, revealing two girls standing close to each other.
"You bitch!" - Bryan shouted in Jane's face.
Before letting the outrageous boy in front of her act first, she pulled out her fist and punched Bryan straight in his crotch area causing him to groan loudly and fall to the floor.
"Does it hurt, you pussy ass?! Just like you've hurt Max! What did you want from her, sicko?!" - Jane hit him again in the stomach with her leg making him groan twice as loud as before. Then she turned to Jayden. - "Jay, get Max to the car and wait for me there. I'll have to deal with this little bitch right now."
Jayden followed her order and ran to the salon, helping Max stand up and guiding her down to the first floor as Jane walked in circles around Bryan who was unable to stand up.
"You're doing the wrong thing. Max is happy with me and loves me the way she couldn't love you. When will you accept that?!" - Bryan said confidently as he looked up at Jane, angrier than she's ever been.
"Shut up!" - Jane kicked him once again in the stomach.
"G-Go ahead! You can try and get Max away from me, but she will n-never be fooled by your brave heroic act! She will never want to be with you again!" - Bryan provoked the brown haired girl.
Jane didn't listen to any of his manipulative efforts to destroy her self esteem like he had done with Max, and instead gave up and turned the other way.
Bryan waited for Jane to turn her back from him and rushed for the drawer, picking up an empty glass on top of it and swinging it towards the side of her head. Jane was feeling dazed when she hit the floor while Bryan ran out to the salon looking through the big window which revealed the front street. There he could see Jayden and Nate putting Max inside the white car so he didn't wait any longer and rushed to the first floor of the building and sprinted towards the sideway, screaming for the white car to stop as Jayden ran the engine.

During this time, Jane had managed to get up and take the fire escape stairs thinking to herself if she would make it in time to keep Bryan's dirty hands away from Max and her friends.
Bryan tried pulling the back door open but they were locked so he called out Max's name as he banged on the window.
"Jay, drive!" - Nate slightly pushed Jayden's shoulder.
"We can't! Jane is still inside! What if he does something to her?!" - Jayden panicked.
"Just go! She'll get in the Jeep with the girls!"
"Fine!"
Jayden started driving away ahead while Bryan chased the white car in desperation like a lunatic. All of a sudden, Jayden witnessed Laura's Jeep from the rear window hitting Bryan as he flew to the ground. Everything was not going according to plan, Jayden thought. Laura had screwed up the plan by hurting their enemy in a really dangerous way. She couldn't just keep driving and leave him there like that, her logic wouldn't allow it.
"What did you do?!" - Jayden stuck her head out of her window shouting at Laura from behind her.
"I'm sorry! I just wanted to slow him down!" - Laura almost cried.
"By nearly running him over?!"
"I guess?!"
"You guys keep driving ahead of us. I'll check on him and see if he's still responsive." - Jayden ordered.
"Alright! Good luck!" - Laura drove around the white car and sped up in front of it.
As Jayden was about to get out of her car, she heard a faint scream from the other sideway.
"Hold on!" - Jane walked in somewhat quick steps as she held her hand on the side of her head which was apparently bleeding.
Bryan, who was barely standing up from the ground, saw Jane coming towards the car that Max was held in. Jane arrived at the back door of the car just in time and sat there with Max who rubbing her stomach, mumbling something.
"W-What did he do to you?" - Max asked as she noticed the blood.
  "A very pussy move. He couldn't handle me." - Jane said humorously as she held Max's hand.
Jayden realized Bryan was able to overpower Laura's hit so she hit the gas and drove off from the scene. Jane spotted Bryan from the rear windshield of the car and pulled out the middle finger causing Max to chuckle. The plan had worked. Max was now finally safe and returned to her friends and the girl she missed and still loved even after their messy breakup.