The Revenge Scam

Shoes, Guns, and Fireworks

Charles and Sophia followed the two men leading them to the cabin in front of where they were imprisoned. She looked at him and nudged his side. "You have the gun?"

He took it out from his shirt and attempted to do a trick with it. He spun it around his thumb and was about to drop it when his reflexes kicked in and caught it. His face turned pink and responded, "Ya."

Sophia gave him a look and snatched it from his hand. The shorter man had gone ahead and was already in the room where they were headed. Before they were about to enter, Sophia brought up the gun to the guard's head and pushed it into his skull.

"You are going to bring us to your boss without question. Now move." She continued to push him with the gun as they started toward the door. His face portrayed every emotion from anger to worry to fear. His hand shook a little as he opened the door to the room.

When they walked in, the man from earlier was whispering in a guy's ear. His eyes were dark and he had a minuscule mustache resting above his lip. His hair had started to gray and recede and he was holding a thick cigar in his hands. When they walked in he turned his head towards them and stopped short when he saw the gun. His eyes narrowed and you could see the battle happening in his mind.

Sophia spoke first, "If you let us go back to the compartment unharmed, then I won't hurt Oaken, I mean the guard. We will not tell anyone of your schemes or that we were put in a box to rot."

The boss tilted his head and brought his hand to his chin. "And if we don't comply?"

"Then I will shoot this guard dead, and don't think I won't hesitate to do the same to you."

The older man stood up and strode towards Sophia. "For a duchess, you are quite feisty. From what I recall they are supposed to be the opposite, am I right Sophia?" He emphasized her name in a way that made Charles think that these two knew each other before this.

"I suppose that is right but mind you I am not like every other duchess. Therefore I have no hesitation to shoot anyone here, especially you. Let us go back to our box and we will all pretend nothing happened."

"You are a funny one, but, you know we can't let you go now. You know too much so therefore we have to kill you. As cliche as it sounds the saying is true. Now...get them!"

All of a sudden from every corner of the room, four men approached where Charles and Sophia were. Charles stood there in complete shock, he couldn't move and, as per usual, Sophia was the one to take charge. "Ready to move your long legs?"

"Wait what?" Before any other words could be spoken Charles was dragged by the arm through the front door before they were able to catch them. Heavy footsteps sounded behind them as the men in the room gave chase. Charles had not experienced such exhilaration in a while and the fresh rush of adrenaline that pumped through him was a welcome surprise. They both ran at a great speed, but it wasn't fast enough. They were gaining on them, and if they didn't get to their compartment soon, they might never be able to reach it at all.

Finally, as if by a miracle, the next door they ran through was empty and at the end of it could be seen the entrance to their original seating place. Sophia glanced back and saw the four men with anger expressed all over their faces with guns in hand. Charles noticed too and what had once been exhilaration, turned into stone-cold fear.

"Come on!" They both sprinted to the end and opened the door. A sudden burst of cold air hit their faces, and they were standing in between two train sections. Sophia reached over the empty space for the door and Charles' heart fell as he saw her stumble a bit. He reached out in the nick of time and caught her before she fell. Giving herself a shake, she tried again. She reached out her hand and this time she made it, but as she pulled on the handle and it didn't budge, they were forced to the face inevitable. It was locked.

The men could be heard in the box behind them and it would only be a few seconds before they reached them. Charles grabbed Sophia back and pointed to the spindly ladder on the side. "We have to go up!" She nodded and he started up the ladder. Sophia followed behind him and as he reached the top the door burst open. Scrambling up the rest and reaching for Charles' hand, she yelled before getting yanked down. Someone had caught her foot and she was trying to reach the last rung of the ladder.

Charles upon hearing her scream looked over his shoulder and one thought raced through his mind. I have to save her. He lunged forward and caught her flailing arm. "I got you!"

Using all of his strength he pulled and pulled until her head could be seen over the train looking terrified, but determined. She brought her arm up but the person holding her foot would not let go.

"Put your arms around my neck, I am going to try and pull you up." He lifted her arms around his neck and picked her up from her armpits. On the way up the man holding her wasn't left empty-handed. He was able to receive a nice shoe that wouldn't fit him.

Now that there was no longer a force keeping them apart, Sophia became much lighter. Not used to the weight difference, Charles pulled harder and Sophia came flying up and landed on top of him. They were breathing hard and were flushed due to the exertion of energy from the activity they just engaged in.

The two locked eyes and it felt like fireworks were exploding around them. Sophia realized what was happening and mentally hit herself with the shoe that she had lost. Jumping off of him and patting her dress down she grimaced. "Thank you for that back there."

Red in the face, Charles responded, "Your welcome." He sat up and looked at her. "This still isn't over yet." Voices could be heard below the ladder arguing over something.

"After all that, you only got this shoe? It doesn't even fit you, throw it away."

"But I like it!" A thump sounded behind them but faded away as the train moved on.

Sophia spoke, "I kind of liked that shoe." Putting away the sad feelings towards it she turned around "Just as you said this isn't over yet, we should continue on." He stood up with great speed and they started to run across the top of the train. Feet were pounding behind them echoing off the metal top. They were following them with guns blazing and shouts rising.

Charles looked behind him only to get barrelled to the ground by the short man. He had been able to run ahead of them and grab Charles. He throttled him and brought the gun to his head. A loud bang echoed around the clearing and Charles thought he was dead. That was when the weight on top of him lightened and he opened his eyes to see Sophia with her gun in hand and the man dead beside him. Blood was pouring out of his chest and his eyes were glassy. He scrambled away from it and glanced between it and Sophia. "You-you just.."

"Killed a man? Yes, I know. Now let's go." They ran the rest of the length and stopped at the edge. "We are going to have to climb down this ladder and jump. If we time it right it shouldn't hurt too much, but you must only jump when I say to. Do you understand?"

Charles looked at the girl beside him in a new perspective. "Yes."

Sophia went first, climbing down the ladder and standing on the little platform. Charles followed and stood beside her. She grabbed his hand which he gladly held on to and she started counting down. "One... Two...Three...JUMP!"