I can't Hurt You - Marcus Lopez Arguello

71

We were now preparing our weapons. There was no time for a gun not to be loaded with ammo or an explosive to not go off when it was supposed to. Marcus hammered nails into his bat so it would cause more damage. Petra and Billy checked the explosives, not like Lex did when he got them. Speaking of, Lex filled all this guns with the necessary ammo and took the safety off the ones he planned to have in hand. Maria and Saya sharpened their knives. They needed to be sharp enough to kill someone with one stab. I wasn't preparing anything. Instead I was keeping watch of the hideout, making sure no one saw us so we could keep the element of surprise. Besides, my knives were sharp enough, they always were.

"Seeing anyone?" I heard Marcus from behind me, making me look at him.

"Nothing." I stated as I looked back at the mutilated house in worry.

"Hey, last night when- when we..." He stuttered.

"No need to be nervous." I teased, trying to make the mood not so... I don't know... depressing.

"Yeah, um, was that- was that okay for you?" He asked.

I turned to him with a cocky arrogant smile.

"Are you trying to ask me if I enjoyed myself?" I asked.

"Well, yeah." He said.

"Last night was perfect, love. But we have bigger things to worry about right now. We can talk about this after." I told him.

"Yeah it's just... I love you." He blurted out.

I gave him a weird look before replying.

"I love you too. Where's this coming from?" I asked.

"It's just... this is a suicide mission, Emma. What if we don't make it out?" He asked worriedly.

"Hey, we're gonna make it out. We're gonna make it out and we're gonna have the craziest, coolest future together. It'll all work out." I comforted as I interlaced my hand with his.

"Alright, enough love birds." Petra rolled her eyes as all our friends came up to us.

"Yeah, whatever. Okay, Chico's head is somewhere in that house, but there's no motion inside." I said.

"Maybe no one's home." Billy suggested hopefully.

"Maybe they're expecting us." Petra suggested.

"How the bloody hell is this hillbilly riot squad gonna know we're coming?" Lex asked like Petra's suggestion was the stupidest thing in the world.

"They know a lot of shit they shouldn't know." Billy said.

"Look, you want to be in charge, control freak? That's fine, happy to do it your way. But are you sure we can count on her?" Petra asked as she looked at Maria who was coming back from the hillbilly hideout trying to get a better look.

"Of course we can." Saya insisted.

"I got optics on the backyard. Saya was right. There are traps. There's no movement, no way of knowing if they're in there or not. So what now?" Maria asked rudely.

"Fix your tone because last time I checked we were doing this so El Diablo doesn't find out you killed Chico." I threatened, making her back down.

"I was just getting a bad feeling and wondering, well, is this something we really should be doing?" Lex asked.

"Oh don't tell me your trying to back out now." I said in frustration.

"And I was hating myself for thinking that Lex is right, and maybe we should just-" Petra said before Billy cut her off.

"Call the cops?" Billy said, sort of agreeing in a way.

"It does seem like the much less, you know, suicidal option." Petra reasoned.

"Coming from the Queen of the Damned? Words to heed." Lex said.

"I didn't ask you to come." Maria piped up.

"What's that? Why, yes, Maria. We're putting ourselves in great danger to help you unscrew your pooch. How nice of you to notice." Lex scolded.

"Starting to see why Willie bailed on you." Petra insulted.

"We're worried. That's fair, right? This is gnarly. We could die in there." Billy said trying to stay brave.

"Billy's right. I was so focused on convincing you guys to help, I never considered that. I- I guess I thought... This is what we were trained to do... to take down a rabid animal, a bully, like the piece of shit inside the house. Look, I can't promise that no one's gonna die, but we're making the world safer, protecting a friend." Marcus tried to give a pep talk.

"'I can't promise no one's gonna die.' Thank you for the de-motivational speech, Coach. Jesus Christ." Saya scolded.

"Chill out, Saya." I tried to calm down the situation.

"What? I'm just- I'm just trying to-" Marcus stuttered before Lex cut him off.

"The rally speech before the March into impending doom. It's not something people do in the real world, mate." Lex said negatively.

"A bit narcissistic. Like we need your great sermon to motivate us." Petra insulted.

"Look, we're all risking a lot to be here. This, whatever this is, this is our family, and Marcus and Maria need us." I tried to make the situation better.

"We're with you. One for all and all for-" Billy said enthusiastically before Petra cut him off.

"That's great. That's great. You got Billy doing it too now. Where does it end?" Petra said.

"When this all goes pear-shaped, you'll come to my rescue?" Lex asked Petra.

"Nothing's going pear-shaped. I've taken down way worse shitheads than these guys. We have two objectives: we take down the serial killers, and we find Chico's head before-" Saya tried to explain before Lex cut her off.

"We've heard the plan a million times. You take us for idiots?" He groaned.

"One more for good measure." Saya said.

Oh fuck me, not again.