Estelle

23 | Everytime you close your eyes

The sun shines in my face the moment I'm out of the car and all I can make out are two shadows above me. I hear a laugh that sends a chill down my spine as the two figures step away from me.

"You have been a real pain in my ass, Jane."

I sit up and blink away the harsh sun, taking in the crazy man a few feet from me. Behind and beside him are men dressed in suits and wearing sunglasses. We are blocking a lane on the bridge and the other vehicles that were with me are nowhere in sight. What I do see, however, is a large van with a dent in the front.

"I had to use my own vehicle to stop you from going anywhere." Accelius smiles at me as I continue to take in what is around me.

My eyes zero in on Accelius smiling down at me. He clearly has not shaved for a while and his hair is long and unruly.

I glance around on the bridge and notice cars and people continuing to pass, clearly too afraid to stop whatever standoff I am having with these men. One man glances nervously at me and pulls his phone out. I send a silent prayer that he is called the cops or an ambulance.

"Now you made me come to this situation and it is all your fault."

Ignoring Accelius's tanting, I glance back in the car to see my driver still upside down and motionless. A dark glint of red catches my eye as it drips from his mouth.

"Your driver is dead,"

I let my hand slide to the outside of my jacket to feel the outline of my gun.

They don't know I'm armed. Otherwise they would have taken it from me by now.

"and your friend is taken. You also ruined this pretty bridge." He gestures to the ruined guardrail and my heart stops. A massive hole the size of a vehicle looks to have been ripped into it, the metal bending out over the edge of the bridge.

Accelius seems to notice my wide eyes and smiles. "Yeah, that is quite a fall for two vehicles with a bunch of armed men, huh? I'm thinking like over 100 feet, that drop. Definitely didn't survive when they hit the water. Or they are drowning as we speak" he shrugs. 

My eyes squint and I turn my attention to Accelius. Guilt grips me but I push it away so I can focus on the task at hand. Blue, my driver, and the people on this bridge are in danger.

"What now?" I spit at him.

He seems taken aback at my words as if he expected me to be broken by my faults. "Wow. My brother must have really toughened you up." He gives me a cocky smile. "Or was that my doing?"

I hold my stare, guilt turning into anger. "Why don't you just let me go?"

"Well you see, I have lost a lot of business partners because of all the time you took from me. Once I'm done with you, I'll probably be able to make a pretty penny off your beautiful friend."

I feel disgust and fear grip me. I would rather die than let that happen to Blue.

Before thinking, I blurt out my next words. "Take me instead. Don't hurt her, she didn't do anything to you."

He laughs. He actually laughs. "I'm not going to sell you or marry you anymore. Clearly you are too much trouble. Instead," he reaches into his jacket pocket, "I'm going to do to you exactly what I did to your father."

My eyes widen as he walks closer to me and drops a small piece of paper. It pathetically flutters to the ground. Once my eyes catch what it is, Accelius laughs again as I try to pick up the picture with shaking hands. He likes that I'm at his feet, weak, and vulnerable to him.

I hold the picture and feel my blood run cold at the splotch of blood over the face of my mother. The small photo of her is something my father never goes anywhere without.

"Wha... what did you do?" This time, my voice is small. Hope of a better future with my father feels squashed.

"Exactly what I should have done to begin with." I look up at him and he seems to enjoy the look of pain and shock on my face. "You look even prettier when you are this pathetic."

Accelius has truly and completely lost his mind. I glance behind him and see bored expressions on the face of his men. They don't seem to be happy with their boss's public display of insanity on this bridge.

Something catches my eye and realization dawns on me. The more I stare at them, the more they appear nervous. One shifts on his feet and another looks away from me. Something isn't right. Accelius does not have as much power as he thinks he does.

"Here is our plan." I feel his fist grip my hair and yank me onto my feet. I grab at his hand as I hear some hair ripping and tears come to my eyes. "I'm going to finish with you and then go make some money off that woman. Then I'll leave my brother to fish your body out of this river down here." I feel him begin to drag me towards the edge of the bridge.

Fear grips me and I quickly pull out my gun and close my eyes as I squeeze the trigger. I hardly hear the bang before my ears start ringing. I open my eyes and watch Accelius tumble to the ground clutching his stomach.

"You, bitch! Shoot her now!" He turns to his men and I feel my heart jump to my throat.

I never imagined my death to be like this. I always thought if Accelius was going to kill me, he would do it privately and slowly. Not on a public bridge where everyone will see me bleed out slowly on the asphalt.

"What are you doing? Do it now!"

I blink my eyes open and my jaw drops. All of his men just look from him to me, not one moving a muscle. Not a single gun is out and not a single man seems to be willing to do what Accelius says.

"The fuck is wrong with you? Kill her..." I watch as Accelius's angry words grow quiet. His eyes widen and I see a mix of hate, despise, and built up resentment cloud his eyes.

That is when it comes to me. His men won't shoot me because they are afraid. Not of me but of who they will piss off. They never had any intentions of killing me but rather to watch their boss sign his own death warrant.

"I'm Accelius Valloani and you will listen to me!" He shouts but his voice sounds weak and there is no conviction in his words.

"Not that Vallorani, sir." One man speaks before turning his back and walking away. The other men follow, a few eyes lingering on me before turning away for good.

I turn back to Accelius to see him smiling at me as he slowly sits on the ground, his hand still over his stomach.

His eyes catch mine. "Shoot me, Jane." I hadn't realized until he spoke that I am pointing my gun at him.

"Why? Because you are scared too?"

I see anger flash over his face and his smile turns crooked as he tries to keep his cool. "No, whore. I'm not scared of that moron you call a lover."

"I'm not doing it."

"Why? Don't you want to see me die? I've destroyed your life and you want me to live?" Something flashes across his eyes that I cannot place. It is like this crazy man's mind is dying from insanity and nothing about him is normal anymore. "Don't you want to kill me yourself? Don't you want blood on your hands just like us Valloranis'?"

"N...no. You need to answer for your crimes. You need a long jail sentence and to tell me where Blue is." He has to tell the cops where the women he traffics are and he has to be locked away forever. There has to be proper justice.

I see his smile become empty and his eyes hollow as he looks at the gun in my hand. He sighs and reaches into his jacket, pulling out a gun of his own.

"If you had that on you, why haven't you shot me yet?" I grip the gun tighter, ready to stop him from hurting anyone else.

His eyes travel up to mine. Deep, raging, tormented blue giving me one last spark of anger before speaking his next words.

"So you will go to bed every night and think of this. I think a life of nightmares is better than death, don't you think Jane?" He looks at the gun in his hand. "Well, you should tell me when we see each other in hell."

"NO!"

A loud bang fills the air and everyone on the bridge freezes. I feel a scar rip its way through my mind and something in me changes as Accelius pulls the trigger, sending his brain matter all over the road.