Retrospect

Thirty-three

"Oh, this is going to be fun," Catalina said, pulling the blade away from my neck and stepping closer to Miles with her back to me. I was already thinking of ways to get rid of her, but something within me told me to wait, knowing what Miles was capable of.

   "So young, yet you look so much like your father right now," Catalina murmured as her heels clicked slowly across the floor. Miles backed up but he kept the weapon trained on the woman.

   Looking around the room, I noticed how both of the bodyguards were down. One of them was in front of a delirious Ana and he moved slightly, trying to rise to his feet.

   To my right sat the stranger, who'd been fighting Frost while Catalina had shoved me against the wall and was now bleeding from his head at the feet of Frost. Neither of the two seemed strong enough to continue fighting, but when Frost saw me, he swayed and began limping my way.

   His face was all bloody and swollen from the other man's punches and he stumbled, spitting out red and grinning, never taking his eyes off me. I held my pocket knife up and Frost paused. He just stared at me for a few seconds before his smile disappeared.

   "Oh, Cory," he said, so softly I could barely hear him, "look at you."

   I tightened my grip around the knife, my knuckles turning white, and Frost frowned. "You clearly aren't cut out for this kind of stuff," he said, "your parents wouldn't have wanted this. Killing an innocent man? Look," he pointed at my fingers enclosed around the weapon, "you're shaking. Don't do something you know you shouldn't do."

   Tears were threatening to spill from the corners of my eyes, but I held them in. My heart was thumping so loud, it felt as if the whole aquarium was rattling. "You're not innocent," I managed to speak.

   "Well, if I'm not, then neither are you, Cory," Frost growled, then cleared his throat and spoke comfortingly again, "a girl like you shouldn't be playing around with chemicals like mine. And I told you, I work for no one and sell to anyone. It's called business," he persuaded, taking one last step so he was just a few feet away.

   I dropped my arm to my side, my hand still grasping the pocket knife. Frost waited. We were looking at each other for what felt like a minute.

   Until Frost's hand shot out to try and snatch the knife from my grasp. I leapt back and heard a shout from behind me, then footsteps pounding in and I glanced back. Reeves and Murl were hurrying over to help me and Miles and I couldn't express how relieved I was to see them.

   Murl was running, refusing to let his injury stop him from reaching his cousin. Reeves went in my direction and pulled out a gun, making sure Frost let go of my knife.

   Frost was quick to comment on the others arriving. "I should've known there'd be more of you."

   A high-pitched scream filled the air and Reeves and I instantly looked for the source. Catalina was writhing around on the ground, grabbing her hair and even ripping some of it out in pain. Miles had done it. The spikes were sinking into her head and she was now curled up, the color draining from her face.

   One of the bodyguards was back on his feet, standing over the nameless man. Then Murl charged towards the guard and barreled into him, knocking him to the floor once again. "Malachi?" Murl uttered all while punching Frost's guard on the ground. Murl looked over at the stranger then (though I guess he wasn't much of a stranger to Murl) and asked, "What are you doing here?"

   The man named Malachi never replied because he turned his attention back to where Frost should've been, but wasn't. Now we were all frantically looking around the room, our concern growing when we realized Frost was actually nowhere to be found, which was pretty concerning. Reeves' eyes were surveying the room as he pointed the gun at every corner. Where was he? He couldn't have gotten very far.