HOW TO RUIN YOUR LIFE (LGBTQ+)

35

Several minutes later, Jayce was on the ground, bleeding and wheezing, unshed tears in his eyes, his jaw clenched and both hands gripping his abdomen.

    "We're watching you," Sterling said, clapping him on the shoulder. "If you touch Persia again, we'll know. And next time, you'll be in a ditch somewhere, rotting."

    Locke tossed a pair of car keys and a wallet on the ground at his feet. "You should take yourself to the hospital. We...broke a few things." He glanced at Sterling. "Let's go."

    "Sure," Sterling said, grinning. He patted the side of Jayce's face a few times, watching him wince at the contact, then stood. "Don't forget it. We're watching you. And I'm not just talking about the five of us here. There's a lot more of us than you think."

    They turned, passing a blunt around as they got into the truck and drove away.

-

"Joe!" Persia's voice cried over the phone. "He's gone."

    Joe sat up in his hospital bed, blinking in the darkness. "Who - what is?" His thoughts went immediately to his son, Mike.

    "My husband!"

    "Oh," Joe replied, relaxing back against the wall. I don't care about him.

    "Some men came and took him away while he was asleep, but I couldn't go after them, and I couldn't see their faces-"

    "Did you call the police?"

    "...no."

    "Why not?"

    "The truck they drove...looked familiar. But it definitely didn't belong to any of Jayce's friends..."

    Joe's stomach began to sink. "Shit. You think they were..."

    "Asa's friends."

    Shit, shit, shit.

    There was no telling now what state of mind Asa was in. There was no way of knowing how far she would go with this.

    What a mess.

    "She won't kill him," Joe said firmly, forcing his voice from wavering. "She told me that she wouldn't do that to you."

    "But I don't trust her, Joe," Persia whispered, her voice quivering. "I don't know what to do. What should I do?"

    I don't know either.

-

Less than an hour later, Max pulled up to my house. His two men were standing on either side of me, and two more came through the door, making a beeline for me.

    Shit.

    I was forced to my knees, and I went easily. My body and mind were stretched to the limit, and I did nothing as my arms were wrenched roughly behind my back. One of the men stood in front of me, his eyes glinting as he hauled off, slugging me hard across the face. My head snapped to the side, and I blinked at the wall.

Thud. Again.

Fuck. This is all happening way too fast.

I can't keep up anymore.

"You think I don't know shit, don't you?" Max grinned wickedly as he walked through the front door, looking down at me with burning eyes. "I know you had something to do with Izzy's disappearance now."

How?

HOW?

"We bugged your phone," one of the men answered, reading the bewildered expression on my face. "Izzy never called you."

Oh, no.

Max reached out and grabbed me by the face, squeezing my cheeks together. "You let that man die out there because he knew something, isn't that right?" he asked. "Tell me, what did he know?"

    I spat blood on the floor, shaking my hair out of my face but failing miserably as it flowed over my eyes, cutting my vision in half. "Didn't I tell you? He tried to kill my brother, so I beat him to death. An eye for an eye."

    "You overcompensate. And if you don't tell me where my sister is..."

    A man dragged Cleo into the house by her hair as she kicked and fought back ferociously, growling and biting like an animal. His arm was scratched and bleeding. Cleo's eyes were filled with anger, until they met mine, and she stilled.

No.

    "...I'll have your little pet's throat slit."

    The man holding Cleo put a knife to her neck, and Cleo's eyes widened in fear. She stood as still as a statue, seeming to hold her breath.

    I strained at the hands keeping me down, but I was met with a stomp to the back of my calf, making my eyes water with the intense pain.

    Shit. This is a huge mess. Jazz was on her way to collect Cleo, but she didn't make it in time. I hope she turns away when she finds out that she's not at the treehouse.

    "I'm sorry," Cleo said, her bottom lip trembling as her defensive expression crumbled away. "I'm not a fast runner."

    I smiled weakly at her. "It's okay. You did your best."

    Max whistled in surprise, glancing from Cleo to me and back. "You kept her. Why?"

    I ignored his question. "I know where Izzy is. I can help you find her, if you just let Cleo go."

    Max laughed. "You were planning on taking the lot of us down by luring us in here with fake news. Now you've got something else up your sleeve, don't you? How delusional are you, Asa?" He crouched down, examining my battered face. "Tell me the truth. What did you do to my sister?"

    "I'll tell you if you let her free," I growled. "And if you kill her, you'll never know."

    Max's eyes narrowed. "Oh, you WILL tell me." He turned to the man holding Cleo with a knife to her neck, blood beading on the blade, and nodded.

    My eyes widened as he dragged the knife over her neck, slashing the flesh open, blood spurting out as she was dropped to her knees. Her hand lifted up to her wound, clutching at it, blood oozing through her fingers as her eyes pinned on me.

    "No," I whispered, my muscles tensing as I leaned forward. They wouldn't let my arms go. I couldn't reach out for her. I couldn't touch her at all.

    She's only seven.

    She has no one.

    No one but me.

    "I'm...sorry..." Cleo sputtered, blood spraying from her mouth, her hand reaching out toward me as she fell face first on the floor. Her eyes were filled with loneliness. She was dying alone, right in front of me. A few tears slipped from her eyes, running into the blood dripping from her mouth. "I - I don't want to...die...I don't wa-" The rest of the words seemed to get stuck in her throat, and her body stilled, her eyes open and pinned on me.

    Max stepped in front of me, shielding the body from my view. "That was supposed to be YOUR job," he said, looking at me with dead eyes. "Not even a tear shed on your part. She was better off." He grabbed my face again, forcing my neck to angle up. "Let's try this again. Where is Izzy?"

    I blinked up at him, my body still trembling from the shock of Cleo's death. I want to kill him. I want to kill him so bad. "Fuck you, Max."

    Max's eye twitched, and he hauled off, backhanding me across the face hard enough to make my vision blur and my teeth cut into my mouth. Blood was on my tongue. I swallowed it in a daze, staring down at Cleo's face as one of the men began to drag her out of the way, outside, leaving a trail of blood.

    "Find her brother and sister - bring them here," Max ordered.

    "NO!" I yelled, catching the men holding me off guard as I surged forward. I reached out, grabbing Max by the shoulder, but my arms were yanked back again as he smiled down at me, his men hitting me over and over again until my vision faded black.