Let Go

48: Escapades

Aiden's P.O.V.

Scarlet was planning on freeing the kids first. She looked around for a knife, but she didn't find any. Ruby started crying when she saw her mother, but then she went silent when she shushed her with a finger-to-mouth gesture. Ruby was smart like that. She knew that she was in danger and knew better than to disobey her mom.

Scarlet wasn’t having trouble there at all. She was trusted by everyone, especially Blake. When everyone was busy with their duties, she walked stealthily to the kitchen of the house where the kids were kept and snuck a knife.

She couldn’t free them, though. She hadn’t a way out. Neither did we. She told me all of this after the burly dude who checked on us every few minutes left. She asked me if I knew anything of interest, but I told her that my face has been plastered to the floor for a good while.

There was only one way out, and it was the main door.

Scarlet fixed my chair so my face wasn’t transplanted to the floor anymore. I could see the room where the kids were clearly now, and I saw what Scarlet was doing. Seeing Scarlet here gave me a spur of hope that I never would’ve dreamed of.

She was the last person I expected to see here. I had thought she was working for Blake, but she surprised me and proved me wrong. I couldn’t believe it at first. I was so relieved, though.

Thomas looked displeased with all what was happening. I had a feeling that he didn’t do well with being trapped in small chairs for long times. It had been days of us being fed scraps and splashed with drinking water.

Raiden was being kept in a separate room. They didn’t let us see him. Blake wanted him all for himself. I tried screaming. I tried tearing through the ropes, and so did Thomas. But we both failed. We were feeling helpless and hopeless up until Scarlet showed up. Before that, Thomas was having alternating episodes of eerie calmness and sudden outbursts of rabid behavior.

Suddenly, we heard gunshots. And that was the most pleasant sound in a while, sadly. It meant something was happening. We were finally going somewhere with this situation.

Scarlet took that as a chance. While everyone attended to the gunfire, Scarlet came to us. She freed Thomas first; cutting his ropes with severe difficulty. Then she came and freed me while Thomas went to check on his son.

“It’s good to see you again,” She said sheepishly.

“It would’ve been better under different circumstances.” Scarlet didn’t mean anything to me anymore, romantically speaking. She was just the mother of my daughter. Other than that she was nothing but a friend.

I didn’t forget that she was most of my past.

But she wasn’t my present. Jamie was my present.

But what about Harken? What was of Harken? Future?

Ruby was okay. She was in the arms of her mother. It made me feel safe that she was safe, despite the ongoing danger. “Scar, get the kids out of here,” Thomas instructed.

“Go get Raiden,” I said.

“Good thinking,” Thomas said with vengeance in his eyes. I had never seen him so determined and fierce. He was going to tear into Blake with his teeth.

I couldn’t recall the rest of what happened easily. But I saw a lot of blood.

“This is the police. We have you surrounded…” One of the police cars emitted.

It was a mess of stray bullets and breaking glass and gunshots. It was fine, though. We had the upper hand. I was deflecting most of the bullets with my makeshift shield. It was a table that I flipped and hid behind.

Then I saw him. Harken Red. He was fighting his way into the house. Then I saw the bastard that had a gun pointed at him. It was then that I knew who Harken Red was. He wasn’t my future, or present, or past. He was all of them and none of them.

I ran towards the guy. At that moment I didn’t care about my life. I didn’t think about myself or my child or my brother. I just wanted to save Harken’s life because he deserved to be alive. He deserved happiness and life and everything good. Harken Red deserved to be happy and alive and I was only realizing that when I saw that he was going to lose all of it.

Suddenly everything felt so real in my head. It was all happening excruciatingly slow.

Scarlet was with the kids.

Thomas was getting Raiden out which meant he was going head to head with Blake.

And me? I didn't know who was saving me, but from the looks of it, Harken was trying his best to get to me. But he wasn't gonna make it. In that moment, I knew it was him or me. If I ran fast enough, I could take the bullet and save him.

I ran. I ran so fast that my legs felt like jelly.

I went ahead and jumped.

"AIDEN!" Harken yelled.

I wanna say that I saved him. But it wasn't as easy as they do in the movies. Run, jump, and save the hero. Sometimes things go awry and it doesn't work like we intend for it to do.

The gun fired, and I jumped too late.

A/N: chapter was late because I forgot to update it sooner. Tell me what you think of it and what you think will happen next!

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More soon x.