Chasing Bullets

Chapter 3 ~Zayden~

~ZAYDEN~

I felt groggy when my eyes opened again.
Where the fuck am I?, I thought.
Rubbing my eyes, my vision started to clear. I was in the back of a van. The worst thoughts ran through my head. Was I abducted? Was I in a car with a rapist? Across from me sat a man, wearing a stoic face, eyeing me up and down. I felt an itch on my forehead but when I reached my hands upward to scratch it, I realized my hands were bound with a plastic zip tie. What the hell was going on? I needed to get out of there...
I located the door to the van, behind me, and shot upward and ran towards it. But before I was able to pull the handle open, I heard the distinct sound of a bullet rolling into a gun's chamber.
I stopped, my breaths quickening and my heart beating faster.
"Now, boy, I wouldn't open that door if I were you," a voice said. "Not before I heard my offer."
I slowly backed up, and turned, to face the voice. I saw man, about 55 years old, facing me. He had blue eyes and brown hair that was just long enough to tuck behind his ears.
"Who are you?" I asked. I didn't give a shit about his offer. I wanted to leave, but I couldn't resist myself from asking. "And what's your offer?"
"My real name does not concern you," he said. "But you can call me Zero."
"Like the fucking number? That's a really shitty code name," I said, annoyed. "Why not pick something actually cool?"
He responded to my sarcastic question with a bombshell. Lighting a cigar and grinning, he answered. "Zero isn't my name. It's the name of my position in this agency. I'm called that because to you, I'm nothing. Zero. You don't know who I am. You don't mention me. You don't even fucking think about me. I've had to kill people for thinking about me before."
A trickle of sweat rolled down my forehead and my eyes widened.
Shocked, I responded. "Okay, but what does your psycho-killing shit have to do with me?"
That same grin lied on his face as he said the words that changed my life forever.
"Because your parents worked for me," he said, blowing out the smoke from his cigar. "And I watched them die."
I scoffed. "You're lying. My parents were ordinary. My dad was an attorney, my mom was an accountant. And they died in a fire when I was 15."
He smirked again, which was really starting to piss me off.
"Wipe that smug grin off your face before I punch it off!" I yell at him. "Stop being a little bitch and let me out!"
His smile didn't recede, and he responded calmly. "If someone was killed, what do you think would be the best way to hide that death? Maybe burning a body to destroy the evidence would be the best way, don't you think?"
"What the fuck are you implying?" I exclaimed at him. "That my parents were murderers and they were killed and their corpses were burned to cover up the fact that they were murdered too?"
"Yes, that's exactly what I'm-"
"SHUT UP! JUST SHUT UP! SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP!" I yelled at him. "SHUT UP!"
He spoke, his voice still nonchalant and cool. "Oh, Mr. Gage, I'd calm down if I were you. Unless you want me to use this gun."
I took deep breaths, and slowed my heart rate. I let him speak.
He said, "Look, I'm going to take something out of this bag here," he pointed to a blue messenger bag to his left, "and you won't move a muscle, right?"
I nodded. "Of course not," I croaked. He reached to his left and opened the bag, taking out a white laptop.
"This is for you. This laptop contains all the evidence necessary to show that your parents were my associates. You have two options. One, live in denial. Live a long, healthy life without ever seeing me again," he said. I like that option, I thought. "The second option is to open this laptop and turn it on, watch the two videos on here. One from your mother and one from your father, addressed to you. But be warned; watching these videos will lead to consequences, and the possibility that we will meet again."
He extended his arm, and I took the laptop from his fingers. My fingers brushed his and a chill ran down my spine. His fingers were cold, as if he had been in a freezer. Once I had the laptop in my hands, he grabbed a pair of scissors and cut my zip tie. I rubbed my wrists from where the tie rubbed against my flesh.
"You can leave now, Mr. Gage," he said. I nodded and turned, opening the door of the back of the van. The warm city air hit my face as I stepped out of the car and onto the street, laptop in hand.

~AUTHORS NOTE~

Sorry this took so long to update. This is a really important part of Zayden's development, so I didn't want to rush, plus I just finished school and have been binging on Grey's Anatomy, which just happens to be amazing! Sorry! :( I hope you like it! I'm really proud of this chapter.