Surviving Stirling

Chapter Nineteen

The amount of hurt and anger I felt sitting there under the scrutiny of people I didn't even know was unmeasurable.

He had left me.

I didn't even want to come here in the first place and now I'm left betrayed and beguiled, feeling deep humiliation because every single person in this room knew how foolish I was to offer him a moment of my time.

The waiter approached me sheepishly, "should I begin clearing your table miss?"

I glanced up at him, he pitied me I could see it in his eyes, "please."

"Will you be following up your meal with any desserts?"

"No thank you, I think I'm going to catch a ride home. Do you happen to have a pay phone?"

"Right out there miss." He pointed towards the restrooms and I nodded, embarking on my walk of shame through the restaurant.

I picked up the receiver and skimmed my eyes over the various cab firms pinned up on the notice board.

I pressed my thumb against the metallic buttons, pausing only because peculiar noises caused a distraction.

The entrance door of the wine cellar was located right beside me, I nudged the door open with my foot slightly to better listen. As my ears tuned into the repetition of pounding and dull bangs my blood ran cold.

It was like an instinctive feeling, a moment of pure dread deep down in the pits of my stomach. Nauseating because I knew. I knew he was in some sort of trouble.

Without considering how truly dangerous this could be for me, I opened the door entirely - met with immediate steps down into the wine cellar.

It was leery and cold climbing down those steps, the room was a sheet of blackness, shadows of shelves and barrels just about made out as my eyesight adjusted. The dust clung to the air and layered the back of my throat, forcing me to choke up.

Voices soon became more apparent the further I got and those bangs were horrific.

Dirty air swept into my lungs when I moved past one of the shelves and witnessed the scene in front of me.

Five largely built men encircled Stirling. Four of them held his limbs hostage, preventing him from fighting back.

He stood, with his knees buckled and his body droopy - only held up by their strong arms while the fifth man pounded the living daylights out of him with a metal baseball bat. 

He was almost unrecognisable.
Definitely unresponsive.
They were killing him.

"Hey!" I shrieked, not at all thinking about the consequences. "Hey! Stop!"

It was dark but I got a good look at their faces when they turned to look at me, startled by my sudden appearance. My mind locked onto the image, taking a mental picture because I knew I'd need it later.

I posed zero threat to them, they knew that, which is why they completely ignored me and continued beating on Stirling.

"The cops are already here! They're upstairs! You better leave him alone!"

"The cops?" One guy questioned to the others.

The man holding the bat swung for Stirling one more time.

"Let's get out of here." He said before they all ran out of some dingy tunnel exit.

Stirling collapsed on the floor, dropping like a sack of potatoes. I bolted over there, kneeling on the filthy ground beside him.