Yeein' On That 'Haw

Interlude: 10-80 In Progress

"(Y/N)! (Y/N), shit, dude, what's goin' on? You okay?"

I knelt by my friend's side, hurriedly placing a hand on their shoulder. They were screaming in agony, clutching the sides of their head and frantically digging their fingernails into their skin. Seeing them like this made me sick to my stomach. But we had to go! The police were practically up our asses at this point! I sucked in a trembling breath and leaned in to speak to (Y/N). "Dude, we gotta skedaddle like, now– the police are outside!"

When they didn't respond, I stood to my full height and cursed under my breath. What was I supposed to do? I couldn't just leave them here to die, be arrested, or both! But I also didn't want to be arrested. Then this whole thing would have been for nothing. The sirens were only getting closer.

I frantically looked around for somewhere to hide, only to find nothing. I could hear my heart pounding in my chest, and in my panic, I reached down to my hip to retrieve my pistol. I had purchased it in a 'why-not' moment right before we were supposed to do this break-in. I didn't think it would actually come in handy. With some quick thinking, I dragged (Y/N) to their feet and wrapped my free arm around their torso, using my pistol-occupied hand to point the firearm at the side of their head. They already seemed to be mostly unconscious, if not entirely knocked out, so they probably wouldn't mind.

Then I waited. I heard officers searching the building while I tried to calm my racing heart. The next thing I knew, several officers were charging through the door to the arcade-cabinet-filled room I was in.

Before the officers could even see me, I took a deep breath and called out in my loudest, most 'I-mean-business' voice. "Don't move a goddamned muscle or I'll blow their fuckin' brains out!"

The officers' guns immediately trained on me. Three of them. I saw one of them lift their walkie-talkie and mumble "10-32, 136" into it. I took another breath, forcing my expression to be blank. My eyes darted about the space, and I realized that I was relatively close to the window. I just had to get a little closer, and maybe I could jump out.

But I had to distract the police. I didn't actually have any intention of shooting (Y/N), but I had to pretend like I did. I opened my mouth to speak, but one of them interrupted me. "Lower your weapon!" He cried, his own aim not even faltering. Oh, how I wanted to point my firearm at him, but then they would certainly shoot me dead. I resisted the urge to commit first-degree murder and continued speaking. "No way I'm gonna put this thing down! You'll riddle me with bullets if I do!" As I was speaking, I slowly crept closer to the window.

"You won't be shot, Violet," that same officer spoke once more. I couldn't stop my eyes from widening just slightly. They already knew who I was. Whoever reported a break-in to the police must have recognized me from somewhere. He continued, "We just want to talk with you."

"Bullshit!" I yelled, causing their grips to tighten on their weapons. "As soon as I lower this gun, you'll fucking kill me! Either that, or maim me so bad I can't walk to the squad car!" Just a few more steps...

"You have two choices here," began the officer, "You can either set the hostage free, or–"

Out of seemingly nowhere, the arcade machine from before lit up and bathed the room in a blue glow. Before I could properly process what happened, (Y/N) was gone, leaving me with no hostage, and no leverage. Well, shit.

I darted toward the window just as the officers opened fire. They must have had stormtrooper aim or something because I managed to dive through the glass without being shot in the face. It would have been really embarrassing if the glass was reinforced, but thankfully, it wasn't. The building was ancient.