It Happened to Me

Nineteen

The man lets go of my neck and I fall to the ground coughing. I bring my hand up to my neck and start rubbing it, sure that his fingers were imprinted on my skin. I glare up at him as he walks towards the door. He grabs something in the hallway, and pulls it into the room, revealing a stool. He sits on it and rests his forearms on his thigh, smiling smugly. 

"Girly," He says. "Do you know what yer father did for a livin'?"

I start to speak but then I stop myself, debating on whether or not I should actually answer. He lifts his eyebrow patiently, and I knew that was my opening to speak. "He was in business development," I say hesitantly. "He was Vice President, or something."

He laughs, grinning eerily. "That was his new job." 

I stare at him curiously. He continues, "Your father used to be a defense lawyer."

"What?" I say under my breath. I start to remember a time that was about five years ago. I was about twelve years old when my dad mentioned something about a career change. I was young, so I didn't bother paying attention to either of his jobs. In my world, the only thing I was paying attention to was  if my middle school crush was going to notice me or not.

"He switched careers after one of his cases went bad." He shifts his position so that he sat more erect. "The last person that your father defended went by the name oh Thomas Henderson. Thomas worked for a moving company so he traveled through the state quite often. One night, while on one of his routes, Thomas decided to run a red light and he hit someone."

"Okay," I say, wondering where he is going with this. "People run those all the time. They get in accidents often. Why would that affect you?"

"The person that Thomas hit was Jackson Andrews." My eyes widen as I start to make the connection. "Jackson ended up in the hospital. He was in critical condition and the doctors immediately took him up to surgery. He bled out on the table."

"You don't—" I huff. "You can't possibly blame my father for that."

"Oh, but I don't," He snarls. He rises from his chair and crouches in front of me. "But I do blame him for getting Thomas a light sentence. He got 2 years of prison time and the rest of his debt he paid in probation for pleading guilty. You see, Thomas had it easy while Jackson was laying in a grave six feet under the ground."

My eyes move back and forth, water trying to force itself over the edge of my eyelids. "He was just doing his job," I whisper.

"His job let a murderer go free." He spat. "If it was up to me, Thomas wouldn't even have legs to walk on."

My chest begins to heave and I feel my blood boiling. "He was just doing his job," I say a little louder.

"His job didn't give Jackson any justice." His voice intensifies. "Jackson's family drowned in hospital and funeral bills. My family drowned. We were torn apart!"

I start crying. Shaking my head and crossing my arms in front of my chest. That's no excuse. "He didn't deserve to die!" I yell. "You killed him! And he didn't deserve to die!"

"He got what he damn well deserved!" He roars. He grips me by the arms and lifts me to my feet. "You all deserve to know suffering!"

"We suffered!" I spat back. My voice comes out in strangled sobs. Anger possessing me. I almost want to fight back. He let go of me and I fell to my knees. "You took the most important thing in our lives away from us." I cry. "We know how your family grieved. Is that not enough for you?"

I cry into my hands, not caring if he answered me or not. I shrink into myself, feeling defeated. I begin to lose my faith. Getting out of this place alive was starting to look kind of glum. Johnny and Frankie wanted revenge on my family so he killed my father. Now it looks as if he was insistent on doing the same to me. My sobs let up. I sniffle and wipe my nose with the back of my hand. I straighten myself up enough to look him in the eye.

"If you're going to kill me," I say. "Can I at least see Jayce one more time?"

Frankie starts laughing, as if that was the most ridiculous thing I could ever request. "You really got attached to my nephew, didn't you?"

"Well, I thought he was a friend," I hiss. "But now I just kind of want to spit in his face one last time."

That was a lie. I'm still angry that Jayce did this, but I don't want to deny myself this small mercy. If there was anything left to say, and if Jayce truly could not, or would not, get me out of this situation, I want him to remember this. I want him to remember the look in my eyes before I was gone forever. That much I can accept.

Franky grunts as he gets up. He laughs as he heads to the door. "I'll send him to collect you."

Author's Note: Honestly, I'm surprised some of you guys still read this. But it's important to me that I finish this and that you guys get a little closure from it. I apologize for the short chapter. I'll do my best to make the next one longer. I will probably have two more chapters left to write. I would extend the story a bit, but as I am working on a rewrite, there's not to much point to it. This original one that you guys have been reading mostly serves as an outline for me at this point. It's my reference, and my guide to help me stay on track but to also better the story, and better the version that I am rewriting. After I post the last chapter, I will tell you where you can find the rewrite if you are interested in it. I really hope that you are interested in the rewrite because there are a couple new ideas that I introduced that I think you all will enjoy. And also, the quality of writing is just overall better. Anyways, let me know what you thought of this chapter. I'll do my best to update soon! 10.22.16