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4.11 Roulette

I nodded, ready for anything they would throw at me.

"Do you want to eat something or take a final shower before we go through with this?" Ry asked me.

"I have had enough food and showers for a lifetime," I replied, feeling an adrenaline rush. "Bring it on."

"You really want to be treated as an equal?" the driver asked me.

"Yes."

"Remember that you asked for it, love," Ry warned me. His hand was in my hair.

"I know," I responded. With that he grabbed my hair roughly.

"Let's do it," Ry commanded his crew. They pulled over in a dark alley and exited the car. Ry dragged me outside by my hair.

Once we were outside, they put some sort of cloth on my eyes and bound it behind my head.

I heard clipping sounds of metal. Somebody pushed me to sit down on the cold wet muddy ground.

There were movements in front of me, but I could not hear any other details.

"Reach out in front of you. Point at yourself," Ry's calm voice directed me. I felt plastic on the ground. My hand slowly travelled around the plastic and I touched the cold metal of a gun.

I grabbed it and pointed at myself. My breathing was calm. I tried to keep it together. I only had to imagine my new life and it was all worth it.

"Safety is off," Ry warned me. "Go ahead."

I knew they just wanted to see whether I would do it. So I did. I pulled the trigger. My heart raced, but my hand was steady. There was nothing left to lose.
Once. Twice. The third time I wanted to pull the trigger, somebody took the gun from me. I was relieved.

They put me back in the car, but I was sitting on somebody's lap. It was Ry because his hand went back to my hair.

The car started moving.

But they soon stopped it again. They took me to another place where it smelled a lot like wood.

I watched my steps because my eyes were still in the dark. They abruptly stopped. Ry let me go and then I heard a door shut close.

My hands were free and I could not hear any other person breathing around me.

I waited for directions, but I truly was all alone. I reached around me and I felt wood. I decided to take the cloth off my eyes because it was getting hot.

Once my eyes could see again, I noticed that the wood was on fire.

I went to the door and to my surprise it opened relatively easy.

My clothes were dirty and I was in the middle of an unknown place.

I had never been outside the agency without any kind of keeper. The car with Ry and his men was nowhere to be seen.

The wooden garage burned behind me.

I had no idea what to do.

When I heard sirens, I started running. They would handle the fire.

I did not have the best conditions, so after a while I slowed down. The sirens were ever-present.

The houses around me were empty. Nobody could see me. I was relieved about the missing people, but I was also kind of confused.

As much as I watched my steps, I still stumbled. I fell to the ground, hard. I tried to be quick, but I felt muffled. My head was buzzing.

I was too slow.

The sirens were closing in on me. They were so close that I felt the sequence of sounds in my chest.

I saw a shadow approach me.

The police had caught me.