Up With The Birds

Chapter 17

"I knew Dakota Rider for the longest time. He's arguably the best criminal of the decade. And the fact that your mother took him out with ease? Well, that certainly didn't go over well. You see, he was our leader. Dakota held this group together. He practically raised Chris, and he saved Sheila from a life of human trafficking. And Roderick was a package deal with Sheila. You won't find a bond as tightly knitted as ours," Minus tells me. 

Minus has the build of a man who's in his early forties. He doesn't have much muscle. But it seems that where he lacks strength physically, he has an abundance of it mentally. His eyes are sharp and calculating. 

Chris is leaning against the wall, his eyes trained on me. Meanwhile, Sheila is pacing back and forth with smoke pouring out of her mouth. She's a literal demon - I'm completely convinced of that. 

"So I had a lot of ideas of how we could get justice for what happened," he continues. "And that lead us to this. Your father was going to have to watch both you and your mother die, but since he got a bit rambunctious at the end, we couldn't leave him living. That leaves us with you. There really isn't a reason to kill you now - you're simply a victim of circumstance. However, you've interfered with the connection we had. Chris took a liking to you, when all he was supposed to do is appear to befriend you. We need proof that he's still loyal - that's where your death comes in."

"I think she gets the point, Minus," Sheila scoffs. "She's not completely oblivious."

She goes to throw her cigarette on the ground, but Minus snatches her wrist.

"Are you trying to kill us?" he snaps. "This warehouse is drenched in gasoline - one little spark and the place will go up in flames."

So that's how they intend to get away with all of this. They're going to burn the evidence. I look at Chris and gesture towards the ropes holding me. 

No, he mouths.  

I wish he would have told me his plan. I don't like not knowing things. 

"Sorry," Sheila shrugs. She presses the cigarette into my arm instead, and I gasp as the drug sears my skin. "I hope that works better for you." Chris doesn't say a word, or glare at her. He just smirks. Bastard. 

"Minus, I'd like to just hurry up and finish this. I have a life to live," Chris says impatiently. 

"Go ahead then," Minus urges him. "Prove your worth."

He has a plan. He loosened my ropes. He's not seriously going to kill me - is he?

I hold my breath as Chris aims a gun at my head. Sheila stands next to me, looking on with pride.

Chris and I look each other in the eye. I'm silently pleading him to tell me what to do. He just shakes his head again. 

Then he shoots and I close my eyes, ready to die. 

Sheila screams with fury and falls to the floor. He shot her in the leg - I'm alive.

"Now would be a good time, Lana," Chris calls as Roderick rushes him. I snap the ropes and Sheila wraps her fingers around my leg, pulling me towards her. Furiously, I kick her in the jaw as Chris whips Roderick in the head with his gun. Roderick goes out cold.

Then there's just Minus, who pulls out a knife. 

It's a butterknife. I have no words. 

Chris shoots down Minus too, and then we drag Roderick out of the building. Chris tells me that Roderick is a nice guy who just got caught up with the wrong people. He'll find a better life from here.  

He throws a lit match into the warehouse, and we walk away from the blaze. 

We walk forever. I don't know where we end up, I just know that it has to be midnight by the time we stop.

"Let me explain everything, Lana," Chris begs. "Let me make it right."

"Try to repair it any way you can, Chris," I tell him. "But it won't make a difference. You really hurt me. All of these warning signs kept coming to me, and I disregarded all of them. I figured there was no way you would do anything wrong to me. Of course, I was wrong. You've done everything to break me."

"Don't say that," he cracks. "I never wanted any of this. Sure, when I saw you that first day I knew you were somebody I had to hurt, but as I got to know you, I realized that I couldn't. You were much more than just a pawn in Minus' plan. You were something amazing. All I could feel was the way that gravity was pushing you and me together."

"Now it's pulling us apart," I say. I turn and start to walk away.

"Go up with the birds, Lana," he tells me quietly, making no move to pull me back. "Go where they don't know you're name. Don't show or feel any pain - let this go. One day, we'll meet again."

I keep going. My walk turns to a run and then to a sprint. I run away. I run away from Chris and Guy, Jonny and Will, from the ashes of my life and the ghost of a man I loved. 

I never look back.