Pop Life: Volume 3

Chapter 26

I got Prince out of the way just in time. We ended up laying just a few feet away from each other.

"Regan! Regan!" Prince shouted as he scrambled over to me.

The shot scared me so bad that my heart was racing and I could control my breathing. Prince looked me over and noticed that I wasn't shot at all.

"Regan! Talk to me are you ok?" He asked me in a panic.

"Ye-ye-yes! I'm.....ok! Did he hit you?" I breathed out.

"No! Nothing! I'm alright."

He sat me up and hugged me checking me over one more time. We both looked up to see Marcus still standing with his gun drawn and pointed at us but his eyes were wide open and the look of shock was written on his face. He looked down and saw that he was bleeding from his chest. He slowly raised his head and looked directly at me as his gun fell from his hand.

"Regan-I-" was all he managed to say before falling forward face first to the ground. Revealing the shooter.

"Karma....is a bitch! Ain't it....Marcus?"

Prince and I were stunned to find someone we thought we'd never see again.

"René?" Prince said confused.

Prince helped me to my feet as I was making sure I wasn't seeing a ghost.

"He- he's dead!" I exclaimed as I looked the body over.

I looked up at René to make sure that I was t dreaming.

"That son of a bitch had it coming!" She shouted as she slowly walked up to him and spit on his body.

"I don't understand! We thought he killed you!" Prince said as he looked her over and checking for the stab wound.

"Oh that motherfucker tried but he failed! That short ass blade he stabbed me with didn't even scratch a damn organ. All I need is some stitches and an antibiotic. Punk ass! Can't even stab bitches right! Disgraceful!" René said as she flashed me a smile.

"Good to see you again Regan." She said.

"Well it's good to see you! You look like you wanna sit down are you in pain?" I asked as I gave her a side hug and helped her to a nearby bench.

"Girl this is nothing!" She said excited.

"So you've been stabbed by crazy psycho men before?" Prince asked.

"Nah. Just him and my older brother. He cut me with a razor when we were little. Still have the scar on my leg. It wasn't as deep as what Marcus did though."

Just as René sat down Andre, Dez and the others came running up to us in a panic.

"What happened? We heard shots!" Dez shouted as he got closer to us.

"OH SHIT!" Andre said as he slowed down to find Marcus lying dead on the ground.

Jerome and Morris came around Andre and saw the body laying there.

"AWWW HELL MAN! SKIP PULLED THE TRIGGER! HE GOIN TA JAIL! WHY SKIPPER WHY????" Jerome shouted as he dropped to the ground trying to comedically cry.

"Tricky! Tricky! It wasn't Prince!" I shouted trying to get his attention.

"Well then who the hell blew him away?" Morris asked.

"René did!" Prince said pointing over at her still sitting on the bench.

"RENÉ?????" Everyone said at once.

"Yeah! René!" I said helping her up.

"Hey guys!" She said softly giving a slight wave.

"But where did you come from?" Dez asked.

"Well that's where Marcus held me. In that building behind you." René said.

"So you and Andre weren't in the same building at all?" Prince asked.

"Well no we were but after I blacked out I ended up here. I guess he thought this was a good place to stash a body. He may have thought he got me but he didn't. Marcus didn't know what he was doing anyway. He just stabbed me where he thought I was gonna bleed out the most. Little did he know when I woke up it had been hours after the bleeding had stopped. So I found a sewing kit in one of the upstairs rooms and patched myself up until I could get to a hospital. That's when I heard y'all out here so I snuck out the back and with one of the guns that fool left behind and when he tried to run and shoot Prince I took him out!"

We all looked at René then looked back at Marcus' body. Andre looked over to me and Prince as he tried to put the pieces of what had happened together.

    "So let me get this straight. You mean to tell me ya ass was alive all this time?" Andre asked her.

  "Yeah. Most of the time I was just unconscious because the pain was so bad at first. But I'm ok for now at least." René said as she began to slowly slump back down onto the the bench.

  "Oh no you're not. René you need help now! Sit down and try not to move so much. Where's Tony?" I asked looking around.

  "Back at The Avenue. I'll go get him." Jerome said.

He took off up the block to find Tony as I sat next to René and checked her wound. The cut was deep and jagged on her right side. She was really trying to sew the wound closed in a panic because it was sloppily done. She did stop most of the bleeding but the stitches definitely weren't strong enough to keep the wound together.

  "Anything I can do to help?" Prince asked as he sat on the other side of René and taking her hand.

  "Just keep her awake for now. She looks like she about to go into shock." I said trying not to startle her.

Andre pulled the broach from his pocket and tried to contact Mo.

  "Hey Unc if you can here me man come back we need some help over here!"

Jerome came running back with some fresh napkins.

  "I found Tony. Him and Mo are on their way with an ambulance." He said.

  "No! No! What about Marcus? What if they take me to jail for killing him?" Rene asked trying to get up.

  "You don't need to worry about that right now. We'll handle that." Prince said to her holding her hand.

  "Prince I don't wanna go back to jail!" René cried in a panic.

  "And you won't. It was self defense." I said to her with an assuring wink.

She looked confused at first. I could tell she wasn't getting it. I pulled up her shirt and applied more pressure to her wound with the napkins that Jerome handed me.

  "You two were in a fight and he came and stabbed you and out of reaction.....you shot him." I said raising my eyes away from her wound and to her face.

The look of relief washed over her as she let out a sigh. She gave me a small smile as the faint sounds of sirens were approaching. She softly whispers two simple words to me as she gave a smile.

  "Thank you."

I smiled back to her letting her know that we had her back.