They Took Him

Chapter 8: Loyalty

I slept in days at a time, my mind was on over-load. I kept thinking in my mind that maybe I never should've made the promise to Joshua that I made because I regret it more than ever now. I hadn't spoken to Terrence in a couple of weeks and I think he was starting to suspect something was up. I know I had to get back to business and I know what had to be done, but it is so hard to make a decision. It felt like my world has come tumbling down. He was my first love, but I knew where my loyalties were and they were always with my brother first.

It took a while, but I finally told Tiffany what was up and the first thing she said was we had to kill him. We hadn't told La'Tisha yet because lately she been with this dude named Marcus all the time and for some reason I had a bad feeling about him. His name seemed too familiar and I didn't understand why until later when he had a gun pointed in my face.

I finally decided to meet up with Terrence and I brought Tiffany along for the ride. When I got there, he was waiting and my gun was on me. I knew he was going to die that day, regardless to if I pulled the trigger, because if didn't kill him, Tiffany would. I began by asking him who his father was. He starts telling me his dad's name is Daniel Jackson and tears immediately come to my eyes, but I blink them away before he notices. I start asking more questions and he's answering them with no problem until I asked my final questions.

"What happened to your father?"

"He was killed."

"Why was he killed?"

"You have to promise you won't judge me", he says like I owe him something.

"I promise", I say, not meaning it.

"It's some things I haven't been honest about, babygirl. I met my dad when I was about thirteen years old and he trained me under him to take over when he was gone and I loved him, but one day men in suits put me in a car and they start threatening me, asking me if I'm Daniel Jackson and of course I say 'no', but that don't mean much to these guys. They start telling me about all the money my father is taking from them and pops never told me nothing about the money so I feel kind of betrayed."

"So you killed him?", I asked.

"No, it wasn't like that. Either I helped them find him or I died that day and my anger won over my loyalty. I called my pops and asked where he was. See, I didn't live with my pops. If fact, I met him in the streets so I didn't know anything about where he lived, only his place of business. So he texts me an hour later and asks me why I need to know. I tell him it's business and he gives me the address to his home. We didn't go that day, though; we waited three days and on the third night we headed over. When we get there, we bust in there and he's alone in the house. I never seen my pops so weak and at that moment I knew I didn't want to kill him, but I knew if I didn't kill him, they would kill me. So I pulled the trigger twelve times and never looked back."

It's funny, he had tears coming from his eyes and he didn't know how much his story hurt me and my little brother. He didn't know that my dad wasn't alone that day. It's really crazy...

"You're wrong", I told him.

"About what", he asked.

"He wasn't alone that night", I said.

"How do you know?"

"His daughter and son were there", I say getting angrier by the minute.

"How would you know?", he asked getting suspicious.

"Because I'm his daughter", I said pulling out my gun. I had the gun to his forehead and he was shaking when his body-guard shows up out of nowhere and puts a gun to my face.

"Marcus, shoot her", he says. By then, Tiffany had her gun to Marcus's head, though, and she forced him to give her his gun. "You knew all along, huh?", he asked me.

"No, I didn't. I'll see you in hell, though" I told him as I pulled the trigger to the gun that ended his life. Tiffany put a bullet through Marcus's head, too, and we didn't worry about cleaning up the mess. We left them there to rot and headed to the river to get rid of the guns. Call me crazy, but I was not prepared for Terrence to tell Marcus to shoot me. I couldn't believe he had the audacity after all the wrong he'd done.

Tiffany kept wondering what we would tell La'Tisha because we had just killed her boyfriend. I wondered where her loyalties would lay after she found out what happened. In a way, she was being tested; sadly, she failed her loyalty test and more blood was shed, but not just of the enemy...

Everybody was showing their true colors and Tiffany was the only one who didn't change on me. I always knew she was loyal...