Life's Essence

6- Motionless

A/N- I HAVE FOUND THE PERFECT SONG FOR THIS STORY SO GIVE IT A LISTEN CAUSE IM SO HAPPY WITH HOW WELL IT FITS!! It's Killing Strangers by Marilyn Manson 😊

Despite Dallon's assurances that he still loves me and isn't mad at me for what happened, I still felt an overwhelming sense of guilt. When I got back to my room, I saw Tyler perched on his bed reading a book.

Upon hearing the door open, he looked up at me and immediately sympathy filled his brown eyes. He dog-eared a page in his book before closing it and setting it aside. When he spoke, his words were soft.

"Hey, how was he?" I ran a hand through my hair as I answered.

"He looked like he got put through a wood-chipper," my voice cracked a bit and tears jumped back to my eyes as a picture of Dallon lying there in his bed appeared in the front of my mind. I don't think that image will ever leave me; neither will the sounds of his screams.

"What did he say?" Tyler asked.

I let out a shaky laugh, "That little fucker started comforting me and kept telling me he didn't blame me, and that he still loves me. I kinda wish he did yell at me or something, I almost feel like that'd make dealing with this easier..." I trailed off.

Tyler gave me a sad smile and stared off into space as he was recalling memories of his own.

"Yeah, Josh did that too, even though we hadn't even been here a full month when it happened. We don't deserve people as good as them, huh Bren?"

"No, we really don't."

The next day, I didn't know what work would have in store for me. I just knew I was being sent out along with six other people, including Andy himself, to meet a rival group, and that was fucking terrifying. He was taking the best and strongest people with him. I was really good with throwing knives I found out a few months after I arrived here, so that's why I was being drug along.

I was in a car with Ronnie, Andy, and Melanie. Meanwhile, Austin, Gerard, Pete, and Caleb were in another car. Gerard, Pete, and I were the only ones who weren't willingly working for Andy, so we were the most anxious about this whole thing.

The three of us weren't told where we were going or what exactly was getting ready to go down, but when Melanie handed me a large assortment of throwing knives, I knew things were expected to get pretty ugly.

Pete was good with guns, so he got a couple different ones and lots of ammo from Austin.

Gerard was good with hand-to-hand combat, so Caleb gave him some leather gloves to keep his knuckles from getting busted open.

From personal experience, a lot of blood on your hands makes it very hard to hold a gun or a knife if you need to. That's how I ended up getting shot in the leg last year.

I was so lost in my thoughts and anxieties that I wasn't paying any attention to where we were driving until we had already reached our destination. It was in a rural area with not many houses around. Most of them looked to be abandoned or at the very least inhabited by homeless people or crack heads.

I waited until Andy started to get out of the car before I started to do the same. Once I was out, I started double checking my knives and their placement while everyone else got their stuff together. The house we were in front of was huge but, just like the others, appeared uninhabited. I had so many questions, but didn't ask any of them out of fear of pissing off Andy again and getting Dallon hurt.

We all grouped together and started walking towards the front door of the house, Andy and Ronnie in the lead. Ronnie had been with him since the very beginning and was Andy's right-hand man. Ronnie was the one who had carried Dallon to and from Andy's office the day we were kidnapped.

As we walked onto the porch, I slipped my hand into my pocket and curled my fingers around the hilt of the blade stashed there. It helped ease my nerves a bit, but not nearly enough. Since I was towards the back of our group, and short compared to the others I was with, I couldn't very far ahead of our group.

I looked around as we entered the building, the walls had holes and peeling wallpaper, the floors were filthy and scratched. Walking down a long hallway, my nerves grew even worse. I glanced over at Gerard and Pete to see that their expressions mirrored my own.

I wasn't paying attention, so I had failed to notice that we had entered a large room and Melanie, who was in front of me, had stopped walking. I bumped into her back, making her stumble forward a bit. She turned around and gave me a harsh glare before facing forward again.

Standing up on my tiptoes, I looked around to see who exactly we were meeting here. I saw a whole group of unfamiliar faces, but at the very front of them was a face I sadly knew all too well.

Chris Cerulli, leader of a group known as Motionless. He was the only druglord more powerful than Andy and they've gotten into battles more than once.

Working in this profession, I've gotten shot and stabbed multiple times, but the very first time I was shot was during a confrontation with Chris and his gang. As I examined the group once again, I started to recognize a few faces, including Ricky, the one who shot me.

I was so distracted examining faces, that I didn't hear the start of Chris and Andy's conversation, but was quickly snapped back to reality by Chris shouting.

"Bullshit!"

The bareness of the room allowed his voice to echo and make me flinch. Despite my two years working, I still can't stand someone yelling at me.

"No need to get defensive Chris, maybe we can work out a deal here. C'mon, you give me back Jinxx and I'll return Ghost to you." Andy said, almost antagonistically.

"I'd rather shove a red hot fire poker up my ass than work out a deal with you, Biersack. And besides, that doesn't compensate for the ten kilos of cocaine you took from me." he sneered.

"So be it," Andy replied.

Shit.