I Should Have Stayed

Chapter 24

"I'm sorry."

"For what?" Ava asked.

"For everything. All the shit went down the drain because of me. Your whole life has drastically changed because I came back to town. None of this would have happened if I had stayed in the town, didn't take the job. Or even better yet, didn't even go back to that stupid place. I ruined your life, Ava. You can't even go back there without a death threat on you all because of me. God, I'm so fucking stupid!"

"You're not stupid Dakota. Just impulsive."

"You call the impulsive? All the shit I've done?"

"No, not all of it. Just enough to call you that. But that's beside the point. You didn't ruin my life. To me, this is an adventure. One worth taking. Besides, if you hadn't of showed up, I would have had the most boring summer ever. School doesn't go back until August. And without you, I wouldn't have such an amazing adventure that I've had so far." Ava said.

I shook my head and looked out the window and then pulled out a cigarette and lit it. "Adventure." I chuckled quietly and then focused on breathing in the air. I closed my eyes and then opened them and looked out the window. The warehouse wasn't that close so we'd be in the taxi for a while and I stopped talking to Ava for the time remaining. I couldn't face her right now. I was in turmoil and I couldn't get out of the hole that I dug for myself.

We arrived at the warehouse and I paid the driver as we got out. He drove away as quickly as we had arrived and the both of us were left standing a quarter of a mile away from the front entrance where the gate was. "Why is there a gate around the place?" Ava asked.

"To keep unwanted solicitors out." I answered back. I lit up another cigarette and this time I savored it as long as I could. The smoke seemed to caress my lungs.

"If you keep smoking like that you're going to get lung cancer." Ava said eyeing me.

"Yeah, but getting cancer is the least of my worries right now."

"I'm sure it is." She said rolling her eyes.

"Here, I'll boost you over the fence." I said.

"How are you going to get over?"

"Don't worry about that." I quickly boosted Ava over the fence and then I managed to climb over myself. I scraped my hands a little on the top of the fence, but nothing major. "There's tight surveillance at the front of the warehouse so we're going to go around back." We slinked our way around to the back and I spotted a man by the back door.

"God, this warehouse is huge. What's even in there?"

I rolled my eyes. "Take a guess. Leave our stuff here. We can come back for it after we've dealt with Blank." We stuffed our bags into some bushes nearby where I was certain no one would find our stuff. Then we headed towards the back door where the guy stood. I snuck around behind him and wrapped my arms around his throat. I held him long enough for him to lose consciousness and then from there, long enough to kill him. I felt his heartbeat go away and dropped him. I felt like one of those people in the movies or a video game. It made me smirk a little, even though I didn't like killing.

I grabbed the weapon off of his body and thankfully it had a silencer on it. We went inside and yet we hadn't tripped any alarms. Silently, I took down every person in my path. I was certain Blank was here and that he was nearby. "Where is he? Where is Blank?" I asked someone before I killed them.

"Uh, in the main room. To your left." The man pointed. I nodded at him and then shot him. I didn't want to, but I had to. Ava knew that, I knew that. We went to the left like the man had pointed and there he was. He was standing there directing pallets as they were placed around the warehouse. This part of the warehouse looked quite small, and I was starting to wonder where the rest of it was since we hadn't run into it yet.

I motioned for Ava to follow as we quickly snuck up on Blank. I inspected him from behind noticing that his black hair had become a little duller. His body looked more fatigued. I motioned for Ava to stay as I came out from cover. I aimed the gun at Blank's head, ready to shoot, but something made me stop. Maybe it was the sick way he turned around and smirked at me as if he was waiting for me the whole time. His brown eyes had bags underneath them and he hadn't shaved in a while.

"Jessica! So nice to see you. Or should I just call you Dakota now? It's not like you're the leader of a gang anymore or anything." I heard shuffling behind me and Ava was shoved by my side. "Looks like you needed a sidekick to take me down. How sad. You know, I almost thought you'd just shoot me on sight, but you know you could never bring yourself to do that. You need answers don't you?"

"I do. Will you give them to me peacefully or will I have to shoot you a few times?" I asked.

"Oh, my dear. I'll just tell you to make this easier on the both of us. No... how about the other way around." He smirked so deeply I thought he was insane for a moment. "You play my game. I don't play your's. Besides, I'm in charge now, not you. You want answers from me, you'll have to fight for them."

"Bring it on. You look like shit and I feel like shit so I think that's pretty fair. So, gun fight or knife fight?" I smiled at him mischievously.

"Neither." My smile dropped like I already knew what he was going to say. "You're not going to be fighting me, you'll fight someone else for as long as it takes to break you." His smile grew even more and I watched his hand flick slightly as he motioned someone to my left. I watched as someone hit Ava and knocked her out and then I went to scream, "Av-" but it was too late.

I felt someone grab the gun from my hands and then something hard hit my temple. Everything went black.

***

I breathed heavily as I backed away from the trainer. "I- I need to stop for a second to- to catch my breath." I said.

"No, you need to keep going. Build endurance, Dakota."

"Damn, what do you want from me? Jesus!" I felt him punch along my ribcage and I buckled over in agony.

"Alright, that's enough for today. We'll finish this training session tomorrow." He said and started putting our equipment away. I grabbed some water and then went over to Miller. He had been watching us the whole lesson as the trainer taught me how to fight, how to kill.

"Did you have fun staring?" I asked sarcastically.

"You need to focus." He said.

"No, Miller. What I need is to go a little slower. I can't keep up with all of this." I said motioning with my hands. I was still out of breath.

"We don't have time to waste. I need you in the field as soon as possible."

"No. You're just going to have to wait until I'm ready."

"It doesn't matter if you're ready or not when the time comes. If you aren't strong enough then you will die."

"Whatever. Death would be far better than this." I said, finishing our conversation. I walked away from the training room and into the hallway that led to my own room. I needed to take a shower. I felt like shit.

***