They Are Stars

Part Fifteen: Hitman

The way they tied me down on a pole is much tighter than when they kidnapped me at first. So struggling is both pointless and painful. But not as painful as my dislocated arm. I can't believe that the same girl I pissed off is ordered to torture me. For what? Denting her pride? Why are reputations so important in gangs? It pisses me off.

After she left the room to do who knows what, I look around the room, but it's devoid of anything I actually need to use to get out of here. But I keep looking. Who knows? There might to be a glass shard that I can barely see somewhere.

Minutes after, I hear a loud crashing sound, as if someone bumped into one of the steel doors. Hard. And then I realize that the door on my left is wide open with a short bloody, blonde guy holding a pair of 'used' gardening clippers. "I got paid to do this." He said in between pants. "Ron? What the-?" He jogged up to me and cut the thick rope. "We've got no time. Kyla's waiting outside."

"Why isn't she here with you?!"

"I'm not gonna let a kid try to fight her way in here."

"I thought you were paid to do this?"

"Same thing. I get paid with the satisfaction of beating the hell out of them."

I give a weary smile and follow him out the door. I figure that I'm not at the warehouse anymore. The place looks bigger, but heavily guarded. Like a level in Hitman, but you can't respawn when you die trying to escape.

We both run, while clutching my arm, to the closest pillar we could find. He turned to check if anyone's on this floor. One of the guards sees us and shoots. Ron cusses under his breath. At least we didn't hide behind a box. The door out is not that far away, but if we try to leave that way, we have to find some sort of control room to open it. So, no. But there's an opening on the roof.

The guard decides to stop wasting his bullets and starts to run toward us. His pride must be larger than his future. "Ron, buy me some time." He runs to hit the guard without hesitation. He has determination. I run back to get the rope, which is actually long and thick enough to escape with. I carry the heavy coil of rope on my sweaty shoulders and turn around to leave. "I thought you didn't have any friends." A familiar voice says.