I Fell Sick in the Rain, But I Also Fell in Love

Chapter 11

I didn't know what to expect when I turned that doorknob. I've been opening way too many deadly doors in the past hour, and that's enough to last me a lifetime. At first, I didn't see anything but another large empty room, like a gymnasium. This looked like it might've been the old fighting arena. Only a few ceiling lamps still worked, but that was enough light for me to see the horror inside.

Right at the center, the boy who walked with me in the rain was tied up to a pole, shirtless and covered in fresh injuries. I couldn't see his face because his head was hanging down limply.

"Austin!!" My legs pumped me forward as fast as they could to cover the distance between us. No movement came from him as a reaction to my presence. As I got closer, I thought I saw his head slightly lift up.

"Avery, stop!!" An impact came from behind me and tackled me to the ground.

I kicked and twisted to get whoever it was off me. "Let me go! Austin! Austin!" I sobbed, desperately needing him to look at me, to let me know that he's alive.

Another pair of hands grabbed my flailing arms and stood me up. Erica screamed in my face, "Avery, he has a bomb on his chest!"

The deafening words made me go completely motionless. I gasped for air shakily. I saw for myself that Austin, who was now only about ten feet away from me, indeed had a handmade bomb tied to his chest with a long wire connected to it. My eyes trailed the length of the wire into the shadows... where he emerged.

"What a show," Jake slowly clapped with a grin on his face. "Slightly disappointed that I didn't get to press the button though." From behind his back, he produced a small box with a red button on it, connected by the wire to the bomb. "But I'm more amused by your whole response to all of this."

I have never felt so much hate towards a person until I met this creature in front of me. My body jerked forward to attack him but I was held back, by multiple people I should add. I had to remind myself that Jake had all the control in his hands at the moment. I settled on glaring daggers at him while trying to calm down my rage. "Why are you doing all this?"

"To test you," Jake answered simply with a shrug. "I knew that you would eventually find your way here to rescue your precious friend." He pointed at Austin who was still limp and unmoving. "And I wondered: how far would you go? Would you come all the way in here, or would you wait outside? ... How would you react to the gunshots?"

His hand went to his back pocket. I expected him to pull out a gun, but instead, it was strangely just his phone.

Lucas growled lowly next to me. "He set up a trap to lure you here. We were hoping to make everything quiet so you wouldn't come, hoping that you would think you'd misheard and left." I don't know if he was disappointed in me or disappointed in himself for not doing anything else to stop me.

"And you, Avery, who's such an intelligent girl," Jake said mockingly, "failed the test." He tapped on his screen. BAM! BAM! I snapped my head towards the source. I hadn't noticed it before, but there was a speaker right next to the door. There was never a gun, there were just sound effects that were amplified.

"It was a test to see how much you cared," Jake smugly explained. "If you hadn't come, I would've let Austin go." My heart sank to the pit of my stomach. So did this mean that I put Austin in more danger? "But since you came, I guess I have to punish both of you."

It was extremely difficult to keep up my glare, for I was terrified inside. I'm so afraid of what he'll do to not only me, but Austin and all my other friends. "Jake, why are you doing this?" I tried to keep my voice steady. It was obvious he was not in his right mind. "This can't be you. You may have been hiding something sinister inside you the whole time, but a person can't change entirely like this."

Anger flashed in his eyes, and for a second I thought he rampage on the fact that I'm calling out on his inner demon that emerged. Psychopaths hate it when people do that. But then the anger settled and his lips stretched into a wide smirk. "So you're saying that there's a chance for me? That I can be like how I was before?...The person that you liked?"

He twisted my words. I answered tentatively, "You do have a chance to redeem yourself. You don't have to go through with all of this."

"The only way to stop everything is if you take me back." And there's the set deal.

"You're the one who broke up with me," I reminded him, "over text, I might add."

"Only because I knew you wanted to," Jake countered. "So technically I saved you the trouble and did it myself." Sarcastic words dug at my throat at his words. Oh, yeah, because that's the great reason every ex-girlfriend wants to here. "But I realized it was a big mistake." He took a firm step forward. "I want you back, Avery." There was so much sincerity in his voice, but was the sincerity out of love or just a desire to have the label of "girlfriend" back on me again?

But I can decide that later. Right now, I have more important things to worry about. "I take you back, you leave Austin and all of his and my friends alone."

"Of course."

I caught slight movement behind him in the shadows. I squinted and made out several figures, hiding there, watching the entertainment. "That includes your friends." I might as well end the whole fighting between them here.

"Fine. I'll make sure of it," Jake promised. He took another step closer and held out his hand for me. Even though there's still distance between us, I'm disgusted that I'll have to hold that hand that did all the damage to Austin's body. But I have no choice.

Without looking back, I took slow steps towards him, keeping a careful eye on him. But then someone grabbed my hand, stopping me. It was Lucas. I thought there was some hope left, that he figured something out. But his expression was blank, I couldn't read anything from it. Finally, his mouth morphed into a smirk. "Nice knowing you...traitor."

That word punctured through me in a thousand places. I scanned the faces of my new friends, all with disappointment, hurt, and anger. I could've been friends with these great people, but instead, I hurt one of them and betrayed the rest to join their enemy's side. A single tear rolled down, I couldn't get my mouth to say "I'm sorry". I had no choice, I don't want anyone getting hurt anymore because of me. When you're the person in the middle, you have to make difficult decisions, even if it means you don't end up happy. At least they'll be safe, I hope they know that.

"Let's go, Avery," Jake called. I clenched my fists to prevent anymore crying, so I could continue my way to Jake again. This very action made me realize...there's something in my hand. It's smooth and cool, like metal. My eyes automatically went to Lucas. His expression wasn't blank, but still hard, and his eyebrows are slightly furrowed in like he was determining something about me...

Trying to determine if I got his message.

What exactly did he give me?

"One more thing," I told Jake. "Let me see if Austin's okay first." As expected, he was not happy with my request. "Please. Just do this one last thing for me...then I'll be all yours." Those last words were like bile in my mouth, but I had to be convincing.

Jake let out a deep breath, "You have 30 seconds."