Snatched (August Alsina)

Chapter 1: Promised Consequences

"So let me get this straight" Hank said, one hand stroking his chin, the other on his hip as he slowly paced back and forth before me. "You wanna be leavin' us 'cause you all of a sudden wanna be a better person"

"Yea" I said nervously. He stopped in his tracks and looked at me pupil to pupil, his dark brown eyes full of disbelief and increasing anger.

"You been doin' this shit for us for how long and you jus' gonna leave us like that?"

"I'm sorry" I said sincerely, shooting him an apologetic look. "I love y'all but I can't do this anymore. This isn't the lifestyle I wanna live. I wanna do better for myself"

He let out a split-second laugh of disbelief and rolled his eyes.

"I'm leaving Hank" I said, my tone turning from apologetic and worried to serious and concluding.

"If you do, you gon' wish you hadn't" He warned. "We don't let anyone quit the game and get away wit it. We count leaving as betrayal and we told you that when you first joined."

"What are you gonna do then?" I asked. I could feel my heart beating slow yet hard and roughly against my chest and a sick, nauseous feeling stirring in my stomach. I thought of the possible answers and it concerned me greatly. I've never been notified of the consequences of leaving the crew, especially considering nobody's left it.

A devious half-grin painted Hank's face as he simply answered, "You'll find out."

I felt my heart drop and my whole body immediatly heat up like an oven. I had to wipe my hands off my thighs to dry the sweat off of them.

"W-what" I stammered. If my heart wasn't beating fast before, it was now. Rapidly. "What do you mean?"

"You'll see" He said fearlessly as he bobbed an eyebrow. "Not now, though. I'll get you when you least expect it."

Hank was a very violent and mean guy unless you were apart of his crew. If you were with him and his people you were under protection because he was all about fighting and killing. He had no sympathy or feelings for anything and it was rare to catch him being sensitive.

"Hank" I said as a desperate plead. Tears began to travel to my eyes, but I fought them back; I rarely ever cried, and when I did, I did it alone no matter what situation. Especially this one, where you don't want a notorious drug dealer to see you weak.

"Well are you gonna stay wit us?" He asked, raising his eyebrows questioningly.

"No, I can't bu-"

"Then get outta, here, I'm done whichu....for now, at least" He interrupted disgustedly. He shot me a snarl then pointed at the door.

My body trembled against my will as I slowly rose up from the couch of his living room and turned to walk out. When I walked outside that's when I kicked up the pace and started running to my car, where I slid in immediately to the driver's side and slammed the door in frustration. propping my elbows on the steering wheel and burrying my face in my hands, I let everything I was feeling fill me up from head to toe.

A million thoughts raced in my head, which now was throbbing and aching with rising pain.

I'm a fucking goner I thought to myself over and over, now running my fingers a few inches into the top of my hair.

After pushing through some of the overdose of overwhelm that ran through me, I pulled myself together just enough to pull my phone out and call Trevor, a close friend of mine.

"Hello?" He answered on the other line after a few rings.

"Trevor" I began frantically, "Can I come  to your house I - uh, I have an emergency"

"Sure, are you ok?" He asked worriedly.

"You'll know when I get there... see you later" I said. We exchanged byes before I hung up, put my phone away and started the car.

Driving towards his house, so many thoughts dressed my mind. What am I gonna do? What if he kills? What if he hurts my family?

The thought of my family possibly being danger because of me angered me and caused me to absent-mindedly speed up, which caused me to slam on the breaks when I realized that I was closely approaching a line of cars at a stoplight. The car driving behind me honked like hell at me and I just stessfully slouched in my seat, rolling my eyes at the car, at Hank, at what might happen to me in the near future.

When I arrived at Trevor's house, we gathered in his room. He lounged in a black beanbag across from me and I sat criss-crossed in the middle of his bed, tightly hugging myself with my arms.

"So whats the problem?" He asked before taking a sip from a water bottle that he had in his hand. I let out a long, bumpy sigh.

"You know how I talked to you about leaving the drug dealers and asked you if I should do it? I asked, nervously playing with my fingers. He slowly lowered the waterbottle and the expression on his face dropped.

"You did it, didn't you" He guessed in an "oh no" sort of tone.

"Yea" I said barely-audibly. "And Hank, he um, he told me I'm gonna wish I hadn't done it."  I decided to get right to the point and let that out, which caused Trevor to shoot up from his chair and begin to fastly pace left to right in panic.

"See I TOLD you Danielle, don't quit the game. Once you start you can't get out. Tryna leave that shit almost always results in people gettin' bad consequences. You know people gotta be put in witness protection 'cause of that shit?"

"I know, I know but I couldn't stay there anymore! I'm trying to change my life and you know that!" I defended,

All my life I've been nothing but trouble. Stealing, vandalism, grand theft auto, fighting - the list goes on and on. When I got into drug dealing It just made me even worse. We were constantly getting into rivalry with other groups of drug dealers and causing major trouble. People were too scared to do anything about us. Hell, people were scared to be scared.

So far I surprisingly never been locked up. And I recently reached a point in my life where I wanted to change things around and prevent that from happening as well.

"I don't know what to do" I told Trevor, hinting for even the slightest piece of advice.

"You dead" Was all he said after a moment of silence and me watching him think. I had the biggest urge to slap him upside the head.

"Forreal trev, I'm fucking scared. Hank doesn't mess around.If he says he's gonna kill someone, he means it (I learned that from witnessing in many past personal experiences). I mean, I'm sorry for involving you in this and putting you in a bad place but I'm desperate!"

"Ok ok" He said calmly, slowing his pace to a hault and dropping back in his seat. "I need some time to think about this, but I'll help you find a solution, don't worry."

I did let out another sigh, this time one of relief. "Thank you, Trev."

"Yea but you owe me big time if I actually help you good" he said, raising his eyebrows."In the meantime, I know how you can get your mind off this."

"What?" I asked, curiously tilting my head a little.

"My nigga Jordan is having a New Years party.. It's gonna be fuckin' crazy, you need to go. You can bring your sister too."

Usually I got really excited when it came to parties, but I had too much on my mind at the moment. I hesitated for awhile to think of my decision; I had protection to worry about, but being at a party would surround me with people and witnesses - he ain't gonna kill me there.

After a while, I finally made up my mind, concluding my thoughts with a brief sigh. "I guess I'll go."