Violence [Jack Barakat]

4

"I guess not." I say as I get up to grab the gun, which has been a permanent part of me for the past couple of years.

"Of course they had to do it now, didn't they?" Jack said, grabbing his own black handgun.

When we made it downstairs, people were still frantically trying to evacuate the house.

"You check on the left and in the back, I've got the front and right." Jack directed.

I started off in the back of the house, and turned on the main lights. It was empty, and this room seemed untouched and completely neat.

On the way to the next room, I passed a bathroom which a couple stumbled out of.

"Where'd 'eryone go?" The drunk stranger and his girlfriend looked around in confusion.

"You should leave, guys. Go home," I pointed them to the front door and they left, tripping over their own feet.

Finally, I came into the living room of the house, which people were still filing out of. Red cups and spilled drinks littered the floor. Something in particular caught my eye, which didn't exactly look like a drink.

Shiny, red liquid. It was blood, which I'm used to seeing almost everyday. It covered a lot of the floor though, so whoever's blood this is must be dead or dying.

I looked closely at every person who was leaving the room, they all seemed drunk or scared or high, nobody was suspicious.

I called Jack over, who hadn't found anything on the other side of the house.

"Damn," he looked at the blood in shock.

"Did anyone look suspicious to you?" I ask him, and he shakes his head.

I tell him that I haven't seen anyone either.

"Should we call the police?" I ask Jack, but he shakes his head.

"They'll suspect us, since we have got guns. They wouldn't ask anyone else because they would think they're drunk. I don't know if I told you, but Baltimore police aren't really that professional, and they'll arrest whoever gets in their way. That's why we try to avoid them as much as we can." Jack explained.

We just shrugged this off and left the house for the police to find later. Things like this happen everyday.

*****

"I'm kind of worried, Jack. Alex hasn't been picking up the phone, neither has Lisa." I tried to dial Lisa again, for the 5th time, since she probably wasn't drunk.

"I'll stop by their house to check on them if you want," Jack suggested, and I agreed.

I knocked on the door of Alex's apartment, and after 2 seconds I had to ring the doorbell since I was so concerned for his and Lisa's safety.

Right when I was about to reach for the door again, Lisa opened the door in tears.

"Why are you crying, where's Alex?" I shake her shoulders while she just cries.

"I-I don't know, he was talking to this g-guy and I didn't know what was going on but I heard a g-gun and when I looked around he wasn't t-there," Lisa fell to the ground in tears, and I felt tears brimming in my own eyes.

"What did the guy look like, Lisa?" I ask, rubbing her back.

Jack walks into the doorway of the apartment where me and Lisa were both sat on the floor crying.

"He had like, brown hair. And stretchers in his ears, and I think him and Alex knew each other, b-but..." Lisa cried even more.

"Did you hear his name?" I ask her.

"Ashton, or Austin or Anthony, I'm not sure." She tried calming down but it didn't work for long.

"Austin Carlile?" Jack shot up. He opened his phone to look at something and nodded his head.

"Y-yeah." Lisa stood back up and wiped her tears.

"Who is that?" I ask Jack.

"He's part of the West end. They're all about finding people to turn into their gang."

"How do you know him?" I look into Jack's phone which has Austin's information.

"Old friend I guess." Jack shrugs.

On the phone he looks into hospital admissions, to see if anyone matching Alex's information has recently checked in.

"This one matches the description, let's go," Jack has us go into the car, and during the ride I tried to comfort Lisa. It was weird seeing her cry when all she usually does is smile.

After getting directions from the hospital staff, we end up in a room, and the patient has similar hair as Alex.

"Alex," Lisa runs over to the patient on the bed, who seems to be asleep, she turns his head over, to reveal that it's not actually him.

"No, no!" Lisa screams and we have to take her out of the room to avoid unwanted attention.

"We can pick up Michael and have him disguised as a West ender to get into their safe house. They don't know him there," Jack comes up with another idea.

A few minutes later, Michael is in the car with us, and Jack explains the situation. Thankfully, Michael happily agrees to the plan.

The West's safe house is smaller than our's, considering they have less members. We park a few blocks away and watch Michael slip into it.

About half an hour later, he comes out of a window unharmed, and jogs over to where Lisa, Jack and I were hiding.

"He's in there, but unconscious as hell. In an empty room right now, but I'm sure the people will go in to ask him questions once he wakes. He's tied down to a bed with those electrocuted microchips that we can't disable, Rian hasn't figured them out yet. All we can do now is wait until tomorrow. I've made a few friends in that house, I can use them for more access." Michael seemed out of breath after explaining what happened.

Lisa looked the most scared, since she was unfamiliar with the type of stuff we worked with, and because of the fact that her boyfriend of 8 years soon might be tortured in ways she's never imagined.

"Don't worry, we can handle this. Me and Jack are used to this kind of stuff and Alex will be out of there really soon," I reassured Lisa.

Jack stared at us with a weird expression. "Why do girls always act so... never mind," he shrugged.

Soon, Michael got a call from Tom, asking where the hell he was. Jack took the phone and explained the events to Tom, who decided that he would have to look more into this, because the West end was becoming more violent by the days.

"So it looks like you can never really have a break from this job, right?" Michael grinned.

A/N: Okay so I'm going to put down the cast listing down here, even though it's probably obvious already

Jack: Jack Barakat

Charlotte: Nina Nesbitt

Alex: Alex Gaskarth

Lisa: Lisa Ruocco

Tom: Tom Denny

Michael: Michael Clifford

Luke: Luke Hemmings

Austin: Austin Carlile

More characters will show up along the way, so I'll just tell who I imagine them as in the end of the chapters each time someone new appears.