Under The Surface [Editing]

Chapter ThirtyFour Bullets

Standing there frozen, my worst fear becoming a reality that his demand didn’t quite register at first.

“Back up,” he barked making me wince as if he slapped me.

His eyes so like Nathan’s were frenzied and dilated, bouncing back and forth crazed as he waited. His other hand twitched rapidly at his side, he was high off of some drug, really high.

I took a few steps backwards not wanting to turn around with my back to him. His breathing was heavy and he continued to twitch as he came inside the apartment and clumsily, fumbling shutting the door behind him locking it. The gun a nine millimeter was still pointed at me.

The fear, overwhelming me and my senses I felt like I was going to faint, or throw up. How did he find us?

“Back up more, into the living area,” he said waving the gun in the direction he could see, assuming it was into the living area. He followed behind me completely out of reach. I had to turn to walk down the steps and I stumbled slightly as my legs shook and almost gave out on me. My knees as they bent were stiff from the terror and now that was being displaced as I took the three small steps down into the living room.

He jerked the gun at my sudden movement of tripping slightly, and I whimpered out of his hearing range closing my eyes. He was so jittery and tweaked out of his mind I thought he was going to accidently pull the trigger and it was still pointed at me.

“Sit don’t move,” he waved a hand to one of the chairs and he began to search around looking for Nathan. He kept his eyes on me and the gun pointed at me the whole time. I tried to calm the shaking in my body from the fear.

“He’s not here; he went to get…,”

“I know he’s gone I am looking for anyone else you might have hidden here,” he snapped at me. I winced and glanced at the spot where I hid my mother’s gun, from where he stood at the first chair closest to the hall, it was behind him, all one had to do was reach under the cushion…

Nathan’s father paced slightly ringing his free hand in his hair. He didn’t seem to have much planned out. I thought about how negotiators talked to calm down assailants who were out of their minds like he was. I thought about how I didn’t even know his first name.

“What’s your name?” I asked trying to calm him down. He looked at me as if I asked the most stupid question in the world and that I should know the answer, but he answered.

“Nathaniel senior,” he grumbled unhappily. What? Nathan was a junior? He never told me that. No one did. His father didn’t seem to like it all that much. It made me think his mother must have loved him at one point to name her son after him. Or she wanted to see in her son a better man.  He went back to pacing.

“What do you want?” I asked bravely continuing to try and talk him down but my voice cracks. His head jerked back up and stared at me.

“I want my wife back,” he snarled almost painfully. I had to bite back a snarky remark that would definitely cost me my life most likely. All I could do was keep my mind on my Nathan to keep myself calm. At least he was talking…sort of.

“How did you find us?”I braved another question. He scoffed and laughed, it was a cold sarcastic hollow sound.

“Your father tried to lure me into talking,” he sneered.

Dread surged in my blood. My dad! Oh God! Did he hurt my father?

“Did you hurt…?”

The back of his hand struck hard across my face, temporarily all I saw was blackness. The searing sting from the pain vibrated through my face as I fell back off the chair into a crumpled heap. My lip already began to swell and my right eye felt swollen. The coppery taste of blood filled my mouth.