His Seventh Shot

Chapter 14

I just sat on the rails of the abandoned train tracks. I needed to think. I could feel my life spiraling. My heart was breaking. Tears wanted to fall, but the cold was causing them to freeze. I wanted to scream. To scream until my throat burned with fire. My phone kept going off. I heard crunching of rocks coming close to my location.

Lights suddenly flashed behind me. I peered over my shoulder. The brakes squealed as the car came to a stop. I heard the door open.

"Poor, poor pretty boy." My heart dropped at the sound of the voice.

I stood up and turned to face him. "Get the fuck out of here Landon."

"Woah, woah. Now that's no way to talk to your best friend." He held his hands up in surrender.

"How did you find me?"

Landon didn't respond. A smirk firmed on his face.

"Don't you dare tell me you've been following me." He didn't respond. "You better tell me right now you son of a bitch!"

"Look at you," Landon started walking towards me "You're finally starting to put the pieces together."

I gulped down fear. I knew exactly why he was here. "You came here to finish what you started?" I felt venom dripping off those words.

Landon stopped walking. "How many times are we gonna go over this?"

He was so close, I could feel his hot breath fanning my face. We stood there a moment. I scanned his eyes. Anger was hidden behind his deep brown eyes. All this over Skylar. The sun was slowly setting. I backed off finally.

"Leave me the fuck alone." I turned my back to him.

"So, tell me," Landon said. "How's Melody?"

A shiver ran down my spine at her name. My hands balled into a fist. Before I had time to turn, I felt my body lift off the ground. My body rolled on the gravel. I felt my shirt lift and get cut up on the gravel. Boots were crunching on the snow. I groaned and felt someone pick me up. A devilish grin formed on Landon's face. "And yes. To answer the question earlier, it's yes." I felt Landon's fist ball around my shirt. "I want you dead. So, I can take back what's mine."

His fist collided with my nose. I heard a faint crack as tears stung my eyes. I noticed his arm coming down for another hit. My arm shot up to block the next blow. I brought it down to see Landon's body twist. Adrenaline started running through my body. The strong scent of copper filled my nostrils. Landon stood up. I managed to remove my arm from his grip. I began making my way towards my car whilst crawling on the snowy gravel. Dizziness surrounded me. Landon kicked me hard in the stomach. With his boots on, it hurt even worse than before. I rested my arm on the bumper of my car while trying to pull myself up. Landon hovered of me.

I got myself up. I looked down for a split second to see the snow was turning red. Landon let out an evil chuckle. "It's sad to see a man like you not fight back. You went through hell for eight years and not once did you learn to fight back."

Not a second later, I forced myself to tackle him to the ground. My legs straddled him. I felt like I lost control. My fists wouldn't slow down going towards Landon's face. Suddenly I felt his foot meet my stomach as he heaved me over. I remember my temple hit hard, cold metal. My breath was lost in the blow. Suddenly I couldn't breathe. My body was flat front on the tracks. I looked above me and noticed blood dripping from Landon's mouth. He smiled again. Like something has taken over him. His teeth were stained in red.

A few stray tears fell down my face. I was in so much pain. "Again," Landon started as he knelt next to me. He grabbed a fist full of my hair. At that moment I realized I landed on the train tracks. I spat blood in Landon's face. He looked at me with disgust on his face. "You're weak. It still surprises me you survived. I thought you were dead. That's why I took that precious cargo."

"You're fucking disgusting." I stuttered out. "I thought we were friends."

"Some secrets are better left unsaid my friend." Sarcasm dripped from his voice. I couldn't respond. My breath was gone. "You beat me to it. All throughout high school I acted like everything was okay. This was my opportunity. And you're still fucking here. That certainly shows you're a fighter." An unexpected fist swung hard. "This shows you truly care about her."

"Don't you t – touch her a – again you freak." I managed to say. My heart is breaking more hearing this. Tears started streaming down my face.

My phone rang again. Landon reached into my pocket. His face lit up. "Don't you do it." I said as blood fell from my mouth.

"Skylar!" He chimed. My body gave up. I fell out of Landon's grasp. "Nah. We were just having a heart to heart talk about the one and only." There was a pause. "You may have to come find him," Landon looked towards me. "I don't think he's got much time left." He hung up the phone and tossed it next to me. I could feel the heat being sucked out of me due to the cold metal below me. My body started shivering.

"Your lady called." He stood up. I heard him clear his throat. "Hopefully she'll find you in time."

I noticed that dark was surrounding us. There were just some lamp posts along the side of the tracks lighting up the area. Landon looked at an invisible watch on his wrist. "Well bud. I best get going now. It was great chatting with you."

I wanted to scream at him. But I was losing consciousness. I had my oversized hoodie under my jacket. It wasn't helping with keeping my warmth. I heard Landon's car start. Headlights suddenly vanished. My body was giving up. I noticed my fingers turning blue. My phone was still next to me. I grabbed it. My hands were shaking to the point where I couldn't see the screen. I held down the home button. Siri popped up and I told her to call Skylar. Somehow, I was able to put the phone on speaker. With shaky words and loss of breath, I heard Skylar's calming voice on the other side.

"Jason!" Her voice was filled with panic.

"T – train tracks." I stuttered.

"Baby listen to me. You're going to be fine."

"I love you." Was the last thing I said before I got sucked into the darkness.