Broken Connection

10

The ride to the mall was short. I could have walked if I wanted to, but I didn't want to risk my makeup for anything. I walked into the frilly pink store that had been my destination all along and began looking through all of the skincare products that they had to offer. Their stuff was good but entirely too expensive.

I settled on one discount face mask and walked to the register. The girl at the till had electric blue hair, which I found impressive. She smiled big when she saw me and made a comment about my eyeshadow, which had been my goal of this entire trip.

With that out of the way, I ventured out into the food court. There were so many good places to get lunch, but the lines were rapidly forming; I wasn't too interested in waiting forever just for a bite to eat.

I quietly nodded and spun on my heel, walking out of the mall. I had shown off my face enough to not care if it got ruined now, so I decided that I would find a place to eat on the walk back home.

About halfway there I smelled something delicious wafting to me from the other side of an alleyway. Following my nose, I walked down the narrow path and came out on a secluded street lined by sketchy storefronts.

Everything was a bit rundown, but the vibe of the place was very much local. It felt like this was somewhere that people lived and worked and spent their lives. The sun was golden here as compared to the blinding white of the main streets. The buildings blocked it out and left nice places of shade.

I could trace the smell to what seemed to be an odd little convenience store set off to the side of the block.

When I walked in I could tell that the place didn't get  nearly enough business. The laminate floor might have been white twenty years ago, but now it was a dull yellow color. The shelves were dusty, and the only sign of life was the man at the counter and another taller man standing near the source of the heavenly smell.

It appeared to be some kind of fried thing, which sounded just fine to my rumbling stomach. There were to go containers sat on the counter next to the hot plate, like you were supposed to fix your own. My thoughts were confirmed when the tall guy did just that.

Soon he had moved on to the condiments and napkins and I moved up to the fried stuff. It looked like a seafood mix, and I was excited to try it. I was halfway through loading up my plate when the bell on the door chimed and suddenly the tall man that was beside me was pulling me to the floor behind the counter. His large eyes stared at me in a panicked 'you shouldn't be here' type of way, and he slowly put his finger to his lips.

I had no idea what was going on, but the guy seemed scared shitless. No way was I going to make noise to alert whoever had just come through the door.

He turned to peep over the counter, and the way he moved exposed the handle of a gun tucked neatly into the waistband of his pants between his T-shirt and flannel.

My heartbeat sped up and my eyes widened as I tried to scramble away from the tall man, but he caught my arm and gave me a stern look.

"You're not going to like this," he whispered, and if I hadn't have been terrified I would have liked the sound of his voice, "but this is the only way to get us both out alive."

He spun me around so that my back was pressed to his chest and then I felt the cold metal of a barrel pressed to my temple. He was right. I didn't like this.

I frantically clutched at his sleeve and let out a small whimper, trying to escape without the other person in the store seeing us. I could see the counter from where we sat, and the employee must have gone into the back for something. It was just the three of us.

"Don't worry, it's on safety," the tall man whispered into my ear.

That didn't make me worry less. It didn't change the fact that he had a gun to my head.

Suddenly we were standing up, and I could see the person who had entered now. He was an older man, probably in his forties. He had a nasty scar running down the side of his face, and a smile that I didn't like complete with missing teeth.  He also had a gun pointed straight at us.

"Mighty brave coming into my neighborhood," he growled towards us.

"This hasn't been your neighborhood for months," the younger man that was holding me hostage was confident when he replied.

As they spoke we were slowly moving towards the door of the place. The other man had walked around enough in the store that he was out of the way, and as long as nothing went wrong there was no one to stop us getting out.

"You're taking hostages now? I didn't know that's how your team operated," the older man laughed, but his laugh gave me chills.

"You know as well as I do that my team does what it has to," The man behind me said.

I didn't think I made a very good shield, but I guess our bodies were angled to make it harder for the other man to miss me and shoot him at the same time. Every step we took we turned just slightly so that we were facing the older man.

"And you should know by now I don't mind a few hostages dying," the old man growled, but it was already too late.

The time they had taken to talk had allowed us to get to the door, and suddenly we were running hand in hand back up the alley I had come down. The tall guy pointed his gun behind us and pulled the trigger. I heard a grunt, but I didn't turn to look at the scene behind me. I was running towards freedom.

If I could get to the main street I could get away. Slip down another alley and disappear. My feet sped up, racing away with my heart. Just as I thought I had secured freedom by making it to the main street the tall man had grabbed my arm again, shoving me into the backseat of a black sedan and jumping in after me. I tried to scramble out of the other side, but the child lock was on.

"What the fuck, Lucas?" I heard from the front seat as the car sped off.

"We had a few problems," the tall guy, Lucas, panted.

The voice from the front seat was eerily familiar to me, so I tried to make eye contact with the driver through the rear view mirror.

My breath caught in my throat when I recognized him.

"B-bunny man?"