Live or Dead

Chapter Four

Hiding from the Vantrar family was going to be the biggest joke of the century. When she faded even though I felt terribly wrong for doing it I pulled over somewhere and checked her for a tracker. I took her jewelry away, her engagement ring, the pin in her hair. I even moved her to a new vehicle. Just this time putting her in the front passenger seat.

There was no one I could go to because it hadn't been just twenty years... it had been hundreds. I was beyond screwed. The odds of my apartment still being there would be impressive. I checked my pockets and strangely enough my keys were still there. This could be a trap but it was worth the risk if I needed weapons.

"My card," she whispered.

I didn't realize she was awake again.

"What?"

"Do you have my card that was in my back pocket."

"That I do," I wasn't planning to lie to her at all. I also was not going to hold back on doing whatever it takes to kill her father and brother even if it did mean possibly hurting her. It would be the only thing out of all this that would hurt him too though.

"Just pull all the money out and get what you need to protect yourself. You know my dad won't stop. Him and Jordan are practically dictators."

"In my time he was just a little gangster trying to terrorize small areas and bomb them. I guess he finally got what he wanted for it. Power and fame and to shut me up while he got it."

"Why not just kill you?" Karina asked.

"He enjoys torturing his enemies. Before I fell asleep, the last few minutes I had awake was spent looking at my pregnant girlfriend on the floor gunned down by your father. My punishment was to be asleep for twenty years. I would be awake in time to meet my daughter right as she was starting the world as an adult... and he decided to take that from me and go above the law and take me as his own property."

"I am sorry..." I heard her whisper.

"We all are just pawns one way or another. I must act like you are my enemy and treat you as such in public eye so your own father don't kill you to bring me down."

"What do you mean?"

When I paused at a stop sign I looked over at her. Karina's face was purple and swollen her beauty ruined but luckily for her only for a month or so. She had nothing broken or any cuts that would create scars. Her fiance's death was too quick for my liking just like her older brother's in 2016 was too swift. They deserved more torture. I realized I was like her father in more ways than one when it came to the art of murder.

"It means I have to treat you like I don't care or your father will use you against me. I would not put it past him."

"Are you planning to kill me," she barely whispered it. Karina was going to be scared of me of course.

"Not unless you get in my way of killing your father."

She drifted off again.

I spent the next two hours pulling out thousands and thousands of her dollars out of her account. Emptying everything and stocking up on guns and ammunition. I noticed word got around fast of the kidnapping of the "Leader's" daughter but shockingly the people of the city didn't care. The man he brought guns from looked at the news and then looked at me and just simply said "thank god," and handed him more ammunition for free.

It appeared not even the Vantrar's own people liked him. Good.

I had to get her out of the country. Unfortunately nothing looked familiar and I didn't even know which country I was in. I pulled back over to a gas station to fill up and went inside to pay. I was the only one at the gas station besides the cash register lady.

"Not to sound crazy but where am I and do you have a map?"

The woman laughed. "You are in Russia and no one uses paper anymore."

"Well I am trying to get away from the Vantrar's..."

The woman's eyes widened. "You are that man on the news..."

"I am not here to hurt you." I put my hands up worriedly.

"I know. You have been an icon for hundreds of years. When you shot that mans boy you started a rebellion. People started fighting back until the Vantrar's took over more countries, became more powerful. Till they made everyone bend their knee."

"No where is safe is there?"

"No. Not even here. They can see all the camera's. And because of that I have to go. You have an unlimited line on pump 4." She said. "Free of charge."

None of it felt right but I slowly walked out of the gas station and started to fill up the tank. Right as I was about to get back into the car I heard a gunshot. I nearly jumped three feet in the air. It came from the gas station. I saw the woman on the ground through the glass door. Blood pooling around her head. She shot herself...

What had the Vantrar family done to the world that I loved?