Five Steps Ahead

FOURTEEN

*ring ring*

Incoming was more romantic texts from Josephere. I wanted to think about how lovely he was all day, but I had sickening thoughts about Brittany that overpowered him.

It was the night after, and it was all happening ten times faster than it should have been. It was almost as if Brit had a suicide guy up her sleeve just in case there was a time like this. Tick-Tock. Tick-Tock. Yet time was passing in slow motion. We were there, sitting in a black SUV in front of the house of Kendall's neighbor. It didn't need to be obvious who we were going after, so we parked where the vehicle could camouflage.

"Where is he?" Brit asked Jacob, the suicide guy.

"He's in his house with his wife and his kids," Jacob answered in a deep and mellow voice. "You'll need to cause a distraction so that he'll leave his premises."

"Why does he need to leave? I don't care where he dies; I want him dead!" Brit yelled in a whisper.

"Any man who could kill a man in front of his kids ain't got no heart," Jacob turned to Brit, "I got a heart," He scoffed.

"Amia, knock on the door and ask if you can have a word with Kendall," Brit demanded.

"Why me? That's only going to dig my name deeper into this situation!" I responded.

Brittany held her gun up to my temple, and suddenly, the silence from the pistol was loud.

"Fine," I aggressively answered while emphasizing the "F" and forcefully shoved the gun away from my head.

Slowly and softly, I proceeded to open the car door and to leave the vehicle. Step by step, I walked carefully to the creaking porch of Kendall's home. I delicately knocked twice and waited two minutes before Kendall's wife opened the door to greet me with Kendall Jr. in her arms.

"Hi, can I help you with something?" She smiled.

I couldn't do it. This woman needs her husband, and the unborn child needs its father. I slowly turned to see if Jacob and Brit were watching me. They were hiding in the seats so they couldn't be noticed.

"Uh- I ordered a package about a week ago, but it was never delivered. When I tracked the package, it appeared to be at this address. I just wanted to see if it was here." I answered and then checked behind me again.

"Oh, no ma'am, I'm sorry, but if you call the manufacturer, you may be able to receive a free order to make up for your loss," She suggested.

"Thank you," I smiled.

The door closed, and I stood there, staring down the door face-to-face. I kept thinking to myself, "You've got to get out of this." I checked behind me to see if Jacob and Brit were still hiding. It seemed as if they were waiting for me to reenter the car to rise from under the seats. I pulled out my phone and dialed Joe's number. I wanted to have a witness if I got caught and killed for fleeing the scene.

"Hello?" He answered. That's my cue.

I zipped my phone into my jacket pocket and made a run for it. I decided to go behind the house so that I could appear out of sight a bit quicker. I made for the dark alley and began to run until I could see the light from the streets. "Baby?" I heard Joe call out to me from my speakerphone. I couldn't respond to him. I needed to getaway. I stepped foot out onto the street then b-

I was hit by an SUV.

...

Brit and Jacob eventually noticed that Mia had been gone for quite some time now. Brit rose from the under the seat, and there was no sight of Mia.

"Amia is gone," said Brittany while clocking her gun. "Kendall must've refused to leave the house and insisted for her to come in instead."

"So now what's the plan?" Jacob asked.

"We go in, we find Mia, and we kidnap Kendall," Brittany suggested. "I would rather you make it easy on us and just murder him inside of the house, but you're too busy trying to have a heart."

"Just shut up and move out," Jacob demanded.

They exited the vehicle and approached the porch. Jacob figured that knocking on the door would be too loud, so instead, they decided to pick the lock and break their way into the house. Luckily, they didn't have to. Kendall's wife had forgotten to lock the front door after her encounter with Amia.

"It's open," Brit whispered.

"Let's make this quick," Jacob responded.

To the left was the living room where Kendall's youngest kid rested in a rocking carriage. However, Brit knew that a mother would never leave her child unattended. They'd better hurry before Kendall's wife returned.

"I hear water," Jacob announced.

"Good listening, check all bathrooms, but be on the lookout for the wife," Brit answered right before the two split up.

Brit walked down the dark front hallway holding her pistol close to her chest. The house had minimum windows, so the dark skies made the inside of the house appear to be even darker. Brit had not planned to murder anyone, but if anyone got in the way, they would leave her no choice. She suddenly began to hear footsteps coming down the hallway.

"Shit!" Brit aggressively whispered.

A kid's humming began to echo and fill the silent sounds of the hall. To Brit's knowledge, that wasn't a kid humming; it was a person who didn't need to catch her in the act of breaking into the home. The humming started to sound closer and closer, which led Brit to position her gun directly in the center of her body with straight arms pointed down the middle of the hallway.

"Come on," She whispered.

The humming grew closer.

Brit placed her hand on the trigger.

The humming grew closer.

"Come onnnnn," She whispered.

...

*POW*