I See You

41

Why?

That was all Junior could think about as he looked at his best friend holding a gun to his face, his best friend who had shot a man, who was now slowly dying behind him, his best friend who had confessed that he was there to hurt Lena.

Junior took a deep breath and lowered his arms slowly until they were hanging next to his body, he scanned his friend, he had a beard and looked highly deranged, he glanced over his shoulder, Lena was sitting next to Nicola, but there wasn’t much she could do to help him.

“Ryan” said Junior as he turned his attention back to his friend “I know you don’t want to do this, I know you didn’t mean to shoot Nicola”

“He just wouldn’t do what I wanted him to do” whispered Ryan, the gun quivered in his hand, Junior’s eyes darted to the gun.

“God please, don’t let him shoot me by accident”

Would it really be an accident if the gun was fired in that second?

“I know” said Junior, he took a step forward but Ryan moved the gun back to Junior and he stopped dead in his tracks “Lower the gun, Ryan, let’s just talk”

“It was supposed to be just her in the house” Ryan said slowly, Junior wasn’t sure if Ryan was talking to him or was just talking to himself.

“He needs a doctor” said Lena, she had stepped to Junior’s side “He really does Ryan”

“SHUT UP!” screamed Ryan, the gun shook as it was aimed towards Lena, instinctively Junior tried to cover Lena with one of his arms “This is all your fault”

“He needs to get out of here Ryan!” snapped Lena, she was starting to come to terms with the horrible fact that if they didn’t get out of there soon, the body count would go from zero to one.

“SHUT UP!” roared Ryan, he stepped forward, the gun suddenly steady in his hand, Junior took a step back and pushed Lena back too.

A lightning and a thunder roared and illuminated the house, the light flashing from behind Ryan almost gave him the aura of an angel; but as the natural light vanished and left the bulb to illuminate the kitchen, the angel turned once more into a horrible demon.

“Let me talk to him” whispered Junior “Deal with Nicola”

“Nicola?” hissed Lena, she grabbed Junior’s arm and pulled him down towards her “He is dying and he needs to get out of here, NOW”

Junior looked at Lena and gently pulled his arm away from her, he couldn’t help but wonder if Lena would act so worried and determined if the situation was the other way around, with him being the one shot and Nicola the one trying to reason with a maniac.

“A maniac that used to be your best friend” his brain reminded him.

Junior turned to Ryan, he had walked up to where he had left the rope and the tape and was looking down at them, he took the tape and examined it with a rapid movement he looked at Lena and then at Junior and placed the tape down.

“What’s the tape for?” asked Junior.

“So she wouldn’t scream” explained Ryan “But the storm is perfect cover, don’t you think?”

“I do” shrugged Junior “But you don’t know how long it will last”

“The storm or him?” asked Ryan as he pointed at Nicola with his gun, the question sent a chill down Junior’s back, he swallowed hard and tried to act normal as he continued to talk.

“The storm, of course” answered Junior.

But Ryan didn’t really seem to be paying any kind of attention to Junior, he was looking over Junior’s shoulder and had his eyes over Nicola and Lena, who was whispering something to Nicola, but he wasn’t looking at them either, he was looking at his own world.