Epiphany

Chapter 39 Part 1~All

“You three.” Gunther glanced behind him and I was taken by surprise to see Ryder standing in the background, watching us with a blank face. “Take her back. I’ll go see what happened.”

“I’ll go with you,” Jesse quickly said.

Gunther snarled, “I said take her back.”

Then he was gone on a whim, a blur dashing away.

I put a hand to my forehead, feeling clouds forming in my head and a burning sensation running through my throat. Without warning, my body lurched forward, and bile spewed from my mouth.

Tears stung my eyes as I gagged and another round of bile hurled from my mouth.

After some time, when I was sure no more would flow out of my body, my eyes traveled upwards to find Chase looking at me in concern. Or maybe it was for Elijah?

“I can’t believe it,” Chase mumbled, fishing for something from his pocket.

A handful of tissues.

He knelt in front of me and handed it to me, which I accepted without thinking twice.

He rose to his feet and turned to face Jesse.

I jabbed the tissues in my mouth, trying to remove the acidic taste from it as much as I could.

“I thought that was prohibited in this place. For someone to shoot another one in here!” Chase’s voice was saturated with fear. “He might be dead. And we might be next!”

Chase awaited a reply, reassuring ones to be specific, but Jesse only gave him silence.

Jesse was shocked, empty eyes lingering on the ground next to me. While Ryder gazed at Chase with an unamused expression.

They stayed like that for a whole minute until someone finally decided to give Chase an answer, one which I undoubtedly thought wasn’t a satisfying one.

“He can do whatever he wants and we can’t do anything about it,” Jesse stated.

“I just don’t get it!” Chase fumed, gesturing to himself, “Why do we have to put up with all this?! Why can’t your boss just keep the girl with him?”

Ryder snorted. “He’s your boss too, if you still haven’t figured that out.”

Chase put on a sneer as he turned to Ryder. “And what the hell is up with you? Why you actin' weird today? Why so calm?”

“Hmm?”

“Aren’t you afraid that Edward might come looking for us next? And if we refuse to give Alyssa to him then he’ll put a bullet through our heads. Hasn’t this occurred to you, maybe?”

Ryder rested his fingers in his jeans pockets and shrugged. “It has. But there’s nothing to be afraid of, or at least for me.”

“We need to move,” Jesse intervened.

“And what the f*ck does that mean?”

A small smile formed on Ryder’s face. “Of course, you’re pissing your pants right now. You might get easily killed and no one would do a thing but spare you a glance. And we all know who would be kind enough to do that.”

Chase stared at Ryder in total shock. The guy was giggling at his face, throwing him a smug face.

“You shouldn’t have taken the blame on yourself, idiot. You’re already hanging on a thin rope.” Jesse’s attention was now on Chase, who was turning paler each second. “Why the hell did you tell Gunther that it was you, anyways?”