𝐒𝐇𝐀𝐌𝐄𝐋𝐄𝐒𝐒 • Tom Kaulitz

chapter eight

Crimson sat on Ben's couch, picking at her nails. She was on edge. He'd call her over to tell her something, and he sounded serious, maybe even scared.

"Ben, just tell me already," she said.

"Fine," Ben said, sitting down next to her, "Remember when I told you I wasn't in a gang?"

"Shit."

"Well, I was telling the truth, kind of. I was in a gang, like I told you, and I did leave, but they didn't take it as kindly as I said. I used to sell drugs for them, and I brought in a fuck ton of money. Since I stop working for them, they've lost a bunch, and two of their guys have been arrested, and they think it's all my fault, which is kind of is."

"So what? They're, like, after you? You could've told me this before we started seeing each other!"

"You never would've gotten with me if you knew."

"No shit!"

Crimson got up and walked out of the house, followed by Ben. She saw Marcus halfway down the street and called out to him, before Ben placed his hands on her shoulder.

"Cici!" Ben said, "I promise I'll sort this out, okay? Just listen! I'll protect you no matter what, okay?"

"Ben, you're hurting me," Crimson said, but Ben didn't let go. He continued blabbering on about how he was gonna 'fix' the situation, and how he wanted to make things official between them, but Crimson wasn't stupid enough to make things official with someone who'd just told her he was affiliated with and being hunted down by a gang.

"Cici!" Marcus yelled, "Hey, asshole, get off of her!" Marcus jogged over to the pair. "What's going on here?"

"Ben is in a gang," Crimson said.

"No I'm not!" Ben defended.

"You may as well be!"

"Well, well, well," A fourth voice sounded from being them, "If it isn't Ben Weber. We've been looking for you."

"Shit," Ben said.

"Who's that?" Crimson said, "Ben! Who the fuck is that?!"

"Ben hasn't told you about me?" The man said, "Oh, Ben. You know, in a situation like yours, you should really explain things to the people you fuck. I mean, you're really putting them in danger. You see, pretty girl, Ben here used to sell for my boss, but he left us. Lost us a fuck ton of money, not to mention two of our other dealers getting arrested, meaning we lost even more money." The man held something up. A gun. "I am really gonna go up in the ranks after this one."

He shot the gun, and Crimson looked at Ben, who looked fine. He bolted to run away, being shot at again and again, but never caught. Crimson then looked behind her at Marcus, who was now on the floor.

"Marcus!" She yelled, kneeling next to him and noticed blood polling from his stomach.

"Cici..." Marcus began, but he couldn't get his sentence out before he fell unconscious.

"You dick!" Crimson yelled, running towards the guy. As she got to him, he grabbed her by the shoulder and brought her into him, their entire bodies touching each other. He put his gun back into his jacket pocket, and instead reach into his back pants pocket.

Crimson suddenly felt something buried into her stomach, then pulled back out. She looked down to see a bloody knife in his hand, and even more blood on her stomach.

"Sorry," he said, "Gotta eliminate the witnesses."

The man ran, leaving Crimson and Marcus alone in the empty street. Crimson looked down at the blood patch growing more and more on her white shirt, eventually falling, but being caught by someone.

"Red!" They said, and she instantly knew it was Tom. He held onto her and slowly lowered her to the ground, as her hands made their way up to his shoulders. "Holy shit, holy shit. Do you have a phone?"

"It's..." Crimson struggled to get her words out, reducing her sentences to small phrases, "Ben's house. Marcus, pocket. Take me to him."

"Red, if I move you, it's gonna hurt like hell."

"Please."

"Brace yourself."

Crimson yelled in pain and Tom brought her closer to Marcus, close enough to touch him. "Thank you."

Tom took Marcus' phone from his pocket and called an ambulance, then Luna, who called the rest of the group.

"Hey," Crismon said, looking up at Tom.

"Hey," Tom said, smiling weakly.

"Why are you crying, Tom?"

"Because I'm worried about you, idiot."

"You know, you never struck me as the type of person who'd cry over my death. We were never that close."

"Well, maybe we should be."

"It's a little late, don't you think?"

"No, it's not, because you're gonna survive this."

"How do you know?"

"Because you're a badass."

"A badass who's losing a ton of blood."

"Shit, right." Tom unzipped his jacket and move Crimson's shirt up, revealing her wound. He pressed the jacket down on it, holding his hand there.

"Wait, my belt," she said, "Keep it on with my belt, so you don't have to hold it there."

"Right." Tom took Crimson's belt from the loops of her jeans and wrapped it round her waist, buckling it as tight as he could.

"You can stop crying now, I'm gonna be okay," Crimson wiped a tear from Tom's face, but it was no use as more came out.

Everyone else finally showed up, and Tom passed Crimson over to Bill. "Nice eyeshadow," she said.

"Thanks," Bill said, "I kept doing my nails, too. Look." He held his hand up, showing his half black, half white nails. Crimson appreciated that he was trying to create a distraction. She grabbed the hand that he'd held up and intertwined their fingers.

"It's very you," she said, smiling. Bill smiled, too, trying his best not to let tears fall from his eyes. Crimson held out her other hand, the one that wasn't holding Bill's, and squeezed Marcus' hand. He didn't squeeze back. Luna was sat next to
him, checking for a pulse. Tears pricked at the corners of her eyes as she shook her head.

"No, wait," Georg said, moving over to Marcus and pressing down on his wrist, "It's there. Faint, but there."

Crimson let out a sigh of relief as she finally heard the ambulance approaching. Gustav covered her ears, knowing the sirens were far too loud and her ears, at this moment, were far too sensitive.

Crimson encourages Luna to go with Marcus, and for Georg and Gustav to go with her for support.

She finally let herself fall asleep as they loaded her into the back of the ambulance, followed by the two crying twins.

a little dramatic for a sunday afternoon!