Songbird

Chapter 16 ~ Baseball

Shane was a mess. His feet were sore from pacing his apartment for the past few hours, his black hair messy from shaking his head so often. Shane's breathing hadn't slowed since Jace and his friends left the apartment hours ago, and neither had his thoughts.

Why did I trust those men in the Pit? Why did I do that to City? were the thoughts that kept coming to the surface over and over again. I am an awful person, he thought.

At about an hour into his solitude, Shane had gone to the bathroom and gotten a good look at himself in the mirror. Jace had given him a black eye and cuts on his cheeks, and his forehead was still bloody and bleeding. He looked as terrible as he felt.

I deserved this, he thought as he stared at his reflection, his black hair matted with dry blood, his one eye pitifully swollen shut. I deserved all of this.

He had resumed to pacing around his apartment after the bathroom break. Occasionally he would glance at his phone, staring at the time or opening and closing text messages a few times. He was waiting for something, anything, to come up on his phone telling him City was okay. He prayed she was okay. It would be his fault if anything happened to her...

If only he hadn't been so selfish. If only he hadn't gone to the Pit and tried to get Jace out of the picture. He didn't want anyone to get killed... He just wanted Jace to get a lesson, to stay away from City...

But that didn't matter now, because City was taken, and Shane could do nothing about it. He was trapped in his apartment, trapped in his mind, desperate to fix this situation that he had caused...

Through all this mess, Shane promised himself one thing: he would apologize to City. After these hours alone, stuck in his own apartment, Shane had finally come to the realization that he just wanted City to be safe and happy. If Jace was able to rescue her and she still had feelings for him, Shane was willing to let City be with Jace. After this selfish act that had gotten City kidnapped and maybe worse, Shane just wanted what was best for her.

Shane collapsed on the couch, putting his feet up on the coffee table as he closed his eyes. Well, as he closed one eye, as the other was permanently closed thanks to Jace's fists.

He poked at his wounded face a bit, still pondering the situation. He really didn't have a way out of this apartment unless he wanted to break down his door, and that would just be expensive. Plus, Shane decided it was best to remain here and let Jace handle the situation. Shane would probably just make it worse, anyway.

Shane didn't know how long he was sitting on the couch, but his ears picked up a noise. It was the sound of the door handle jiggling, as though someone were trying a key.

Suddenly, his door came crashing down, falling into his apartment. There goes his genius plan to keep his door from being destroyed.

Shane stood and shouted, "Jace, did you really have to—"

He stopped, his mouth agape. No words came to mind as he stood face-to-face with a huge, unfamiliar man. This man was a head taller than Shane, with a shirt that stretched barely over his muscles. This man's thick eyebrows were arched in a menacing way, and his eyes gleamed with excitement. His muscles looked so obnoxiously large that they seemed to make this man's head small.

"I'm not this 'Jace' fellow," growled the man, stepping on the door as he came into Shane's apartment, "But you won't be seeing him – or anyone – ever again."

"Okay, listen, this doesn't have to be this way," said Shane quickly, words coming back to him. He leaped back, putting more distance between him and the large man that had just stepped into the place. Shane gulped as he looked this man up and down; he could probably lift a freight train.