21

##Terrified

Emily

I shrink more and more into the car seat, I'm almost part of the leather that covers the seat, I cover my ears when I'm startled by loud noises, dry cracks, they must be shots, there are many and every moment they get louder. My eyes are watering with the intense fear building inside me.

God, I've never been in a situation like this. My life was so calm and monotonous before I met Joe. This looks more like a horror movie and look I'm just listening. I hold tight to the gun Franco handed me, he told me to shoot anyone that came close, I don't know if I'll ever have the courage to pull that trigger. I dig through the car's glove compartment and find a switchblade, great. Maybe I need it, slashing is easier than shooting.

After a few minutes that seemed like hours, someone opens the car door and pulls me out by the hair, I scream feeling a strong pain in my scalp, at that moment the gun is already stored in my waist. When I manage to look, I see a man with a black mask on his face.

"Leave me!" I scream and struggle.

"Look who I found! Joe, whore, didn't even have to go after us, she came to us herself." The man yells for another one and I feel like throwing up.

"Joe will kill you! You will regret it!" I exclaim thinking of what he will be able to do to these men for just touching me.

"I don't think so, cutie. He's in real trouble."

I can't imagine him in trouble. I think.

The man drags me towards the old factory, when I have the ridiculous or great idea to fake a faint. I don't know where that came from, but it's like a voice whispering in my ear: Fake a faint. You don't have to push that hard either, I'm so terrified I can barely walk upright, all my organs are shaking at an extreme level.

I close my eyes and drop to the ground. With such a serious situation I would never feel like laughing, maybe in the future, if I have a future after today, I would smile at this scene. But not now, all I want to do is cry and beg Joe to get us out of here.

"She fainted!" the man says and I hear footsteps running towards us along with more gunshots.

Then I'm lifted off the ground, I feel arms holding me, I do my best to appear as heavy as possible, dropping my body in all the density I can.

"She barely weighs." This is another voice.

After a few minutes I'm left on a smelly, cold floor. I open one eye a little bit and I don't see anything for now. Soon I hear a whipping noise and I shudder.

"Look who we brought to keep you company." This voice is different from all the others, it has a different accent.

"Fuck! What did they do to her?!" God, it's Joe's voice. I feel a strange comfort even with every situation of fear and danger, when I hear your voice.

"Nothing she didn't like." The man lies.

"Motherfuckers! I'm going to rip your hand off every one of you, the skin, the teeth, the eyes, you'll bitterly regret ever touching it!" Joe growls in a more terrified voice than I've ever seen before.

"That's if I don't want to pull the trigger and blow your brains out right now, isn't it? Besides, you're bruised, beaten so badly your face is unrecognizable." My mind and body shudder violently in panic.

What did they do to you, Joe?

I want to cry, to run to him, to get him out of here, to feel his hands protecting and comforting me. I don't care who he is now, I just want him to stay alive.

I squeeze my eyes tight when I hear more whipping noises, Joe's screams make me tortured along with him, I feel his pain, I feel his anguish. The man constantly asks for all the money he has, along with his name and identity. Heavens! Does he supposedly want to be Joe?

When their screams cease and the torture continues, I no longer know who I am or where I am. Maybe in a dream? All this gave me an immense urge to vomit, they even forgot about me, I was 'passed out' for too long, I think what they really want is to hurt him.

I can no longer allow this to continue. I can't, I need to do something. Joe needs me, I'm here, I have to pluck up the courage and act, even if it's the last thing I ever do.

I open my eyes very slowly, when I see the man leave the room, I look at Joe who has his head down and covered in blood, I take the knife inside my bra and throw it across the floor to his foot on the chair where he is tied.

Contrary to what I thought, he's not passed out, he raises his curious face and looks at me, not even the bruises are able to diminish his beauty. At that moment, I feel someone pulling my hair so hard that I cry out in pain. I'm thrown to the ground brutally and I start receiving several kicks through my body.

Not so many, until my rescuer interrupted and grabbed the man by the neck. His action is fast and skillful, he strangles the man quickly and makes sounds from his throat, his grunts are nothing like something normal, they are a furious killer with blood in his eyes.

I watch the scene with a horrified fascination, it feels like I'm watching a movie and not a murder. I see the man die in agony with blood coming out of his mouth, I can't look away, I lose all notions of time watching the horrible scene, but for me it's not so horrible now.

He killed him, Joe killed another man in front of me. But instead of feeling horrified and shocked, I feel a strange sense of joy mixed with pride, relief and fascination. It was Joe who killed him, even though he was hurt, torturing and theoretically weak.

All those armed men are stupid to be within Joe's lethal range, even unarmed I believe he can take out more men than a normal man can with a machine gun.

He looks at me intensely, completely covered in blood he hugs me, with his arms around me I feel like crying, but I know this is not the time for that. His blood stains my skin and my clothes but I don't care, all I want is for him to hold me for a few more seconds, but my desire is interrupted when a man enters the room and pulls him back pointing a gun at him.

I know that he can easily defeat this man alone, but I also know that he cares about my life and that it could end up being left to me, so he raises his hands in surrender, without taking his eyes off me.

I can't stand here and watch Joe get beaten again, and this time, maybe even to death. I remember the gun on my waist, it's small and light, I've never done that in my life. I swallow hard feeling my heart pounding in my throat, the man has his back to me, he points the gun at Joe and exclaims several words in another language.

He doesn't mind my presence, maybe a little bit because he doesn't speak my language, considering this to be the same man who was asking Joe to give his life for him.

But I am surprised by your sentence that yes, I understand:

"Goodbye, Joe. I told you so." At this point I can't control my instincts and squeeze the trigger of my gun.

I see the man fall to the ground with blood splattered everywhere, but he's still alive and moving, Joe quickly takes his gun and unloads it five times on him, then looks at me with an anesthetized and indecipherable expression.

The gunfire outside is going down and I believe in Joe's group, that they are the ones winning. I come back to myself when I feel a grip on my wrist, I look at Joe who rests his forehead on mine, having to bend down a little for that.

"Stay here, it's almost over. I'll be right back. Don't leave without me. Got it?"

"Yes." I obey and sit in a hidden corner watching him turn his back and go to the middle of the war.

Minutes later he comes back with the noises of shots completely stopped, his eyes shine and he raises his hands to me, I hold on to it and I get up from the ground.

I grimace in pain trying to give him a smile, my body is sore from the kicks, I imagine Joe then that he must have suffered all kinds of things before I arrived and after I arrived too.

He holds me tight and pins me against the wall causing a crack in my back. He suddenly feels dizzy and pulls away from me, I look worriedly trying to keep him upright.

"Are you okay? Can you stand up?" I inquire.

"I would manage, I had a plan." He splutters before falling to the ground unconscious.

I start screaming for help, when I see Franco come through the door accompanied by several armed men, they grab Joe and take him out, then I feel a coat being placed on me and I'm headed in the same direction.