That's weird. Who is yelling at my door at this time of night? I pause my movie and walk over to the door. Standing on my tiptoes I look inside the peephole. She looks hurt. I open the door, "Oh my god! Are you okay, what happened to you??" I say franticly. The girl then proceeds to explain that she and her friends are all going to die if I don't help them. I give her a weird look.
"Please, you have to help us... Please" Her eyes are pleading.
"I don't know why it is that you need me-"
"I don't know, but please! Just help me. Or help us."
"Let me drive you to a hospital first." If I'm going to help her, I might as well get her safe to say the least. I grab my jacket and keys. The girl is unusually quiet now.
"Hey." I place my hand on her shoulders. "It's going to be okay." She gives me a weak smile in response. We begin to walk and I notice her limping. I place her arm over my shoulder to help her walk. "Come on, let's get you to the hospital." We head down the stairs and outside. We start to walk over to where I'm parked and a guy is leaning against the trunk of my car. I freeze and push her arm off of me. "Do you know who he is?? This is the person holding you and your friends captive?" I proceed to freak out. He walks towards me.
"Well done Ida, please go sit in the car." I look at Ida angry, she won't look at me. "Now Ida." She does as he asks.
"Did you miss me, love? I've missed you, Camila." The color drains from my body.
"H-You-You were supposed to be in jail!" I yell.
"I'm out early. Just in time too." The clock tower nearby strikes midnight. "Happy birthday Camila." He kisses my forehead. "Let's celebrate together shall we?"
"There's no way in hell I'm going with you! You can piss off." I turn around, attempting to go back into my apartment.
"Go ahead. Do it and I'll kill this precious thing right here." I turn around to see he's holding a phone pointing to a little boy. I march over and grab it. The feed looks live. The boy is on his knees crying. There's a gun to his head.
"You're bluffing," I say.
"You know me better than that. I would never." He smiles. I just stare at him. I can't believe I'm in this situation once again!
"And I'm the only person that will keep you from hurting these people?"
"I can't promise you that I won't hurt them. But I promise you, I won't kill them... For now."
"Yeah right, look what you're about to do." I angrily gesture to the phone.
"I'm not killing him. They are." He points to the person holding the gun to the boy's head.
"Two words and he dies. Unless of course-"
"Shut up." I throw my keys at him and get into the car I saw Ida go into. He gets into the driver's seat soon after me. I thought that once I left that cruise I'd never see him again. But now I'm right back here. Playing his sick and twisted games.
"You're awfully quiet. Why don't you tell me what's going on inside that pretty little head of yours." I say nothing. "Love, if this is going to work out. You're going to have to speak to me."
"Well, how's this for starters?" I turn to him, "Go screw yourself." I smile and turn around to face Ida. "As for you-"
"I'm sorry! He was going to keep hurting me if I didn't get you down there somehow. So I just let you think-" I turn around not really in the mood to hear what she has to say. I know she was just doing as instructed, but a part of me wants to hate her for following what he said. Why does he always have to involve other people? If you just want me in the end, what's the point of going through the trouble of involving innocent people?
"We're here, let's go inside shall we?"
"God dude, you're sick." I get out of the car, slamming the door.
"You know my name, Camila. I suggest you use it."
"Fine. I hope you die a horribly painful death, Vincent. How's that?" He rolls his eyes at me.
"The attitude is a bit much." I walk to the door, forcefully pushing it open. As I walk in, I notice how many people there are. The house looks as if it was set up for a party. Once again, people who thought they were here for a good time. The door is still open, I look back and realize there are so many dead bodies on the ground. Inside there's an unconscious man, he seems to be breathing still.
"Help us! Please!" A woman dressed in very expensive-looking clothes runs up to me. "Please you must have-" She stops and looks behind me. Vincent must have just walked through the door with Ida. "Oh.." Her face drops.
"That's why I'm here. To make sure you all live to see another day."
"How do we know that you're not just working with these crazy people huh? How are we supposed to trust you?" Some guy shouts.
"Yeah! You came here with him willingly, who would come here willingly?"
"Alright, I'm not dealing with this again." I turn to leave.
"What do you mean again?" Ida is the one who says something this time.
"I've been in the situation you guys have been in before. Except much, much worse." I pinch a spot between my eyebrows. This is not how I expected to spend my birthday.
"You're one of the survivors of what happened on that cruise two years ago." A man says. I thought he was unconscious coming in here (or dead seeming as killing people is not exactly above him), but he's sitting up now. Still on the ground.
"I don't care who she is. You knew who he was." A guy gestures to Vincent, "And yet here you are."
"If you would stop yelling at me, and let me talk."
"But-"
"He made her! Didn't you think of that? He threatened to kill all of you if she didn't come. So just be grateful that she's here. She could have just left you all for dead." Ida is shouting at all of them.
"Why I'd love to sit here and watch this all day." Vincent yawns, "I think it's time we spice things up a little more." He smiles. "How's your boyfriend- wait no. If my sources are correct, fiancé, doing?"
"How do you know about that?" I say.
"I know everything about you, love."
"What type of sick person are you?" This guy just keeps bashing me.
"Aaron, would you let up on her? Obviously, she's not in a relationship with him."
"No, she's just as sick as he is!" Aaron walks up to me and shoves me back hard. All I do is blink, then Vincent is pinning him against the wall.
"Lay a finger on her again. And I will make sure I'm the last person you ever see." He backs off of him. "As I was saying before I was interrupted." He tosses a phone to me and I catch it. "Call him. Break up with him."
"There's no way I'm-"
"Or. I could kill this one." He yanks the rich woman who was begging me for help earlier to stand in front of him. "And this little one." He does the same for the little boy.
"You're going to make me break up with Xavier? And over the phone at that?" I say looking at the phone.
"Yes, yes I am, now do it. No tricks either Camila, I know how you are." I stare at the phone in my hands.
"JUST DO IT! STOP STALLING BEFORE HE KILLS MY WIFE!" Aaron is yelling at me again.
"Listen here. I get it. You don't want to be in this situation. I get it, you don't like me for some reason the lord only knows. But it is not my fault that all of us are in this situation. So if you're a decent human being, you can stop yelling at me."
"You're stalling Camila." Vincent holds his guns up to both the wife and the kid. My eyes fill with tears as I dial his number.
"Xavier. Hi."
"Where did you go? I came home and looked for you, but you were gone." I'm silent.
"Camila are you okay? What's wrong?"
"Xavier. I love you and always will. But, I don't think we should-" I choke up. I take the phone away from my ear and mute myself. "Do I have to do this?" Vincent looks me square in the eyes. He hits the kid with the gun. The kid begins to cry and a big guy drags him somewhere. He's screaming. But eventually, they take him far enough away to where you can no longer hear him.
"Think I'm not serious?" He says. I unmute myself and put the phone to my ear.
"I think that we should see other people." I hear him take a sharp intake of breath.
"Camila, where is this coming from? Why?" I can tell he's holding back tears.
"Bye Xavier..." I hang up the phone. "There. Are you happy now Aaron? I'm fucking up my life. Just to save yours. And I can tell you wouldn't do the same." He says nothing.
"Was that so hard?" Vincent brings the boy back in. He's sniffling trying not to cry.
"Oh, Max!" His, who I'm assuming is the mother, comes running to him and hugs him tightly. "Thank you so much. You saved my baby. I will forever be grateful to you." I nod my head to her.
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