"Crest!" the agent ran in with her gun extended. "The hostages have bee-"
With his gun pressed into my temple, Crest remained still as both him and the agent had shared a long bout of eye contact. As though they'd been trying to read one another, they hadn't moved nor flinched for what had felt like minutes. The both of them knew very well that the first person to move was going to get killed, and thus both had been frozen in time - left to breathe forever without movement.
"You must be Agent Sainz. I've had a one of my own tailing you, and honestly I can't say I'm not interested by your lifestyle choice." Crest began a war of words. "I wonder how people would react if they knew you were dating another woman, and a pornstar at that. How would your parents feel, I wonder?"
She hadn't budged an inch, as though she had seen it coming. Had she been playing dumb in the van, or had she really not known that much about him? Had she actually been thick-witted enough to run into this building without backup, without knowing what had been inside? Crest began to move, shoving me forward with him. Again, she hadn't moved. Had she really been that dumb, or did she have a plan?
Had she planted a sniper somewhere that I hadn't known? Had she known that this whole thing was a lie? Had it been possible that she knew all along, playing both Chrissy and I along with Crest and D-Bag? No, that was impossible. Crest wouldn't have been that easily beaten, not that quickly. Either something had gone wrong somewhere, or this was just all part of it - part of his game.
"My friends and family already know." she laughed. "Looks like your friend didn't go much further than that. Now, give up and let the kid go. Nobody needs to die here, not me, him, or you."
"I'll let him go once I get what I want, which is freedom." Crest sneered. "You really don't know what you've just caused. I came here to tie up a loose end or two, and you follow me here. You've woken up a monster, and I don't think you'll be leaving alive. Honestly, I don't think either of us will be."
It had been at that moment that I was able to feel Crests grin. The room had so suddenly been taken over with a pressure, a pressure that wanted to force me as close to the ground as possible. As though a boulder rested on top of my shoulder, I had felt like I was going to be crushed under the weight it created. Had this really been coming from a human being, just like myself?
Had this been what a seasoned criminal was able to do to others? Could a regular person learn this fierceness? How had Crest been able to switch from being calm and composed to this - akin to something crawling under your skin? This side of him had honestly scared me more than he had already had before. His seriousness, the composed mannerisms he used were scary enough as you would never be able to guess when he would pull the trigger.
It had been the unknown of Crest that made him terrifying.
"Freedom from what, exactly? The und-"
The agent had been interrupted with the spraying of bullets from some sort of machine gun, and before I had even known what was happening, I had been hit in the face with blood. At that exact moment the agent collapsed like some stunt dummy that had lost it's support, but even then, the bullets hadn't stopped. They continued to shoot, clearly hoping to empty the room of human life.
Moments after the agent had collapsed, I had found myself on the ground with Crest - who had seeming turned himself into a shield. What was this? Crest hadn't mentioned anything about this, and he had stated that nobody but him was going to die. Yet, agent Sainz, as Crest called her was on the ground likely bleeding out. Had he been lying to me or was this someone intervening? Had it been someone close to either Sainz or Crest? Who knew about it?
+++++
"Basically, I've ordered Chrissy to send the head of the team in. She was told that she heard me say something alone the lines of I'm going to kill you. I figure this is enough to get her sent in, as it is evidence in and of itself - which was all she needed to arrest me."
"So, you're pretty much asking her to kill you? Why don't you just shoot yourself, then?"
"Because I want to go out my own way, and that is in a reign of fire. I've ruined a lot of lives, and I think this is my best chance... for atonement and to apologize to all those I've hurt in my life. I remember when you left, you looked so done with yourself and your life that I could almost feel it - and look at you now, tall and a lady-killer to boot."
"Obviously. Every day of my life after that, I wished I could have taken a sedative - anything to make me feel closer to emotionless. I fucked up, but I didn't want to feel it. I fucked up, but I didn't want to see it. I was horrible to everyone, especially Maggie. I fucked up, but I made it seem like it was her fault when it was all mine. I know it and I still feel it. I ruined something good with her."
"Interesting. I'm going to be dying soon and I'm talking about such small things with you, Cyrus. I honestly can't remember the last time I've done this, but it feels good. It's so simple feeling, like I don't have to think any more. As for Maggie, it happened for a reason. If wasn't meant to work out, then it wasn't going to. If it is meant to work out, then you two will find your way back to common ground. It's not god or anything like that, but life itself has a weird way of working out the kinks, the way things should naturally be."
"Not for me. I ain't that lucky."
"Someday, then. Someday."
+++++
The bullets had finally stopped flying and the building had now been filled with silence once again. Turning my head, even I had been able to tell that Crest was a bit shaken. This hadn't been within his variances, and had thrown his whole plan off course. Suddenly, the sound of the clip being put in echoed through the building, which had been followed by a few footsteps. Who was this? Even I had been at a loss, just as much as Crest himself had been.
"Sorry, Crest." the voice hissed. "This is happening because it should be me taking over, not him. I've been with you since the damn beginning! When will it be my turn?!"
D-Bag? Why had he been doing this? He was always so loyal to Crest, so much that it had impressed me. If someone would have told me that he would have been the person to do this, I would have laughed in their face - and then spit in it because of the disrespect put towards him. Yet, there he stood and spoke, spitting bullets in our direction. It was a shock, and one that had slowed us down.
Had that really been his reason, he wanted to take over Below Zero? He was going to murder me and Crest for that? Had it been because Crest was the leader that he wanted to take over, or had it been for the money? Had it been for the greed, or for the power? Did he have another reason entirely, something we had both been missing? Slipping free from Crest, I had seen the one thing that may have saved us. That thing was Sainz's gun.
"Fuck you, punk. Why couldn't you have just disappeared with your father?!"
Just as he finished screaming, I reached over the counter and blindly shot twice before whipping my arm back down as quickly as I could. What had come next was silence, pure and complete silence. Had I actually hit him? No, that was impossible. I hadn't even looked where I was shooting. What had the chances been of me hitting him, a quarter of a percent? What should I have done next?
It was in this situation that I realized something, I was actually about to die. Hadn't this been exactly what I wanted all along? Hadn't I wanted to die? Hadn't I wanted to die by someone else's hand because I was too chicken to blow my own brains all over a wall? This was the world giving me a sign, just as Crest had put it. Life itself had a weird way of working things out, and it had been telling me to die. This had been my one and only chance to die at the hands of something besides my own
Shouldn't I have taken the chance while I could?
Then why hadn't I stood up? Why hadn't I been able to stand up and take that bullet? I would have finally been able to die and see Kylie again, so why? Hadn't I had every reason not to want to live - or had my hesitance been because I had found a new reason to live - even if it had only been temporary? Had it been Ashlynn? Had she been the reason my legs refused to move on their own? Had I been scared to die?
If I was going to die anyway, then shouldn't I have fought back? Shouldn't I have been giving every last bullet to him?
Clenching my left fist, I had finally seemed to gather the gall to stand up. As I stood, however, I felt a pair of hands on my back push into to me and sent me face first into the ground. Landing on the side of my body, I had only seen one thing at that moment - Crest smiling as the sound of D-Bag's gun went off - bullets layering him with inhuman speed. Blood continued to hit the floor as bullet after bullet went into and through him, until the clip had been unloaded.
Why? How come everything I had felt a connection to ended up dying? Why did everything I touch get burnt? Why did everything run from me? I had just watched the person who had saved me get shot up like Swiss cheese, or had he done that on purpose? Had he done that so he had been able to die himself? Had Crest foreseen all of this, down to this very detail?
Drowning in my own thoughts, I had been blasted back into reality with the massive booms of three gunshots pointed at D-Bag. He, too, had carried a smile as he fell to his knees. Had he made himself a traitor because wanted to die with Crest? Why had they both smiled? Had they been trying to atone for all of the bad they done, knowing that their time may have been up - or had they simply been running away from what was a life-sentence in prison?
Cough.
Static.
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++
"Cogn--...ion..."
"...eat source...bral...ex."
"...mid...bra..."
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"Are you there?"
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"Are you there?"
++
ns 15.158.61.8da2
