Payback
Nick looked out the window in the door and saw an empty yard.
He looked out the left side window and the back window and saw the same empty yard. He grabbed a baseball bat and sat in against the door.
"Nick, how come you didn't check the other window?" Val asked.
"You can't see out of it. It's just leaves and branches. I hated that window!" Nick replied automatically. Val could tell he had other things on his mind. Another tear fell from his eyes as he said, "If they hurt Bri, I'll kill them!"
Val felt his pain. Brian was like another brother to Val. She sat next to Nick and put her arm around him. Nick began to cry and Val couldn't stop the tears from flowing from her eyes. They both had a feeling Brian was anything but OK.
"OH MY GOD! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Raina screamed falling backwards away from the window Nick hadn't checked.
"What's wrong?" Alex asked. Everybody looked to where Raina was staring. All they could see was branches. Val stepped closer and tried to look through the branches. She saw it! Val couldn't speak. She fell to the floor and started crying uncontrollably. Nick went to see what it was. He could see a limp body hanging from him and Brian's swinging branch by a noose. No mistaking it. It was Brian. Nick didn't bother to cry. He grabbed the baseball bat tighter. He opened the door to the tree house and stepped out. He jumped out of the tree and began walking out of the yard. Everyone followed him. Tasia pulled Val off of the floor and wiped one of her tears. She hugged her and and pulled Val out of the tree house. They all ran to catch up with Nick. He had his baseball bat in his hand. He walked into the middle of the street and began screaming, "WHAT DO YOU WANT?! IF YOU WANT ME COME GET ME! I AM RIGHT HERE! COME ON FUCKER! YOU ALREADY RUINED MY LIFE! COME ON BITCH!"
Val thought she saw something move in the bushes behind Nick on his left. She squinted to check, but didn't have any time to warn Nick. Before Val knew she saw
something, and a figure was charging at him.
It tackled Nick and began hitting Nick in the stomach with a rather big rock.
Nick still had a straight face. It was as if he didn't feel any pain. Nick took his baseball bat and hit the figure in the head. The figure paused for a minute, before stabbing Nick in the side with a knife nobody had even noticed. Nick hit the person in the head again. That was all that was needed to knock him out, but Nick didn't stop. He got off of the floor and started hitting the person in the stomach with the bat as hard as he could. He got in 3 blows before Alex and James ran up to stop him.
"It's alright man!" Alex comforted.
"NO! IT'S NOT! HE KILLED BRI! NOW I'M GONNA KILL HIM!" Nick screamed hitting the person in the head hard enough for a tiny bit of blood to rush onto the street.
"Is he still alive?" Val asked.
James reached for his wrist and checked for a pulse.
"Yeah he's alive. Unfortunately." James told them.
Nick ran up and kicked him. Val turned to Raina and leaned her head on her shoulder. Val began to cry again.
"Unmask him!" Tasia told James.
James reached down and pulled off the mask, Alex had grabbed Nick's flashlight back at the tree house. Now he flashed it on the person on the ground.
"FUCK ME!" Nick yelled when he saw who was in underneath the mask.
Val turned around to look at who it was.
"JEFF!" Val screamed. She fell to her knees and leaned over him. Everyone expected her to lean down and hug him, but she punched him in the stomach.
"How could you?!" She sobbed. She put her face in her hands and fell over next to Jeff.
Alex turned the light towards Nick. "HOLY SHIT MAN! You are bleeding hella bad." He screamed.
"Nick looked down, shocked. He just now felt the pain. He held his side. James took off his coat and wrapped it around Nick's waist very tightly, trying to put pressure on it.
"I thought you said there was more than one person." Alex reminded Nick.
"There was man! I just don't know where the other one is." Nick replied.
"Well I dunno if it is exactly smart for us to stand here in the middle of the street." Val told him between sobs.
"Fuck that! There is one of them and 6 of us. 7 if you include the almost dead asshole on the floor." Nick told them.
Nick stood up. He began to shout again. "IF YOU WANT TO KILL US, DO IT! WE ARE RIGHT HERE IN THE OPEN YOU DUMB FUCKS! COME ON YOU PUSSYS!"
Nick sat down again and shrugged, as Alex fell over. They all looked to see what had happened. Alex had been shot on his right shoulder. He was on the ground screaming and grabbing his shoulder.
Everyone ran over to him. Val pushed her way up to him. She tore off part of her shirt and pressed it firmly on his wound. He flinched from the pressure, but everyone knew that was what you are supposed to do.
"Hold that down." She told him, as James, Val and Tasia lifted Alex to get him and the others under some cover. They all ran behind some bushes across the street from where the shots had come from.
"Now who's the pussy?" They heard from across the street.
Tasia looked at Alex and he looked at her. They knew that voice.
"Amanda?!" Alex blurted, sitting up.
"Yes?" She asked, walking into the street as all the lights up and down the street turned on again. They noticed she had a rather big gun in her hand.
Alex looked more hurt than in pain or scared. She walked over to the bush where they were all crouching. She had on black robes and there was someone behind her. It was another person in black.
Nick's mouth fell open. "Manda?" He asked in disbelief.
"Yeah! Nicky?" She replied in a perky voice.
"What in the hell is going on here?" Val asked as Manda ran over to see if Jeff was OK.
"Easy." Amanda began. "I was going to help my friend Manda with a murder tonight. It was supposed to be for one and was supposed to happen about 3 hours ago, but some fucks went into your room." Amanda said pointing to Val.
"Why me?" Val squeaked.
"I'll answer that!" Manda said walking over to the bush, showing off her gun too. "You have been what has been in my way to having my Nicky baby."
"What are you talking about?" Val asked confused.
"Nick is in love with you! He has always loved you. He will always love you. Ya see that is a problem for me. I want him for myself and I will have him." Manda told her.
"I would never go out with you. That is why I said no to you 4 times. Not because of Val, but because you are fucking crazy!" Nick spat at her.
Manda looked hurt and confused. She turned to Amanda for support.
"After you guys got in there, we figured we'd wait a while and just watch Valerie live out her last day. After a while you got to MY AJ. You went to far with my boyfriend! So I had to have you killed!" Amanda snarled.
Amanda turned to Alex and said, "I wasn't out with Chris tonight! But thanks for letting me know I was being cheated on by 2 of my boyfriends. He'll be next on my hit list."
Alex shot her a dirty look and gave her the finger.
"Tsk! Tsk! Is that the way to treat an angry girlfriend with a gun?" Amanda asked him.
"EX GIRLFRIEND!" Alex shot.
Amanda nodded and turned to Manda.
"Why Jeff?" Val asked. "I have to know!"
"I guess since this is probably your last request, unless you want to fuck my injured boyfriend, I'll answer it." Amanda told her coldly. "Jeff was insecure, didn't trust you or Nick and has been in jail before for attempted murder. I guess you didn't know that, huh?"
Val shook her head and Amanda continued. "Shows how much you knew about your beloved boyfriend. Anyway when we grabbed the wrong girl, we ran into the kitchen not knowing what to do for about 30 seconds. Then I looked to Manda and we both nodded. I called Jeff, which I might add is a very nice lay. We told him that you were kissing another guy as we spoke. He hung up before I could tell him who. He went after Nick thinking it was him. We didn't tell him what we were doing to the love of his life. He tried to kill Nick; we wanted him after AJ. So it was all a big misunderstanding. I apologize Nick."
"Yeah, Nicky baby, I would never hurt you." Manda said blowing a kiss to Nick. He returned the gesture with a dirty look.
"Why the neighbors? Why Raina's parents? WHY BRIAN?" Nick yelled at them.
"We couldn't have any witnesses. Plus we didn't need you having them help keep you safe. Oh, and about Brian, that was nothing personal, he was just onto us. He heard us outside of your house when he was on his way over. We started running after him with a knife and he ran to the tree house like you did. He just didn't climb fast enough. He unlocked the tree house and we had him. We couldn't have someone telling on us ya know. He brought it on himself." Amanda said realizing that she shouldn't have said all that.
Nick's eyes got bigger and he was about to jump up and tackle her, but Val touched his shoulder firmly and he knew he shouldn't. Raina could hear Val crying because of the information she just heard, and she sat next to Val.
"Well, I guess I should take care of what we set out to do." Amanda said lifting her gun up and pointing it towards Val's head. "Any last words?" She asked.
"No … please." Was all Val could get out before Amanda pulled the trigger. Raina jumped up to protect Val. She took a bullet to the head for someone she had only known for about 7 months. Raina's limp body fell on Val's lap and Val screamed and began to cry again. James' eyes bulged out of his head and he got up. He charged at Amanda and took her by surprise. He only had enough time to tackle her and to punch her once in the face before there was another gunshot. Manda had shot James in the back of the head. James' dead body went limp on top of Amanda and she rolled him off of her.
"Thanks girl!" Amanda said smiling at Manda.
Manda nodded and Amanda looked at Val again.
"How many times are we going to fail to kill you?" Amanda asked.
"Three," Amanda heard behind her. She turned around to see Jeff. Before she could say anything, Jeff lifted up a rock the size of his head and smacked Amanda in the head with it.
One blow to the head was all it took. Amanda dropped her gun and fell to the concrete dead.
"Jeff!" Val gasped as there was yet another gunshot.
Manda had struck once again. She shot Jeff in the back. Jeff fell on his knees and fell onto his stomach. Val jumped and ran over to him. Alex got up and ran after her when he saw Manda raise her gun again. She pulled the trigger just as Val kneeled next to Jeff. Alex reached to knock the gun away, but it was too late. Val had been shot in the back of her left shoulder. She let out a shriek and fell next to Jeff. Alex grabbed the gun from Manda. Manda was in shock for a second, but shook out of it and stuck 2 fingers in Alex's bullet wound. He screamed in pain, but held onto the gun. He backed away keeping her away from the gun. He pulled back the trigger and shot it in Manda's direction. He shot her in the left arm. She yelped in pain, but still was after the gun. Nick got up to try and get her away from the gun. But he distracted Alex and Manda got the gun. She took 4 steps away from the group and said, "Nicky, if you'll never love me, why should I live? I shouldn't." Nick watched in disbelief as Manda put the gun in her mouth and pulled the trigger, before anyone could do anything about it. Her body fell to the ground. Nick fell to his knees and began to cry uncontrollably as what had happened the last 5 hours finally set in. Alex looked over to Tasia, who was huddled in a ball next to Raina's body crying. Finally, Alex hobbled over to Val. She was facing Jeff and talking to him. Alex sat and listened.
"Baby … Why?" Val asked.
"I didn't know," he choked. "Amanda told me that Nick tried to rape you. She told me that he was touching you and that they couldn't get him off of you. Baby you have to believe me! I didn't know what was happening. I would have never …"
"I know," Val cut him off. "It's OK baby. She was evil. Thank you for trying to protect me."
"Don't *cough* thank me. It's my job to *cough* protect you. I am supposed to protect *cough* those I love."
"I love you Jeff!" Val exclaimed, struggling to wrap her arms around him, with her wounded shoulder.
A tear ran down his face as he said, "I *cough* love *cough* you *cough* too Valer…"
He never finished. He died in Val's arms. She couldn't cry anymore.
Val just stayed there motionless. Not knowing what to do. Alex walked over to Tasia and wrapped his arms around her.
The crying and mourning was interrupted by red and blue lights. The cops had finally gotten there. They had an ambulance and the cops loaded up Val, Nick, Tasia, and Alex into it. They headed off to the hospital. On the way there, they all realized that they were scared for life. They realized that the only people that would ever always be there for them, were these 4 people. They had formed a life long bond in one unforgettable night. They also knew that they would never be able to love anybody other than the 4 people they shared this experience with. The trip to the hospital brought them closer together as they all sat on 2 stretchers. The trip to the hospital was almost more memorable than the night.
Alex went on to become a songwriter, using his feelings from losing friends that night for his love songs about loss of love. He also went on to marry Valerie. She became a poet who also used her feeling from that unforgettable night to write. She gives a lot of her work to her husband to use in songs. They never had children for fear of losing them.
Nick went on to prove Manda right. He will always love Val, but not the same way he loves his wife Tasia. Nick became a doctor, treating emergency victims in the ER. Tasia went on to become a Women's self defense instructor. They also never had any children for fear of losing them.
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