This have got to be the most idiotic idea I've ever had / tried to pull. And it might have just costed me my life.
So here's what happened after I gathered up my wits to meet Craig whatever-his-last-name-is.
I exited the building, hoodie over my head and you would think being the biggest nerd or genius freak in the school, I would've thought of and arranged transportation, but of course, I got so caught up in making sure my disguise won't look too feminine that I forgot about how I would actually get to the warehouse.
I started making a list of options available to me in 3 seconds flat.
Hire some chauffeur thingy? Nope, too flashy. I'm supposed to be a poor guy who is in dire need of a large amount of money.
Go with a motorbike? Nah, can't drive one. We're trying to figure out on a transportation for a pure Genius Freak with no badass fiber in her being, let's not dream too far.
At last, hauling a cab was the best idea I could come up with. With the cash I had in hand, I figured I would be able to actually cover 4/5 of the way and walk for the rest of the distance.
It shouldn't be that far.. Right?
Was what I thought until I got to the walking part.
Why in Hades' name did I think that I would be able to actually walk the rest of the way?!
I think I might have just broken my own leg, or I will very soon, judging by the rate at which it was throbbing. God help me.
Despite the cold of the night, my body was buzzing and it seemed to last forever as I thought of what I was trying to do here. It was probably high on the chart of the most impossible things to do on Earth.
I mean seriously, this was going to be a fight between a small weak girl who has got no fighting skills at all against (most probably) armed people in their playing field.
Yep, I've definitely lost it. Mhm. Not a single doubt about that.
When the warehouse finally appeared in the horizon, my breath hitched and stopped for a second. What now?
Honestly, I don't exactly know because frankly, I didn't expect myself to get this far.
Yeah, it's not a flawless plan. Hell, it's got loopholes everywhere - such as this one.
"Come on, Lucy. You got this." I told myself, trying to convince my own conscience so that I'll have at least the voice in my head to hype me up since I don't see anyone else around me that can do it for me.
I hitched the duffel bag higher on my shoulder and strode inside with my head low so that they wouldn't see my face that easily. My heart raced as I saw the door and a minute after I knocked on it with trembling hands, I hid them back into the hoodie's pockets and clenched them into tight fists to prevent them from shaking so much.
There was a small sliding space on the door and a pair of eyes greeted me when it was slid opened.
"Passcode?" I gulped and tried to gather my wits to find my voice. I made sure to make it deeper and imitate the guy I'm supposed to be.
"7634."
The small hole disappeared and my mind started racing. Did I get it correct? Oh my God. What if I got it wrong? Did they have booby traps with guns that are about to start shooting at me anytime now? Jesus.
I was snapped out of my thoughts when the door screeched loudly, swinging open wide enough to let me in. Inside, the air was warmer and I got a glimpse of everything. It was some kind of factory storehouse. White packages were stacked higher than my height could possibly reach and people with uniforms were shouting at each other while directing the people in sitting in big moving equipment. There was lights everywhere and it was they lit the place so brightly that my eyes started stinging.
Suddenly, I was shoved forward, away from the scene and I tensed once more when I felt something being pressed against my back. I never had a gun pressed against my back but I guess this is what it felt like. I tried to look annoyed to mask the feeling of complete and utter terror that had a vice grip on my heart and tried to will my feet to move.
We walked down a dark hall and I tripped once or twice due to the lack of light but the scary dude 'guiding' me found his way just fine. Finally, we got to a firmly shut door and the guy used a pattern of knocking at the door. A booming, scarily familiar voice told us to enter.
Apparently, the dude wasn't planning to come into the room with me. He pushed me forward and shut the door behind me, causing me to stumble. Fortunately, I caught myself before I could tumble over to the floor and reveal my identity. My heart raced as to how close I was to being exposed.
I tried to calm my nerves down so that he wouldn't suspect anything as I stood in front of him.
"Did you do it?" He asked me. I peeked at him from under the hoodie to look at the guy who wanted my brother dead. I nodded, trying not to show him that I was hesitant to speak.
Craig was a lean guy, he looked like those type of businessmen who sends a hit man to do his dirty work and does the paperwork instead. I wanted to give him a piece of my mind, just remembering what he tried to do. My blood boiled and the thirst of blood threatened to take over. I didn't know where this side of me came from and though I would usually be disgusted by it, right then and there my only concern was how to execute the violent thoughts it was triggering. Violence was never my forte, it was Drake's but I'd be damned if I didn't try to make it mine at least for the next hour.
I was saved from answering any further questions when the door banged open though. I was tempted to heave a huge breath of relief, thinking I was off the hook but I knew better than to make a sound because I've watched enough movies to notice the pattern. The moment you lower you guard is the moment you're going to get caught. But another reason why I didn't sigh or even twitch was because of the scene that greeted me next.
Ryder was there, beaten and battered, hauled by two huge guys. They were tall, scary and all in all, I could tell that they wouldn't hesitate to give me a makeover if they found out I wasn't the guy Craig was supposed to meet. Girl or not.
I started to shake slightly at the sight of how roughed up Ryder was. Hell, I was ready to shit my pants by now.
Ryder didn't notice me in there but I was sure it was him. I would've recognized those eyes anywhere, swollen or not. It was a sight, indeed. I felt tears well up in my eyes and I held back a sob as I casted my stare downwards, towards the tiled floor.
If I let my eyes linger on him any longer, I would've had given myself away from choking on that sob.
I knew it was a dangerous moment but I couldn't help but eavesdrop on them. "We found this one resting behind a stack of the packages." I had to hold back my hand from flying towards my mouth when I pieced it all together. I looked at the vest Ryder was wearing over his hoodie I failed to notice earlier and realized that he was one of the workers that works for them.
"Take care of him," Craig ordered with a malicious grin. I didn't know what he meant by that but I had a feeling that it was going to be horrible since Ryder immediately started thrashing against their hold, trying to rip his hands away, out of the iron hold the two guys seemed to be keeping him in.
He strained and let out a cry as the one of the guys who was holding him kicked him and took him down. I couldn't help it anymore. I was going to go crazy if I have to stand by and watch them hurt him any second longer.
I started screaming at them, throwing myself at them and started hitting them with my fists, "Stop! Stop it!"
Despite my efforts of getting them to stop beating Ryder up, my fists were nothing in comparison to their size and build. They were much bigger and stronger. Soon after I started to try to beat them to stop, I realized how dumb I was for even thinking it was going to do much damage.
They caught my hands in their own easily and restrained me. My heart started racing as fast as my mind, thinking about the things that they might try to do to me. With one punch from any of these two and I'm done for; it was just a matter of which one of them gets the honor of delivering that hit that will seal my fate once and for all.
It didn't matter though, because in two long strides, Craig reached me and ripped my hoodie off, revealing my face and my hair that I hid beneath it.
"Well, well. Lucinda Kennedy. How lovely to have you join us here." He taunted and I looked at Ryder who looked as pale as anyone could get.
"I guess you've found out about your brother's little problem. Did you get my note? Well, I guess you did, considering you dumped your boyfriend here," He snickered and Ryder's face just got paler and paler if that was even humanely possible.
"What are you getting at, Craig?" I spat his name out as if it was poison.
He smiled, "Oh nothing. Just the fact that Ryder here is my baby cousin. Didn't he tell you? No? Oh, I guess not. He really hates my guts for ripping the company off him." I think we could all agree that my eyes turned as wide as saucers.
He was an heir to a company? To this company? And he works here? Oh, this is just peachy! Great! I groaned in my head as I tried to link it all together. I felt like my brain was going to melt from all these twisted information that was trying to piece itself together in my head.
So, all in all, my brother's best friend had sent someone to kill my brother and the guy I ended up liking and I ended up pushing away was actually already roped into this mess to begin with. Even worse, he's the cousin of the bad guy and is an heir to an illegal company. This is great! Really! (Please not my heavy sarcasm there.)
I wanted to hit myself upside the head and just fall to an endless sleep, bury myself a hole and lay there and never wake up.
"Take her away with him, don't let them get away and do your jobs right this time." He growled lowly in a no bullshit tone. "Ah, the monstrosity of these guys never fail to frighten me," I thought as the other guy grabbed me and hauled me over his shoulder.
Oh well, might as well go down fighting. As soon as my foot left the ground, I tensed up and started kicking and flailing my way out of my problems.
"Let me go, you baboon faced, donkey brained maniac!" I yelled at his face. My flailing made his grip loosened on me as he struggled to keep me restrained and balanced over his shoulder. I felt myself start slipping down against his torso and as soon as I got to eye level with him, I kicked him. Hard.
I didn't even feel a tinge of guilt when he buckled over to tend to his crotch.
I ran for Ryder's guy and lunged for him. It was stupid, no doubt and it resulted in him not moving, not even by the slightest a bit. I got to hit his head five times with my balled-up fist before my captor manhandled me once again.
Ryder was screaming for me to leave him and save myself but of course I wouldn't have been able to live with myself if I had left him to rot here with his sorry excuse of a cousin.
I screamed in agony as Craig suddenly appeared in front of me and twisted my arm. He slapped me the second I started screaming and that got me to shut up. My captor took hold of me and I whimpered in pain as Craig released my arm.
Ryder screamed for them to not touch me and leave me alone but it all went to deaf ears.
"Take them to the dungeon, I'll deal with them later on." Craig ordered and before any of us could object, we were shoved out of the office and 'escorted' down a set of steep stairs that went in circles.
As soon as we reached the bottom of those stairs, they opened a door and behind it were rows of holding cells. It seemed empty until people started screaming to get them out, raising the hairs behind my neck. They opened up an empty cell and threw both, Ryder and I into the cell, leaving us in the darkness.