I cut the engine as I reached Jesse’s house. I glanced up at his house and then at my surroundings. This was giving me the creeps.
Jesse lived in a house in the middle of nowhere. Not quite literally, but did he have to live in such a place where there were no freaking neighbours? I mean sure I could see some houses a bit far away, but would it have hurt so much to be a bit close to human civilisation?
Or maybe he just didn’t want the neighbours to hear the girls’ moans
and scream when he fucked them.
It was dark inside the house and around it. I was alone here, except that maybe Claire and Jesse are inside and my friends were going to come soon. I got out of the car and walked up the stairs to Jesse’s doorstep.
Should I knock? Or just barge into the house? That would rude, but eh who cares, he has got my best friend locked up in his room.
I was about to touch the door handle when I heard a car pull up silently. I turned around to see Jake in the car. My hand subconsciously patted the pepper spray I had in my shorts’ pocket. I think I might need it today.
Jake jumped out of the car, not caring to lock the car door behind him and skipped up the stairs to me. I saw Sam trail behind him. He brought Sam too.
“Where is Claire? Is she okay? Is she inside?!” Jake asked urgently, wide eyed as he stared at me. I awed for a second, seeing the concern lacing his eyes for Claire.
“I don’t know. I just reached here. She told me she’s in Jesse’s room.”
“Let’s go then,” He said before grabbing the door handle and yanking at it.
“What the-”
“What happened?” I asked.
“It’s locked.”
“Step aside, kids. See the power of my fist!” Sam boomed as he shoved me aside. I glared at his back before smacking him in the head. He glared back down at me.
“What, Parker?” He never said my name. He always called me by my last name. It made me think if he has a personal enmity with me or what, because too many books and movies made me think that only enemies acknowledge each other by last names. But that was not the case as Sam was very pleasant, protective and almost behaved brotherly to me. And I liked him a lot. He was funny… and almost always horny.
“If you’re going knock that door down, I must stop you because I don’t want Jesse to know we’re here before we even know where he is.”
“Then you got any better plan?” Sam asked, looking very sure that I don’t.
“Of course,” I said, pushing him out of my way.
I took? out a bobby pin from my hair.
“This isn’t a movie, Brooke,” Sam scoffed.
“Will you just shut up, please?”
I inserted the bobby pin in the lock. I knew how to do this. I mean I had dine this before. I once broke into Claire’s house because I wanted to give her a surprise party for her birthday.
The door opened. I looked back at Sam who had his mouth open.
“How did you do that?” He asked. “It didn’t open when I tried.”
I looked at him incredulously. “You tried to open a lock with a bobby pin?”
“Yeah, when we had to prank Jesse. It didn’t work so we had to use the window.”
“Stop it. I have to see if Claire is okay or not!” Jake said, yanking the door open and stepping inside. We were behind him. The whole house was dark. There was not no source of light inside. It was also eerily quiet. The little light that was provided, was the moonlight streaming through the open window. I had to squint my eyes to make out the shapes in the room. I had never been here before. There was no one in the room. Where the hell was ? Jesse?
There was a flight of stairs at the corner of the room, which probably led to Jesse’s room.
“She told me that she’s in his room,” I whispered to them. “I think those stairs lead to his room.”
“Why does he live here? It’s just so creepy and… dark around here,” Sam said, swiping his fingers across the coffee table at the centre of the room. “And jeez, does he ever clean his house. It’s so dusty around here and—shit!” I whipped my head to the left when I heard a loud noise, it’s sound echoing around the house. I saw Sam bent over a broken vase.
“What the hell, Sam. We can’t make any noise!” Jake whisper yelled at him.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t see the stupid vase on the table.”
Suddenly, the lights turned on and we could see each other as well as things around us clearly.
“What’re you doing here?” I heard a voice at the other end of the room. I turned my head to see Jesse standing in the doorway. He was shirtless. His hand held a black V-neck t-shirt.
“We’re here to get Claire. Why did you bring her here?” I asked as calmly as I could manage. He threw the shirt over his head and looked down at me.
“I don’t think that’s any of your business.”
“It is! She’s my best friend!”
“And she’s my girlfriend!”
“And she’s my, um… friend, I guess.”
Jesse smirked. “So? This is my house. Get out.”
“I don’t have time for your crap,” I snapped at him and walked towards the staircase which led to his room. He quickly stepped in front of me and blocked my path.
“Get out of my way.”
“Get out my house.”
I glared at him and he glared back.
“I don’t have any desire to be here. As soon as you give me my friend back, I’ll be out of here.”
“I won’t give her,” He said and pushed me back. I stumbled back but Sam caught me.
“Give me my girlfriend back, you asshole!” Jake yelled at him, trying to push him out of his way.
He smirked. “Your girlfriend, huh? Well, I must say she’s quite good in bed.”
This made Jake more angry. He aimed his fist at Jesse’s nose but couldn’t punch him because Jesse gave his own punch to Jake in the stomach. Jake clutched his stomach. His lip trembled before he recovered from the attack and pushed Jesse back. Jesse fell on the floor.
Meanwhile, Sam rushed to help Jake. Jake grabbed Jesse by his collar and threw a punch on his face. Jesse groaned and tried to get up but Jake pushed him back down. When trying to get up didn’t work, Jesse kicked Jake in the stomach and he fell next to him. A gasp escaped my parted lips as Jesse sat on top of him and tried to choke him. Sam tried to get Jesse off of Jake, but Jesse pulled him down too and kicked him. I looked around for a stick or a vase to break it on top of Jesse. I couldn’t find anything.
“Brooke! Get Claire!” Jake choked out before he coughed. Jesse lifted his fist to punch him but Sam caught his arms and tried to twist it around his back.
The three of them were struggling at the base of the staircase. I steered clear of the three people lying on the floor, and just as I put my foot on the first stair, I felt a hand grab my foot. I lost my balance and screamed as I fell on the stairs. My face stamped on one of the stairs. I experienced a shooting pain in my nose. I looked back to see that Jesse had his hand around my foot. I kicked it away. I would have liked to stamp my shoe on his face but I had to get Claire. He had literally kidnapped her.
Behind me I heard something break. I looked back, horrified at the fact that Jesse just broke a vase on top of Sam’s head, the strongest one of us three. He had one of it’s broken pieces which he used to stab Jake with. Sam collapsed on the ground and Jake gasped as red liquid began soaking his shirt.? Blood.
I was beyond scared of Jesse now. I? got up, only for Jesse to catch my leg. I fell down again. This time Jesse didn’t let go of my leg and instead used it to crawl on top of me. I tried to shove him away but his grip on my clothes was tight and if I resisted, my clothes would rip off of my body. His hands wound around my neck and he tried to choke me too. I tried to punch him but he dodged my hits every time. Not finding any other way, I reached to my shorts’ pocket and took out the pepper spray. I underestimated his ability to fight us. I quickly threw the top of the pepper spray away and brought it to close to Jesse’s face and sprayed. Unfortunately, it didn’t went in his eyes but landed on the cheeks. I tried again and this time it successfully went into his eyes. His grip on my loosened and I kicked him off of me before getting up and backing away as far away from him as possible. I rubbed my neck, coughing a few times to relax myself.
I jogged up the stairs quickly. There was a small hallway with a few rooms. I opened and looked in each of the rooms for Claire but I couldn’t find her in any room. I didn’t have much time. He would soon recover from my attack. At last, I reached the room at the end of the hallway. I opened the door and peered inside the room. There was a bed in the middle and a table beside it. My gaze landed on Claire who was sitting on a chair at the corner of the room.
I slapped a hand on my mouth as I saw that she was only in her undergarments. Her bra strap had slung down her shoulder and she had blood-shot red eyes. A cloth was wrapped around her mouth tightly to keep her from making any noise. Her hands and legs were tied to the armrest and legs of the chair. A knife was on the floor with blood on them and I saw bleeding cuts on her hands and legs. On seeing me, she tried to say something, but her voice was muffled because of the cloth around ? her mouth.
I entered the room and shut the door, in case Jesse returned. I peeled off the cloth from her mouth and she gasped as if she was having a hard time breathing. I took off the ropes which had her arms and legs tied to the chair’s handles and legs.
“Oh my God, Claire. Are you alright? Did he hurt you? Oh no, of course he did. Get up, I’ll clean your wounds up,” I said, grabbing her arm to help her get up.
She half stood up before she sank into my arms, clutching me tightly against her. I rubbed her back.
“Shh, it’s okay. It’s going to be okay. He won’t do anything to you.”
I felt my shoulder getting wet and I pulled back to see her crying. I wept her tears away, “Don’t cry, Claire. Here,” I said, handing her the clothes lying on the floor.
“What did he do to you?” I asked her. She wouldn’t undress herself in front of Jesse, right?
“H-He tried to r-rape m-me,” Her voice broke in the end. My mouth fell open on hearing this. Oh. My. God.
“B-But before? he could do anything, you came,” More tears escaped her eyes and I hugged her, feeling like crying with her.
“I’m so sorry Claire, I should have come here as soon as possible. I’m so sorry.”
“It’s not your fault. Please, let’s just go from here. I don’t want to be here,” She said, hiccuping in the end.
“Okay,” I said as I gave her, her clothes. I shrugged off my jumper as I saw that she just had a thin, sleeveless top on. She reluctantly took it from me.
I heard something break downstairs, so I grabbed Claire’s hand and pulled her with me downstairs. On reaching downstairs, I was shocked to see Jake and Sam bleeding even more. How the hell did Jesse manage to hurt them? It was impossible! It was two against one.
I saw Jesse with a knife in his hand. As he saw us, he began struggling vigorously under the hold of Jake and Sam. Good thing they recovered from his attack. I just hoped Jesse hadn’t hit Sam too hard on the head and that Jake wasn’t stabbed badly.
“Why is he acting like that?” I asked, panicked because he looked like a raging bull. It worried me even more because Claire was wearing my red jumper. I hoped he wouldn’t break free from their hold and race towards Claire like a bull chasing red.
“Claire, you’re mine! No one else’s! I’ll show you, you bitch. How dare you reject me?” He growled while trying to reach us. Jeez, he was scary that way. “Claire, you can’t leave me, I’ll kill you! And then kill myself! You’re mine! Mine! Mine! Mine!” He shouted, his voice raising after every ‘mine’.
“Oh my God, I think he’s gone mental. We better leave!” Claire? shouted, visibly scared of Jesse. “Jake, Sam please just leave him. We should go.”
Jake nodded and they loosened their hold on him. Suddenly, Jesse got up and shoved the two aside and charged towards us. I screeched as he ran past me and held Claire’s hand tightly. Claire screamed at that.
I watched in horror as Jesse took out a gun which was strapped to his back, along the waistband of his jeans.
He put the gun on Claire, who was crying by now. “If anybody comes near, I’ll shoot her and then kill myself!” He threatened.
He started dragging her towards the door. She pleaded him to let her go but he didn’t listen to her. We were all too frozen to react. He had a freaking gun.
But he was taking my best friend to God knows where and I didn’t know what he would do with her. So what if he had a gun right now? Claire was my best friend and I was ready to take a bullet for her. I forced my legs to go after them. I ran out of the house where I saw Jesse fumbling for the his car keys. I came up before ? them.
“Brooke, what are you doing? Go inside!” Claire shouted at me.
“No, Claire. You’re my best friend. I won’t leave you here with this retard,” I sneered at Jesse.
Jesse’s eyes filled with anger and before I knew, he had placed the gun in my direction.
“As you’re a girl, I’ll spare you your heart,” He said, shifting his aim from my chest to my knee. My breathing came out ragged and my hand felt clammy and sweaty.
It was okay. I wouldn’t die, hopefully. He would just shoot my knees and the sound would push Jake and Sam into action. They would be able to take down Jesse, they had to. And they would. I love my mom, brother, Claire, Sam, Jake, Darren, Josh, Tyler and Brian. Oh God, I love Brian so much. I hope he won’t come here. What if Jesse hurts him too? I didn’t think I would be able to see that. I didn’t want him hurt.
I took one step forward, hoping that somewhere at the back of his
nonexistent brain, he would see that what he was doing was wrong and he shouldn’t do it.
“You want to die?” He shouted at me. “Step back!”
I replied by taking another step forward. “Jesse, leave Claire alone. We all can talk things out calmly.”
“Back up, bitch!”
When I didn’t move, he pulled the trigger of the gun and I immediately closed my eyes. I heard the gun shot and prepared myself for impact.
But it never ? happened. I opened my eyes in confusion and saw a body lying in front of me. I dropped to my knees as my eyes filled with tears. Oh God. Oh no, not him, please dear God, not Brian.
When I turned around the body to face me, I couldn’t control my tears anymore. It was Brian. He leapt in the path of the bullet. He saved me.
He was breathing heavily through his mouth, and clutching his leg. I almost fell from my sitting position when I saw that he had been shot in his calf.
I looked up at Jesse with tear filled eyes, “Look what you did, moron!” I yelled at him. He looked shocked, as if he didn’t expect he would do such a thing. My hands were shaking. Claire gasped next to him.
I took out my phone from my pocket to call the cops. Jesse didn’t stop me. I told them the address and without any explanation, told them to hurry up.
“Brooke,” Brian whispered, finding it hard to breath.
“Brian! Hold on a bit! Please, the cops will be here soon!” I said, taking his face in my hands.
Jake and Sam came running out of the house too. Sam stopped short and kneeled down next me.
Jake ran towards Jesse, aiming his punch at him. He looked so angry, so desperate to kill Jesse that it scared me a bit.
Jesse’s eyes widened as Jake approached him. I hadn’t expected it. Neither of us did. But when, Jesse shot Jake in the chest, I felt like dying. I would rather die myself, than see my friends dying.
“NO!” Claire’s deafening screams drowned in the sirens of the police cars as cops reached the scene. Claire struggled in Jesse’s arms before kicking him in his shins. He crouched down and hissed in pain. She ran to Jake and took his head in her lap.
I was seeing too much blood. I was seeing too much pain. I was seeing the people I loved the most on the verge of dying. My throat felt dry and the world spun around me. My head was throbbing. I tried to take Brian’s hand in mine. And Brian’s blue eyes staring back at me were the last thing I saw before my eyes closed without my permission.