Ryan’s sister was as fun as him. It hadn’t even been a day since I had met her, yet we had grown pretty close to each other. Between, she was very pretty, maybe not as pretty as Ryan, but definitely pretty. They had similar characteristics. Her hair was brown, her nose straight and shiny like olive oil on a metal surface. Anytime my eyes caught the beautiful, blue color of those eyes, it felt so much like I was staring into Ryan’s eyes. Though she was a mother of two pretty girls, her slim and model-like shape was still intact.
“Tell me.” She winked, the corner of her lips curling up in a small smirk. “Does Ryan ever buy you jewellery?”
I glanced at Ryan, and chuckled weirdly. “Well, your brother is slowly learning how to be romantic. Don’t blame him for not knowing these things.”
“Oh, really?” He held my arm, clinging me to him. “Wait, so, I’m supposed to buy her jewelries? I didn’t think about that. She hardly ever wears any, so I assumed she doesn’t like them.”
“Oh, silly boy.” She poked him on the forehead.
“Come on, Jessica. Thought I told you to stop doing that.”
She raised her hands in surrender, rolled her eyes at him, then huffed. “Sorry, sorry, Mr. Grumpy man.”
I giggled. For some reason, I found them very cute.
“So, what else should we get?” She threw a bag of chips into the cart in front of her, her eyes scrolling through the stalls beside us.
I shrugged. “Groceries, I think.”
She sighed. Turning to me, a warm smile crept to her lips. She looked a bit tired. “Serene, if I may ask, uh, have you like, thought of moving into my brother’s place?”
I chuckled weirdly. “Oh. That. Um, I don’t know. I mean, I don’t mind, but, I just… I don’t think it’s—”
“She’s not ready to move in yet.” Ryan cut me off. He pulled his arm from mine. Though I knew he was so interested in the moving-in topic, he just turned around, acting indifferent to the discussion, his eyes scrutinizing the goods on the stall. “You said groceries, right? Think we should buy some. Uh, wait. Let me get some snacks first. I like these ones.” And that was how he diverted for the topic.
Okay, it wasn’t like I didn’t want to move in with him. First, I didn’t want to seem like a burden to him, and second, I always had a belief that in courtship, living in the same place didn’t make one see the worth of his partner. Like, if we weren’t together, he would always want to call me, he would miss me and appreciate my presence whenever we got to see each other. Well, I hoped he wasn’t going to feel bad that I wasn’t willing to live with him just yet. I needed some time, I guessed.
“Maybe Jessica and I should get the groceries,”I suggested. He glanced at me, nodded, and grabbed a snack. I pulled Jessica’s cart, a sneer on my lips. “After all, it’s not like you know anything about purchasing groceries. You’re such a failure in that.”
He shot me a playful glare. “Funny.”
I winked, making my way to the other side of the mall.
“So…” Jessica cleared her throat, her eyes still focused on the stalls. I almost exhaled in exhaustion, knowing that she would begin a creepy conversation. “Have you both ever said anything about getting married? Not like I’m forcing you to do it or something. I just need to know. Nothing else.”
I knew it. That was the creepy question.
I laughed weirdly, again. “That’s quite complicated. Yeah, every woman wants marriage. It just seems like the men always try to run away from responsibility.”
She chuckled. “I agree with that. But, um, don’t you think you should say something to him about it?”
“Don’t wanna seem pressurizing.” I spotted one of my favorite snacks, so I grabbed one quickly, and threw it into the cart. “There’s no doubt that he wants to spend the rest of his life with me. In that case, I assume that he’ll eventually get married to me.”
“I hope so.” She pouted. “I mean, he’s gonna be thirty two, yet he hasn’t settled down. I really need him to get rid of this young-boy mentality. See, I know you might think I’m being too protective, but the thing is, I was the one who raised him up. We grew up alone. I don’t want him to be like our dad and all that. I just want him to get married to you, seriously.”
I smiled at her. “I understand that.”
We reached the grocery section in the mall. As she put the vegetables in a new cart, I moved my eyes around, searching for the perfect size of orange I wanted.
“It was said that she escaped two hours ago.” The television which was hung on the wall, caught my attention. I squinted my eyes, wondering what the breaking news was all about. “Furthermore, the inspector said that she shot the security guard at the jail. Sadly, the middle aged man is in a state of coma. The inspector also said that the police are around the city, searching for her.”
I still didn’t get what was going on. Trying to understand it, I squinted my eyes even more to read the headline. The moment my sense grasped its content, my heart skipped a beat. My eyes bulged open, terror rapidly twitching in my brain. My hands shuddered like a defaulted machine, a lump of saliva plummeting down my throat. It felt like something was attacking my breath, and instantly, a strange feeling swept through me.
Sherri had escaped jail?
Without thinking twice, I grabbed my phone to send Ryan a call. That was when I saw four missed calls and three voice notes from Officer Rita Cowell. Gosh, I knew I shouldn’t have put my phone on silent! Rather than wasting time regretting that, I decided to return her call.
I dialed her number. I was glad I had seen her call, but that joy vanished from my heart when Jessica gasped. It wasn’t just that. Also, my eyes caught the devil.
For a second time, I gulped. “Sh-Sherri?”
She smirked. She put her hands behind her, sauntering towards me like the criminal she was. “Surprised?” The hoarseness of her voice made me feel queasy. She looked frustrated, dark circles decorating her eyelids. Her face was a bit pale, as if she had lost the little melanin on her skin. Right now, her hair could be used as an example of a bush. She looked terrible.
“Sherri? I’d thought you were in jail!” Jessica snapped, standing beside me.
“I was.” She smirked even more. “In fact, I would return to jail. But first, I need to end someone.” Saying that, with a whole lot of force, she pulled her hands from her back. Without being a little hesitant, she raised a gun to my head.
I gasped. “Wh-What’re you doing? P-Please drop that.”
She sniggered. “Says who?”
“Are you crazy?!” Jessica yelled at the top of her voice. I could tell that that caught the attention of some people. They gathered around us. “If you don’t drop it, I’m gonna call the police on you! How can you think of killing someone?! How dare you?! Huh?!”
“Shut up, you fool!”
And then, my heart stopped for about thirty seconds. I froze. I couldn’t decipher anything that was going on around me. What had she just done? What was that sound?
Shivering so much, gaping, I slowly moved my neck to look at Jessica, only for me to see her on the floor, gasping for air, blood dripping from her arm.
Good Lord, she had just shot Jessica in the arm?
Petrified, I turned to her, breathing hard, my hands balled up in a fist. “What have you done? Wh-What’s wrong with you?”
Like a maniac, she burst out laughing, laughing like one of those witches in a disney movie. “Oh, fool,” she spat out.
“Jessica!” Ryan appeared. He ran towards his sister, crouched beside her, held her arms, breathing hard. He was tense.
Abruptly, the whole place went into tension. People began running back and forth, seeking an escape route. But here we were, battling to get rid of the lunatic. How in the world had she escaped jail?
“Please, stop this. You won’t gain anything from it,” I beseeched.
She took a step close. “You’ve ruined my life. I’m lonely, depressed, heartbroken, frustrated, shattered. No words can explain how I feel.” Tears formed in her eyes. “Out of the blue, you appeared. You took my man. You ruined my reputation in the society. You made me become irrelevant. You’ve ruined my life, you idiot! And now, you say I won’t gain anything from this? What a joke.”
“You idiot!” Unexpectedly, Ryan stood straight. For the first time since I had met him, he hit a lady. Yes, he hit her. He hit her to the point that she tripped backwards, and almost fell.
She held her cheek, staying in her position. Gently, she turned to us. She was panting, her eyes red, tears dunked in them. The good thing was, her gun had fallen off her hand. But, the moment Ryan wanted to grab her and try to control the ruckus, she managed to grab the gun.
She stepped backwards, and cried, “You fools!”
“Drop the gun!” What a relief. The police appeared. Immediately, they began running towards her.
She snapped her neck around. Seeing the police, she began breathing even harder. She raised her gun immediately, wept so much, seeming very confused. She turned to the police, then to me, and back to the police.
“Stop! You all should stop! Stay away from me!” She sobbed so much. Though she looked very pitiful, my heart had no space to feel bad for her. She was such an idiot.
“Drop the gun!” Officer Rita commanded.
She still pointed the gun at me, shutting her eyes. In a blink of an eye, she pulled the trigger. “Aah!” And cried out loud.
I heard the sound of a gun. I didn’t even notice that my eyes were already closed. Instantly, I realized that tears were pouring down my face, my heart throbbing hard against my chest. I was trying to catch my breath, trying to live.
Unexpectedly, someone’s arms wrapped around me. The thickness and firmness of the arms was proof that the person was a male. He leaned on me, his head falling to my shoulder. His hot breath caressed the skin of my neck, feeling like he was struggling to breath.
Calmly, I opened my eyes. Tears filled them, terror filled them, agony filled them. That was when I observed that Sherri had shot the man. Suddenly, even without seeing his face, I knew it was Ryan. She had shot my man. He had taken the bullet for me.
“Save me, Serene,” he whispered in my ears.
I couldn’t move. This was traumatizing. How many more people would she harm?
*