Clan of Redemption (4 page)

It felt so weird to be out
without Logan, I’ve never felt so alone. I never realized how much
he really meant to me until he was gone. I’ve always heard people
say that, but I guess you don’t understand until you experience if
for yourself.

We played pool for almost
an hour, looks like she's letting the guy win. I was bored but I
was glad for the distraction. Sitting in my room dwelling wasn’t
the best place for me. At least I knew that much about myself.
Distraction, distraction, distraction.

Sully seemed tolerant of
this guy most likely because he looked like someone that you
shouldn’t be around. I was sitting most of the time people
watching. It’s fun to marvel those who tend to drink too much. It’s
almost like a ritual mating dance. I did notice one guy staring at
me a few different times throughout the night, but I’m sure he
wasn’t staring at me. Sully was a very attractive girl, and seemed
to collect a lot of attention.

“I need to use the
bathroom, are you ok for a minute,” I said and I rested my stick up
against the wall.

“Yeah I’m fine,” she said
without even looking at me.

I went into the bathroom
and was surprised that there wasn’t a line, but there was a big
scary looking guy standing by the door. I said hi as I passed by,
but he just stared at me. I didn’t know this bar hired security for
the bathroom, but who knows what things have been transpiring here.
I finished using the bathroom, was washing my hands, and heard the
door open. I was sure it was some girly girls, primping themselves
for the herd waiting outside. As I raised my head, I saw a guy
standing behind me.

“Ummm I think you’re in
the wrong bathroom, this is the LADIES room,” I said.

“No, I’m in the right room
with the right person,” he grabbed me by arm.

“Excuse me, I’m not
looking for a date,” I said as I tried to pull my arm
away.

“You can scream if you
want to, but then I might have to knock you out. We're going to
leave this bathroom and take a left towards the back door, if you
as much as look the wrong way I’ll make sure that your friend Sully
feels as much pain as you will,” he told me while gritting his
teeth.

“Who are you? I don’t have
much money on me, but you’re welcome to it. And I promise that I
won’t tell anyone,” I pleaded.

“No wrong moves Jayden,
I’d hate to hurt your pretty face,” he snarled.

His grip tightened. I’m
sure it was going to leave a bruise.

Wait, how did this guy know
my name?

I was so scared I couldn’t
think, it was like my mind went blank.

Get it together I told
myself, you need to think about this.

As he opened the bathroom
door, the guy that I had saw standing next to the door was right in
my face and grabbed my right arm. Great, how am I supposed to get
away when there are two of them? Sully was around a corner so she
wouldn’t see me, I could try to kick them and run. They didn’t look
like guys that would flinch even if I kicked them. They were
dressed all in black with dusters jackets that hung almost down to
the ground. As one of them turned towards me, I thought I caught a
glimpse of something shiny under his arm. I really hope that’s not
a gun.

“Now there are people out
this door that are smoking, if you make even a peep we’ll have to
hurt them too, and you don’t want anyone else to get hurt do you
Jayden?” he asked me on a sneer.

“Hey, how do you know my
name? What’s going on? What do you want with me? I think you have
me confused with someone else.” I was frantic and hopeless knowing
that if they knew my name, then this wasn’t a mistake but I had to
try.

“Carl, you weren’t
supposed to use her name. You idiot.”

“What does it matter
anyway, were killing her regardless.”

“Kill me, what? Wait, you
don’t have to kill me.”

“It’s your destiny to die,”
said the first guy named Carl.

As we were walking out the
back door, I heard Sully call my name. Thank god, she saw me, but I
didn’t want to turn around. I was afraid of what these two big guys
would do to her.

We passed the people
congregating outside with no problems, but that’s when I really
started to panic. I started to feel dizzy and I must have been
passing out, but I felt like I was flying for a minute. One of the
guys picked me up and threw me over his shoulder, and that’s when I
saw Sully running out in the alley screaming my name. I’m not sure
how I was able to manage it, but I reached into my pocket and
grabbed Sully’s keys and tossed them onto the pavement. Maybe Sully
could follow us and call the police. The two guys were running at
top speed now. I knew we were traveling fast, but it didn’t feel
bumpy like you would expect, maybe that’s because I was half in and
half out of consciousness. They finally stopped in some dark alley
that didn’t look familiar to me. Not that I’m familiar with all the
dark scary alleys in town, or any for that matter.

They flung me to the
ground and I woke up a little bit when the pain from my tailbone
shot up my spine. That’s going to leave a bruise.

“Ouch, did you have to
throw me down so hard. Have you two even had a broken tailbone? Let
me tell you it really hurts,” I yelled.

“We want your ring, and
necklace. Be quick about it or we will just cut it off,” the second
big guy barked.

“My ring, is this what
this is about, some jewelry that was given to me, so you two are
just some thugs trying to make some money?” That’s great, being
robbed on my birthday, this is turning out to be a great
year.

As I started to pull the
ring off, my necklace started glowing bright.

“Hey, what are you doing?”
One of the none descript egg heads asked me.

“Me, I’m being robbed,
other than that, nothing,” I said as I realized my necklace was
really amping up the glow.

“Well that’s a cool
feature,” I said out loud.

"She doesn’t know about
them yet, does she?” the larger one said to Carl.

“No, and if you don’t shut
up I’ll have to kill you too.” It sounded like he meant
that.

“Now take them off or I’ll
shoot you first then I’ll take them off.” He threw a cloth pouch at
me and instructed me to put them inside.

“We can’t touch them
right?” the dumber one asked.

“You idiot, are you trying
to get us in trouble?” He smacked the big guy at the back of his
head.

I slowly started taking off
my necklace when I heard growling coming from behind the two
guys.

“What the hell?” Carl
turned to look but the dog leaped onto his chest before he was
fully turned around.

“Get this dog off me
Brent!” Carl said.

Brent must be the other
guy’s name, not that I really cared since they wanted to kill me.
Everything happened so fast, but it seemed like it was moving in
slow motion.

Brent reached in his
jacket and pulled out his gun and pointed it at Carl’s chest. Brent
could not shoot because he would probably hit Carl too. Carl fell
to the ground grabbing at the dog trying to get him off. The dog
went for his throat and with one quick swipe ripped it right out,
blood went everywhere.

It was so
disgusting.

As soon as Carl was dead,
the dog turned to me and growled, but not in the same way as he had
with the bad guys. Before I could get up, Brent took a shot at him
and the dog yelped and hit the ground.

“Now you’ve done it, you
got Carl killed! You’re going to pay for that, now take off your
necklace and ring.”

I reached over to the dog
and he was still alive, but the shot was to the chest and he was
losing a lot of blood fast. I had to think fast, I reached to my
right and saw a large rock. I grabbed the rock and pulled my arm
back to throw it at him. He lifted his arm and aimed the gun right
me.

“You’ll have to shoot me
first, because I know you’ll shoot me if I give my jewelry so
what’s the difference.” I knew this was the end of my life. I
didn't have time to really ponder that, but I wasn't going to give
this guy what he wanted, at least not while alive
anyway.

“Ok, I’ll shoot you first
and find away to get the jewelry off your dead body. It can’t be
that hard.”

I closed my eyes; I knew
this was it, but I was hoping that it didn't hurt, or that I die
fast. What happens after you die, is there a heaven, and if so
what’s it like and would Mom be there waiting for me? What if this
is all there is? What happens now? I don’t want to die.

I heard something hit the
pavement and I was afraid to open my eyes.

“You can open your eyes
now, it's ok.” This voice was not familiar to me.

I slowly opened my eyes
and saw the second guy that was trying to kill me, sprawled out on
the pavement next to the other one. This man that saved me walked
over to and put his hand out to help me up.

“Are you ok, are you
hurt?” the strange man said to me as I stood up.

“I’m ok, a little dizzy
still, but I think I’m ok,” I said.

“Did you knock that guy
out?” I asked still leery of this guy, I wasn’t sure who he was or
where he came from.

“I found a crow bar up the
street before I got here, just in case I needed it.” He wiped dirt
from my back.

“I was lucky you happened
to be close by. Where did you come from?” I asked while trying to
keep my teeth from braking from the chatter. I didn't feel
cold.

“I was at the bar and I
had just come out of the men’s room when I saw them dragging you
out the back door. You didn’t look like you wanted to go with them,
so I followed you, but they lost me after a few block, but I heard
the dog and the commotion and found you again. Is that your dog?”
the strange man asked.

“Oh no, the dog, I forgot
about him for a second…they shot him, I have to get him to a vet!”
I hurried over to him and knelt down. The dog was still alive, but
barely.

“It’s ok, I’ll get help and
we’ll fix you up good as new…You saved my life.” Tears started to
well up in my eyes.

“Well he’s not the only
one that saved your life, not that I want any credit.” He bent down
next to me to check out the dog’s condition.

“Oh, I’m sorry, you did,
and I can’t thank you enough.” I was just about to ask him his name
when I heard wheels screech to a stop.

“Jayden are you down
here.” Sully yelled from the entrance of the alley.

“I’m down here Sully, the
dogs been shot, get your truck down here," I yelled
back.

Sully pulled her truck
into the alley. Sully ran over to me and put her arms around
me.

“I’m so glad to see you, I
thought I lost you!” Sully said as she pulled back from me. I could
see real fear in them.

“What happened, who are
you?” Sully asked the guy next to me.

“We don’t have time for
this we have to get to an emergency vet before this dog dies. Help
me lift him into the back of the truck,” I commanded.

Sully and the strange guy
and I lifted the dog into the back of the truck. A few times the
dog yelped out in pain. I wished there was another way to get him
into the truck, but what choice did we have. Sully had a tarp in
the back that we laid down to give the dog a little
cushion.

“There’s an emergency vet
office two blocks down on 2
^nd
, the entrance is in the alley.” I heard the good Samaritan
say.

I jumped in the back of the
truck with the dog.

“I’m riding with him.” I
looked up at Sully who was closing the tailgate.

“Ok Jayden, but you hold
on, because I’m going to drive very fast.” She still seemed to be
shaking.

“Where did that guy go?” I
asked as I looked around.

“I don’t know, he was here
one minute and then gone.” Sully ran and jumped in the truck. I
looked back to the two guys splayed out on the black pavement
wondering if I should call the police when we get the dog fixed up,
and also wondering who the mystery man was that helped
me.

Well whoever he was, I was
glad that he was there or I would be dead right now. I tried to
picture his face but it seemed fuzzy, maybe it was all the
adrenaline pumping through my body. My first concern is this dog;
please don’t die. If Sully drives fast enough maybe, he can make
it. I sat crossed legged in the back with the dogs head in my lap.
I stroked his head wondering how he found me, how he knew where I
was. He saved my life. I closed my eyes and prayed to whoever was
listening not to let him die, while I had my hand rested just under
his chest. I could feel the blood oozing out and down my hand.
“Please don’t let him die, I need him with me, I’ve had too many
deaths in my life,” I said to anyone listening.

The temperature outside
had dropped a bit but all I could feel was a warmth coming from my
stomach. Time seemed still as a memory leaped forward. Logan and I
were running through the woods, it was a race that he was
determined to win. When I realized that he was going to win the
race, I shot through the underbrush to the left and ended up
finishing first. I opened my eyes to see that I had passed out
alongside the dog.