Arabella sighed. "Okay, I'll do it. I don't know how, but I guess I have to if I want to live."
"That's exactly right, my dear. Now, hurry and get out your phone before I become too impatient," grunts the man behind the mask. Ara pulls out her cell phone and dials Damien's number. One ring, two, then a seventeen year old boy answers.
"Hey babe, what's up?" Damien says.
"I- I don't think we're going to work." Fear rose in her voice and tears rose to her eyes.
"Wha-What do you mean?"
"I'm breaking up with you."
"You're breaking up with me?"
"That's what I said, isn't it?"
"Yeah, but why?"
"I don't love you. I can't be with someone I don't love." And at that, she hung up the phone. "I did it, I broke up with him. Will you please lower your gun now? Why did I need to do that anyway?" Her answer is sassy, but you can still hear the terror in her voice. But the masked man lowers his gun.
"Because I want to torture you. That's why." he answers, but you can hear the nerves on end in his answer.
________
Damien stares at the phone. What just happened? He asks himself. A single tear escapes and trickles down his cheek. The door to his room opens, and he wipes the tear from his face and turns around.
"Mom says 'come downstairs.' She wants to talk to you." his sister Emily says.
"Okay, I'll be down there in just a minute." Emily closes the door and goes back downstairs. Damien shoves his cell in his pocket, closes his book, and heads downstairs to meet his mother.
"You wanted to see me?" Damien asks.
"Yes. I wanted to discuss your skipping class. What's that all about?" Ms. Turner inquires.
"What skipping? I'd never skip class" he lies.
"Stop it, Damien. I got a call from your teacher today and he mentioned that you weren't there. I asked how many times he had been out this month and he said you had been out at least four times. That's once a week. You haven't been sick or taken out of school since you were fifteen." Her attitude grows impatient and angry.
"It won't happen again. I promise. The only reason I'd ever skip was to be with Ara, but now…" His voice trails off, remembering what happened just five minutes ago. Ms. Turner's face turns from anger to concern in a matter of seconds.
"Are you alright? Did she break up with you? What happened? Tell me sweetheart. I'm here to listen." she says, sympathetically.
"Five minutes ago. She called me and told me we were through and she didn't love me five minutes ago." At that, his breaking point, he starts to sob. He can't take it anymore. He loved her for fourteen months and it ends like this?
________
He has his finger on the trigger. He's going to put weight on it any second. She starts to cry. She had been so good up until now. She was so strong. She didn't shed a tear. But now, she's weeping. She can't stop crying. She thinks of all the people she loves and all the people that love her and she thinks of how sad they'll be when the police find her body. If they find my body she worries to herself. That is her worst fear: no one finding her to bury the body.
Suddenly, the door opens. Cops come in with guns.
"Drop your weapon!" one screams.
"Stop or I'll shoot'er!" my man in the mask threatens.
"Drop your weapon!" Frank walks in a bit late.
"Arabella! Are you okay?" Frank asks.
"I'm fi—" I try to respond before the masked maniac to my left tells me to shut up. I am fine. I'm pretty good for someone at point blank. It hasn't all really hit me yet. The scene must look terrible. There are papers spread about the floor. Drawers are left ajar. There's a huge blood stain on the floor but that's from where I punched him in the nose before he pulled out a gun and stuck it to my temple. My ankles were tied to the legs of my plain wooden desk chair. My hands were free though.
"You two know each other?" asked an officer.
"Yeah. She's an aspiring detective. I work with her at my summer classes." Frank responds. "Can we focus on the issue at hand rather than my personal life?"
"Please" Ara adds.
"Last chance, sir. I'm going to ask you once more to put down your weapon," says another cop. My masked maniac hesitates for a minute, then says,
"What's in it for me?"
"Less time in jail. Now, c'mon. Put it down. You don't want to do this. Put it down. You know you don't want to hurt an innocent seventeen year old girl." Frank eventually convinces my masked maniac to set down his gun in front of him. Frank then jerks forward and grabs the gun.
"Go." He shouts to his team. They run up to my man in the mask, grabbed him and cuffed the guy. Next, they came up to me and wrapped a blanket around my bare arms. I muttered a "thanks" and followed them outside to the police car. Arabella turned around to get a good look at the house she had been held in for only two hours before the cops arrived. She immediately recognized it as Jake Hill's house. She turns back around as soon as the cops take the mask off none other than her junior-year best friend, Jake Hill. The tears start rushing down her face.
"You?! You did this to me? And I thought you moved! I was devastated when you moved and you try to kill me?" She starts to think. All those little things he'd say to her are finally starting to make sense. When he told her he loved her, he had a sparkle in his eye. Now she knew he meant it. Now she knew that he loved (and still loves) her. When she started dating Damien, she should have seen the crazy jealousy in his eyes. She always knew Jake was a bit loony, but she thought it was the good kind of crazy. She never thought he'd go this far.