Chapter 1-Saved
All I could feel was the tight and clammy arm around my neck and the cold barrel of the gun pressed against my temple. I could hear the sirens but only faintly as fear had begun to shut down my senses and it felt like all noise was being blocked out by an invisible film. All I could smell was stale sweat and I felt blood slowly trickling down my forehead, creeping past my eyebrows and blurring into my eyelashes obscuring my sight. I closed my eyes, almost paralysed with fear as the arm tightened across my throat and the gun was pushed further into the side of my head. I could feel myself slipping into unconsciousness and I began to prepare myself for the end.
"FBI, put the gun down!" I heard over the sound of my own uneven breaths and the sirens. The yell brought me back to myself and I opened my eyes to see an agent with a Kevlar vest with FBI written in an offensively bright yellow on the front with a gun in his hand pointed directly at my attackers head. I slowly tried to turn my head to see the face attached to the arm's reaction. His face: smudged with dirt and covered in wiry hair froze. His eyes: a cold cutting and severe blue widened in fear then almost immediately narrowed with intention. Again he tightened his arm around my neck and I gasped in feeble protest.
"Come any closer and I'll blow her pretty little brains out." He screeched above the din and I felt the bile rise in my throat. I could suddenly feel all the eyes on me. I considered the police cars and range rovers filling the once empty parking lot and the agents and cops with their guns all aimed at my captor. At me. I tried to gulp but the arm was so tight around my throat I let out another gasp instead.
"Stuart, if you do this, you will be in jail for the rest of your life. If you kill her, you will never see a ray of sunshine again, you will never walk free." I could feel the arm loosen slightly, giving me space to breathe. I shut my eyes, I knew how negotiation worked. I'd seen it and I knew that sometimes it failed and sometimes you still ended up with a dead innocent crumpling to the ground and I couldn't bear thinking about it happening to me. I tried to let my mind drift as much as I could but I was cruelly brought back as I heard a bellowing in my ear.
"And what if I don't do this, you can't promise me anything. I've killed 9 other women, what's the difference if I kill one more? There isn't anything left for me, and there's nothing left for her either." At this he shook me to reinforce his point and I let out a strangled sob and opened my pleading eyes to face the agent. He looked at me for a split second and shifted his attention back to my soon to be killer.
"Stuart, I promise you, there is so much for you to live for. If you put the gun down, if you choose not to kill her I promise you, you will live a life as close to free as it can be. You'll be able to read books, watch movies, laugh… I will do everything I can to make sure you have something to live for if you put the gun down."
Until this point I had said nothing, and I still couldn't. I craned my neck to see Stuart's face and at the same time he looked at me. His cold, hard gaze surged through me like a stab wound and I knew what was going to happen. I turned my head to the agent to accept my fate. I did not want the last thing I saw on this earth to be the person who was going to end my life. I stared at the one agent standing ahead of all the rest and prayed he'd meet my intent stare. When he did I tried my best to make it clear on my face that I knew this wasn't his fault and that I was okay. That I'd be okay.
"No, you're lying. I know you're lying. How could you possibly save someone like me, after what I've done? You're lying just like everyone else. And I've had enough." Stuart yelled frantically. I took a deep breath as I heard his finger put pressure on the trigger and I shut my eyes. Tears streamed down my face as I bit my lip and tried to be brave.
A bullet sounded, and I fell backwards, an arm still around my neck, falling with me. I wasn't sure what death was meant to feel like but I didn't imagine this was it. I could feel myself falling in slow motion and I hit the floor with a thud.
Except, it wasn't the cold, hard ground of the parking lot I landed on. It felt soft. I lay on my back for a second and I finally realised- I can feel the ground. I could still hear the sirens and smell the sweat, and the blood was still in my eyelashes. I pushed my hands into the ground to try and get up and realised what it was I had landed on. It was Stuart's body. Stuart's body with at least a dozen bullet holes in it. Stuart's body with piercing blue eyes open wide in shock and arms limp at the sides. I screamed and tried to stand up to get away and felt myself fall to the ground once again. I could feel the rhythmical beat of feet running towards me. I crawled away from the body, my jeans soaked by a puddle of blood at Stuart's head and I stood up. Woozily, I began to run, slowly but surely straight at the agent who had saved my life. He was running towards me with a radio in his hand screaming for a medic and his other hand was placing his gun back into his holster as he ran. As I met him I jumped at him and wrapped my arms tightly around him. I could feel him staggering back at the force at which I'd collided with him but I wouldn't let go.
I started to cry hysterically. I couldn't do anything but cry. His arms were wrapped around me tightly but it felt safe. Instead of sweat and blood I could smell cologne. Instead of sirens I heard him shushing me and telling me it was okay. I finally spoke.
"Thank you." I managed with my face on his shoulder. "You saved me, thank you."
At this he let go of me and took hold of my shoulders pushing me away so I could look at his face. I only know considered what he actually looked like. His muscles in his arms were flexed as he held me at arms-length to look at me. The light grey t-shirt he was wearing had blood on it at his shoulder where my forehead had been and his jeans were distressed and old. I now paid attention to his face. He was bald, with stubble and his brow furrowed as he watched me cry. I looked him in the eye and was met with a warm, brown stare in return and a smile. A proper smile. One which made me feel so safe and secure that I forgot why I was crying.
It took me a minute to realise I was still staring into his eyes and I stepped back away from his hands and they dropped to his sides. I wiped my eyes and looked at him again.
"You saved me. I don't know what to say." I suddenly felt awkward as I looked at him and so for an excuse to look away I reached to the cut on my forehead. It was still bleeding. At the sight of the blood on my hand I staggered and was met by his arms once again as I fell.
"Looks like someone has a concussion. We need to get you to the hospital. Do you want me to call anyone?" He asked, his face deadly serious. I turned around to see other agents crowded around Stuart's body and looked back.
"No. I don't have anyone here there's no point. Will you come with me?" I searched his eyes for an inclination. I just didn't think I could leave here with anybody else other than the person who'd saved me. "I don't want to go alone."
For a moment I was sure he'd say no but instead, he feebly smiled and then turned me in the direction of the ambulance with an arm around my waist to keep me upright and one on my shoulder. I didn't pay much attention but I heard him tell someone where he was going and I saw a man with a stern face nod in agreement. The ambulance loomed and as the doors opened I was lifted in and laid down on the stretcher. When the medics asked him if he was accompanying me he solemnly answered yes. The sirens sounded and the ambulance began to move and I blacked out, falling into unconsciousness with the eyes of the man who saved me staring into mine.
