Love, Hate and Fear.
Chapter 1:
Rodriguez and Sophia were a perfectly happy couple. They had been together for 6 months and were shopping in the High street for an engagement ring. It was a beautiful summers day. Hot and sunny; the ideal weather for a day of shopping. H.Samuel was just down the road and Sophia had picked out a gorgeous diamond, white-gold ring. It was the same as Rodriguez's mother's ring from when she had got married. This was before she died. Therefore, it had a large sentimental value to Rodriguez.
Rodriguez was a tall (about 6ft), handsome man. He had silky, black hair, but a rather long, pale-white face and dark grey eyes. He was faithful and quite friendly, but had his stressy moments.
Sophia, on the other hand, was fairly short (about 5ft 5) and pretty. She had light-brown hair, a round and pinky face and hazel eyes. She was a lovely girl; friendly, smart and a good friend.
They were walking down the road, hand
in hand; loved up as a couple should be; talking about what the
wedding should be like. Rodriguez had proposed yesterday when he had
taken Sophia out for a meal at Alfrados. Right after dessert, he had
gotten down on one knee and asked her to be his wife. Of course,
Sophia had replied yes.
They went into the shop to buy the ring
together. They were admiring the beauty of it whilst walking out of
the shop door. That was all they had left to buy, so they started to
make their way home. Deciding to take a shortcut, they turned into
the alleyway, which led straight to the road around the corner from
their house. About half way down the alley, they spotted a beggar in
the street. They had no spare change so couldn't give him anything.
But the beggar was very persistent and put a gun to Sophia's head.
"Give me your wallets and that ring box now!" Shouted the man.
"What will you do if I refuse?" asked Rodriguez.
"I'll shoot her!"
"Ok, ok."
Rodriguez gave the man the wallets and ring box but wasn't very happy about it. The man turned and ran off. He threw the gun into a dustbin – a very foolish thing to do.
"Go back that way in case he comes back." said Rodriguez to Sophia.
"What are you going to do?" questioned Sophia.
"Just go." said Rodriguez.
Sophia turned and went back towards town. Meanwhile, Rodriguez was running after the thief, wanting their things back, and revenge for choosing them to mess around with.
He followed him into another alley
about a block from the place where their wallets had been stolen and
had him cornered. The thief was stuck between Rodriguez and a 50ft
fence. Rodriguez pulled out a gun from under his jacket and held it
at the thief's head. Unknown to Rodriguez, Sophia had followed him.
She was watching all of this.
"Give me those wallets and the
ring box, now!" Rodriguez demanded.
"Ok, but please put the
gun away." Replied the thief.
"No, just give me those things
and I will let you go freely."
Rodriguez was unaware that Sophia
was stood at the end of the alleyway, watching all of this. She had
no idea that he had anything to do with guns.
Wait, that must have been the gun
that the thief had, thought Sophia. It can't have been
Rod's; he wouldn't have anything to do with that sort of thing.
He's innocent, not a criminal.
The thief came forwards and
dropped the wallets and ring box at Rodriguez's feet.
"Now,
that was nice and easy wasn't it?" said Rodriguez.
"Can I go
now?" asked the thief.
"Yes. But, don't ever try that again
or next time I won't be so generous. Ok."
"Ok, I'm sorry
sir."
The thief ran off behind Rodriguez towards the end of the
street and Sophia hid behind the wall so that he wouldn't see her.
All of a sudden there was a loud bang and the thief collapsed beside
her. He had a hole in his back and was bleeding a lot. It was a deep
wound and he had obviously been shot. His eyes were open and he was
as dead.
Sophia ran off so that Rodriguez didn't see that she
saw what had happened, for fear of being threatened to keep quiet or
being shot for witnessing it.
Life carried on as normal for the
next couple of months, and soon Sophia found out she was pregnant.
Rodriguez and her had everything sorted out for the new arrival, but
he spoiled the whole thing a month later.
Late one Friday night,
Sophia and Rodriguez were in bed when the doorbell rang.
"I'll
go." said Rodriguez.
Rodriguez went downstairs and opened the
door. It was his best mate, Carlo.
"Alright mate, what brings
you round here at this time of night?" asked Rodriguez, looking at
his watch and seeing that it was 2:30.
"Business I'm afraid,
can I come in, it's important? I need your help with something."
Replied Carlo.
"Ok but make it quick. Sophia's here."
"Well,
you know that guy I went to see about buying a handgun from? Well, I
paid him for it and went to take a closer look at it, but it turns
out that it is fake; it's just hard plastic."
"What!"
"Yeah
I know, that's not the half of it. He's done a runner with the
money and it turns out that he sold my real gun to this other guy on
the other side of town."
"So, where is he now?"
"Well,
I ran a search on him and he's in Nottingham."
"Ok, if you
get him back here, we can both sort out this problem, if you know
what I mean."
"Yeah ok. Thanks Rod, you're a real mate."
"No
probs, anytime."
Rodriguez shut the door after Carlo and
returned to bed with Sophia, who, without Rodriguez knowing, had
heard everything the two men were saying.
She knew that the men planned to 'deal' with the stranger, but not how or why. She also knew that Carlo was to get this man, whoever he was, and bring him into her home. She felt insecure and alone, as she had no one to confide in.
What can I do? She thought. I don't know what to do.
She tried to return to her sleep and tried to forget about what she had heard. But she couldn't forget or sleep…
