Chapter 22: Everything is screwed up

King looked at the rear view mirror and pulled the drawer open, glancing up time to time to look at the road.

They weren't back in the hideout, King already knew that.

He pulled out a bottle of beer, it took a second for his brain to function before he threw it to the backseat.
Not now, King, not now.
He fished around again and took out a cell phone. He heaved a sigh of relief.

"Thank you, God."

King dialed some numbers on his cell phone.
Please Abby, King begged. Give me a sign that your alive, I love you for Christ's sake!
King slammed his fist down on the wheel. Right on cue, the radio turned on…

I'm sleeping
And right in the middle of a good dream
Then all at once I wake up
From something that keeps knocking at my brain
Before I go insane
I hold my pillow to my head
And spring up in my bed Screaming out the words I dread .
"I think I love you!" (I think I love you)

Fucking car…

The ringing phone sounded like a bomb exploding.
Abby, with high hopes that it could be King, answered it.
She closed her eyes. There was tension all around.

"Hello?"

"Abby! Oh god, Abby. Thank god your alive…"

"King?" Abby asked. "Are you all right?"
Good, Kasumi thought. They had driven all around LA looking for King and Caulder. Thank god they had found him.

King took a deep breath and exhaled. "Define 'all right'"

"King. Is Caulder there?" Abby asked anxiously.

"Oh fuck, Abby. Caulder, he's…"

"What? He's what?"

"Caulder is one of them, Abby."

"Oh, god." Abby exclaimed.

Without even hearing the conversation, I already knew what it was about. But they didn't know that…

"I barely escaped the place." King said, talking over her. He sounded worried. Stressed. He sounded like he was going through a lot of pain. "Look, Is there anywhere we could meet? We can't go back to the hide-out. It'll only take a couple of minutes till' they show up at our doorstep."

"King--"

"Meet me where it all started. Hurry, Abby. We don't have much time."

Before Abby could reply, he hung up.

Meet me where it all started…

Abby turned to Kasumi, "Where it all started."

Kasumi nodded and put the car into gear, "Where it all started."

King slowly hung up.
Karen took note of his silence and put a hand on his back, King looked up and smiled.

"Es usted todo derecho?" Karen asked distraughtly.

"Si." King replied, his voice was softer and more sweeter by every word as his skin turned into crimson scales, slowly, he began to morph back…into a little girl.

Her special power required no explanation.

"Of course I am all right…" Camila chortled. "…We are winning aren't we?"

"Si, Camila…" Karen smiled,

"We are winning."

It was a wide avenue. Heat shimmered in the air.
In an alleyway, A car pulled up in an empty spot right in front of a torn-down building. Abby, Kasumi and Patricia hopped out of the car.
Across the street, King was leaning against a Mercedes.

"King." Abby smiled at the sight of him. She was frozen to her spot.
"King!" I shouted, running over to him, a huge grin on my face.

A large van cruises by, slowly. King made eye contact with the two people up front then he looked back to the us, smiling as if nothing bad has ever happened.

Kasumi's smile faltered, "No! Pita! Get back!"
She ran over but a white Toyota corolla coming from the left, blocked her path to me.

I gasped and looked over to King. He waved at me, a huge smirk on his face. "Bye-Bye."
The van screeched to a stop right in front of me and three men leaped out from the backseat.

"Pita! Run!" Kasumi screamed.
Abby looked at King, shaking her head. "No."

But I was rooted with fear and the men were almost near. Kasumi and Abby drew out their weapons and fired at the men. Abby fired twice to man one, dead center in the chest. She pointed her gun over to King's direction.

He smiled and gave her a wink.
Tears streaked down her cheeks as her finger tightened on the trigger…
Another van, passed and he disappeared…

without a trace…

Kasumi fired three more rounds into man two who's hit high in the chest and between the eyes. Clear-cut.
Abby pivots, strides calmly forward, firing at the men chasing me. All three men went down, all three bullets hitting them right in the testicles.

Ouch. This woman needs to see a shrink.

A bullet slams Kasumi in the back, fired form inside the building.
She saw me frozen and yelled, "Run!"
Two more men walked out of the van, I ran away but at the sound of another gunshot, I sprinted back. I couldn't leave them. I couldn't!

The men grabbed me and started back to the van. They crammed me in the back seat. The driver got back in behind the wheel. As the door slams shut, wheels spin, I looked back through the rear windshield.

"HELP!"

I was pulled back down, left with the sight of my friends…my family…lying, face-down on the ground…motionless…

My fault.