Chapter 5
Emily
Emily was terrified not only for herself but for her brother as well.
Keifer was asking her brother to kill a man and if he didn't then she would be shot. Of course she didn't want to die, but then again she didn't want Stu to kill a man. Sure, the man had done some awful things but that didn't mean he deserved to die. Another reason that she didn't want Stu to shoot Derek was because she knew that it would tear him up inside. He wouldn't be able to cope with the fact that he'd killed a man. That is if Keifer ever let her and Stu go.
For a moment Emily had thought that she'd managed to stop Stu from killing Derek but then Keifer had spoke up. Now that Emily had actually spoken and met the man she could see why Stu became so messed up after the whole Phonebooth situation. Keifer fucked with your mind, making you act in ways that you don't want to.
He was speaking right now, giving Stu a final ultimatum. "So Stu, who's it going to be? Emily, your sister, who's never done anything wrong or Derek, a paedophile. Take your pick."
Stu looked so confused that Emily's heart went out for him. She hated Keifer right then.
Then she saw Stu looking down at the gun and she saw a flash of excitement run through his eyes. Now she was confused. Why was he excited? He was going to be forced to kill a man.
Then she thought about it. Maybe Stu had missed this. Maybe he'd missed all of this action. 'No.' Mentally she shook her head. How could he have missed the fear? He could have lost his life that day. No one would have missed that.
Emily brought herself back to the situation at hand and noticed that Stu was talking. "You promise that if I kill this man you'll let both Emily and I go?"
Kiefer nodded.
"And you promise that you'll believe that I've changed and that you'll never speak to us again?"
"Of course Stu."
Emily knew that Keifer was lying the moment he spoke. However Stu didn't seem to see this. He was blinded by all of his emotions.
She watched, shocked, as Stu held up the gun and pointed it at Derek.
"Come on Stu," Keifer muttered, still smiling. "Do it!"
"No," Emily said to Stu. "Don't do it."
"Shut up," Keifer hissed at her from across the room.
"No!" she repeated, shouting it this time. She was talking to Stu now. "You can't just kill someone, even if they have done things wrong. Then you'd just be like him." She gave a quick glance to Keifer before looking back at Stu. He didn't look as certain anymore but he was still holding the gun. "Just put down the gun. Please."
Derek, on the floor, was nodding his head, agreeing with what Emily was saying.
"But he'll kill you. I can't let him do that," Stu said, ignoring Derek.
Emily had forgotten about what Keifer had said. Stu had to kill the man or Keifer would kill her. However looking at Keifer she wondered if he would kill her. He didn't seem like the kind of man who would kill someone for no reason. Sure, he'd threatened Stu several times by saying that he'd kill people. For example he said that he'd kill Pam and Kelly. However he never went through with it. It was all just a case of whether she truly believed that he wouldn't kill her.
For now however she didn't voice her thoughts. She trusted that Stu would do the right thing.
Stu
Stu was in an incredibly difficult situation.
He had two choices. One seemed to be too ridiculous to think of, whilst the other seemed to be the more obvious choice to choose. Keifer wanted him to kill Derek. There was no way that he was going to let Keifer kill Emily so he had no choice. That, at least, was his first thought.
Then he started to notice the way that Emily was looking at Keifer and he could tell that she didn't believe what he was saying. The way her eyebrows were slightly raised and the frown on her face were too familiar for Stu not to see what she was thinking.
Why would Emily not believe Keifer's threats? Did she not remember how he had almost been killed by this man?
Keifer must have started to become impatient because he shouted out, interrupting Stu's train of thought. "That's it Stu. You have thirty seconds to kill Derek or its goodbye Emily." He raised the gun higher and pointed it at Emily's head to prove his point. "30 – 29 – 28- 27-"
"Stop it!" Stu screamed, clutching his head in his hands. The gun felt good pressing against the side of his head. That was when he realised what he had to do. How could he not have thought of it before? It was all so simple. "I know what to do," he muttered, looking at Emily.
She must've seen something in his eyes that she didn't like because she told him not to do anything stupid.
He ignored what she said because he knew that what he was about to do wasn't stupid. All of his problems would be sorted.
Slowly he raised the gun in the air. However, instead of pointing it at Derek, Emily or even Keifer, he pointed it at himself.
"What are you doing?" Emily shouted out at him, struggling against the rope that tied her to the chair. "Don't you dare Stu!"
"It makes sense Emily," he told her, trying not to show any emotion. He wanted this to be as painless as possible for her.
Whilst they'd been talking Keifer had still been counting. "10-9-8-7-"
Stu didn't look at him, not wanting his smug face to be the last thing he saw.
"3-2-1-"
With one last breath he closed his eyes and pulled the trigger...