Chapter 59

Impossible Choice

"How would Miles get captured?"

"I don't know!" Joshua repeated for what felt like the thousandth time. He was sitting in the passenger sit, next to Lisa who was focusing on the road as she turned a corner.

"Why wasn't he with you anyway?" Lisa asked, her knuckles turning white as she clenched the steering wheel.

"Because he was helping." Joshua sighed. "How do you think I know about things I haven't seen? Miles follows people discretely. He was following David recently."

"He was trailing people?" Lisa glanced to Joshua momentarily. "He's a twelve year old boy!"

"He wanted to do it!" Joshua tried not to raise his voice too much. "Miles said it made him feel useful. He didn't want to just stand by my side forever."

"And you let him?"

"Of course I did! He's an intelligent kid, always has been, not that you'd know anything about him growing up."

The biting tone struck Lisa hard but she tried to ignore it, focusing back on the road quietly.

Realising how much the words had hurt Joshua sighed. "Look… It could all be a bluff. I mean, he might just be luring us into a trap."

"Well, that's comforting." Lisa muttered dryly.

"It would mean Miles is safe." Joshua shrugged. "That's a good thing in my book."

Lisa just nodded, biting her lip as they got closer and closer to the church. All the way Joshua watched his mother carefully until after five minutes of silence he spoke up again.

"I know that this is hard." Joshua started, shutting his eyes and leaning back on the chair. "Going back to the place Dad died. But you gotta stay right in the head. We can't have you breaking down out there."

"Look at you, sounding all mature." Lisa tried to joke, but it came out quiet and dry.

"I've had a hard life." Joshua responded. "I'll tell you all about it when we deal with Myers." Joshua went silent for a moment before speaking again. "Although I'm not sure you'd like what I say."

"Even if I will hate it, I want to know anyway." Lisa murmured. "I need to catch up with you and Miles. I… well, you know." Lisa stopped talking and lapsed into silence.

The silence continued until they came to the familiar church. Lisa immediately stiffened even more, pulling the car into a small parking lot. Coming to a stop, Lisa took a deep breath.

"Mother." Joshua placed a hand on Lisa's arm. "Come on. Better to get it over with quickly."

"I don't understand why Myers wants this." Lisa said quietly. "He was an evil man, but to do this… this psychological torture…"

"I think he specializes in psychological things, to be honest." Joshua opened the door and stepped out. "After all, hypnotising is his forte." Stretching his arms, Joshua was suddenly hit in the back of the head by a metal pipe, sending him careening to the floor.

Before Lisa could react, black gloved hands opened the door and latched themselves around her mouth, pulling her out of the car. Lisa tried fighting back but the hands were far too strong. She could see Joshua being lifted limply on someone's shoulder and fought all the more. Slowly she felt her consciousness slipping away until her mind went blank.

XXX

"I'm waiting outside right now." The smile slightly increased at the frantic response. "See you in a minute. I have to say, I'm looking forward to this dinner." Clicking the phone off David slipped it into his pocket.

It was five minutes until Lucy appeared, smoothing down the hem of her dress nervously.

David's eyebrows rose is surprise. "Wow… look at you. You look beautiful."

Lucy managed a smile and grabbed David's offered arm. "I feel like this is a first date."

"It could be." David said as he and Lucy started walking. "We are starting again. So we need to start from scratch. That involves dating."

"You'll have to forgive me if I'm… awkward though." Lucy tried to resist chewing on her knuckles, a habit she had when nervous. "I know we've talked about all this but… Knowing what happened…"

"I know." David nodded. "I'm going to do my damn best to make it up to you. I may sound like a broken record by now but what I did… You know how bad that made me feel."

Lucy seemed to be comforted by this and pulled herself closer to David. "At least you didn't stop working out." She said, poking David's chest.

Smiling, relieved, David shrugged. "Working out helps me think." He chuckled quietly. "I also worked out to impress Dorothy…" Stiffening up, David stopped walking.

"David… we don't have to go, you know."

"No, I want to. Dorothy would want me to." David took a breath and started walking again. "It's going to be hard to handle her death but it's happened and I can't do anything about it. She'd want us to fix our relationship."

The two started to cross the road.

"Do you want to… to talk about her?" Lucy asked hesitantly.

Taking another deep breath, David shook his head. "Not today. Today is for you, Lucy. It won't help anything if we act like this dinner is a funeral."

Lucy nodded. "I understand."

"David!"

At the shout of his name, David turned around to see Nick running up. He stopped at the curb, panting.

"Nick?" David took a step forward. "What's wrong?"

Nick just looked to the left and took off forward again. Before David could do anything Nick slammed into him, knocking him onto the pavement on the other side of the road.

"What are you-" David started but saw the car speeding down the street. He wasn't exactly walking fast with Lucy down the road and would have been hit. Lucy…

Time seemed to slow as David focused on the car moving towards Lucy, who was looking towards him in worry. Any relief he felt about being saved was completely vanquished as his mind calculated that Lucy wouldn't have any time to get out of the way. David was already rising from the floor, leaving Nick on the ground. Not again! I am not losing another person! David pushed on his legs and started to run.

It felt like he was running through mud, each leg heavy. He was just starting to fix his relationship with Lucy, he was not going to lose her.

Gritting his teeth David somehow knew he wouldn't reach her by running. Letting out a shout David pushed off the ground and leapt towards Lucy, arms stretched out. Arms around her waist, David knew that they wouldn't clear the car. Closing his eyes, David manoeuvred himself so that his body was completely covering Lucy.

I'll protect you, Lucy. I'll protect you with my life.

Squeezing his eyes even more, David saw a brief glimpse of Dorothy in his mind before the car slammed hard into his back. Everything was still slow and he could feel the pain coursing through the back of his head and his spine before everything descended into blackness.

XXX

"Wake up Joshua… there's a good boy."

His head pounding, Joshua reluctantly opened his eyes to find he was sitting on a wooden chair. Confused, it didn't take long until he remembered getting out of the car to meet Myers and Bam! Something had hit his head. Joshua cast his gaze left and right but saw no sign of Lisa. He stood up in a panic but felt woozy.

"Up here, Joshua."

Joshua looked up and felt a small pinpoint of anger as he saw Gerald Myers standing atop some kind of pedestal. "Where are they!" Joshua raised his voice, his eyes narrowing in on Myer's own amused ones.

Myers smile widened. "Before I answer that question, Joshua, can I ask you a question myself?"

"Don't fuck with me!" Joshua yelled, surprising himself. He was planning on staying cool… well, that was out of the window. "Where are they, Myers!"

"I always told you survivors to call me Gerald. It never caught on." Myers sighed. "But my question, Joshua. Who do you love more? Lisa or Miles?"

Joshua blinked. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"Everything." Myers said sternly. "Turn around, Joshua. Take a look."

Feeling a prickle of fear, Joshua turned around.

Two metal boxes were in each corner of the room. Both had thick glass windows, showing a single chair. On each chair in the boxes were Miles and Lisa, shackled. Miles seemed resigned while Lisa tugged at her binds, shouting. Her voice was silent though.

"What is this…?" Joshua whispered, stepping forward. He walked over to Miles' chamber and connected eyes with his brother. "Myers… what is this?"

"This is a choice, Joshua." Myers said from behind Joshua, up on the pedestal. "I wasn't sure who should make the choice, but I decided on going for the middle man. I'll be nice and blunt for you. Inside the boxes are pipes which will funnel flames into them. Enough heat to incinerate a body. One of the only ways to actually kill you people."

Joshua felt a ball in his stomach, but he tried to ignore it. Turning back to Myers Joshua shook his head. "What do you want?"

"World domination. But… that comes later." Myers crossed his arms. "For now, I want to get rid of a Valentine. I was always a stickler for dramatics so here it is. Joshua, I want two of your family to witness my ascension to the top. A third is useless. So, Joshua, here is your choice."

Joshua clenched his hands, hoping against hope that Myers wasn't about to say what he thought he was going to say.

"Choose between your mother or your brother. Choose which one will die and which one will survive."

Joshua stepped forward. "Are you kidding me?"

"I do not kid." Myers growled in anger. "Joshua, this is so very simple. Either you choose to save Lisa or save Miles."

"No!" Joshua felt panic rising up. "That's not something I can do!"

"Well then, both of them will die." Myers sighed. "You see, if you don't make a choice, I'll kill them both. Joshua, you have the chance to save one person. Isn't it better to save one life than to lose two?"

"You… your joking… you gotta be joking…" Joshua turned back around to look at Miles and Lisa. Evidently they could hear Myers and both were showing fear. "I can't do that. You can't expect me to do this."

"If you want both of them to die, then so be it."

"That's…" Joshua shook his head. "Why are you doing this Myers? If you wanted to kill us why not kill us? Why these games?"

"I believe you said this in your own car. I love inflicting psychological torture. And what better torture than an impossible choice?" Myers narrowed his eyes. "I'll be honest. I want you to break. I want you to be a snivelling wreck at my feet. After you make your choice, I'll let whoever you let survive out with you. You can continue to go about trying to stop me and failing."

"How do I know you won't just kill us after?" Joshua tried to continue talking. He needed time to think.

"I keep my promises, unlike you." Myers replied back. "Whoever you choose will exit this building with you. Then as you fruitlessly try to stop me, you will witness me rise to a status no human has even been in. In fact, by that time, I won't be a human. I'll be God."

"You're crazy!"

"I'm a genius!" Myers responded. "Enough talk. Make your choice, Joshua. Will you save the mother who abandoned you or the brother you raised? To me it's a simple choice."

"It's not simple…" Joshua tried to shout but it came out quietly as implications started to invade his mind.

"Either way, make the decision." Myers tapped a watch on his wrist. "You got five minutes until I decide to burn both of them."

"I… I can't do that…" Joshua gulped, shaking.

"Do it."

"I can't…"

"Do it!" Myers roared. "Make the choice Joshua. I want you to break before me! Do you really want both of them to die? Do you really want it on your conscious that you could have saved one of them?"

"Stop this." Joshua's eyes flitted between Lisa and Miles. "You don't need to do this…"

"No, I don't need to. I want to." Myers glanced at his watch again. "Oh look, four minutes now."

A/N: Thanks to Bookreader2010 & Gabe's-Girl-Forever for the reviews!

I told s**t would hit the fan.

And I'll say right now that either Lisa or Miles, or perhaps both of them, will die. No twists on that front.

Also, I won't confirm whether David is alive or dead in this chapter.

Look out for next chapter, which is sure to be exciting…

'Till then!