Behind the Mask

NINETEEN: Too Much Hate

.:::.

The bar looked very different in daylight. It blended in with its surroundings, and seemed bare without the glowing neon signs.

Chase opened the car door for me, but not in a gentlemanly way. He barely gave me enough time to unbuckle the seatbelt before he dragged me out of the seat himself.

His fingers dug uncomfortably into the crease of my elbow. "That hurts." I informed him.

He swung me out of the way and shoved the door closed again. There weren't enough people on the street to see the violent way he was handling me.

I tried to shake him off to see if I had any chance of escape. He only squeezed harder. "Stop it, I said that hurts!"

"I said be quiet." He growled.

"You're an ass."

He laughed. "That isn't news to me, babe."

Chase towed me up to the entrance and pushed me inside. It was stuffy, probably a mixture of alcohol and sweat that hasn't been released from the room in days. To my surprise, it was also deserted.

"So you're like the delivery boy?" I asked sarcastically. "Getting paid to lure me into their evil lair?"

"No tips, please."

I scoffed. "I should have never trusted you."

"You made it look easy." He put me on a stool at the bar, pinching my wrists together in my lap. "All I had to do was ask, and here you are." He slapped a pair of handcuffs on me.

"I'm not as ashamed as you should be." I told him. "I'm not the one that gave up my dignity to join a bunch of bullies."

He walked around the other side of the bar. "I never joined them, Liv. I'm just doing what's best for everyone in the city. If you ask me, I might be the hero."

I openly rolled my eyes at him, but I didn't give him the satisfaction of a verbal insult. When I looked back, he had concocted some sort of frilly little drink with a cherry on top.

"See, now this is a big girl drink." He stirred it slowly, watching my grimace with a smirk of his own. "I don't think you're old enough for something like this."

"What do they want with me? Just get it over with." I didn't want to sound so desperate, but my anxiety was increasing with every moment.

Chase dropped the cherry in his mouth and rolled the stem in his fingers. "Don't ask me. I'm just the delivery boy, remember?"

"They didn't pick a very good hideout." I said. "This is the first place Peter will look."

"Good. That's exactly what we want."

I hated that smirk on his face. I hated that he tricked me, and I hated that I fell for it. I hated him so much.

But my hate was obviously fueling him. Maybe hate wasn't the key to escape. My acting skills were rusty, but I'd managed to fool the other men at this bar. What's one more? "Chase,"

He looked up at me, raising his eyebrows. I turned my face away to appear ashamed, exactly the opposite of how I'd been acting.

"I was stupid to push you away. You were only trying to help me, and I shouldn't have reacted the way I did. I'm sorry."

His laughter made me feel like an idiot. It also made me realize I was stuck here, acting as live bait for Spiderman to walk into another one of their traps. This time, he would actually be killed.

My tears were real, but not for the reason Chase believed. I bit my lip to hold them back.

"Aw, Liv." He walked back around the other side of the bar. He looked down at me like I was a hopelessly confused little child.

Ironically, I was fooling him without even trying. I had to remind myself to keep crying, using my weakness as a strength.

"They won't hurt you." He said, holding my cheek in his hand. "I won't let them hurt you." I didn't believe his intentions were to hurt me; he would have done that already.

"I'm scared." I whimpered, sniffling a little too, just for show.

He caressed my face as he spoke, trying to soothe me. "After today, there won't be anything to be afraid of, you'll see."

I looked up at him with my watery eyes. "What will they do?"

"It might be hard to see now, but it'll be better for everyone once the Spider's out of the way. There are too many people in this city to seek out all his enemies. They'll never stop trying to kill him, but this way, we'll be able to do it with everyone else in mind. You're not a selfish girl, Liv. You would do the same thing if you gave it a chance. See how it works?"

He spoke of murder like it was a gift, something I should be grateful for. I always knew Chase was a little insane, but now he'd proven he was psychotic. I had to get out of there.

I nearly fell off the chair as the large metal door of the entrance peeled open. Two men began approaching us, but I was only looking at one. He wore a red knit hat on his head and an evil grin on his face.

"Hey there." He said to me. "Olivia, right? I don't think we've properly met." He offered his hand to me but soon realized I was handcuffed. He glared at Chase. "What the hell is this?"

"She gets a little restless." Chase explained, using the same excuse I gave him earlier.

"Take 'em off. She's our guest." He smiled at me again, and I never thought I would hate a smile more than I hated Chase's. "I hope you've offered her a drink?"

Chase ignored him, turning his key in the lock on my handcuffs. It must have been a joke.

The second man stepped up to me, his face stubbly and rough. He grabbed my chin with his grimy fingers and tugged it to the side. "Looks like ya healed up pretty good." He dropped my chin and patted my cheek. "Sorry again, sweetheart." I assumed he was the one that hit me.

I glared at him, and decided I wouldn't speak to either of them.

"I barely recognized ya with all your clothes on." The stubbly one teased me.

"Hey." Chase warned, standing his ground behind me.

The stubbly one chuckled. "Right, right. He's got a thing for ya, doesn't he?"

"Shut up." The red knit hat ended their bickering.

I didn't want to cry anymore. I hated them, and I wanted to fight. I would fight if I got the chance; although it would be three large men against one wimpy girl.

Red knit hat asked Chase to join him as he was busy with something behind the bar. I wasn't handcuffed anymore, and I had a clear shot to the door. I needed to take advantage of the situation before it was too late.

I twirled out of the chair and jumped down, but my wrist was locked in a hand behind me. The stubbly one yanked me backwards again. I turned to face him and didn't think twice before thrusting my kneecap into the air. I ran again after he was a crumbled mess on the floor.

I only made it halfway to the door when I heard a strange but somehow familiar clicking noise. It practically forced me to stop when I still had a clean getaway.

"Stop. Right. There." It was Chase's voice, the low and grisly tone scaring me half to death.

I turned my head slowly, just enough to see him through the corner of my eye.

"Turn around." He ordered.

It was dead silent in the room, aside from the stubbly one and his suppressed groaning. My ankles felt weighted, but I turned them just like he asked.

For some reason, I was still surprised to be staring down the barrel of a gun. I guessed he just convinced me I wouldn't get hurt. But how could he do it? How could he intentionally aim a loaded gun at me?

I looked into Chase's eyes, really looked into them, and all I saw was the potential for murder. He would do it, he would shoot me if it meant Spiderman would die as well.

It wasn't just Spiderman, it was the idea he hated. He hated that he screwed up and lost me, he hated that he wasn't good enough. He'd lost his mind, and there was no getting it back.

There was too much hate for anyone to think straight.

So I stood there and wondered if Greg had that much time to know he was about to be shot.

"You were right." Red knit hat was watching from afar, seemingly impressed by Chase's reflexes. "She is restless, isn't she?"

Chase kept his gun raised, pointing to the bar stool with it. "Sit back down."

Red knit hat swiped Chase's handcuffs off the counter. The stubbly one finally got himself up off the ground, leaning on his knees for support.

I kept my eyes down and counted the steps it took to make it back to where I started. I sat down in surrender. My hands were strategically cuffed around the railing on the edge of the bar.

Red knit hat tightened them hard around my wrists. I winced at the pressure, yet he smiled. "You can't leave yet, sweetheart. We need you."