Chapter Seven- We Fight and Sacrifice
Sam POV
I found the van parked in a ditch on the side of a dirt road. It was still warm. It was pouring now, but I found Jare's feet in the muddy forest and followed the tracks, racing as fast as my feet could carry me.
Brandon POV
They found the van parked in a ditch, and didn't stop to look at it.
"He went to a remote location. There is a road leading to wherever he needs to be, but he went through the woods."
"Why? How do you know this?"
"So it could throw us off. I'm a very good cop, Brandon." With that the cop pulled over by the van and then had the squad put up security tape and roadblocks. Teams were sent to scout out the woods on either side of the road. I was gonna go on my own. But the cop that I rode with, stopped me. "Where do you think you're going?"
"If I go alone, he won't suspect anything." Surprisingly, he handed me a walky talky. He told me.
"Go bring her back! Call if you need assistance." He smiled and patted my back. I turned the volume off, so Jared couldn't hear it.
I found a single dirt path to walk down, and saw a faint yellow glow in the distance. I slowed my pace when the small cottage came into view. I slowly approached the front door, and listened, didn't hear anything, so I went inside. I closed the door cautiously and looked around. I saw the only door closed to my right. I walk up and I hear Jared speaking.
"Hush my sweetheart, you're safe, you're safe…" I barge through the door to see Jared remove a needle from Braelyn's arm. I saw Braelyn blink, then go limp.
"What the hell Jared?!" I questioned.
"It's not what it looks like! I swear." Jared said reassuring.
"What was in that syringe?" I wanted to know.
"Nothing.." He tossed the syringe on the bed.
"Can I ask you why you kidnapped Braelyn?"
"Why did you cheat on Braelyn? She did nothing wrong!" Jared was now a few inches from my face.
I gulped, "Answer mine first." Jared is only a few inches taller than me.
"It's not really kidnapping, I'm protecting her!" He looked back at her.
"Protecting her from what? Me?"
"No. I never intended it to be this way. You just wouldn't understand. Now answer mine!" Jared is growing tired of the word "kidnap".
Jared POV
Brandon seems to be hesitating. But I know his number, I know what he's gonna pull. "I wouldn't understand?"
"Indeed, you would never understand the situation me and Braelyn are in." I went to look out the window. "You also wouldn't care because the only person you care about is yourself, you're so conceited!" I turned my head and glared at him.
"I'm conceited? I'm conceited?! You take that back right now, or else!" Brandon snarled.
"Or else what?" Brandon then pulled out a walky talky. "Oh I'm so scared. You're gonna call your cop friends?" I teased. "Good luck, I dare you!"
"Officer Jacobsen! I found him, he's in a-" I took the device away and smashed on the ground. I listened for a second and heard police dogs barking. I punched him and locked him in a closet. "Jared you let me out now or so help me I'll break this door and pummel your ass to death! JARED!" I untied Braelyn and ran out of the cottage and ran for the woods straight ahead.
Brandon POV
I broke out of the closet and Officer Jacobsen came in with a few of his cop buddies. I gave them the syringe from bed. They put it in an evidence bag and sent it to one of the ambulances to have it tested. I ran out of the house and stopped to look what direction Jared may have gone. I thought maybe straight. I dashed for the thick woods ahead of me.
Braelyn POV
It was so cold here, so cold and jostling. I tried to open my eyes and saw trees, such beautiful trees…
A noise was intruding.
Why is it so cold here? This place shouldn't be cold…
A noise is intruding.
Why is it bouncing? Jared smells really good.
A noise was intruding.
"BRAELYN!" Suddenly I was flying, flying until I crashed into the mud. Everything was blurry and I was so cold. Something groaned to my left and I turned to look, seeing Jared, raindrops reflecting in a blinding way on his cheek, his eyes burning with rage. And beneath him, beneath him, Brandon. Jareds hands on Brandon's throat.
Focus Braelyn.
"Brandon!" I screamed and summoning my strength, crawled over to a fallen branch. Painfully slow I stood and swung it at Jared's head. The branch connected and Jared fell off of Brandon with a snarl. He gasped for air like a fish gasps for water. Before I could react Jared was up. I grabbed Brandon's wrist and we raced away, until a bullet exploded a tree next to Brandon's head.
"Stop." Jared ordered. I stopped, swayed and fell, Brandon catching me.
Focus Braelyn.
"Not another step." He seems too intent on killing Brandon.
"Don't kill me or Braelyn!" He defended both of us, that will only last a second.
"Oh, I don't want to kill Braelyn, just you." He pointed the gun at Brandon."I wouldn't kill her, she's too sweet and kind."
"You did shoot her!" Brandon defended.
"I didn't mean to shoot her, she tried to take the gun away and I accidently pulled the trigger." Jared exasperated.
"But you were gonna shoot me!" Brandon shouted.
"I was simply gonna give you a lecture and see if you understood where I came from." Jared said.
"But you tied me to a tree and hit me a bunch of times!" Brandon replied.
"Oh yeah, I guess I got carried away from my true intention." Jared smirked. "But you still hurt her. By cheating on her with a tramp like Kathy!" Jared shot.
"But you don't know the truth behind what happened to her!" Said Brandon.
"I choose not to care what happened with her. Kathy's nothing to me. She may mean something to you, but not me." Jared continued. "Now, you're going to do exactly as I say." Jared said, gun raised, and behind it those cruel brown eyes. Then there was a voice, a voice so calm and quiet I wouldn't have heard it if not for the strength it held.
"No Jared, you need to stop."
"Sam?"
Sam POV
Moving fasting than time I raced through those trees, raced those footprints, my heart beating and lungs burning. She tasted bile and kept going, throwing off her winter clothes in her wake, drenched and shivering and strong. I heard him past the rain, after the bullets impact on my ears.
"Stop." Jared shouted. "Not another step."
"Don't kill me or Braelyn!" Brandon exclaimed.
"Oh, I don't want to kill Braelyn, just you." He pointed the gun at Brandon."I wouldn't kill her, she's too sweet and kind."
"You did shoot her!" Brandon defended.
"I didn't mean to shoot her, she tried to take the gun away and I accidently pulled the trigger." Jared exasperated.
"But you were gonna shoot me!" Brandon shouted.
"I was simply gonna give you a lecture and see if you understood where I came from." Jared said.
"But you tied me to a tree and hit me a bunch of times!" Brandon replied.
"Oh yeah, I guess I got carried away from my true intention." Jared smirked. "But you still hurt her. By cheating on her with a tramp like Kathy!" Jared shot.
"But you don't know the truth behind what happened to her!" Said Brandon.
"I choose not to care what happened with her. Kathy's nothing to me. She may mean something to you, but not me." Jared continued. "Now you're going to do exactly as I say." Then I saw them. Braelyn on her knees with Brandon beside her, Jared with a gun and a look on his face that I didn't recognize
"No Jared." I said calmly, pulling the machete from my boot. "You need to stop."
Jared POV
I heard the security dogs bark and didn't hesitate. My van was a five minute walk. I gathered Braelyn in my arms and ran.
"Braelyn! Braelyn!" I snarled and moved faster. The ginger bitch tackled him in a scream and Braelyn flew from my grasp. Brandon scrambled off me but I caught him in an uppercut and fell on him, hands around his throat squeezing the life from those wretched blue butchers eyes.
"BRANDON!" It barely registered past his anger, and I would finally get my revenge.
THWACK!
Pain arched through my face and I fell to the side, blinded for a moment. But only for a moment. I rolled to my feet, red at the edges of my vision, water dripping from the end of my nose, breath burning my chest. I shot the tree beside the ginger bitch and it echoed through the forest.
"Stop." I said past the pain. Braelyn swayed and fell, the ginger bitch putting his hands on her, there in my vision almost complete. I struggled for control and found it in the cold rain on my skin.
"Not another step." I reassured them in who was in charge.
"Don't kill me or Braelyn!" How dare he think I would do that to her.
"Oh, I don't want to kill Braelyn, just you." I pointed the gun at Brandon."I wouldn't kill her, she's too sweet and kind."
"You did shoot her!" Brandon defended.
"I didn't mean to shoot her, she tried to take the gun away and I accidently pulled the trigger." I exasperated.
"But you were gonna shoot me!" Brandon shouted.
"I was simply gonna give you a lecture and see if you understood where I came from." I said.
"But you tied me to a tree and hit me a bunch of times!" Brandon replied.
"Oh yeah, I guess I got carried away from my true intention." I smirked. "But you still hurt her. By cheating on her with a tramp like Kathy!" I shot.
"But you don't know the truth behind what happened to her!" Said Brandon.
"I choose not to care what happened with her. Kathy's nothing to me. She may mean something to you, but not me." I continued. "Now you're going to do exactly as I say." I met Braelyn's gaze.
"No Jared. You need to stop." The voice froze me , not because of its strength, but of the remembrance it carned. She sounded like Josie. I snarled and shook my head, focusing on Sam.
"Sam?"
Braelyn POV
"Sam!" I cried in happy bliss, she stood holding a machete, drenched and tiny, hair frazzled from its braid and dripping. She was focused on Jared, hazel eyes burning. "You're better than this, Jared." She said. Jared's lips pulled back from his teeth in an almost animalistic fashion. Brandon took my arm and positioned himself between me and my monster.
"How would you know?" He asked, gun still raised, but this time pointed at her.
"Because I know you care more about Braelyn than you do yourself, and I know that you thought this was the only way to protect her, but you were wrong. Because you're not the only one who would risk their lives to save her. All you had to do was ask for help Jared." She smiled sadly at me, her signature sad smile that told me everything was going to be okay, even if it wasn't. "Because Braelyn James does not solely belong to you." I didn't even have time to register the danger of that sentence genre.
The gun went off.
I didn't care what anyone says, watching get shot is not slow.
The bullet entered her forehead in the dead center, killing my bestfriend instantly, her glasses flying off her face and her falling onto her back, hazel eyes blank.
Dead.
"SAM NO!" I wailed, throwing Brandon off me, feeling the rain on my face, crawling through the mud and finding her dead, hazel eyes wide and blank.
No.
I couldn't think, I couldn't think past this. My best friend was dead.
No.
"NO!" I screamed, rage boiling in me, severing the gentleness in my heart. I stood, steady now and screaming, tackled Jared to the mud. I gripped the gun from his hand and put it to his forehead.
But I couldn't pull the trigger. Because of those eyes. Those cruel brown eyes held nothing but terror, and absolute horror.
"Go." I snarled, climbing off him. "Go and never come back. Or I won't hesitate next time." He scrambled up, and stood there a moment, mouth working.
"I'm so-"
"GO!" I wailed. And he ran. I watched him go for a moment before turning. Brandon was looking at me in terror, but I only had eyes for..
"Sam. Sam?" I whimpered and collapsed next to her, her blood mingling with the rain, her pendant from her grandmother glistening. With shaking hands I unclasped it and put it around my neck.