Chapter Twenty

It was so surreal. All I could see were blue and red flashing lights everywhere I looked. My eyes were squinting in an attempt to see through the lights and locate the person I wanted to see. I needed to know if he was alright. The last time I'd seen him, he was about to be attacked by the man he had put away.

I couldn't see him anywhere.

Arms wrapped around my body and I flinched violently before realising it was my mother. I let out a sigh of relief and burst into tears as the overwhelming feeling of safety encased me. "Sam, are you okay?" Mum cried, leaning backwards to run her eyes over me. "Do you need to go to the hospital?"

I shook my head and wrapped my arms around her middle. I wanted to go home. "I'm okay. I'm not hurt." I pulled back and wiped my tears. "Where's Axl?"

She avoided my gaze and looked at the floor before looking back to me. "I don't know sweetheart."

My heart got stuck in my throat. "What do you mean? Is he okay?" I asked, becoming more and more frantic as I struggled out of her arms and attempted to stand up, the orange shock blanket I'd been given fell off and pooled on the floor. I put a hand up to cover my eyes which made it easier for me to look around. I saw Mr Heck, suddenly thankful for his height and ran over there. "Mr Heck! Mr Heck!" His head jerked around to look at me as I skidded to a stop in front of him, feeling my stomach take a turn for the worse as I did so.

"Please don't hurl cause then I'll do the same." I felt elated at the sound of Axl's voice and turned to him. Stopping in horror as I saw what had happened to him. A smattering of bruises covered his face, blood covered one side in streams from a cut on his left temple. I felt my lip start to wobble as I noticed the makeshift cast that was on his arm and the way he was resting one arm over his ribs.

"Axl." I stook an uncertain step forward, unsure if I was going to hurt him but thankfully he made the decision for me and took my hand with his good one and pulled me in for a gentle hug. "I'm so happy you're alive." I whispered into his neck. He gave me a gentle smile and kissed my cheek.

"I'm happy you're alive too."

I chuckled and set about fretting over his needs before a nurse came over to take us to hospital. Once we had arrived we were split up once more. Axl had to be looked over and his arm had to be placed in a proper cast rather than the temporary one that it was in now.

"Samantha?" I nodded at the nurse who approached me. "The police would like to speak to you about what happened." I looked over her shoulder and saw one male police officer and one female. I nodded and she walked me over to them both.

"Hello Samantha, we just have a few questions for you and then we're going to talk to your boyfriend. I would like to ask you how you knew Peter and Steven?" The male took the lead, holding a pad of paper up ready to record what I said.

"I was at the same school as Peter. Steven is a man that Axl stopped from beating up his girlfriend, I thought he'd been sent to prison." They nodded and the man wrote it down.

"Do you know why they targeted you?" My mind flashed back to what happened earlier that day.

"Please don't do this. We didn't do anything to you, just let us go." I wasn't ashamed to admit that I was begging. I had seen the damage that was inflicted on Steven's girlfriend, and if he did that to someone he vaguely liked I didn't want to know what he was going to do to Axl.

Peter's eyes flashed to mine and he started laughing. "You haven't done anything to me?!" He laughed even harder before he came back over to me. His hand reached over and he cupped my cheek even though I tried my best to keep distance between us. His laughter died down as he crouched in front of me. "That's the problem."

He kept his hand where it was and I felt distinctly uncomfortable. "I don't understand."

"No one helped me." He let go of me and started pacing in front of me. "Do you know what I went through this year? My entire school career has been a mockery, I have been made a fool of and I have had enough!" He slammed his hand down on the table as he passed it. He stayed there, breathing heavily as he turned to look at me. "And now I'm going to make you all pay."

I snapped out of it and looked at the two police officers. "He wasn't very specific, he said that we didn't help him when he went through some problems at school." I wrapped an arm around myself feeling uncomfortable without Axl by my side. I was itching to go and see how he was doing.

"What happened when you got to the school?"

A cloth bag had been placed over my head so I didn't know where I was going, which was all a bit pointless because I'd already been told what the plan was so it was obvious that we were heading towards the school. I knew that Axl and I had been pushed into the back of a car, arms tied behind our backs with bags over our heads. Axl had attempted to ask me how I was and was rewarded with what sounded like a punch to the face.

The car was taking a strange route, there were a lot more bumps and uncomfortable pot holes than I was used to. I grimaced in pain as a particularly uncomfortable jolt caused a sharp pain shoot through my back. Finally the car came to a stop with a screech, forcing to slide across and hit my head on the window. I gasped in pain and shook my head to try and get my bearings.

"Get out." I almost fell out when the door was opened and my arm was taken in a steel grasp and I was pulled out of the car. I stumbled but managed to regain my balance as I was forcibly walked into a building. The school I assumed.

I was pushed backwards onto a chair and rope was tied around my body so that I would be unable to get up. I heard Axl and someone else enter and the same treatment was given to him so that we were tied back to back. "Why are you doing this?" I screamed, voice muffled by the bag. It was taken off my head and I blinked at the harsh lights. "You don't have to kill us to get the message across you could just set the school on fire. No one has to get hurt. Please."

"You really don't get it do you?" Peter leant forwards and pressed a harsh kiss on my lips before putting the bag back over my head and I heard the two men leave.

"Sam?" Axl called.

I felt tears dripping down my face as I replied. "Yes Axl?"

"I love you."

"I love you too."

The door slammed open and my ears detected the two men entering. I started to fidget against my ropes feeling the circulation cut off from my arms. "What are you doing?" Peter called, anxiety present in his voice as he came over to inspect my ropes. "Don't even think about trying to escape because you won't get very far."

I started to shake, the fear overwhelming me when I heard the strike of a match. I could already feel the heat but that might have just been my imagination.

"What are you doing, you idiot?" Peter called. "You need some lighter fluid or gas or something otherwise it's going to take forever."

"I'm sorry." Steven replied sarcastically and I realized that it was the first time I had heard his voice other than when he was screaming at his girlfriend. "It's not like I've ever done this before."

"I haven't either." Peter snapped. "But I'm not an idiot and I did my research." Faintly my ears picked up the sound of sirens approaching. "Here, spread this around." I heard liquid jostling and realised he was throwing gas everywhere, I felt it splash on my legs and started to cry harder.

"Sam don't panic." Axl shouted. "We're gonna be okay!"

Peter started to laugh and I heard the strike of a match. "No you're not."

"And that was when the police got there." I spoke, shaking as I remembered just how close we came to dying. "One of them shot at Peter who ducked behind Axl and I, I know it was him because I could hear him start to panic. He undid my ropes and held a gun to my head, that's when one of the officers took him out. Steven had the matches at this point I think, I could hear him trying to light one but I guess he was panicking too. Someone tackled him to the floor and that's when Axl and I were set free."