Chapter 3

If you think running is bad, I bet you've never tried running while screaming. Trust me, you wanna kill your lungs and throat that's the way to do it. I sprinted midway through my scream towards the open door. But the thing was too quick, he slammed the door shut with a tree trunk sized arm, he reached for me next, I ducked his hand barely missing my hair. I went to run past him but he shot out and grabbed my wrist, grabbing my flashlight and throwing it into the wall shattering it, engulfing the room in darkness. I could only see his eyes, sticking out in the darkness like two tiny moons. Eerie but at the same time mysterious. They followed me wherever I moved, not blinking once. It felt as though they stared right through me into my soul, seeing everything I've done wrong with my life.

I had to get out of here. I had no idea who this was or what he wanted, he clearly wasn't the owner, and judging by the size of this guy he probably turn me inside out with one hand. And that was not at the top of my to do list let me tell you. I debated if I could jump out the window and still be able to run when he spoke.

"Where you gonna run to?" He said, his voice so deep everything seemed to rumble, even me. "I can see you, Ty."

My heart skipped a couple beats as soon as I heard my name leave his lips. How did he know me? He couldn't there was no way, I lived a mile away from here and I never came here until we hit this house. Then a thought hit me. He must've a cop. He probably followed me and Zexy and used this house as bait to catch us.

Panic rushed over me. Finally, the thing I thought would never happen to me is actually happening-- I was gonna be busted. Another shriek rang from downstairs. What the hell were they doing to Zexy? I suddenly wished I had never stolen that twenty dollars from Dean Hatcher, wished I could be snuggled in my bed with my mom rubbing my back, after this I probably won't be sleeping in my bed for at least month, maybe more.

I quickly reached for the money in my pocket and I threw it at the man. Realizing how stupid it was to take it all back now. I didn't wait to see his reaction, I dived through his legs scrambling up behind him. I wrenched the door open so hard I almost thought I ripped it off the hinges, I looked behind me before I bolted just to see his two silver almost glowing eyes whip around and chase towards me. I choked on a scream and bolted, slamming the door shut behind me so he ran into it. His only response was a laugh, so deep like thunder that it followed me down the hallway along with his haunting words.

"Run, Ty, run, Ty, run as fast as you can." I've never heard a cop say that, what the hell is going on here?

As it turns out I was running way too fast and I tripped over the first stair. I let out a cry of terror as I plunged into the blackness below before grabbing the hand railing and steadying myself. I tried to plan an escape route as I descended. The way we came in was a no go zone, but there was a front door just in front of the stairs and probably a back door by the kitchen. No matter which I way I went, I had no idea how far I'd get in the stormy darkness. As I reached the bottom step the lights turned on and I shielded my eyes. The light caught me off guard and I flung into a wall. I saw stars as I hit the wall and staggered back to catch my breath.

I glanced at the front door and saw that all the locks there would take me too long to get it open, so I turned on my heel and rushed towards the kitchen. You think something so big would be really bad at hiding, but it as I neared the kitchen doorway another mountain sized man blocked my path, as though he simply stepped out of the shadows.

I skidded to halt, jaw dropping in astonishment. In the light I could clearly see his features, he too was dressed in a slick black suit, with a white shirt and black tie. He looked more like someone from the CIA or FBI or something, not a cop. What was more terrifying was his facial expressions, seemingly expressionless but yet grinning and his eyes shining with a sadistic glee at the same time, like a child about to squash a big bug.

"Boo," He said, his voice just as deep as the man upstairs, rumbling like thunder.

I took shaky steps back, slowly shaking my head in fear. There was only one escape route left, the way we came in. I sprinted into the living room, ready to grab Zexy and leap out the window screaming. But what I saw instead turned my legs to pudding, draining almost all the energy I had left from my body, it took all I had left not to collapse on the floor.

The once deserted room was now full of men, all relatively around the same ginormous size, making me, Zexy and the furniture seem dwarf sized. They also all looked relatively the same feature wise as well, as though they were all brothers but yet they all had strange unique differences. They all were wearing the exact same black suits as the two from before, I counted four in this room, and from the thudding footsteps behind me I could only guess there was two more in the hall.

What I couldn't take my eyes off of though was the figure in between two of the giants, he shook and twitched like his muscles were constantly spazzing. He was tiny in comparison the mountainous men, barely reaching their elbows, but looking at his face I saw why Zexy had screamed. Going from the ground up, he wore a long black leather lab coat, with a white shirt underneath. His head was bald and looked like the texture of parchment instead of skin. On his face he wore a rusty old gas mask, the part that covered the lower part of his face was attached to a tank on his back, similar to ones divers used. Either way, thing looked ancient. He wheezed noisily through the contraption like in the movies. But peering out at me from the mask, like bad raisins in oatmeal, were his eyes, and they way they stared through me made we want to curl up into a ball and die.

It took me almost a minute to find Zexy's small and trembling form beneath one of the men in black. He looked up at me a look of pure terror on his face, his eyes begging me to help him only I didn't know how. I didn't know who these people were or what they wanted. I looked at the window and back at Zexy and part of me wished that it was the familiar uniform of a cop I was seeing and not this freak show of giants and gas masks.

"Nice of you to finally join us, Ty," said the large man standing above Zexy. His face and expression were a copied image of his comrades, only he had a mole on his cheek, under his left eye. His voice was almost the exact same as the all the others, booming and deafening.

"It seems as though everyone here knows my name," I said, before I could even try to filter the words coming out. I may have been scared shitless but there was no way I would give these guys the satisfaction of seeing that. "If I had known we were walking into a party we would've brought cake and presents." I groaned internally, my sarcastic humour would be the death of me.

To my surprise they chuckled at my sarcasm-- Only it was much more terrifying than I cared to admit, it made the glass in the window vibrate, a sound so low I was surprised I could hear it.

"We wanted to surprise you," he continued.

"Then do what you came here to do, arrest me-- arrest us," I said, just wanting to get out of here at this point. "You've caught us red-handed; just take us away and we'll go quietly."

The same booming laughter as before echoed throughout the room, setting my teeth on edge. When it had finished, the large man looked at his smaller companion as though waiting for him to say something. A minute or two dragged by as the gas masked freak studied me and Zexy, he then turned to me, we locked eyes for a minute and I saw him nod. My stomach twisted into knots, what the hell did that mean?

"What?" I asked, desperate to know what was going on but at the same time terrified to know the answer. "What the hell does he want?"

"He wants you to say goodbye to your friend," the man continued. I shook my head, fear and confusion churning in my stomach. I didn't understand, were they just gonna take me and not Zexy?

"What?" I repeated a little softer. Zexy was no longer looking at me, but the floor, shoulders shaking and sobbing quietly yet uncontrollably.

"Th-they've got guns with silencers," he said so quietly I almost didn't hear him. "Ty, they're not the police."

I didn't understand what Zexy and meant until the large man opened his suit jacket revealing a holstered pistol tucked in a pocket near his armpit and a knife in a holster on his belt. For a moment, the whole world seemed to spin and I felt like I was either gonna pass out or throw up, and by the time I had regained my composure he had pulled out the knife and aimed it at me as though he were going to throw it.

"Last chance to say goodbye,"

I looked at Zexy, my heart racing, wanting this nightmare to end. I wished I wouldn't of been some stupid kid, overpowered by greed. I thought of all the things I wouldn't be able to do, the things I would miss, my family, my friends! It was so stupid! I realized I couldn't control my emotions anymore and tears started to swell in my eyes making my vision fuzzy. I could only see the outline of the man and the shadow of his knife.

"G-goodbye, Zexy," I whispered through a sob. "I'm s-sorry."

"Ty," he started, but that was all that I would hear from his reply. The dark shadow of the man and the blade moved, sweeping downward and emitting a sick sloshing sound followed by another and another and then a gurgle, but that was quickly drowned out by the booming laughter of these guys that filled the room again. I tried to blink the tears from my eyes away to clarify what I had just seen. But when my vision did clear it was undeniable what had just happened.

Zexy lay motionless, eyes blank, the carpet under him slowly turning the color of the wounds in his chest and throat.

It felt like hours before anyone moved again. It felt as if my brain and body had suddenly become two separate ways of functioning and neither of them worked right now. Every part of my body felt numb. I wanted to feel something about what I was looking at, anger, hatred, fear, sorrow, anything, but all I could do was stare at the body of my friend, who would never move again, never laugh again, just a corpse with a dirty shoe. It sunk in and my legs buckled and I collapsed to my knees.

"Hey, catch," came the booming voice. The giant man with the mole tossed the knife at me, on instinct I caught it, grabbing it by the handle and staring down at it in horror. I shakily aimed it at the man who killed my friend, but I've really only handled a toy knife, never a real one, I quickly tossed it to the floor.

"Now, if I were you, Ty, I'd make a break for it while you can," he continued. "I mean, you just broke into a home, stole a load of cash, and slit your best friend's throat in cold blood. The cops aren't gonna like you one bit, so put those sneakers you're wearing to good use and run."

I couldn't speak, I had no idea what he was talking about. Suddenly I felt a huge pair of hands grab me from under my arms and hoist me to my feet effortlessly, the same pair then turned me around and shoved me towards the front door, which had been unlocked and opened. I didn't like this one bit, what did they want from me?

"Good luck, Ty," came the voice from behind me once more. "Run as hard and far as you can, or sit and cower nearby. Either way we'll see you real soon."

I turned my head back to see all the men in black break into monstrous smiles-- with their sharp teeth and glowing eyes. I then took one last look at Zexy, at rest if you could even call it that on his now crimson bed, and I bolted out into the rain.