“It doesn’t have to be like this!” Connor cried out from the back seat of the car as it sped south on Route 19. He could feel the hard plastic of the zip-ties cutting into the edge of his wrists behind his back. He had no idea who these men were or why they grabbed him. Who are these people? What the hell do they want me for?
“Shut up kid.” The tone of the first stranger’s voice was unmistakably serious. This man meant business.
Connor sat perched in the middle of the back seat of a small sedan. He could see the bright lights of stores outside as they flashed in and out of the car in the night. He couldn’t make out where they were on the high way. Slowly leaning to his left to try and get a better look out into the night, Connor felt a firm hand on his shoulder. It yanked him back into the middle of the seat followed by a quick fist to the bridge of his nose.
“I told you sit still son. This is only gonna get worse the more you struggle.” Stranger number two was just as serious and stranger number one.
The taste of blood slowly made its way to Connor’s lips. The warmth of the blood spread across his face, half suffocating him as he tried to wipe some of the blood off on his right arm sleeve. Why are these guys doing this to me? He tried to focus in on the physical features of the two mean in the front seat. They were both big, bigger than him at least. From what he could tell neither of them were in great shape, there wasn’t enough light shining in to get a good look at their faces. Plus it didn’t help his eyes were swelling up after having his nose broken.
Stranger number one throws the car into a hard right and then slams on the breaks. The car stops as both men get out of the front seat. Then in perfect synchronization both back doors open. Thud. Connor feels two of his right ribs crack as he hits the mud, a small rock in the ground juts into his side. It starts to rain.
“Take him over behind that old shed.”
Connor can’t tell which of the men doing the talking. He’s in too much pain to tell a difference.
“Stop! Please I can make this right,” wincing from pain Connor tries his best to plead with the strangers.
“There ain’t nothing you can do to fix this boy. Better say your prayers.” The man’s shadowy voice faded off into the darkness. Then picked Connor up, dragging his body through the mud and dead leaves piled on the ground.
Connor closed his eyes and thought of his family. He thought of his Mother and his Father and how neither of them would ever get to see him again. He thought of his girlfriend Natalie and how he wished to hold her one last time. Tears began to flow down his face. Thoughts of his own faults raced through his mind, how he longed to have done more to make it Father proud, to make is parents proud. Yet here is was in the cold dark rain, lying face first in the mud. His train of thought was broken as he was put up on his knees.
“This is for what you did to Kyle.”
Connor froze, as if caught in time. He finally knew what this was for. The cold tip of a gun barrel rested at the back of his neck. For a second, he felt alone. Then he felt nothing at all.
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