Ruthlessly

Nightmare

Karmas pov

I heaved a duffle bag filled with things we would need on our trip to Whemingsville, like first aid and my shotgun. You never know what will be ahead of us or what the future holds. I stood back and put my hands on my hips. Maybe it was a bit stupid of me to put the shotgun in the back. I reached into the cargo bed of my turquoise coloured truck and pulled the bag back out. Unzipping it, I pulled my shotgun out, I walked around to the front and placed it on the front seat of the driver's side. The truck only had one long seat connecting both the driver and passengers' seats together. It made it easy to access if I needed to quickly grab the gun to use it. 

I shut the door and turned around, hearing the screen door slam shut as Jody walked out with another duffle bag the strap around his shoulder, he walked up to me "You ready for this?" he asked unsure I looked at him, I was ready, it was him I was worried about I knew he was on board with us getting Jade back but what I didn't know was to what extent he was willing to go to get her back. 

"I am." I nodded, "But you should be asking yourself that question. Are you ready for this?"

He sighed and looked off to the side. He thought for a moment, seemingly trying to find the right words. I could tell he was scared and worried, but who wouldn't be if they were put in such a hostile situation it's not everyday that you fight a kidnapper. He blew out the air in his mouth then looked back over towards me.

"Honestly, I don't know. I know things will get.. violent if and when we find him but.." he trailed off, scratching the back of his head. "I don't want to have to shoot anyone, I mean what if I kill somebody?" he shook his head and looked down. I pitied the kid. He was so innocent and this would obviously hurt his conscious I knew if he did shoot that gun, he wouldn't be the same again. 

I scrunched my lips together and put a hand on his shoulder, I shook my head, letting out a breath, "Listen kid, anyone who's shooting at you is going to try and kill you.. think of it that way."

He thought for another second, staring at me in realization, and he nodded, understanding what we were walking into. 

"I'll shoot if I absolutely have to."  

I half smirked sadly, patting my already planted hand on his shoulder, "I'm sorry things turned out this way.. I'm glad you have a good heart and a strong head on your shoulders." I meaningfully told him, I didn't like him when we had first met he was quiet and followed Jade around like a lost puppy. I thought he was just a street rat trying to get into my little sister's pants, but now I know he just wanted to help her, having no idea how to other than just sticking by her side.

I took my hand off his shoulder and turned back around, opening my door and getting into the truck. I stuck my hand out the window and pointed towards the other side, signalling for him to get in. "Lets go," I stated, then patted my hand on the outside roof of the truck.  

I saw Jody silently take a breath in through his nose before he walked around throwing his bag into the cargo bed and getting into the passenger side, slamming his door. 

**************************************BREAK*****************************************

I had been driving for over an hour in the direction of Wemmingsville until I had finally seen the sign that we were now entering the town. I sighed in relief, Jody and I looked at each other "This is it". I huffed. We were now entering the outskirts of town still surrounded by green forest, a gas station came into view I pulled in and parked at one of the six pumps I looked to jody after shutting the truck off "Pump the gas while I go in to pay" I told him, he nodded in compliance and exited the vehicle I did the same. 

I started heading towards the small gas station store. There was no way that we could know that they were here, in this town. all we had to go off of was the way they had turned out of my driveway and that wasn't alot at all. I stopped walking when I stepped on something and felt the air deflate from it. I bent down to pick it up. It was an empty carton of Marlboro cigarettes.. the same kind that Jason smoked. Maybe they were here but I couldn't go off of a pack of smokes after all. I'm sure other people smoked the same brand. 

I let the empty package fall from my hand back onto the ground and continued walking up to the store. I opened the door and walked down the aisle towards the fridges. I was tired from being up all night and needed something to keep me awake other than the unnerving feeling in the pit of my stomach. I opened the fridge and plucked out two energy drinks, then went back down the aisle. 

"I'm tellin' ya Bobby, there were ten cop cars here last night, counted em' myself'" I froze in the aisle, that sounded promising. I slowly walked down the aisle pretending to look for something so it didn't seem like I was eavesdropping in on their conversation. "They were blocking up the whole station, didn't make a-lot of money yesterday" I picked up a bag of chips and pretended to read it, "I wonder what they was' after'" The customer-Bobby- I'm assuming said to the cashier. "I couldn't tell ya, but whatever it was must have been towards town cause' thats where they turned off towards on the highway." I threw the bag of chips back hearing enough of what I needed to then walked casually up to the front desk, I placed my drinks down.

"Forty dollars on pump two" the cashier rung me up. I gave him two twenties and a ten dollar bill before quickly retreating back outside, not caring about if I had any change. I walked back out towards the truck and back to Jody who was still outside pumping gas. I threw him an energy drink which he effortlessly caught in one hand. 

"They were here" I confidently told him. He looked at me in surprise. 

"How do you know?"

I nodded my head towards the store while opening my door, "The cashier and a regular customer were talking about Jason's team of pigs blocking out the whole gas station." I swung myself inside of the truck with my hand on the roof, Jody pulled the pump back out and got back in his seat as-well, I then turned towards town, the way the cashier had said the cops turned off. 

A little way down the road we saw a cop hidden in the brush of the forest. I didn't think much of it because we were in a different county and he must've just been looking for speeders or drunk people. I watched him in the review mirror as we passed him, when he pulled out a phone.. still nothing weird, probably just his dispatch. 

Jade's pov

It was early when I woke up in the motel room. I could only tell because of the digital alarm clock on the small nightstand which I could see from the floor I laid on. I was on my stomach with my hands still tied in front of me. I tried to move my hands against the restraints as they were making my wrists start to feel sore. I could still feel the rings I had managed to keep hold of and hidden from Jason's sight. 

Getting ahold of my bearings and my eyes adjusting to the blur of being awake, I looked to the side hearing Jason talking to someone, he was sitting at a table in the small motel room with his back to me. He was on the phone. 

"Okay, I'll lead them away and keep them on the chase." I heard him say into the cell phone he held to his ear. I fiddled with the rings in my hand. It had become a comfort to me in my anxious state of mind. I suddenly heard Jason stand up from the chair he'd been sitting in. He turned around and started towards me. I had sat up from my laying position on the floor, now huddled with my knees to my chest against the bed frame.

He had a grim expression plastered on his face and it draped the atmosphere with the same feeling. Without a word, he grabbed the rope that bound my hands together and lifted me in the air before placing me on my feet, then he hauled me off towards and out the door, then led me to the passenger side of the truck once again. He placed me inside of the truck but a little more gently than yesterday, seeing as I had no more fight left in me, he shut the door then walked away, leaving me there to go back into the motel room, silence filling my ears. 

'This is a nightmare' my mind spoke up. I only nodded in agreement. 

After a few minutes, Jason left the motel room. Once again, a small pistol was in his hand. He shoved it in his back pocket, covering it with his shirt before taking off in the direction of the motel manager's office, most likely to return the room keys. I shivered, is he going to kill me with that?

"This is a nightmare.." I whispered, repeating what my subconscious had just told me. 

Jason quickly came back and entered the truck, not looking towards me or saying anything at all and that scared me even more. We turned out of the crappy motel parking lot and back onto the highway, going back in the same direction we had come from the gas station yesterday. 

I kept my head down trying to focus on the rings I had in my hands, which was also my only comfort at the moment. Jason suddenly made a sharp three sixty, turning right back around in the other direction, causing me to jerk forwards and the rings in my hands to fall right on Jason's lap. I looked up with a sharp gasp. Looking towards the review mirror, I saw Karma's truck picking up speed behind us. I looked back at Jason who was studying one of the rings in his hand while still trying to focus on the road. He seemed to already know what it was and caught on quickly. 

He looked at me then focused back on the road. 

"Is this what you've been fumbling with?" He asked me in a way which I knew he wasn't actually expecting an answer. He let out a chuckle then checked the review mirror and increased his speed. "Do you want to know your history?" he kept his eyes on the road. I kept quiet, knowing he was going to tell me regardless.

"Once upon a time there was a husband and wife who had two children." He turned, skidding down a side street. Karma was still behind us. "Everything was perfect.. They lived on a big farm and had a normal family life". He increased his speed watching karma in the review mirror, "Every aspect of their lives was perfect, they didn't need anything other than each other." Jason made another turn while I watched the road as intensely as he did, except I didn't have a grim look on my face, I was terrified of how fast we were going. "That was until I guess the wife really wasn't happy.. and so she decided to cheat on the husband." He scrunched his face up in a disgusted look, I couldn't help but turn to look at him, cheated? Was that the green-eyed man in the photograph..? "And then late one night nine months later, the young boy was led out to a barn to aid his disloyal mother who was in labor.." Jason finally looked towards me as he spat the last few words. Our eye's meeting. He looked back in the review mirror at Karma's truck speeding behind him. "And then you were born.. and not long after, the father found the three of them.. and then..." He said threw clenched teeth, he gritted them as he pushed his foot all the way down on the gas peddle causing it to reach the floor, eyes glued too Karma in the review mirror. "He burned the two of them alive in the barn, while the boy ran with the f*****g bastard baby." he let off the gas feeling confident in the space between the two trucks he looked me in the eyes while glaring, "That boy should have left the baby in the barn." 

Jason's phone started ringing, he reached for it as if he was expecting the call. He put the phone to his ear and listened for a minute. My eyes left his figure and returned to the road. I began to notice that I recognized my surroundings, then my mouth gaped as I realized that the farm was going to be coming up on my side of the truck. That's where we were headed. 

"Okay, do it now." I heard Jason say. I looked at him and he had little to no expression on his face. He kept staring at the road and I went back to staring out my window. 

We then drove past the farm quickly, but not fast enough to not see an explosion erupt in the house and it to be fully engulfed in flames. "NO!" I screamed as tiny bits of rubble hit the roof of the Chevy while we drove past. How could he? I looked in my review mirror attached to the door and saw Karma's truck come to a screeching halt, the end of her truck on the road and the front of the driveway. I looked away in utter disbelief, I wanted to scream or to cry, to hit him, but I didn't, because he would hurt me and I couldn't get my mouth to work. 

The last thing I saw was Karma dropping to her knees at the end of the driveway, Jody running out towards her. 

If he could do this, surely he would kill me next.