Apollo & Luna

Killed

“Alicia?” her mother asked uncertainly, and she could see fear building behind those old, weathered eyes.

Her mother had suffered enough because of her. Alicia would never do something that would hurt her again – even if this meant turning a deaf ear to the cries she heard in her dreams, and turning a blind eye to the visions she saw.

It never bothered her before, living in this secluded area and all, but earlier, the vision had been so strong that she was caught off guard. But she would ignore it. She should ignore it.

“I’m fine,” she answered as she smiled shakily. “You’re right. It’s probably the heat,” she answered as she placed an arm around her mother’s tiny waist. “Let’s go to the house…”

=====

Pok pok pok …

A blindfolded young man in a suit slowly came to consciousness and he gasped for air. “Hmmmph…mmmmmph…” he whimpered, but in reality, he was trying to scream for help. The huge gag in his mouth prevented him however, and so he stopped.

In all honesty, he should feel afraid. Here he was, lying in a cramped space with only the noise of a cheap car based on the sound of its engine sounding in staccato as the background. His eyes were not seeing anything, and his hands were bound together behind his back, when not many hours ago, he was at a ball, charming his way into the crowd. Yes, he should be afraid. Instead of fear however, his powerful, lithe body shook with rage.

He was Yann f*****g Bouchard, businessman extraordinaire. He was one – if not the most powerful - men in Asia and in Europe. Who the hell dared do this to him?

Yann frowned. He remembered attending the opening of the resort, and then going to the garden for a breather, when someone suddenly knocked him out with chloroform. It wasn’t powerful enough, so he woke up still outside the venue, being handled by the henchmen.

He tried to struggle but one of the men gave him a punch in the gut which immobilized him for a while, making it easy for them to bind and gag him. When he was put inside the car trunk, he tried to shout but couldn’t. He lay there, angry and frustrated as he kicked the trunk but fell into exhaustion after the long drive. 

The sound of the engine stopped and Yann’s ears became alert for sounds. He knew they must be somewhere very far, and he reckoned he should remember all the sound he could.

The doors of the car opened, and soon, so was the trunk. Yann smelled the fresh scent of grass and dew and so he assumed that they were in the countryside.

“Get him out of here,” one man said and Yann found himself being dragged out of the trunk towards the ground.  The young businessman took a deep breath and then started struggling, but one of his captors punched his side and he kneeled in pain. “Don’t bother fighting Mr. Fancy Pants. You ain’t escaping.”

Hearing his captors taunting him, Yann’s anger grew, and he tried to struggle again, but one of the men hit his back with the butt of a gun and he fell on the dirt.

“Are you an i***t? Don’t kill him here on the road. Kill him over there,” one of the men scolded his comrades and Yann’s blood chilled. Kill?

He had thought that he was taken for ransom. He was, after all, a very rich man. To have him killed meant the men didn’t need money from him. So it meant…

Someone wanted him dead…

“What are you waiting for?” The men continued and Yann was lifted from the ground. In reflex, the businessman kicked hard, and he knew he’d sent one man flying, screaming as he did. The others who’d been surprised by his sudden attack tried to grab him, but Yann twisted his body, and in the process loosened his blindfold making it possible to see on his left  eye as he came face to face with his assailant and he kicked again.

“Holy s**t! He saw me!” the man yelped as he stumbled on the ground and Yann didn’t think twice to run for his life. “Go after him! Go after him!”

Yann heard the men scream and he willed his legs to run faster, spitting his gag as he did so. The place was a vast field of darkness. There were no lights except for the one coming from the car which brought him here and the starry sky.

“Shut up! You’re too loud!” he heard them again, and he turned around in time to see one of the men attaching something to the gun. Silencer.

Yann would be killed in this vast field quietly and no one would ever know.

“No way! I can’t die here,” he told himself as the image of his younger sister came to his mind. His younger sibling had a very weak constitution and stayed in bed most of the time. No, he couldn’t die here. If he did, the vultures of the business world would prey on his defenseless sister.

“Hana…” he whispered his sister’s name just as he felt something hit him on the back, and the sharp, burning pain went through his chest.  Suddenly deprived of air, Yann’s legs stopped moving, and he turned to look at his torso where the burning sensation was.

Blood…

The star-lit sky illuminated his body and he could see the dark hue slowly spreading on his shirt. 

He’d been shot!

Weakened by the loss of blood, Yann fell on the ground, coughing more plasma as he did.

Soon, footsteps rustled in the night and his captors surrounded him.

“He’s still alive. Shoot him again,” one of them ordered, but another refused. “No, let’s just leave him like this.”

“But the boss said to kill him. He hated the bastard so he said not to return unless he’s dead,” the man protested but the other was adamant not to shoot Yann again.

“No. This bastard kicked my balls. Let’s leave him like this so he’ll suffer longer. He’ll die anyway,” the man continued as lights flashed. The men took pictures of the fallen businessman as proof to show their superior.

“Let’s go…” Yann heard one of them say, and soon, their footsteps retreated, and there was only silence as his consciousness began to fade away.