When Stars Align

Gunshots and police cars.

Luca sat in his car across the street and stared at the theatre as the lights in the building turned off one by one. After he’d left Amanda’s room, Lucia accosted him backstage, she was feeling faint and requested to be taken home. He’d agreed and taken her home with the intention of coming back to the theatre and following Amanda home, so he wouldn’t lose track of her.

He watched as she greeted the old security guard and looped her arm through her dance partner’s. He had a distinct feeling that there was more to their relationship than mere partners, something more intimate and it saddened him to know she’d moved on without him when he couldn’t forget about her. He supposed it was fitting, considering the way he’d left things with her.

He watched them stroll down the street, their faces splitting with grins. It hurt to watch and he looked away. It was no use following her, she’s obviously moved on with someone better. He turned on the ignition and was about driving off when he saw five men go after them without them noticing. The last one hung back, walking in a leisure pace. He had on a fedora hat that masked his face but the figure looked familiar to him. He sensed danger so he followed them, making sure to stick to the shadows so he wouldn’t alert them to his presence.

When they backed them into an alley, he stuck to the wall of a coffee shop, away from the lamppost and called the police. He hid there with his heart in his throat, scared for Amanda and what she was going through at the moment. He wanted to help but knew he couldn’t just charge in like a hero. He had no fighting skills and the men were hefty, they probably had guns tucked away in their jackets.

The best thing he could do for them was stay there and wait for the police to arrive instead of jumping in to save the day and further escalating the situation. The first shot rang out and he saw Amanda fall to the floor, clutching her leg, her face scrunched up in pain. She looked like she was going to be sick. His heart broke to see her like that; in pain and scared for her life. Fate couldn’t bring them back together again and tear them apart the same day, it just wasn’t possible. Where was the police when you needed them?

Her life was hanging by a thread– a thread that was getting thinner by the moment– and he was helpless. He could do nothing to help her. Should he cause a distraction and try to draw them to himself? The man in the fedora hat, Lorenzo– he’d heard her partner call him that– pointed the gun at Amanda again and she froze. This was it, he had to do something, he couldn’t stand there and let him kill her.

Just as he moved to run into the alley, a police car pulled up in front of him and two police officers got out of the car. He pointed to the alley and they immediately called for backup, they pulled out their pistols and told the men to drop their weapons. They did the opposite and opened fire, shots flew and he bent down with his fingers in his ears to block out the sound of bullets flying.

Another police car pulled up, followed by an ambulance. He knew they were safe but his only thought were of Amanda injured on the floor and probably in a lot of pain. He layed flat on the floor and crawled to her, pulled her into his arms just as her eyes rolled back in her head and she fainted. A bullet flew past his ear, grazing it and his skin burned like it was just licked by red hot iron, he still didn’t let go of her. He bent over her, shielding her from all the commotion.

A hand tapped him and he looked up to see one of the paramedics crouching in front of him. One of the shooters lay dead in a pool of blood a few feet from him, the rest were nowhere to be found. They must’ve made a run for it. A police officer handcuffed the black man with Amanda and pushed him into the car.

The man in front of him was saying something to him, he gesticulates with his hands but he couldn’t understand a word of what he was saying, his ears were still ringing. Another paramedic brought a stretcher and motioned to the woman in his arms and Luca realised they were only trying to attend to Amanda and he was obstructing them by holding on to her. He let her go and they placed her on the stretcher and carried her into the ambulance. He tried to go in with her but they didn’t let him into the ambulance. He ran to his car, parked in front of the theatre and drove to the hospital behind the ambulance.