Two’s Good Company. Three’s A Crowd

C9: Two's Good Company. Three's A Crowd

The cool winter breeze sunk its teeth deep into the skin of everyone in Exasthen. Piercing through the thickest emotions, cutting into the deepest of hearts, and questioning the strongest ties. The only thing that seemed to remain the same as always, was that single, terrifying moment that would snip the thread of eerie silence.

"Hello, Hello. Is anyone around", the freezing, tiring character said, banging intensely on the shady wooden door in front of her. "Jacob? I know you're in there. I don't have the time or the patience to play all these hide and seek games with you", She said banging even louder on the door. "Open this door right now. Or I swear I'll—"

"You'll what Michelle?", interjected a spooky character resting on the wall of the building towards Shelby's left, jolting her attention in the process. He was wearing a thick mask, covering his entire face except his peculiar predatory eyes that wreaked of fiery intensity that Shelby was still struggling to decipher, like it rang a bell or something. His oversized black hoodie complimented by a pair of oversized black jeans made it even harder to make anything out of his unnerving figure. He pushed himself with his shoulder off the wall he was leaning on and stood straight up, then said in a calm but ghostly voice said, "You shouldn't be here Michelle". Slowly walking closer to her, he continued, "Somebody might see us."

"No Jacob", she said almost immediately. "Somebody might see you."

He halted instantly, then slowly let out a devilish smirk under his mask. "Don't act all innocent around me", he gradually raised his head until he locked his peculiar eyes into her oblivious ones and continued, "we both know who you really are."

"That's where you're wrong Jacob", she said, pulling out a midget handgun from the pocket of her blue, badged jacket. Aiming with both hands at the masked man's head she said in an angry and pain-stricken voice. "I came here to start over. To be free from the burden of the past. But you've made my life a living hell already, and you've been here how long?", she rhetorically asked. "I was doing so well, so well…", she said stealing a glance at the sky and the little ray of light from the sun it allowed through and continued, "..until you came here and destroyed everything I worked so hard for"

"Which is?"

"My peace" she screamed. "I left all those burdens, and all those mistakes behind, only for you to come here and pull me back into that darkness. But no more", she said with an expression of strong disagreement, shaking her head. "I promise you" she said cocking the gun "It ends today."

He'd been staring at her in complete silence the entire time, still and expressionless. He bent his head a little, and then slowly got down on his knees. He put his arms up in the air, then gradually crossed them behind his head and said in a disturbingly calm voice, "So you really think I'm the culprit? The reason for all the shit that's going on. No problem then. If you want to shoot me Shelby, then shoot me".

Her angry, infuriated expression slowly changed to a muddled, perturbed demeanor. "What'd you say?" she asked in a voice stricken with confusion.

"I said you can go ahead and sho-"

"No". She said unwaveringly. "You called me Shelby". She gradually lowered the gun and was walking up to him saying, "Jacob never called me—" all of a sudden, she dropped to floor, affecting the balance of the masked man who was kneeling in front of her. He likewise fell to the floor, and for a split second, was completely oblivious to, well, everything. He was still drowning in confusion, trying to piece together what exactly made her plop down to the floor, until his eyes met the back of her head that looked like it had been hit some sort of object.

As he was still trying to arrange his thoughts and piece together what had just happened, a deep, echoing voice said, "Get up, you idiot".

He slowly traced the stature of the man and noticed the gun in his hands and thought to himself, "He probably used the butt of the gun to-"

"Are you deaf or something mate? I said get up". Their eyes met, and in seconds he recognized the man.

"Sorry Jacob", he said, quickly getting up from the floor and dusting off the dirt on his jeans. "I didn't know it was-"

"Put a sock in it." He said a little angrier than before. "You almost spoilt everything that I worked so hard to plan you dumbass. Not exactly surprising at this point if I'm being honest. He looked down at Shelby on the floor and painfully said, "I'm sorry for hitting you sweetheart, but it was the only thing I could come up with at the time. And you", he said resentfully pointing in the masked man's direction, "Take her inside. She ain't for the streets", he said with a devilish grin

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Compared to winters unforgiving touch on the town of Exasthen, the inside of this heaven of a house was the diamond in the mine. It was so crisply furnished, with a blend of chairs ranging from moderate colors like brown in the living room, to cool ones like blue in the dining. It was as if it was handpicked to have nature's very scent. From the arrangement of chairs in the parlor, to that of freshly baked and cooked snacks in the dining, it was all done to perfection. Everything was in order.

Well everything except the unconscious female on the chair just beside Jacob on the dining table.

"Sweetheart", Jacob said whilst tapping her blanket covered shoulder, "it's time to wake up now." Shelby gradually rose her head up, her eyes squinting all the way, trying to uncover the details of where exactly she was and how she got there, until her peering eyes met Jacob's uncalming smile. She immediately shook off the drowsiness and sharp pain at the back of her head, and reached for the jackknife inside her soft, purple socks, only to realize it wasn't there anymore.

"Yeah, we searched you before setting you up for dinner", Jacob said, glancing the jackknife in his left hand and using it to cut a slice of the turkey leg in front of him.

"Tastes like feet", he managed to say while trying to gobble it down.

"We?" Shelby asked. "What do you mean 'we' searched you."