Page 33 of The Reaper

He was right, but there had to be a reason Wolf sent us here. “I don’t know,” I said. “Wanna leave?” I hoped he’d say yes; I had a bad feeling about this place. I hated to admit it, but it was creeping me out.

“Maybe it’s a surprise for your birthday?” Luke suggested, excitement creeping into his voice. “He’s cool like that.”

Well, that was a possibility. “You think so?” I didn’t really think it was, but what did we have to lose? We’d traveled this far so we might as well stay.

“Yeah. Let’s go.” He jumped out of the car and I followed.

“Hello?” I called, my voice echoing. “Wolf?”

“Why is it so dark?” Luke asked. We used our cell phones to light our path.

“I dunno.”

The gate was locked, so we jumped over the fence and made our way to the middle of the empty warehouse. The eerie quiet made me regret my decision to ever come here.

“We should leave,” Luke said, his usual playful voice laced with worry.

“Yeah, let’s go,” I agreed.

Five men double our size appeared out of nowhere and blocked our way. “Leaving so soon?” one of them asked.

“Who the hell are you?” I asked. My heart raced, terror taking me over. Two of the guys grabbed Luke’s arm. “Hey, get your hands off him!”

“Get the fuck off me,” Luke yelled. “HELP! HELP!”

“Shut up, you little bitch.” One of the guys hit Luke’s head with a gun and he crumpled to the ground.

“Luke!” I moved to rush to my friend but was grabbed by the collar. I tried wiggling away without success. The man pulled my hands behind me, I was no match for his strength. “Luke! LUKE!” He lay still; unconscious. This had to be a nightmare. This wasn’t happening.

I closed my eyes, shaking my head repeatedly. When I opened them, I spotted a shadow moving behind the two goons standing over Luke. “Help!” I screamed at them.

My yell for help earned a punch in the gut and my body attempted to fold over. If it wasn’t for the man holding my hands behind my back, I would have been on the ground too.

I was yanked up, and as the new arrival passed by the light shining through a broken window, I recognized him immediately.

Hope bloomed when our eyes met. “Help,” I muttered again. “Wolf, please?”

Wolf stopped next to the man with the gun. They looked at each other and fist-bumped.

All hope evaporated; my world darkened. “What the fuck, man?” I gasped. “Who the hell are they?”

Wolf grinned. “These are my friends,” he said.

“Why are you doing this? We didn’t do anything to you.” I wanted to punch him, but the guy yanked my hands back with such force, I winced.

“I brought you here for this.” Wolf neared the wall. He flipped the light switch on, revealing three guys from our school lying in a pool of blood. They’d been shot.

“Oh my fucking god! Oh my fucking god!” I cried. “Please let us go, we won’t say anything!” The man holding me forced me to kneel. “Don’t kill us, please. I’m begging you.” Images of my grandparents floated in my head. They couldn’t lose their grandson as well.

“We’re not gonna kill you,” Wolf insisted. He walked closer, holding a box with a gun inside. “Remember this gun?”

“No,” I answered, shaking my head.

“This was the one you practiced with,” Wolf said, handing the box to one of his men.

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“Oh, you naive little boy.” Wolf nodded to one of the guys. Everything moved in slow motion when I realized he was wearing gloves as he took the gun out of the box. “Any final words to your friend?”

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