Page 30 of Giving In

I unlock my seatbelt with trembling hands as I try to compose myself. He won’t hurt me. He’s not that bad. He just wants to scare me because he’s mad but really, how far can he go?

He was part of a gang, Jamie. He’s probably killed people before.

Of course he hasn’t. Don’t be ridiculous.

I ease out of the car, my eyes slowly adapting to the darkness.

“Why are we here?” I ask.

He doesn’t answer and shoves me forward toward the start of the trail instead. “Be quiet and walk.”

I take a step forward then stop. “Jake, I’m not walking with you to the woods in the middle of the night. If you have something to say to me, you can say it here.”

He’s still standing behind me and I’m about to turn around when I feel something cold at the back of my head.

In a split second, my heart free falls from my chest and a heaviness settles in my stomach.

“Who said I have anything to say to you?” he says in a mocking tone.

He can’t. He can’t possibly have a gun.Please let it not be a gun.

As if he heard my thoughts, he pushes against my head. “Usually when people have a gun to their head, they execute orders, Jamie. Now shut that beautiful mouth of yours and walk.”

I start walking. Because what choice do I have?

We walk in silence for what feels like fifteen minutes and all I can say to myself is that he’s doing this to scare me because my brain simply won’t register that I’m going to be shot dead in the woods.

The trail slowly disappears, and he guides me off-track completely until we’re so deep in the woods that the moonlight barely makes it through the thick tree branches. I don’t know if I feel cold because I’m in a skirt and tee in a forest in the middle of the night or if it’s because I don’t know if I’ll still be alive in five minutes.

“Stop here,” he orders. “Turn around”.

I stop and turn around to face him. I wrap myself with my arms to try and stop my body from shivering but at this point, I think there’s no use.

Jake looks at me and shakes his head in disappointment. “I told you to keep your mouth shut about Sam, didn’t I?”

“Really, Jake? You’re going to do this because I told your best friend about some random drug dealer you used to know?”

I know he’s not just some random drug dealer but I’m trying to minimize the problem here.

“I asked you something so simple, Jamie. And I warned you about the consequences. This is serious shit and you took it as a game.”

“What’s your plan here? Scaring me into backing off? You don’t want to lose your golden boy image so bad that you just eliminate whoever knows the truth about you? I’m not interested in your life, Jake, but if you think you can intimidate me intoanythingyou got me all wrong. It’ll take a little more than an unloaded gun and a dark forest to scare me.”

He chuckles but it only lasts a split second. “You’re playing brave with the wrong person here.”

I know I am. But I can’t just let him frighten me into keeping my mouth shut. He does it once and he’ll think he can do whatever he wants with me.

“I have a game for you, Goody.” He slides the magazine out and looks at the bullets inside, proving me the gunis, in fact, loaded.

He’s doing this to scare you. Just to scare you. Stay strong.

It’s easy to think, it’s harder to act out on it. My heart picks up so hard, my eardrums tremble.

Jake slams the magazine back into place. “If you make it to the car before I catch you, I’ll let you off with a warning.” He slides the top, loading a bullet. “If I catch you…we’re gonna have a lot of fun before I kill you.”

I can feel my eyes growing in shock before I register his words. Shock? It’s not just shock, it’s terror. Absolute. Terror. My blood is slowly freezing, milliliters by milliliters.

He takes a slow step toward me before whispering, “Run.”

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