As I got up to answer the door, my phone rang too. I checked who it was. Kian. My best friend. He’d probably seen the news. I declined the call and slipped the phone back into my pocket as I got to the door.

  I looked through the peephole and saw exactly who I expected to see. Darren. He’d thrown a pair of jogging bottoms on but still had a bare chest and his right arm was by his side. He was holding something but it was hidden behind him. Of course this good-for-nothing lowlife would be the first at my door.

  I turned to Carmen and gave a little nod at the wall behind her indicating the apartment on the other side, whilst silently mouthing ‘Darren’. The concern on her face was apparent but I gestured with my hands for her to head back to our bedroom. I wasn’t really sure what to do right now except make sure she was safe first. I didn’t plan on letting Darren in but I needed to think. He was only going to be the first of many.

  The doorbell rang again.

  “Come on River,” Darren said outside the door. “I know you’re in there. Just make it easy on everyone and let me claim the prize.”

  “How about no?” I said, looking through the peephole again. Darren’s arm was out and I saw the eight-inch machete he had on him. Carmen brushed past me and made her way to the bedroom.

  “Listen mate,” Darren said, “We can do this the hard way or the easy way. How long do you reckon this door will hold out.” To make his point, he charged the door with an outstretched kick. It shuddered. It wouldn’t hold out long enough. This was one of those times that I could really do with the extra time to think but that was time I didn’t have. The door continued to rattle.

  There was no point grabbing a knife. I didn’t have any with the same reach as Darren’s. I ran to the bedroom, where Carmen was clearing out the wardrobes, shoving clothes – both hers and mine – into two good-sized gym holdalls on the bed.

  “What are you doing?”

  “We need to get out of here,” she replied, as she shuffled between the wardrobe and the bed, jerking open drawers, grabbing whatever she thought we needed. “You know there’ll be more coming.”

  “You’re not tempted by the reward?”

  “Not one bit,” she said, stuffing clothes into the holdalls. “Whatever that gem is, it has this ‘Pantheon’ spooked. Why else would they make such an offer for its return.”

  “But we don’t know what this gem is. Maybe it would be better to just give it to them?” I said as I glanced back towards the hallway, the thuds of Darren’s kicks vibrating through the apartment. “Who knows what they’ll do if we don’t?”

  She stopped and looked at me. “Who knows what they’ll do if we do? We don’t know what they’ll do with you. We don’t know what they’re capable of. They have technology that we don’t even understand.”

  “So you’re thinking to keep the gem away from them?”

  “At least until we know what it is. Until we know what they want. We have fourteen days to figure it out. We’ll take the girl with us. Maybe she’ll have some answers.”

  This is what I loved about her. Why I stayed with her. She was practical. Pragmatic. It’s why we worked so well. Both of us were quick to make decisions, but she complemented me in a way that I needed. Someone who stood by my side, no matter the problem. Someone able to think through the problems when I couldn’t. Her reasoning was sound, and in truth, it worked for me.

  You always had people claiming they’d do things for the greater good. Easy for them to say from their bedroom keyboards when it wasn’t their life on the line. I was no martyr, and I had no intention of giving myself up. Not until I knew more. We had some time to play with and we needed options, and for that, we needed information.

  I grabbed her arm as she was going to the wardrobe again, and pulled her towards me, planting a kiss on her like it was the last thing I might do. “Let’s talk properly when this is over,” I said. “About us.” She got what I meant, and rewarded me with those dimples before I let her go and ran over to the closet in the corner of the room.

  There it was, leaning against the shelves. A baseball bat. I’ve never watched baseball. Never played baseball. But everyone knows that’s not why you buy a baseball bat.

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  I grabbed it and headed to the door. “Lock this behind me,” I said to Carmen as I was leaving the room.

  The front door had held surprisingly well, although the wooden frame had begun to chip, and it was beginning to give. It was only a matter of time. Unfortunately, it was sooner than I had hoped. I wanted to be in the lounge. The hallway was small, with not enough space to swing the bat but the door flew open in a shower of wooden chips before I made it.

  Darren walked in, and I didn’t hesitate. Holding the bat out in front of me, I ran forward and pushed into him with all my strength. He turned at the last moment and put his arms up as I pushed him through into the lounge. We both went over the back of the sofa but he flipped me and I crashed into the coffee table on my back, my legs smashing into the TV, cutting off the newscaster.

  I barely had a moment to soothe my poor back before I saw the machete flying down at me. I pushed out the bat again, hitting the underside of Darren’s arm and held it there. He was pushing down. I was pushing up. He was surprisingly strong for the gangly prat that he was but gravity was doing a lot of the heavy lifting here. I was at a disadvantage. I needed to get off my back but right now, I was just trying to survive. The knife edged closer to me as Darren put all his weight into it, pressing down with all that he had.

  I grunted. He grunted. Spittle was flying from his gap-toothed mouth onto my face. I pushed with all I had. This was not the way I was going out. Not today. Not to this waste of oxygen. I knew exactly what kind of person he was from the day he moved in. I didn’t mind dying at the hands of someone with something about them. A special ops team. Maybe the girl with the impressive tattoos. But not to this wanker.

  I strained and I strained and I could feel that I was moving his arm up, when suddenly the sound of breaking glass sounded out. My arms and the bat flew forwards with no resistance as Darren snarled and pulled his arm away. I flipped on my front and saw Carmen had cracked a vase on Darren’s head, but he had swiped at her and she let out a howl as the machete connected with her upper arm, blood trailing down.

  Darren walked towards her. She was trapped between the dining table and the sofa, when he reached out and grabbed her by the throat, the machete in his other hand. She was still in the short t-shirt and knickers. She must have run out to try and help me. Why would she do that? Why? I wanted her to be safe. He only wanted me. Darren pushed her back by the throat, her back arching over the dining table as he held the machete up, ready to swing down.

  I jumped up, bat in hand, and swung as hard as I could, knocking the side of Darren’s head. He let go of Carmen immediately, as he stumbled against the wall, the machete dropping from his hand. I advanced on him, bat ready to swing again, when a massive boom sounded out across the flat. It sounded like a sledgehammer smashing against corrugated steel. My left side and back felt like the sledgehammer had hit me.

  I looked down at my side, the blue top seemed to be staining with something. Several small holes had ripped through my top. I turned around, looked up at the lounge door. Michelle was standing there. Darren’s mum – middle-aged, skin wrinkled like an aged apple and having eaten a few too many pizzas. She held a shotgun in her hands. A shotgun. Who the hell has a shotgun in the middle of London?

  Then the shock wore off and the pain radiated through my side. Unwittingly, I put my hand against my ribs as if that would somehow help. It didn’t. Another boom rang out and the shotgun pellets tore through my chest as I went clattering against the dining table, my hand grasping at Carmen to my right. She screamed as I collapsed to the floor.

  “Mum! We need him alive.”

  “He was going to kill you,” Michelle replied.

  I was on my back on the hardwood floor, one hand on my chest, the other holding the toppled chair on my left as if by holding onto it, I was holding onto my life. My breathing slowed down. Became shallow.

  Carmen dropped to her knees beside me, cradling my head in one hand, the other pressed gently against my chest. Tears streamed down her face. She looked like she was saying something, but I couldn’t hear with the ringing in my ears. My eyes were fluttering open and shut.

  Suddenly, the ringing stopped and I heard Carmen scream. I opened my eyes wide, doing my best to fight against the lethargy I was feeling. Darren had grabbed Carmen by the hair, dragged her off of me and flung her against the sofa.

  “Stay there bitch. I’ll deal with you in a minute.”

  I lifted my hand with what little strength I had and grasped at his throat.

  “I’ll fucking kill you,” I managed to spit out in a splutter of blood and saliva.

  He just laughed at me as he sat on my chest.

  “They wanted you alive, but I guess that ain’t an option. Maybe we’ll get half the reward instead. All you had to do was open the door man. Now, I need to put you out of your misery.”

  Then he stabbed me in the left side, where I’d been shot. I couldn’t even muster the strength to feel the pain. He stabbed me again and again and again and with every stab, I felt the life leaving me. All I could think was – not like this. Not at his hands. I managed to lift my head ever so slightly and take a final look at Carmen, back against the sofa, Michelle standing over her. She had her hands on her mouth, tears streaming down her rosy cheeks. Man, I’d never see those dimples again. Would never get to have that long-needed conversation with her.

  I could feel it now. The long sleep settling in, my eyes fluttering, doing their best to stay awake but I couldn’t anymore. I couldn’t feel pain. I couldn’t feel anything. The only sensation I could make sense of was a gentle warmth where the gem had embedded itself in my forehead. Finally, my head rested back against the floor. Against my will, my eyes closed. I let myself sleep.

  I don’t know how long I slept. Maybe an eternity. Maybe a lifetime. Maybe a fleeting moment. But I had slept enough.

  I opened my eyes.