Page 24 of Patchover Fright Night
Life was so beautiful,so sparkly. There were magical beings all around me, and I think, in some ways, I knew this couldn’t be real, but I wouldn’t let myself miss out on enjoying it, because what if it went away? What if the occasional yells and loud sounds were telling me maybe something else was happening too? I didn’t want reality. I wanted beauty and glitter, and Ice.I wanted Ice.Why wasn’t he here with me?
Ice
My head was throbbingwhen my eyes finally opened, and it took me too long to realise I was handcuffed, or something, and laying on my stomach. The worst part, and yeah there was something worse than being cuffed, and probably under arrest, and worse than the throbbing in my head, that made my stomach roil desperately. Where the fuck was Lissa? Was she safe? Was she arrested too? Had the police finally arrived to sort this all out? How many of us would be free after they’d finished? How many crimes were being committed right now?
“I wanna call my fucking lawyer!” I cursed out, and someone laughed, a foot landing on my back, and making that roiling in my stomach worse.
“You wish we were the cops, asshole. At least you’d be getting out alive then.”
What the fuck? He kicked me before I could turn to look at his face, and that’s when I threw up. After that, another blow to my head put the lights out again, or maybe there was no blow to my head, I don’t know. I was out.
Torch
We didn’t usually getto see much of our mercenary brothers, especially since good old Don Rossi had realised they existed, and started hiring them for all kinds of shit. They’d been scheduled to come to the patchover, but I don’t know when they arrived, because I don’t remember seeing them until right now, but fuck me, they were terrifying.
They were all blacked up, like they were deep in some kind of camo situation, with multiple guns strung over their shoulders, and one each aimed at us. AT us.
“Stay calm, and get down on the ground,” Alpha barked at us, and we just stared dumbly at him, because that made no sense, right?
“Alpha-”
“Down on the fucking ground!” He yelled at Stitch, who immediately lifted his hands, and groaned at the pain in his shoulder. He shouldn’t be trying to use it at all, but when armed fuckers aim guns at you, and you’re outmanned, outgunned, and outnumbered, you know what? You raise your fucking hands.
“Listen, guys, something’s going on here, but we’re sober. We can help maintain peace,” I said, recognising their behaviour from all the fucking movies I’ve seen. They were clearly affected by the fucking beer, and seemed to think they were safeguarding the streets in a war zone, or something. This was bad news for us, because we needed to keep moving. If they stopped us, or held us, or worse, fucking injured us, then there was nobody coming to save everyone.
“I’m not gonna tell you again!” Alpha barked, while Tag and Diablo came at us, and kicked the backs of mine and Micro’s legs, knocking us onto our knees with a painful crunch.
“Fuck’s sake! You’re all tripping, man, we need your head in the game! Someone’s shooting up the place, and everyone’s vulnerable!” Stitch yelled at them, carefully moving down onto one knee, and then the other, because if they knocked him, and he tried to brace himself with that injured shoulder, he’d be in even more agony than he already was.
“Listen, man, you need to help us,” I tried, keeping my hands in the air, while I desperately fought for some kind of fucking idea to get out of this new mess.
“I can’t see Soph anywhere,” Micro said, just before Tag kicked his back, and knocked him onto his stomach, “fucker! We’re the good guys!”
Ha. Irony, that’s called. He wasn’t a good guy, or at least, he hadn’t been for a long ass time, but he’d changed. Any idiot could see that.
“You know who Stitch is, right, guys? He’s your VP. Shouldn’t you show him the respect he deserves?”
“Respect is earned,” Alpha gritted out, gesturing to the others, who fanned out to start subduing other members of the club. I heard a gunshot and lunged to my feet.
“Fuck’s sake! You can’t shoot them. They’re your brothers! Alpha, come on, fucking hell. These are your Phoenix MC brothers, remember us? They’re family!”
He blinked at me, almost looking like he was starting to listen, and then something crashed into the side of my face, and knocked me down.
“Stay down!” Slick yelled at me, and that fucker is taking my fist in his ugly ass face once he sobers up. I started to move, but froze when Stitch yelled at me.
“Stay the fuck down, Torch! They’re out of their fucking faces, and they’re not hearing us.”
I turned to look at him, one hand against the throbbing temple that fucker slammed his gun into.
“They’re gonna kill our fucking family, man. I can’t just sit here while they do that!”
“You think I don’t realise that? What good are we to any of them, if we die first?”
Micro was still on the ground, but he lifted his head and cast his eyes around, and I swear to god, if he’s seeing shit again, I’m gonna kick his ass first. He suddenly scrambled up, screaming at Alpha to look behind him for a gunman, and although the asshole didn’t fall for it, his focus shifted just enough for Micro to take him down, punching him in the face over and over, until he could drag his weapons from him, and hold him down.
“Kill him!” Alpha screamed, as he struggled with Micro, and fists flew.
I nodded to Stitch, and he threw himself into Diablo as they ran to Alpha’s aid, while I tripped Slick, and froze as a gun pressed against my head. Fuck me. We’re truly gonna die here. Whose stupid idea was it to have a fucking patchover? We were fine as we were, but maybe we were always destined to crash and burn like this.
