Page 80 of Reckless At Raleigh High
“Alex, man! Alex!” he cries. “Go easy, for fuck’s sake.”
I won’t be going easy. I won’t be going at all. I have to fucking get out of here. The stars in the night sky overhead flare, turning to blazing torches, blistering the dark mantle of the heavens, and my pulse begins to throb urgently in my ears.
Relief rushes me—Paulie’s grip around my windpipe momentarily loosens—and I seize the opportunity, pushing up with my legs and slamming all of my body weight back against the bartender’s body. He cries out, a single weak howl of pain, and then Jake’s standing over me, wiping a trickle of blood from his nose with the back of his hand.
He’s breathing hard, his blond hair stuck up in every direction, and there’s snow on the sleeve of his suit jacket. “Fucker ripped my blazer,” he complains. “Get out of the way, asshole. Let me take care of him. You’re making it worse.”
“For heaven’s sake, just get the job done already. Take the gun,” Monty says somewhere off to the left.
Find Silver.
Get the hell up, Alex.
Get off your ass, get inside, and find Silver.
The voice is insistent, but I can’t obey. Naseem and Lawrence have finally entered the fray; they pin me down against the ground, leaning all of their weight against my chest as I kick and lash out like a deranged animal. They flinch away from me as I land blow after blow on them, which makes it hard for them to hold me in place, but then Paulie’s back, grabbing hold of me from behind, cursing angrily into my ear.
“Broke my nose, A. Not cool. Really not cool.”
How the fuck does he expect me to behave? He wants me to lie still and docile as a lamb while Jacob and his dickhead buddies execute me? I almost laugh at the absurdity of the hurt in his voice. Paulie yelps again when I drive my elbow back hard, right into his stomach.
“Fucking idiots,” Monty snaps. The toes of his scuffed boots come into view.Then: the sound of something metal spinning, something clicking, something snapping into place. It's the sound of the chamber of a gun being checked and flicked closed. “Take the fucking thing before I shoot the bastard myself. Kids were way tougher in my day, I swear. There are four of them and one of him, for crying out loud. Shouldn’t be this hard.”
Above me, Jacob’s face shutters in and out of view as I wrestle for freedom. His mouth pulls down, his hatred pouring out of him so viscerally that it looks like it’s chokinghim. “Gotta show him a little love first,” he sneers.
The first time he kicks me, I still don’t feel anything. He drives the toe of his shoe into my ribs, and suddenly it’s daylight and my ears are ringing. The blinding brightness fades, just in time for the second blow. Lawrence and Naseem release me, scrambling back out of Jake’s way, but then he’s barking orders at them, his voice cracking as he hollers at the top of his lungs.
“Do something! Kick him. Hurt him. Fuck him up, you pussy fucks. Jesus, you want me to hold your fucking hand or something?”
The pain begins to seep in as the more feet drive into my body. I slowly begin to feel each sharp, crushing impact, until, out of nowhere, I’m hurting so badly I can’t even think around the lightning firing up and down my body.
Oh…
…shit.
Through the blur of black pants and Italian leather shoes, I see something that makes me fall still in the churned up snow.
It’s…
It can’t be.
It’s Ben.
The little boy sits down on the edge of the clearing, crossing his legs underneath him. His dark eyes, so similar to our father’s, bore into me, filled with confusion.“Why don’t you make it stop?”he whispers. His lips don’t move, but I hear his voice as clear as a struck bell inside my head. A tear streaks his cheek, and then another, and then another.“What are you doing, Alex? Make it stop.”
“I…can’t…”
“You’re not even trying.”
Iamtrying, though. I’ve fought so hard, I’m exhausted. My limbs are unresponsive now, heavy as lead weights. They remain thrown out over my head, no matter how hard I will them back to my sides.
“You didn’t save me,”Ben whispers, slowly laying down in the snow. He settles himself on his side, so that he’s mirroring my prone position on the ground. It looks like he’s curling up to die. “Youhaveto save yourself. For me. For Silver.”
He opens his mouth and blood pours over his lips, thick, and black, and frightening. Panic wells up inside me, my body convulsing…
And still the blows keep on raining down.
They’re never ending.
