Carnival Nights: Carnival #2

by Nelson, K. B.

  I notice a strap sticking out from under the bed and bend down so that I can get a better viewpoint. And there it is. My beautiful bag of drugs. This was a lot easier than anticipated. With one quick grab, I sling the bag out from under the bed and rise to stand.

  There’s another creak behind me, this time closer and louder. I turn slowly and end up ‘face to gun.’ Shit. I take a gulp and begin the process of reasoning. “Shane...”

  “Drop the bag or I’ll shoot,” Shane says sternly. His finger is right over the trigger, but that’s not what concerns me. He’s much worse for wear from just last night. His shirt is stained with blood, and his eyes are swollen and red. His hand is unsteady, trembling, but he has nothing to fear. He’s the one with the gun and he’s high as a fucking kite.

  “You’re not going to shoot me,” I speak carefully, slowly—choosing each word with deliberate care. I’ve been here before, quite a few times. I do as told and drop the bag, though. “You don’t want to shoot me.”

  “I don’t want to do anything, but we’ll see what options you leave me.”

  “What happened? You were cool last night.”

  “It’s a new dawn, a new day, and all that bullshit. I have problems today that I didn’t have yesterday.”

  “I see.” I take measure of his blood-stained shirt again. I’ve known him for less than twenty-four hours and I already know he’s seen better days. “What will you tell the police?”

  He chuckles like madmen tend to do. Then, he edges closer to me, his gun inching closer to my face. “I’ll tell them you were trespassing. Georgia has very generous self-defense laws.”

  “You think they’ll believe you?” A noticeable tremble begins to rumble through the tone of my voice. “Look around. You’re surrounded by drugs and paraphernalia.”

  He looks away. This is the perfect moment to make my move. People on drugs and people who are fighting for their life have nothing to lose. I might not have another opportunity. He turns back to me. “Are you trying to piss me off?”

  See, I should have made my move.

  “You’d really shoot me? What about Gina? What would she think?”

  He grins wickedly, unable to contain his excitement. “Fuck Gina. She’s just another hoe who doesn’t know what she wants. One day it’s something, the next day it’s something else.”

  “I see.” I shift my weight, preparing to push myself past him.

  “You know what I just realized?” he asks grimly. “You’re just wasting my time.” With a swift motion, he cocks the gun and I know time’s running out.

  I throw a hand up to reason with him. “Shane, you don’t want to do this.”

  “You have no idea what I want. You don’t know me, remember?”

  I rush to grab his wrist, the one that’s holding the gun. As soon as I get a grip...

  The gun goes off.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHARLIE

  The gunshot pierces through one ear, takes a pause in my mind before exiting out the other ear. I’ve never moved as fast as I do when I punch the door open and hit the pavement. My body cuts through the increasingly thick air. The world begins to fade to black, like going through a black hole. The sound of Gina screaming, “Wait!” becomes nothing but white noise.

  “Blue!” I scream as I push myself through the front door. I’m hit with an instant combination of must and dust—an instant assault on my senses. I don’t see him in the dark corners of the living room and press onto the kitchen. That’s where I see Blue, laying on the floor and clutching his wounded leg. “Oh, my God.”

  I throw myself to the ground and cradle his head in my lap. My stomach flips upside down when I see a pool of redness beneath him. Blood.

  “Charlie,” he groans.

  “Charlie!” I hear Gina scream. When I rise quickly, I’m knocked in the head by the butt of a gun. If my vision was going black before, it’s fading completely now. I stumble backward against the cracked wall. Three Shanes—the result of my blurred vision—wave a gun at me all at once.

  “You people are giving me a headache,” they all say, their voices like echoes of each other. He shifts his attention to Gina, who begins to approach slowly from the front door.

  “What are you doing?” she asks him, but the answer should be obvious. Hello, two of your friends are lying on the floor. One is bleeding out.

  His eyes swollen, Shane squints in disbelief that one more misfit has made their way into his house. “Are there any more of you outside just waiting to come in here and annoy me?”

  “Not here to annoy, but let’s talk about this,” Gina says softly, but without confidence. She’s like a deer in headlights.

  “Shane,” I say, getting his attention. “You don’t have to do this.”

  “You don’t know shit about what I have to do.”

  “I know that you’re a decent person.”

  He raises his voice and stares me down. “I think the hole in your boyfriends’ leg says otherwise.”

  “You’re high, and you don’t mean a word you say.”

  “Don’t worry about him, Charlie. He’s always been full of shit,” Gina interjects. “Isn’t that right, Shane?”

  Let’s just fucking hope Gina is never a hostage negotiator.

  He spins to face her and raises his gun almost just as quick. He aims it squarely at her. “It’s time for you to leave. Turn around and march out that door or I’ll blow your brains against the wall.”

  “No, you won’t,” she says with new-found confidence. The more unstable he gets, the more sure she seems of herself. She’s not good at this game.

  “Trust me, I would,” he snarls. “I need a fresh coat of paint on these boring walls.”

  Gina swallows her bravery and begins backing up toward the open door. “Fine, I’ll wait outside. But I’m not leaving without them.”

  He chases her further out the door, his gun still aimed squarely on her. “You might be waiting a while.”

  Positive that Gina will be safe—because he loves her no matter what he says—I shift my attention to a groaning Blue. His hand is still pressed against the bullet hole in his leg. “You doing okay?”

  “I can handle a bullet in my leg. It’s you I’m concerned about.” He grimaces and scoots himself into a more comfortable position. “You should get out of here.”

  I shut down that idea real fucking quick. “I’m not leaving you.”

  “Of course not,” he moans. “If you’re not going to leave, then take action.”

  “What the hell do you want me to do? Seduce him?”

  He shrugs. “It could work.”

  I think about smacking him, but remember he’s in pain.

  “You’re a fighter, remember?” His breath has become ragged. He’s lost too much blood. He’s right, though. I am a fighter. In his own words, a beautiful fucking fighter.

  I lift myself off the floor, still dizzy and with a diagnosis of double vision. Still, I’m more able to do something than a wounded Blue. Slowly, I creep toward Shane. Over his shoulder, Gina spots me, but thankfully doesn’t give away my position.

  With my fists in the air, hovering in fighting position, I think back to what Blue taught me. I square my shoulders with my feet, widening my stance and wait for the opportune time to strike a blow. That time comes when Shane slams the door on Gina. He scratches his head with his gun as he turns around and I land a blow against his left cheek.

  Shane stumbles backward and slides down the length of the door, dropping his gun. That was almost too easy, but he’s high and not firing on all cylinders. He reaches for his gun, but I’m quicker. I stomp on his hand. He yelps and pulls back his hand to cradle it with his other hand.

  In a quick swoop, I scoop the gun off the floor and into my hands. He’s not as thrilled to be on the other side of the deadly bit of metal. He cowers away from me, pushing the full weight of his body against the door. There’s nowhere left for him to go.

  “Please don’t do this to me,”
he begs. “If I don’t deliver those drugs, they’re going to kill me.”

  “Somehow, I don’t see how that’s my problem,” I say sternly, but inside—for whatever reason—I feel for the guy.

  When he bows his head, I know that he knows that I’m in control now. And while I don’t savor the feeling of a gun between my fingers, it certainly beats standing on the other end. It’s here that I have the power to decide all three of our fates. This is where I draw a line in the sand and get back to some resemblance of a normal life. “I’m going to make you an offer Blue wouldn’t give you. We walk out of here and you keep the drugs,” I say at a level he can hear me, but Blue can’t.

  I know what this means. It means leaving everything we’re worth in this house. But I have my reasons. Even if there were another way to get out of here without any more casualties, I would still see this as my only option.

  It’s beyond crazy how alive drugs can make one feel. They lit up my world and took me to places I didn’t even know existed. Took me to places that made me see the beauty in everything. I went down the rabbit hole and it changed my life. At first, it was for the better. But like a game of dominoes, everything fell apart, piece after piece.

  I’d give it all up if for no other reason than to erase the probability that I could turn into someone like Rake or Shane. At one point, they felt what I felt. They knew what I knew—that drugs were a beautiful escape. Somewhere along the way, it changed. It consumed them and turned them into shadows of themselves. I can already see myself changing, and I’m not prepared to give up what little I have left. I have enough shadows chasing me.

  Our eyes meet in silent understanding. Neither of us needs to say another word to make a formal agreement. With our eyes, we’ve made a deal tighter than the shake of a hand.

  “Now, have that door opened so I can carry my boyfriend out of here.”

  He nods in compliance and I lower the gun to my side before sprinting to get Blue.

  * * *

  Cookie and I fire-carry Blue out of the house and into the last remnants of daylight. Shane watches quietly as we pass him. He’s already coming down from his high and I can see the guilt sinking in. It’s all over his face—sunken eyes, sunken chin, sunken spirit. I give him a nod before we exit the rugged house. “Thank you,” I whisper silently, but I know that he hears me.

  “You kicked his ass back there,” Blue says with a forced chuckle, but then grows serious within a beat. “I would have killed him.”

  “I know,” I say deadpan. “You would have done it for us, but it would have eaten you alive.”

  “I’m capable of living with my demons.”

  “Are you sure about that?”

  Gina springs the passenger side door open as Cookie and I lower him gently into the seat. “I know why you did it,” he says. “Why you didn’t tell me about my father.”

  “It weighed on me every day.”

  “You’re stronger than you think.”

  That brings a smile to my face. “I know, right?”

  Quickly, I shut the door and run to the other side. I hop into the Jeep and turn the ignition all at once. I’m beyond ready to blow this town, and hopefully, leave everything behind.

  Blue shifts in his seat. “Did you get the drugs?”

  That would be a huge, resounding no. “We’ll talk about that later.”

  Sirens that start as a whisper soon speed into fully realized cries of justice. Behind us, the street is darker, unaffected by the glimmering sun about to sink completely from the sky. Blue and red lights chase the sun into hiding.

  Deja-fucking-vu. We’ve been here before, back when we were forced to leave Lakeview. At that moment, I knew that was the right choice, but I never had a real hand in deciding our fate. My heart wouldn’t allow that. This time, I’m in the driver’s seat and from here on out, something’s gotta change.

  EPILOGUE

  CHARLIE

  An hour past the insanity of Shane, panic has begun to settle in. We speed aimlessly down desolate back roads. There are four of us in this car and not one has any idea where we’re going. Blue needs medical attention, but we can’t take him to a hospital. Too many questions will be asked.

  My eyes begin to water, a mixture between fear and nervousness. “What the hell are we going to do?” I ask Blue. When he doesn’t answer, I reiterate my question, this time much louder. “Where are we going to go?”

  “I don’t know,” he groans loudly. “Just let me think.”

  “I’m going to need you to think faster.”

  We hit a bump and he grunts in pain. “It’s kind of hard to think when there’s a bullet in my leg!”

  With one hand firm on the wheel, I wipe the wetness from my eyes. “Let’s just go back to Lakeview.”

  Blue sighs deeply. “You know we can’t do that.”

  Cookie leans forward. Even in the darkness, I can see his trembling lips in the rearview mirror. He’s terrified he’s going to lose his best friend. “Look, guys, let’s just go to a hospital.”

  “We can’t do that,” Gina weighs in.

  “I’d rather have to tell the police the truth than watch my best friend die.” His voice breaks. “What is wrong with you people?”

  “We’re not going to the damn hospital,” Blue says, shutting down that idea in an instant.

  Back to my idea... “I know what happens if we go back, but I’m tired of running, Blue.”

  Blue pinches the bridge of his nose with his fingers, lets out a frustrated scream and punches the dashboard. It’s at this moment I decide to block everything out. I can hear the back and forth between Cookie, Gina, and Blue, but I can’t make sense of it. I stare ahead, taking notice of the way the lights light up the gravel beneath us.

  I don’t know where we’re going or what we’re going to do, so I guess I’ll just drive until I can’t drive anymore.

  But that’s a difficult chore when you’re unable to see the road ahead...

  And I’m not talking about the rocks. I can see them just fine. It’s everything else...

  THE END

  # # #

  AMUSEMENT

  Charlie returns to Lakeview. As she tries to put the pieces of her life back together, Blue comes back for her. When it’s two against the world, can there ever be a happy ending? Amusement is the final book in Blue and Charlie’s story.

  COMING SOON

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  Also by K.B. Nelson

  Carnival

  Carnival Nights