Fuck And Run

Episode 16

I stood transfixed, staring at Ken trying to see if he felt remorse for what he was doing, the b—–d kept the gun at my head level staring back at me. I clenched my fist almost wanting to punch him but I have punched enough people to know the aftermath.
“So this is it, your revenge plan.” I said to Ken’s face, his face had no expression.
“You deserve whatever that is happening to you.” He replied me.

“How do I deserve it, what did I do wrong?” I was almost yelling at Ken.
“You are not a friend to me, I needed help and you couldn’t come through for me.”
“Do I look like your piggy bank? Friends do not encourage laziness”
“I wasn’t lazy!” Ken yelled and I raised a brow. “I was into a business; I invested all my money into it, turned out to be a scam. I was broke and I was in debt, and then I turned to my so called friend for help and he just turned me down. He didn’t even ask what I needed the money for.”
“You are a liar, I remember asking you, and you hung up on me!”
“After you started raining abuses on me” Ken and I were both fuming. “So right now I want you to take your a-s back to that seat and empty your account for me.” He said and aimed the pistol fiercely at me. I slowly retreated back to the chair with a resolve not to lay a hand on the computer, I was ready to go through torture even ready to die, but these captors of mine won’t see a dime of my hard earned money.

I sat on the chair idle for twenty seconds before I heard Ken exhale sharply. “Well seems like you are shy around this crowd.” I made no movement. “Well then let’s get rid of a few for you. Mike you were telling Charles something, I would like you to continue.” Ken said.

Mike walked to where I was and I saw remorse in his eyes like he was almost crying. He squatted beside me and said. “Charles like I said, I am under duress here, I’m not a bad person. These people got something on me, I know you think I am the master mind, it’s not me it’s…”
“Enough!” Ken exclaimed, I heard a deafening sound, and then I saw blood oozing out from a hole in Mike’s head. He fell on his side and never moved again.
“Segun, you have any last words?” Ken turned to segun, aiming his pistol at him. Segun looked infuriated he was about to dash for Ken, Ken fired.

Segun clutched at his chest, staggered backward, fell on his back and then he was motionless.
“Huh that does it.” Ken smirked at me “Just the two of us left now, what’s it gone be? You playing along or playing against?”
I remained silent, Mike was right; meeting Ken was the most devastating moment in my life.
“Look Charles I know you are going through a lot but you deserve it.”
I looked at Ken with disdain, I wanted to launch at him but I thought about it. I knew I was ready to die instead of transferring my money, but I didn’t want to provoke it because there is chance that I could be saved. If only Victory would get my message.
Everything seemed surreal, I have been living a life someone else wrote for me, I have played along to their plot, did everything they wanted. Since Mike said he was manipulated into doing what he did then maybe Tiffany was also forced to tick me, because when I had her, she felt so real, there is no way sleeping with me was part of the script. I could remember she came to warn me heck she even said she was sorry.

All hatred I felt towards Tiffany was resolved. I was beginning to miss her again.
I looked at Ken all I could do was wish him harm. “You will never get away with this I promise.”

Ken chuckled “That joke’s on you bro, think about it, everything is labeled on you, you bleeped and killed an actress then you ran, shot a police woman and ran again, now you have killed a tech tycoon and some other random guy, and soon you will take your own life. Please remind me how I am still involved.”
“What did I do wrong to instill so much hatred?”
“Simple! You were stingy to me.”
“How did you do it? How did you get all these people to do your bidding?” I said with croaked voice.

Ken exhaled. “Well it wasn’t easy, but sometimes God just decides to bless you with wisdom, wisdom that makes you cook up plans and alternate plans, well calculated scenarios. Let’s see, I met Mike at a casino, conned him to brokenness and then he stated using company’s money, I later got him in scandalous situations started blackmailing him, well enough about Mike.”
“What about Tiffany?”
“I won’t tell you because, you are wasting my time. Why not start transferring, I will tell you the whole story when it starts reading in percentages.”
“Forget about it Ken that is not happening.”
Ken became worried and I wondered why. He brought his phone and dialed someone. “Where are you?” he asked the receiver angrily, waited for a reply. “Then come inside.”

“Hey buddy, I’ve got a surprise for you.” He said and pointed towards the entrance. I wondered what the surprise could be, then I saw it or should I say her. Victory walked into the room tensed, I sat gaping at her in shock. For a moment there I thought Victory was betraying me until I saw a hand holding a pistol emerge, I looked at victory who was apologizing with her facial gesture and took a resolved breath. She came for me, but why the hell did she come alone?
I stared at the hand and deduced that it was a female hand, I wondered who it could be, and then majestically a foot stepped in, followed by a full body. The face I saw sent a wave of shock through my entire body.
Standing before me, in the flesh was Tiffany Johnson.

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The new development bewildered me; Tiffany’s appearance was driving me nuts. “How are you alive?” I stammered while facing the girl I thought had died in my arms.

Tiffany stood silent, she didn’t respond to me, and she was even avoiding eye contact with me.

“Answer me!” I screamed at her.
“It was all an act.” She said plainly without looking my way.
“Is he manipulating you too? Is he blackmailing you into doing this?”
“Err Tiffany’s case is a bit different, you see we are in this together, Right from day one.” Ken said.
“Ken we need to hurry up, this place is compromised.” Tiffany said.
“Well that’s a welcome development, pretty lady you must be acquainted with Charles, you see we need him to do something for us pretty desperately.” Ken said to Victory while caressing her face with his gun.

Victory was visibly nauseated by the corpse around her and it was taking a traumatic toll on her.

Ken went behind her and griped her tight on the neck, aiming his gun on her temple he said. “You don’t want the blood of this lovely lady on your hands Charles do you?”
“Let her go.” I pleaded with Ken.
“Not until you let all those money go.” He replied.

“It’s the money you want right? How am I sure that you won’t kill her after I transfer the money?”
“You can have my word on that one, let’s say this is your death request, now who am I to deny you that? I promise to let her go once the transfer starts counting in percent.” He said.
Knowing that I put Victory into this it was my duty to set her free at whatever cost. I sat down and started carrying out the transaction. Tiffany stood near me to make sure I was doing the right thing, her presence irritated me.
When I was done and the transaction started counting on percent I told Ken to let Victory go, he said he was sorry that Victory knows their identity and he couldn’t risk getting exposed. Victory hastily moved the computer from my arms reach and pointed her gun fiercely at me. Then it hit me hard, the thought that I had failed at everything.
“Ken, please don’t do this, remember you gave me your word.” I pleaded with Ken. “Ken you are not that kind of person, if our friendship means anything to you please let her go.”
“What friendship? We became enemies the moment I made my first kill for this plan to go through. So don’t mention friendship here.”
I looked at the monitor and the transaction was already at 15% I kept on pleading with Ken, I was almost crying.
“Ken please you have to let her go, I will make sure she doesn’t out you I swear.”
“How are you going to make that happen? You will be dead anyway.”
Victory was already shedding tears; I could hear her muffled cry as she was stamping her feet on the floor. I felt deeply sorry for the girl, I had put her into this situation, and there was nothing else I could do other than plead for her life.
“Victory” I called out to her, she looked at me with teary eyes and face. “You are going to be ok.” I said and she nodded a reply.
I checked the transaction counter and it read 25%, it was unusual that instead of a time factor, someone’s life was hanging on a percentage factor and at that moment I couldn’t be more grateful to slow network.
It turned out pleading with Ken was proving futile, I turned to the person I hated the most in the world Tiffany.

“Tiffany please do this for me.” I said. She looked away. “Just let her go, if not for anything, for what we felt for each other when we made love.” And that was the selling point.
“What? You slept with him?” Ken said
“I did it to make everything more believable.” Tiffany said with clarity but we all knew it was a lie.
“That wasn’t in the script you w—e!” Ken retorted. Tiffany gaped. “You are a d–k Ken, so that’s what I get for going out of my way to make your shitty plan work.”
“You call sleeping with another guy going out of your way? How dare you try to justify infidelity? And you call my plan shitty but look at the results.” Ken said and motioned to the computer. I glanced at the computer and saw the counter at 78%.
“Did you think Charles would agree to do this transaction if I hadn’t brought the girl in? I am not justifying infidelity, I didn’t cheat on anyone.”

“Of course you cheated on me! We were dating.”
“We were not dating Ken, we met and had sex, you mentioned your plan to me and I bought it. There is nothing going on, it’s just business.”
Ken left Victory and walked towards Tiffany aiming his gun at her. “Well then I don’t need you in my plan anymore.”
“So do I.” Tiffany said and then I heard a clicking sound. Someone was pulling their trigger but the gun wasn’t firing. When I looked I realized it was Tiffany.
Ken chuckled. “You can never trust bitches; I suspected something like this would happen that’s why I gave you an empty gun.” Ken said without noticing that Victory was aiming a gun nervously at his back.

“Drop your guns” She said. On hearing that Ken swung around to fire at her, but he was too late as Victory reflexively shot three bullets into his chest. Ken fell on his back laboring for breath.

Victory nervously dropped the gun she was holding, immediately Tiffany dashed for Ken’s gun and I went after her kicking the pistol from her hand when she grabbed it. She swung around and dashed a blow to my left cheek, I countered her second blow, held her hand and pinned her to the floor. I quickly looked at the monitor and the counter read 97%. I screamed urging Victory to cancel the transaction. Victory hurried for the computer; midway there the counter read 98%. Tiffany was still struggling under me. When Victory finally reached the computer she saw that the mouse had been disconnected, and the counter read 99%.

Just when I thought all hope was lost, Victory pulled the modem from the computer. After loading for a few seconds the monitor displayed ‘connection not found.’ And I took the deepest breath in my life.

I still held Tiffany down on the floor, she kept on struggling.

We heard the sound of sirens approaching then it stopped right in front of the house. Victory went to the window to check it out. “It’s the police” she said. I looked at her quizzically. “Don’t worry I contacted them before coming here.” She assured me.

A slightly built man dressed in police uniform walked in followed by two other policemen. One was tall the other short but they both looked skinny. The three cops gaped at the scene before them like it was a horror movie.
“A matter of life and death and this is when you decide to show up?” Victory was saying to the first cop.

“I wasn’t even going to come” the cop replied Victory. “By the way who killed all these people?” He said, referring to the dead bodies around.
“He did” Victory said pointing at Ken “and he was going to kill more before I stopped him”
“So you killed him” The second cop asked.
“In self-defense yeah” Victory said. She looked calmer now.
“So what’s that one doing on top that one?” The first cop asked, pointing to me on top of victory.

I quickly stood up. “She is his accomplice.” I said.

“I see.” The cop replied then he gaped, his two partners gaped too.
“Isn’t that the bleep and run guy? ;D ” the third guy said. “That’s him.” The other two cops replied uniformly.
“Officers thank God you are here.” Tiffany was saying before the first cop cut her short.
“Wait a minute; aren’t you supposed to be dead?” The cop said to Tiffany
“It’s a long story officer, these two kidnapped all these people including me and brought us here to kill us, they succeeded with the others but you and your men arrived just in time to safe me.” Tiffany said and I saw the b—h for who she really was, no remorse at all and for a second there the cops seemed to believe her.
“Shut up b—h!” Victory exclaimed “I got solid evidence here.” She said and reached for her insides. Next she brought out a tiny camera device and handed it to the first cop. “There you go, loud and clear.”
The sorry look on Tiffany’s face changed to agitation, she immediately went after the second cop and dis armed him, and then she aimed the gun at the first cop.
The three policemen exchanged funny looks. “Drop the gun madam, it’s useless” the first cop said.
“Why should I do that, I refuse to get caught” Tiffany was aiming at everyone.
“The gun is empty, I’m a rookie; they won’t let me go out with loaded guns” the second cop said, brought out handcuffs and cuffed Tiffany.
“Am detective Sam and these are my partners detective Tom and Jeremiah respectively.” The first cop introduced themselves. “And you miss Tiffany, you are under arrest for assaulting a police rookie and if we find evidence in this record that you have a hand in this deaths… well lets watch the video first.” Detective Sam said to Tiffany and then he turned to us and said. “You two still have to come with us to the station.”
“No problem.” We both said.
At the station, after all testimonies and evidence was gathered and investigations carried out on the crime scenes, I was labeled a free man. I never saw or spoke to Tiffany again and I never cared.