Just Keep Running

Chapter 5 Forever distant

TW: Violence 

I was in math class one of my least favorite subjects but there were only 15 minutes until the bell rang so I just sat there staring into space as the teacher talks about things I have zero understanding of like the Pythagorean theorem or geometric and arithmetic things equations I don't know and to be honest I don't really care either. About 12 minutes later I was looking around the room and everyone was packing up their stuff so I started to do the same as the bell rang. I headed to lunch. I sat down at a table and put my stuff down and went to get in line to buy lunch. As soon as I reach the line I get pushed by someone when I look to see who it was I see Mindy walking away, I just look in her direction and scoff because I remembered what Luke told me. I paid for my lunch, sat down at a table and started eating.

Luke almost gets back to the complex when he remembered that he needed to get a new door handle and he backed out again and made his way to the hardware store. Luke parks his truck in the parking lot and walks into the hardware store. "Hello, how can I help you today?" asks the store clerk. Luke walks up to the counter "I need a new handle for my door" Luke answers the store clerk nods "Well we have a lot of available options for a door handle did you have a specific kind you were looking for?" asks the clerk "Something secure, with about 2 locks preferably." Luke tells the man "Alright I'll be right back." responds the clerk. About 5 minutes later the clerk comes back with a door handle with 2 locks just like Luke asked for, "Will this work for you?" asks the clerk. "Yes this'll work fine thank you." replies Luke "alright that'll be $120.99 sir." the clerk says. Luke pays then leaves without saying a word. Luke then pulls out his phone and calls his landlord, "Hey Mike I just called to tell you that my door handle broke and I already bought a new one and I'm going to be installing it today so you don't need to worry about it." Luke tells him as he gets into his truck. "Alright Luke thank you for letting me know have a good day." replies Mike and Luke hangs up without saying anything.

About 4 hours later school was finally out and I can go home only to do it all over again tomorrow but at least I get to play soccer with Luke. I start walking down the sidewalk back to the apartment complex. When I get there I drop my bag off at my apartment then I head to Luke's like I do everyday I can hear talking in his house before I knock on the door, the handle is still broken I would've thought that he would have fixed it already. I figure that he's talking to the landlord about the door handle. I open the door to see Luke getting beat up by John, Chris and the rest of the men that were here yesterday, I gasp but luckily it wasn't loud enough for anyone to hear I think I need to help Luke so I grab a bat that Luke always keeps next to the small table by the door, I take the bat in my hands and hit one of the men in the back of the head hard. He falls to the ground revealing Luke bleeding a lot then all of the men turned around to Look at me, Luke looked at me with wide eyes before yelling, "MADDIE RUN!!!" before Luke got punched in the face by Chris. I don't wanna leave Luke here alone but he told me to run so that's just what I did.

I started running but I didn't get very far because John grabbed me and lifted me off the ground so I couldn't run anymore. "Where you going?" John says with a teasing tone and I try to get free from his grasp by kicking, punching, and elbowing him to try to make him let go but he is just too strong. Luke gets a small break after he punches Charlie in the jaw he gets up and looks around seeing that John was holding me and I was trying to get free. "No!" Luke yells as he punches John in the face, being careful not to hit me as well. John drops me and I fall to the ground as Luke looks at me, "RUN MADDIE!" Luke yells again and this time I start running immediately as John yells. "SOMEBODY GET THE GIRL!" John says as he punches Luke in the face. I am running down the stairs to the parking garage as fast as I can so I don't get caught I make it to the parking garage and I starts running across the street to the park not stopping for oncoming traffic, I manage to get pretty far across the street until I get hit by a taxi driver and I fall to the ground groaning as I try to stand back up when I reach the park I start running as fast as I can while limping at the same time. At this point Luke's face and knuckles are a bloody mess as he stumbles backwards only to get kicked down to his knees by Adam. Out of the corner of Luke's now blurry vision he sees Chris get up and start running towards the door, Luke gets up and kicks him hard in the back so he falls to his knees as the other 4 men start punching and kicking Luke, while Luke is trying to keep them away from the door away from me for as long as possible. Eventually the 4 men end up knocking Luke to the ground and the 4 men run out the door and across the street. "I see her!" yells Chris as the 4 men then start running towards the park. Luke comes running out of the apartment limping as well with blood all over his face as he crosses the street to try and beat the other men from getting to the park before him.

Luke manages to knock the wind out of 3 out of the 4 men making them fall to the ground then he starts running to the only man left, John who was running after me and manages to catch me again grabbing me by the arm hard pulling me between Luke and him. John pulls a gun out of the holster that was at his side and puts it next to my head. "Ah da da." John says as Luke stands in front of him ready to punch him, but Luke stops his fist midair as when he sees John put the gun to my head. "I wouldn't do that if I were you Luke because I can just pull this trigger and blow little Maddie's brains out right now." John says as Luke looks at me with wide eyes I stare back at him with the same wide eyes with a scared expression on my face. "Let her go, John." Luke says, still looking at me. "Ah, I'm afraid I can't do that Luke because we let you know what the deal was. You come back and work with us or we kill you, but when little Maddie here showed up I figured killing her would screw you up more so I plan on taking her instead." Luke switches his gaze between me and John, "Don't do this John, you're better than this." Luke tells him, "Let me correct that for you Luke I was better than this but not anymore, because after you left us we didn't have a job any more, ya hear that Maddie, the kind caring Luke Tara left all of us and more people jobless but of course not before killing some of us as well, yes Maddie your sweet neighbor Luke used to kill people." John says to me "Maddie, don't listen to him, everything that comes out of his mouth is bullshit." Luke exclaims "But it's true ain't it Luke?" John retorts back, "you made me kill for you!" Luke spits back venom in his words, "And you enjoyed it!" John spat back, saving just enough time for Luke to think about his words before the rest of the boys came over and beat the shit out of Luke pinning him to the ground and beating him at the same time while John put his gun away and picked me up off the ground and carried me to a van. "LUKE!" I yelled before John put his hand over my mouth so my muffled screams weren't heard. I see Luke try to get up but he got hit in the head with a rock and he started bleeding and the last thing he heard was my muffled screams before everything went black for me and him. 

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