Just Keep Running

Chapter 20 A race against time

Tw: Guns, language, violence

John gets hit hard on the head with the barrel of the shotgun, the sound echoing through the room. John then falls to the ground as Luke stands over him with a look of pure anger on his face as his knuckles start to turn white from gripping the gun. John manages to stand up, blood running down the side of his face as he chuckles menacingly with a smirk on his face. "That was quite unnecessary wasn't it Luke?" He asks, still chuckling, his voice dripping with sarcasm. Luke's jaw tightens at the sound of his mocking tone, his grip on the gun gets stronger. "You deserve every bad thing that happens to you!" Luke responds quickly, his voice cold. John slowly rises to his feet as blood drips down the side of his face staining his shirt a crimson red. "I know I do, but so do you Luke." He says, with a small smirk tugging at the corner of his lips. Luke then hits him with the barrel of the gun once again. John stumbles backwards but doesn't fall down, he gets his balance back and grabs the gun from Luke throwing it across the floor of the cabin hitting a table making the glass vase that was resting atop the table fall and shatter on the ground. "He'll find her Luke, and when he does it's gonna be a living hell for all three of you!" John spits in anger. "Tell him if he lays a hand on Maddie or Annie he'll be dead before he hits the ground." Luke threatens. John laughed once again in a menacing tone and punched Luke in the face causing him to stumble backward hitting the wooden wall behind the two men. John then walked over to Luke and punched him in the face a few more times until dark red blood was running down his face. John then grabbed Luke by the collar or his shirt and got right in his face. "You and Annie aren't safe and neither is your little school girl." He said, then spit in Luke's face and let go of the collar of his shirt causing Luke to then fall to the ground against the wall. John walked away for a moment to grab the gun off the floor, then walked back to where Luke is collapsed against the wall next to the shattered vase. "Times up for you Luke." John says, smirking. John pats the barrel of the gun with his hand and smiles, then takes the gun and aims it at Luke's head but at the last second shoots Luke in the leg instead. Luke grunts in pain and reaches to grab his leg. "Oh I'm gonna enjoy killing you Luke." John says, crouching down in front of Luke mocking him. "Fuck you John!" Luke exclaims, with blood dripping down his chin as he speaks. John smiles and stands up and grabs a picture frame off of a small wooden table next to the door and smirks while looking at it. "This was your family, isn't it Luke?" John says, then flashes the picture to Luke. It's a picture of Luke, his wife and his daughter, they were outside and his daughter was about six years old in the photo and was sitting on his shoulders and his wife was laughing in the background. "Put it back!" Luke yelled, with anger in his voice. "Your daughter, Ellie, was her name right?" John asked, taunting Luke. "Put it back!" Luke repeated, through gritted teeth. "Oh does someone miss his family, aw poor Luke." John said, taunting Luke even more. Luke groaned trying to stand up and hit John but he failed and fell back against the wall. John put the picture face down back on the table and kneeled down in front of Luke again the gun draped across his torso. "They can't help you anymore." He said to Luke, obviously trying to get Luke even more angry than he already was. "You touch Maddie or Annie I'll kill you!" Luke said, trying not to open his mouth too much so more blood doesn't drip down his face. "You're one hell of a fighter Luke, I'll give ya that." John said, walking towards the kitchen and grabbing a bottle of water out of the fridge, he drinks the water bottle in one go then throws the empty bottle on the ground in the cabin and the cap to the bottle in the opposite direction then walks back to Luke, who was a pissed off look on his face. "Now let's get down to business, I'm gonna take you to where Annie is and then I'm gonna go find Maddie then bring her to Daniel and you're all gonna die together, ain't that something." John tells his plan with a proud smile on his face. "Don't touch them!" Luke spits back, swinging his fist in John's direction but missing due to the lack of blood in his system. "Look pal, you can try all you want but you ain't gonna hit anything but air." John tells him. Luke gives John a death glare then wipes the blood off his face, then his arm falls limp to the ground. "Poor little Maddie, she's off in the woods somewhere running from someone that isn't even chasing her, why? Because you told her to Luke, you told her to run and not look back but she looked back didn't she? Then you saw the tears running down her face and what did that do to you? It made you weak!" John yells the last park as if he was mad at the fact that he beat Luke. As John turns away for a moment Luke makes an effort to grab a piece of the shattered vase and hide it under his hand. "You've gone soft Luke and it shows. What happened to the heartless and emotionless killer we all once knew, huh Luke? Can you answer that question for me or are you still thinking about your poor little family and how all of your decisions have led up to this? How Maddie getting involved is your fault, how Annie getting involved is your fault, hell how you got involved is your fault! You chose this life and this isn't the kind of job that you can just walk away from and expect everything to go back to the way it was." John says, walking back over to Luke. John crouches down in front of Luke once again only to be met with a shard of the shattered vase to his neck being stabbed multiple times, blood gushing out of his neck each time as he grunts and falls to the floor, his hand immediately going up to his neck trying to stop some of the blood as Luke uses the table near the door to stand up and walks to the kitchen to grab a pistol out of a locked cabinet then limps back towards John who is holding on for dear life. "That heartless killer is only emotionless for bastards like you." Luke said, then the cabin filled with the sounds of three gunshots ringing and three bullets going straight to John's head. "I'm coming, Maddie." Luke mumbles to himself before putting the pistol in his holster and getting a towel from the kitchen and trying to stop the blood as much as he can. He then grunts as he wraps the towel tight around his leg making a temporary tourniquet before stepping over John's now lifeless body then limping out the door keeping the picture facing down on the table before walking out.

I was running and running until I couldn't run anymore. I put my hand out and leaned against a tree trying to catch my breath, the taste of blood filled my mouth because of the cold air and I sighed then leaned up against the tree. I was surrounded by trees and plants. The trees had moss on them and the ground was just dirt and some patches of grass scattered around. I sat against the tree and slumped down so I was sitting on the ground. I put my head in my hands and wiped away some loose tears then ran my fingers through my now dirty hair. I leaned my head back against the tree for a few moments before everything went black.

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