I ran as fast as possible, the cool spring breeze blew past me. Even with how fast I was running, I was dreading knocking on the door when I arrived. I finally made it to the doorstep and took a quick second to catch my breath before rapidly knocking.

As soon as it opened, I regretted knocking immediately but at this point, I didn't have a choice, my best friend was at stake.

"You know this is the last place I want to be."

"Hello-"

"Weston, listen to me, I'm going to send you the address to where I'm going tonight and you are going to call the police at exactly 6:38. No sooner, no later. Tell them I'm in trouble. Got it?"

"Rayland, what the hell are you talking about? Please don't tell me you are actually-"

"I don't have time to explain. Do you got it or not?"

"Yeah."

"What do you want?" I was greeted with the face of Jayden, I paced my way inside the house, ignoring his glare.

"Where's Rayland?" I rushed out. He stared at me for a moment then started to laugh.

"You came all the way over here for your little crush, you're more desperate than I thought." He bellowed in laughter, attracting his younger brothers.

"Look, I don't care what 'feud' we have or whatever but she could be in danger right now so is she here or not." He scanned my face for a lie and once he sensed my urgency, he sighed and led me to Rayland's room.

I knocked on the door and called her name a couple of times before twisting the door knob only to realize it was empty. Jayden and the rest of his family that followed upstairs looked shocked at my discovery and immediately started to panic.

While they searched the house, I called her phone. Like expected, she didn't answer but I heard her ringtone coming from the bedroom. I picked up the phone and sat down on her bed with a huff, tears threatened to come out but concealed them and began typing in her phone password. Her birthday, how predictable.

I went through the messages from yesterday and found a thread of threatening messages from the same contact, including pictures of the Brown family and her twin, Ryan.

"What is that?" A voice from above startled me. There stood Blake, an alarmed look was plastered on his face even with his unbothered stance.

"What are you doing here?" I questioned. Blake was by far, the worst stepbrother to Ray. She always tried to express that it didn't bother her but it was obvious she wanted him to not hate her at least. Why he was even remotely worried beats me.

"Real question is what are you doing here but I spare the casualties so I'll ask again, what is that?" I knew he wasn't going to let this go, I eventually handed him the phone and watched his face get redder as he scrolled.

"She was hiding this the whole time?" He asked angrily, even if his anger didn't seem directed at her. "Who even is this prick?" He slammed the phone on the bed.

"Her aunt's ex-boyfriend." I muttered with my head down, the lump in my throat got bigger, making it hard to even swallow. Every time I went to her house, I knew she was in trouble but she always told me not to tell anyone because it would make it worse, and my dumbass believed her.

"Dammit. This is all my fault." I put my head in my hands. Every time I went to her house, I knew she was in trouble but she always told me not to tell anyone because it would make it worse, and my dumbass believed her.

I felt the bed dip beside me and I knew this couldn't be anybody but Blake.

"Look, instead of sitting here moping, how about going to the address and shutting this shit down?" I looked up and saw the determined look in his eyes, I thought for a moment and realized he was right.

I looked down at the phone and realized it was 6:24, fourteen minutes before I was instructed to call 911. I hurried off the bed and followed Blake down the stairs where his brothers were standing worridley in the living room.

"Where are you guys going?" Jayden asked, the rest of the brothers nodding in agreement. The response made all of them rush out the door.

"We are getting our fucking sister."

"It's getting really scary out here guys." Jaxon cowered, Jayden smacked him in the back of the head and he winced, holding his head.

"And I thought leaving Jaylen and Hayden home would get rid of all the scaredy cats." He snickered, Jaxon hit him back. They started 'fighting' in the middle of the sidewalk, wacking each other in the head every chance they got.

We had been speed walking the whole time, trying to cram this ten minute walk into a five minute one. As we continued walking and they continued fighting, I noticed a silhouette in the distance and as we got closer, I identified it as Rayland.

"Shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up." I hit them with each word and pointed to the figure ahead of us. The both uttered a small 'ow' and glared at me but looked regardless. They looked back and forth at me and her confused until they realized.

"Shit." They said at the same time, a little too loud. It attracted her attention and she did a slight head turn but not enough to see us. And now we are currently sitting in a bush after Jaxon fell over, made too much noise, and made us find a hiding spot so she wouldn't see us.

"I'm starting to think we should have left you home." Blake grumbled, Jaxon crossed his arms and pouted as he was sprawled across the ground.

"I think she's gone." I whispered, they all peeked out of the bush and once it was confirmed, we crept out of the bushes and continued walking.

"You think she noticed us?" Jaxon mumbled, Blake gave him a look.

"Yes, we hid in a bush because she didn't notice us." He said sarcastically. "Can we just get this over without you asking dumbass questions?" He sighed, the rest of us stayed silent for the rest of the walk.

-

We heard two voices in the distance so we knew we were getting closer. I looked down at my phone and realized it was 6:36, two minutes until I was supposed to call the police.

"...pay for what your family did to me and I don't see anybody else, so it looks like you're the lucky guest." We all immediately rushed to the scene but Blake held us back behind the wall. We tried to quietly protest but we knew it was no use, we didn't know what this man was capable of.

I looked down at my phone and saw it was 6:38. I called 911 and they were a little skeptical at first, wondering what the real danger was but they eventually complied and sent over the police. Jayden pulled out his phone and started recording as discreetly as possible.

"You want to hurt me for what my family did, are you kidding? What did they do to you?"

"Now you remember your family? They weren't your family when you went and replaced them with the rich bitches you moved in with."

"Shut up about them, okay? Do whatever you want to me and leave them out of it." All of the Brown brothers had a guilty look on their faces. That was the thing about Ray, she never held grudges or let anybody get hurt because of her, even if they deserved it.

"I hit a soft spot, good to know."

"Are you done with the supervillain monologue or are you gonna tell me what I'm doing here?" I would have laughed if it wasn't for the circumstances of the situation.

And then the moment I was regretting, I knew Darren had something up his sleeve but I didn't think it was literal. He pulled out the gun and I immediately paled.

Blake tried to run out but we pulled him back because the police were coming, he would probably end up getting shot, and it would let him know that we were here which would put everybody in danger. It surprised everybody that he was the one to jump out, considering he was the one who 'hated' her the most.

"I already told you what you're doing here, sweetheart. I want you to hurt like I hurt." He put the gun to her stomach and it took everything in me not to go up there and stop him myself.

"What are you gonna do, kill me? You don't think people are going to hear the gunshot, call the police, and get your ass busted?"

"You think I haven't thought of that? I shoot your pathetic ass, flee, skip town, and your death be pronounced as a suicide."

"You're not gonna get away with this and I will make sure of it."

"How? How, huh? That's what I thought." All of a sudden the police sirens sounded off and that caught Darren off guard. He glared at her after hearing the noise, assuming she's the one who called.

"Oh, you think you're so smart huh?" He turned off the safety on the gun and put the gun to her rib cage. "Well not smart enough."

Time had frozen and nothing felt real anymore, I was frozen. The world was moving around me and yet I was stuck. My vision blurred and the noise around me was clouded. I snapped myself out of it and ran to her. I wasn't worried about Darren being there but I didn't have to worry about it considering the cops were already chasing after him.

Blake was kneeling beside her as she was falling in and out of consciousness, he tied the jacket she had around the wound and whispered something.

"Please don't leave me again."

I was about to question him but an ambulance came in and carried Rayland in on a stretcher. Tears were running down my face and just like that she was gone.

___________________________________________________________

1740 Words

Any thoughts?

Sorry for the late update.