Chapter 16 ~ Baseball

Background color
Font
Font size
Line height

Shane was a mess. His feet were sore from pacing his apartment for the past few hours, his black hair messy from shaking his head so often. Shane's breathing hadn't slowed since Jace and his friends left the apartment hours ago, and neither had his thoughts.

Why did I trust those men in the Pit? Why did I do that to City? were the thoughts that kept coming to the surface over and over again. I am an awful person, he thought.

At about an hour into his solitude, Shane had gone to the bathroom and gotten a good look at himself in the mirror. Jace had given him a black eye and cuts on his cheeks, and his forehead was still bloody and bleeding. He looked as terrible as he felt.

I deserved this, he thought as he stared at his reflection, his black hair matted with dry blood, his one eye pitifully swollen shut. I deserved all of this.

He had resumed to pacing around his apartment after the bathroom break. Occasionally he would glance at his phone, staring at the time or opening and closing text messages a few times. He was waiting for something, anything, to come up on his phone telling him City was okay. He prayed she was okay. It would be his fault if anything happened to her...

If only he hadn't been so selfish. If only he hadn't gone to the Pit and tried to get Jace out of the picture. He didn't want anyone to get killed... He just wanted Jace to get a lesson, to stay away from City...

But that didn't matter now, because City was taken, and Shane could do nothing about it. He was trapped in his apartment, trapped in his mind, desperate to fix this situation that he had caused...

Through all this mess, Shane promised himself one thing: he would apologize to City. After these hours alone, stuck in his own apartment, Shane had finally come to the realization that he just wanted City to be safe and happy. If Jace was able to rescue her and she still had feelings for him, Shane was willing to let City be with Jace. After this selfish act that had gotten City kidnapped and maybe worse, Shane just wanted what was best for her.

Shane collapsed on the couch, putting his feet up on the coffee table as he closed his eyes. Well, as he closed one eye, as the other was permanently closed thanks to Jace's fists.

He poked at his wounded face a bit, still pondering the situation. He really didn't have a way out of this apartment unless he wanted to break down his door, and that would just be expensive. Plus, Shane decided it was best to remain here and let Jace handle the situation. Shane would probably just make it worse, anyway.

Shane didn't know how long he was sitting on the couch, but his ears picked up a noise. It was the sound of the door handle jiggling, as though someone were trying a key.

Suddenly, his door came crashing down, falling into his apartment. There goes his genius plan to keep his door from being destroyed.

Shane stood and shouted, "Jace, did you really have to—"

He stopped, his mouth agape. No words came to mind as he stood face-to-face with a huge, unfamiliar man. This man was a head taller than Shane, with a shirt that stretched barely over his muscles. This man's thick eyebrows were arched in a menacing way, and his eyes gleamed with excitement. His muscles looked so obnoxiously large that they seemed to make this man's head small.

"I'm not this 'Jace' fellow," growled the man, stepping on the door as he came into Shane's apartment, "But you won't be seeing him – or anyone – ever again."

"Okay, listen, this doesn't have to be this way," said Shane quickly, words coming back to him. He leaped back, putting more distance between him and the large man that had just stepped into the place. Shane gulped as he looked this man up and down; he could probably lift a freight train.

The huge man came forward. He was in no hurry, clearly knowing he was going to win this fight no matter how long it took. He cracked his knuckles.

"Wait, who sent you?!" cried Shane, trying to draw out time. He grabbed the edge of the coffee table and flipped it over. It made a loud crash as it hit the floor. The man was still on the other side of the living room; he calmly watched the coffee table fall, then his eyes met Shane's again.

"Is that supposed to stop me, little man?"

"Little—! Now you listen here, tough guy," sputtered Shane, his bruised face flushing red. "I don't know who you think you are, but this is my apartment, and I have friends that could end you!" Did Jace count as a friend? Probably not. But that was beside the point.

The man continued forward. Shane pushed himself against the wall next to the TV. He needed to slip behind the man and go to the hallway; at least then he would have a chance of escaping.

"The man you spoke to, Craton, sent me," said the man, "if you must know. He thanks you for your tip about Songbird, but he can't have you running around and getting help..."

Apparently, the man had said all he needed to say, because he suddenly lunged at Shane. Shane stepped sideways at the last minute, and the man crashed into the TV.

Shane started running to the door, but his foot caught on the overturned coffee table as he tried to jump over it, and he fell to the ground with a loud groan. His forehead started bleeding again.

The man howled, turned, and grabbed Shane's ankle. Shane twisted around and kicked the coffee table right-side-up again. One of the table's legs landed on the man's foot, and he yelled as he jumped up in pain.

His yell gave Shane enough time to get to his feet once more. He grabbed the lamp that was on the side table next to the couch.

"Not so tough now, tough guy!" he cried, almost hysterically.

The man's thick eyebrows furrowed together in rage as he charged once again at Shane. Shane swung the lamp as hard as he could... and missed.

Both Shane and the man stopped. Both were surprised Shane had missed. Then the man knocked the lamp out of Shane's hands in one giant sweep. Shane ducked right away when the man's fist came flying for his already delicate, broken face, but his stomach caught the man's kick.

Shane doubled over but stumbled away into the kitchen, the man following close behind. Shane grabbed the first thing he saw and twisted around, sinking it into the man's arm.

The man howled again as he took the fork out of his arm and threw it aside. That seemed to only make things worse, thought Shane, because instead of throwing the man off track, he only got angrier.

Trying to be faster than the man was Shane's only option. He and the man ran around the apartment, Shane throwing random household items (a couch cushion, a mug, a shoe) at the huge, muscular beast of a man that was after him. For such a large man, he was not prepared for a chase. He also wasn't prepared for a book to be thrown at him, either.

Eventually, Shane was starting to panic. No matter what he did, he couldn't get to the door. They had been all around his house at this point, the man only getting frustrated that he couldn't catch Shane.

Then finally, Shane tripped on the edge of a rug. The man bent down, took Shane by the neck, and threw him against the wall. Still holding Shane's neck with one hand, the man got close to Shane's bruised face.

"Craton is not one to mess with," said the man in almost a whisper. "Remember this next time you make a deal with the devil."

The man brought his other hand up onto Shane's neck. Shane started seeing stars, black clouds swirling into his vision, the room quickly going blurry. He was fading fast. His hands weren't making any difference as they clawed at the man's giant hands. It was no use; this was how he would die. He thought of City and hoped she would be safe. If only he hadn't been so selfish...

The man's hands suddenly loosened after a crash sound. Shane gasped, his own hands flying to his throat as though to feel the life coming back into his lungs.

He looked up just in time to see the man start to tilt toward him. Shane leaped to the side as the man slumped forward, hitting his head against the wall and falling into a fetal position on the ground. The man already had a lump on the back of his head from being hit. Shane was surprised with what he found when he glanced up.

Devin was standing there, holding a baseball bat that had clearly just been used on this man's head. The bat was still in the air, paused as though Devin would strike again. He had a strangely proud look on his face.

"Pleased with yourself, eh?" asked a voice. Shane turned and saw Isaac standing to the side a bit, his arms crossed, his messy blonde hair falling across his eyes.

"Very!" exclaimed Devin, his chest puffing out slightly. He lowered the bat and looked to Shane. "Good thing we came at the perfect time!"

"The perfect time would've been before this guy even barged my door down!" shouted Shane. He didn't know why he was so angry; these two had just saved his life. But his adrenaline was still sky-high.

"Oh, your door... Well, I'm glad it was busted when we got here," said Devin with a tiny shrug. He handed the apartment key back to Shane. "I'm bad with keys."

Shane took the key and found himself lost for words when a second ago he was shouting. The awkward silence only lasted a few seconds, however, because Devin interrupted when he noticed Shane staring at the bat in his hands.

"I played baseball in the summers as a kid," explained Devin, the proud air still in his voice. "Thought I'd bring it, just in case, even though someone didn't want me to." He glared at Isaac.

"Because a bat is stupid!" said Isaac, throwing his hands into the air. "Why not a gun or something?"

"I didn't want to kill anyone!" gasped Devin.

The slumped man against the wall groaned and started to stir. Without hesitation, Devin walked over and beat the man a few times with the bat, nice and hard. Then he sauntered back over to Isaac and Shane.

"What?" questioned Devin, frowning as he stared at the uncomfortable and weirded-out faces of the other two.

"Nothing, nothing," muttered Isaac. He cleared his throat and turned to Shane. "Now, we may completely hate you, but we also trust you."

"Wow, uh, okay?" said Shane.

"We trust you to help us find City," Isaac continued.

Shane raised his eyebrows. "You haven't found her yet? What are we doing standing around, then?!"

He practically ran to the door and down the hallway. Isaac looked at Devin.

"Hit him a few more times and let's go."

"Okay!"

As Isaac left the completely wrecked apartment, he heard a few good whacks as the baseball bat made solid contact with its unlucky target. Devin caught up a few steps later, looking rather pleased with himself again.

Once outside, the three got into the same Uber once more.

"You're payin' me good money for all this drivin', right?" growled the Uber driver.

Isaac, who was sitting in the passenger's seat, rolled his eyes. "Yes, yes, now go to this address please."

As the driver continued mumbling and started on the course, Shane spoke from the back seat. "Where to now?"

"We promised Wesley we'd take him with us to find his sister," explained Devin quickly. "We just needed to confront Craton first at the Pit."

"Wesley would also kill us if we looked for City without him," piped up Isaac from the front.

"So, we have a plan?" Shane asked.

"Not really," Isaac answered simply.

"Why me first?" Shane thought he might as well fill the silence with more questions.

"You were on the way," answered Isaac, "And we knew you'd do anything to get City back."

"Yeah..." Shane mumbled.

A short silence passed, and then Shane suddenly came to a realization. "Where's Jace?"

"He decided to be a complete idiot," began Isaac, "and ran after City without any backup. He was taken by Craton, the same man who took City. If we find Jace, we find her, too." Isaac turned to the Uber driver suddenly. "You don't have anywhere to go, do you?"

"Are you kidding? You kids are giving me a headache. I would rather be anywhere than here right now, driving for the entire day all around the city and back again, going into the night—"

"Great, so since you have nowhere to be," cut in Isaac, "you wouldn't mind sticking around if we need anything after this stop?"

The Uber driver sat there for a second, thinking over his options. "Fine. But only because I'm expecting a year's salary for this ridiculous ride!"

"Great," repeated Isaac. He sat back in his seat with a sigh. "Jace, wherever you are, I hope you're not being your usual idiotic self."

"He probably is, Isaac," replied Devin very matter-of-factly.

"And that's what I'm afraid of..."

You are reading the story above: TeenFic.Net