“Pick him up and take him outside,” T told them. “We’re going to settle this next to the swamp.”
My panic rose too fast. “No! What are they doing?”
“He’s going to get jumped out,” Masen said. What? No!
“That can’t be possible!”
“Those are the rules,” Blake responded. “We all got jumped in, so now he has to get jumped out.”
Out of all possibilities, getting jumped out was as frightening as receiving a bullet in the head. It was equally fatal. Even if he wasn’t terribly injured, his chance of surviving would be virtually nil because many members of the gang would beat him until they were satisfied.
“But he’s terribly hurt! They’re going to kill him!”
Even though he could barely stand, Hayden didn’t protest when T’s thugs pulled him to his feet and dragged him out of the cage and through the unsatisfied mass. He turned his head to look at me, and a piercing pain coursed through my chest at the sight of his desolate eyes. He held my gaze, telling me so much through our silent connection, yet too little because our eye contact was too transient. The only words he formed were, “I’m sorry.”
Everything in me told me this was goodbye, and a crippling fear blasted through me, tearing me apart.
“Hayden!” I headed toward him, but Blake was too strong; he pulled me back and flush against him, limiting my movements. “No! Stop! Let me go!”
“Calm down! Don’t make this worse for him,” Blake hissed.
Now I understood what Hayden meant earlier when he told Blake not to let go of me if he won. The people moved toward the exit, whether to witness whatever was about to happen or join it, I didn’t know.
“How can you be so cold? He’s your friend, but you don’t care that he’s going to die,” I yelled hysterically at Masen and Blake, ignoring glares from Steven and the others.
“Who says we don’t care?” Masen exploded. His face went completely red with rage, and his blue eyes turned the angriest I’d ever seen them. “What the fuck do you think you know about us? You don’t know anything, so stop saying bullshit! We don’t want to make things worse for him. If we interfere, we’ll make T angry, and you don’t want to make him angry because knowing him, he’ll decide that Hayden’s punishment for leaving the gang will be death! He can even hurt you.”
I had nothing to say to that, shocked to the core.
“Why are you wasting time on soap operas?” Steven asked. “Let’s go.”
He turned around and walked away, followed by Masen and the other guys. Blake grasped my shoulders and made me look at him.
“Either you’ll stand aside and keep quiet, or I’ll have someone make sure you stay in the car. Your choice.”
Defeated, I nodded, and my body went numb. It was over. I was going to lose him, and there was nothing I could do. Nothing.
“I understand. I’ll stay quiet and won’t interfere.”
I wasn’t aware of our short walk to the crowd who had huddled near the swamp. I wasn’t aware of what the spectators were saying, the sounds, or anything but Hayden, who was surrounded by a group of at least ten people.
Pain solidified in me as they pushed Hayden’s head into the water and held him there for an abnormally long period of time. Pain intensified and spread through every single inch of me as they pulled him out and beat the living daylights out of him, covering each part of his battered body with their punches and kicks, even after he passed out. Pain turned my world into nothing as they lit a cigarette and pressed it over his arms and waist, marking him forever with horrendous evidence of barbaric violence.
I had no idea if he was still breathing as he lay on the ground unconscious. I had no idea how long the torture lasted. I had no idea if he’d lost too much blood, watching it flow out of him in abundant amounts. I had no idea how I was able to just stand and watch these monstrous acts, which were ingrained in my mind forever.
And then it was over. The guys dispersed and left him alone, but I couldn’t move. As I stood there, seconds ticking and ticking, I knew that any possibility that he survived this had been destroyed.
Blake, Masen, and the others ran to him, but I still couldn’t move. Destructive darkness enveloped me into its powerful shell, threatening to change me forever.
And the world turned into everlasting nothing.
Chapter 22
A MONTH AND A HALF LATER
End of February
Third period dragged on, and I had a hard time keeping still. All I wanted to do was leave, so when the bell rang, Kevin and I were the first people to head out of the classroom, glad to put the tedious lecture and our dreary teacher behind us. Students filled the sunlit hallway in a flash, and the clash of noises and voices enclosed us.
For the hundredth time, I checked my phone for any message from Hayden, but I found none. I wondered why he hadn’t replied to my last text, which I’d sent thirty minutes ago. I typed a new text.
“Are you coming to the cafeteria?”
I send him the message and returned my phone to my pocket, searching for a glimpse of his tall form.
“Is Hayden okay?” Kevin asked me, avoiding eye contact.
I noticed the blush on his cheeks, which manifested almost every time he mentioned or saw Hayden. We all knew he had a crush on Hayden, as much as he tried to pretend he didn’t, partly because of me. It wasn’t easy for him since he was torn between Hayden and Jess, whom he also liked. On top of that, I wasn’t sure if he was okay with his sexuality; he acted like he still didn’t fully accept his attraction to both women and men. We’d never had a good opportunity to talk about that.
I shrugged. “I don’t know. He didn’t reply to my last message.”
“S-So he finally got the casts removed?”
“Yeah. He said, and I quote, ‘Long live freedom.’” I half smiled, but it quickly diminished as I remembered all the times he complained about them and acted like a petulant child because his movements were limited and he was in terrible pain. He’d been through a lot.
After so many days, Hayden had finally recovered from the life-threatening injuries he suffered that dreadful night last month. I couldn’t quite remember what happened after Hayden got jumped out, because shock erased most of my memories of the rest of that day. Only luck kept Hayden alive. There was no other way to describe how he’d survived the trip to the hospital and the immediate surgery for a collapsed lung in such a lifeless condition.
He had broken ribs, a fractured skull—that luckily didn’t lead to brain damage or make his old brain injury worse—internal bleeding, a broken arm and leg, countless cigarette burns, a broken nose, and so many bruises that turned most of his body into an appalling painting of violence. Even the doctors were surprised he’d survived, considering that his life was hanging by a thread when he arrived at the hospital.
Now, the only thing that remained were new scars, which reflected the grim reality of the world Hayden had been a part of for a long time. But not anymore. After that day, Hayden was officially out of T’s gang and free to live his life the way he wanted without worrying about debts or twisted retaliations.
Out of the two, Axel suffered bigger consequences. We’d heard he suffered from serious memory loss and couldn’t fight anymore, so T didn’t have much use of him. Whether Axel would face jumping out or something else was yet to be seen, but I didn’t care. All that mattered was that it was over.