The Kingpin's Possession

62: Surrounded by Danger

Kit:Kit felt like his entire body was on fire, jolting him out of the alcohol induced stupor that he had been in a few moments ago.

What happened? Why was he on the floor? He tried to grapple with these thoughts as his lungs burned for oxygen.

One minute he was on his feet, looking out the window and now he was… he was… he couldn't breathe!

Ben’s body was on top of him, pressing down on his lungs, groaning.

Pushing Ben aside with all the strength he could muster, he sat up so he could better see what was happening around him, and when he noticed the shattered glass, the way Earth too was ducking down as he looked around in fright…he realized that they had just been shot at.

“Shiaaa!” Kit cursed before turning towards Ben. “Sabai di mai“Yes,” came Ben’s low mutter as he tried to sit up. But Kit could see the blooming red on his shirt. Blood.

“Fuck!” Kit looked closely at his friend, only to find shards of glass embedded onto his back from the way he had tried to protect Kit just when the window had shattered. “You’re bleeding.”

“I’ll be fine.” Ben grumbled out before he took Kit’s hand and told him to crawl away from the window on the count to three.

Kit bit back a curse as they crawled out from beneath the window, heart pounding in his chest. The beer bottles made clanging noises when he accidentally hit the case with his foot.

But once they were away from the door and the windows, Ben helped Earth get away from the line of shot as well.

“Earth, take Kit and hide in another room,” Ben said, his voice hard and tense.

“What?” Kit looked at Ben as if he had lost his mind, though he was still careful to keep the volume down. “We're not leaving you here! What can you even do?”

Much to their surprise, Ben pulled out a gun from his belt buckle. He nodded at them to get away and then he ran to the door, not looking back to see if his friends had followed his instruction or not. He threw the door open and started shooting at the car.

The unknown car with no license plate, pulled up the window quickly and started speeding away—but it was too late. Ben was able to hit one of the windows, and as it shattered from the force of the bullet, he realized that there was only one person inside the car, meaning the culprit was both shooting and driving.

It must be why they thought it would be safer to just run away instead of stay and fight.

Kit and Earth watched as their friend tried to run after the car, and although they were terrified, they were still in their right mind to yell, “BEN! NO! It’s too dangerous!”

Ben was well aware that it was a lost cause; no one on foot could outpace a car on wheels. But he couldn’t stop running anyway. Thankfully, he saw P’Kim’s car arrive right on time, just as the other car was gaining more distance.

“Follow that car!” he shouted at P’Kim. “That’s the shooter! They just shot at us!”

“What?!” P’Kim demanded in alarm as he rolled down his window. “Is Kit alright?”

“Yes, of course,” Ben breathed. “NOW GO!”

Kim didn’t need to be told twice. As soon as he got Ben’s confirmation, he stepped on the gas and began chasing the car.

Ben felt immense relief when P’Kim sped away, but the relief was short lived as the adrenaline rush subsided and the relief was replaced by an intense wave of pain throughout his body. He had so far underestimated his injuries, and no matter how much stronger he had gotten, he was still human and prone to injuries.

“Shit,” he groaned and staggered as he attempted to get back into the safety of the house. When he could no longer keep himself upright, he fell to the floor.

By this time, Kit and Earth had overcome their panic and fear, so when they saw Ben falling to his knees right outside the front porch, they quickly went to his side and helped him up. Under the bright glow of the moonlight, they saw that Ben had two large pieces of glass embedded onto his back.

“Holy shit…” muttered Earth, wincing as though he was the one in pain.

Ben grimaced. “Is it that bad?” he asked, his breathing becoming more rapid. It physically pained Kit to see his friend in so much pain, his pristine university shirt stained red by his own blood because he had tried to protect Kit.

Panicked, Earth dropped Ben’s weight from his shoulder, forcing Kit to carry him all alone. He frantically searched his pockets for his phone, calling the emergency number for help. “Hello?” he said shakily into the phone.

As he talked to the paramedics, describing the situation, Kit eased Ben up the porch and into the living room on his own. It was heavy work, but nothing he couldn’t do.

They made Ben lie chest-first on the floor. It was a good thing Earth didn’t have carpets yet or they wouldn’t have been able to notice if there were any lose shards of glass.

“Should we pull out the shards?” Earth asked, taking sharp breaths to calm his growing panic once he was off the phone with the paramedics, who promised they would come in no time.

“I don’t know,” Kit’s words came out strained, his own worry for his best friend palpable. “Call Prem. He’s a med student! He should know this much.”

They were by no means idiots, but when their friend was bleeding on the floor before them, their mind went fully blank.

“What is it?” came Prem’s voice from the phone, and in the distance, they could hear the chatter of several people.

“Ummm, Prem…there was a little accident with a beer bottle and Ben got a few shards in his…back,” Kit lied to the best of his ability, trying to keep the fear from his voice so as not to severely alarm Prem. “We called the paramedics already, but we were just wondering…should we pull them out?”

“No,” Prem said calmly, but Kit could tell he was worried as well. “Don’t pull them out; it may cause more blood loss in case the sharp edges hit any major arteries or the spine as you pull them out. In fact, those shards are preventing Ben from losing too much blood.”

“Okay…” Kit muttered, nodding. “Okay… No pulling them out.”

“Have the paramedics arrived yet?” Prem asked. “Is Ben alright? Is he awake?”

“Yes, they’re on their way,” Earth said. “I think those are sirens in the distance, actually. And Ben is awake, but barely. We need to go now, Prem.”

“Keep me updated!” Prem called out before they hung up the phone.

Earth didn’t hear wrong. Within a couple seconds, the paramedics were at their door, doing first-aid procedures on Ben to check his vitals and eventually getting him on a gurney.

To Kit’s surprise, P’First rushed in through the doors not long after, and along with the paramedics, he escorted Ben to the ambulance.

He also dealt with the police officers who had arrived at the scene shortly after, which was something both Kit and Earth were grateful about—after everything that had happened, they had no energy to talk to authorities and neither did they know what to say.

And then, they watched as the ambulance drove away with Ben to the hospital, and all they could do was hope that he was alright.