Chapter 10: Predicaments

Tristan rubbed his eyes sleepily. His bed was cool and inviting, but he couldn’t bring himself to actually crawl into it. After all, it was still light outside. Today, however, had been completely exhausting, and he was almost ready to fall asleep right there.

He had been called to go to the police station very early that morning, and he hadn’t been able to fall asleep until late last night; the combination of a late night and an early morning made for a very tired Tristan. He had stayed at the police station for several hours, just answering questions. The experience had been surprisingly draining.

After he finally left the police station, Tristan had decided to go for a short walk to relax. However, on his way to the nature trail he usually walked on, a group of reporters pounced on him with a sneak attack of cameras and questions. Tristan tried to escape from the bombardment, but the reporters were not easy to shake off. He eventually resorted to running along the nature trail (and even going off of the trail and wading through a river) in order to loose the reporters. By the time the reporters had given up, Tristan was in no mood to enjoy the natural beauty around him. He was just in the mood for a nap.

Unfortunately, he had other matters he had to attend to, small errands he had to run. He went to the bank and made a deposit, he went to the grocery store to buy some cereal and a gallon of milk, and he stopped by the coffee shop on his way home to see if some caffeine would wake him up. Much to his dismay, it didn’t.

So, here he was, lying on his bed, wishing he could go to sleep. His mind was racing, though, and he knew he wouldn’t be able to fall asleep knowing that it was still the middle of the day. He sighed and placed his hands over his face, hoping that if he wished hard enough, the sun would magically go down right now.

Just then, there was a knock at his apartment door. Tristan let out a heavy sigh. “Just a minute,” he muttered loudly, forcing himself to sit up. He trudged over to the door sleepily. He didn’t even bother to look into the peephole before he swung the door open. He was so tired that he really didn’t care who was out there.

Standing just outside the door in the hallway were two men, both of them rather stocky, and neither one of them looking very pleased. Tristan was too tired to take in all of their details, and he was also too tired to notice the gun hanging off of one man’s belt.

“You Tristan Motgomery?” the man closer to Tristan asked.

“Yeah, but I’m not answering any more questions or signing anything, so just go away and talk to me tomorrow, okay?” Tristan mumbled. He began closing the door but stopped suddenly when the man put his hand out.

“Oh, don’t worry. We’re not here to ask questions…” the man said. He pulled his jacket back with his other hand, revealing his gun. Tristan glanced down and his eyes grew wide.

“What do you want?” Tristan asked quickly, not taking his eyes off of the gun.

“What do you have?” the man with the gun asked.

“Do you want things that are of value? Because in that department I have a laptop and a microwave, and that’s about it. Anything else of value is bolted to the floor.” Tristan said, trying to sound nonchalant. The men pushed past him and Tristan did nothing but watch as they began tearing his apartment to pieces. He swallowed hard as he saw one of the men scoop up his laptop. Tristan decided that this was probably the most painful thing he had ever witnessed.

Soon, the men had gone from one end of the apartment to the other, destroying practically everything in their path. They walked towards Tristan and he opened the door a little wider for them so that they could leave. The man with the gun walked forward and leaned right over Tristan.

“Oh, we’re not done just yet…” he growled, reaching over Tristan’s head and closing the door, pushing Tristan into a corner in the process. Tristan gulped and stared up at the man, his eyes wide with fear.

“There might be some pop in the fridge if you want that…” Tristan said, trying to keep his voice from shaking. The man towering over Tristan just glared down at him, but the other man cracked grin.

“We’re not here for that kind of pop…” the man snarled, making Tristan flinch. Tristan could feel his heart pounding in his chest. Adrenaline pumped through his veins, telling him to run, but he knew he couldn’t go anywhere. He also knew that he didn’t have a chance in a fight with either of these men. Both of them were bigger than he was, and one of them was armed. Tristan racked his brain for a plan, but he knew he was doomed.

“Any last words?” the man with the gun asked, pulling out his weapon. Just then, Tristan got an idea. He tried not to look too excited as he tightened his grip on the door handle.
“Not any good ones.” Tristan replied. The man narrowed his eyes and held up the gun. At that moment, Tristan swung the door open as hard as he could, hitting the man with the door. The man lost his balance and fell to the floor. Tristan took this opportunity to dash out the door and down the hallway. He began running down the stairs, hoping that he would get to the front desk before these two men. He heard shouts coming from above him and he glanced up, but he didn’t see either of the men. Tristan continued to run, going in circles on the stairs as he made his way downward. Soon, he heard other footsteps clanking on the stairs above him. He heard the bang of a gun, but he had no idea where the bullet went. Tristan kept running, knowing that it was his only chance of survival.
Within a few minutes, Tristan made it down to the front desk. “Call 911!” he yelled as soon as he came into the room. The woman behind the desk did as she was told and quickly dialed the number. Tristan jumped over the desk and hid behind it, hoping the men wouldn’t find him. “I was never here…” he whispered to the woman above him. She nodded.
“What’s the problem?” she asked after the 911 operator answered her call.
“A robbery. Just tell them it’s a robbery.” Tristan replied softly. Just as the woman began to pass this message on, the door to the stairwell burst open and the two men charged through. The looked around wildly and Tristan shut his eyes, hoping they wouldn’t find him.
“You!” the man with the gun yelled, pointing his weapon at the woman behind the desk. “Did a guy run through here just now?” the woman shook her head quickly, her eyes wide with fear. The man with the gun growled. “I know he went through here!” he yelled angrily. “Where’d he go?” the man stormed forward and grabbed the collar of the woman’s shirt, lifting her feet off of the ground. “You tell me where he went right now!” the man yelled into the woman’s face. The phone slipped from the woman’s hands and Tristan gasped. He grabbed the phone and quickly spoke the apartment building’s address into it. However, he knew he had to do something to help this woman, so he put the phone down and stood up.
“I’m right here, moron.” Tristan yelled, glaring at the two men. The woman was quickly dropped to the floor as both men turned their attention to Tristan.
“I’m glad you stood up.” the man with the gun said, taking a step towards Tristan. “But it’s not gonna save your life or hers. She’s seen too much already.” the woman gasped, tears forming in her eyes. Tristan glanced over at her, horror showing on his face. He turned back to the men with a look of anger in his eyes. “Then, once we’re done with the two of you, we’ll move on to that other girl. What was her name?” the man with the gun glanced over his shoulder at the other man.
“Nora Bauregard.” the other man replied quickly.
“Yeah, we’ll be going for her next.” the man with the gun said.
“Why?” Tristan asked, genuine confusion in his voice.
“Because, one of the guys you two put in jail was our boss. And we’re very loyal to our boss.” the other man replied once more.
“I would just like to point out that your boss wouldn’t be in jail if he hadn’t tried to rob our boss.” Tristan said. Both men narrowed their eyes at him.
“Shut up. The point is that he’s in jail and you two are the ones who got him caught.” the man with the gun growled. Tristan shrugged.
“I was just doing my job and acting on my instincts. He was the one messing with my usually peaceful nature. Just like you two are doing now.” Tristan said. His fear was no longer showing in his voice, but that didn’t mean it was no longer there.
“I said shut up!” the man with the gun yelled, pointing his gun at Tristan. Tristan quickly ducked and did a somersault out of the way just as the man fired at him. Once Tristan was in an upright position again, he jumped at the man with the gun, knocking him over. Tristan and the man wrestled for a moment before the other man decided to get in on the fun. He was just about to pull Tristan up with something suddenly hit him in the back of the head. He cried out in pain then rubbed the back of his head. He turned around to see what had hit him.
There, laying on the floor, was the telephone. The man glanced up and saw the woman standing behind the desk, a few other things in her hands that she could throw at him. The man snarled then stormed towards her as she began throwing other small objects at him.
Meanwhile, Tristan was trying very hard to hold his own against a man that probably weighed a hundred pounds more than he did. Tristan was doing surprisingly well, but he obviously wasn’t winning the fight. The man had him pinned to the ground and had already given him a bloody nose. Tristan had managed to make the man’s lip bleed a little, but Tristan was definitely more worse for the wear than the man was.
“You know, I was gonna make it pretty quick, but you asked for it!” the man growled, pushing down on Tristan’s shoulders. Tristan moaned, trying to move out from underneath the man’s weight, but he had no success. The man then put one of his large hands on Tristan’s chest while bringing back his other hand. He balled his free hand into a fist and punched Tristan in the face, making his head snap to one side. Tristan closed his eyes in pain and noticed a lot of dark spots when he opened them again.
“How did that feel?” the man yelled. Tristan moaned. The man pulled his fist back again and was about to hit Tristan once more when the door suddenly burst open.
“Freeze!” a police officer yelled, pointing his weapon at the man on top of Tristan. Two other police officers quickly came in behind him, their guns drawn. The man on top of Tristan gave a low growl. Tristan managed to make a bloody smile.