I found myself stirring to a rhythmic bumping and rumbling. As I opened my eyes though, I was greeted by darkness. My brain racked itself, disoriented from whatever had happened before. It took a few moments to remember taking a Louisville Slugger to my skull. A pained grunt escaped me as I reached for my head. I could feel the warm and moist spot that was most likely a bloody head wound. At least I wasn’t dead.

I tried to stretch myself out. I realized that was impossible though as my entire body bumped and scraped along a wiry metal enclosure. Stunned, I kicked at where I could, barely able to move my legs in the confines of my space. The sounds of music bled through from behind me, some sort muffled hard rock. Between that and the jerkiness of where I was, it dawned on me: I was in Ryan’s trunk.

I knew there was an emergency latch somewhere in the trunk, and desperately crawled towards the hatch to try and find it. As I did though, the car screeched to a hard stop, flinging me towards the seats with a hard thud. I could hear the sounds of the car door opening and closing, his footsteps approaching soon after. The trunk popped open. I immediately started kicking back as soon as I could. Unfortunately, Ryan must have had the same thought.

The moment the trunk opened, a tire iron struck my leg. I screamed out, feeling the pain resonate up my entire body. He grabbed me by the leg and yanked me out, practically tossing me to the cold dark ground. It was coarse and rough, with patches of grass barely covering any of it. I could hear the sound of a rushing river… the Hudson? It didn’t matter. I tried to get to my feet, but the shattering pain made me stumble like my leg was paralyzed.

I tried to make one more push, but the tire iron flew into my side. All the air left my body as I gasped out, struggling to breathe. I sounded as if I was blasted into space without a helmet. Sure as hell felt like it too. Ryan grabbed me by the hair and yanked me upwards, nearly pulling a patch from the roots. I growled in pain through gritted teeth as I tried to look at Ryan, grabbing his hand as tightly as I could to try and pry myself free.

Ryan’s face looked absolutely cold, that of a true sociopath. This was no longer someone who took pleasure in beating the ever living crap out of me, but rather the face of someone who was denied a right he thought he had. He made it known when he tossed me back towards the car. A double whammy of an open trunk and the bumper stunned me again, taking it to the back of my knees and head. I got another swing to the stomach before I could even fall to the ground.

It was the alley all over again. Cold, dark, and alone, I received an even worse beating than I did then. At least then it was just his fists and sneakers. Here was unbridled rage with a piece of metal whalloping me. After a while, the pain just congealed together.

“Where’s your bodyguard now, asshole?!” Ryan shouted.

I knew I was dead if the beating continued. As he brought the iron upwards, I made a mad dash for his legs with what strength I had, hoping I could knock him down or at least knock him off balance. Despite me going shoulder first into his knees, it was like ramming steel bars. Unfortunately, I found an actual one being slammed into my back, and I went limp. 

I looked up as he lifted it into the air, like Death lifting his scythe to strike me down. I expected my life to flash before my eyes, but it didn’t. Instead, all I could see was that tire iron coming down in slow motion, stretching out unbearably long. Before he could, a figure came out from the darkness and sprung into him like a linebacker. The tire iron nearly cracked my skull, clattering on the ground.

I pushed myself up to see what had happened. Even though I couldn’t see the figure, the dirty duster was a dead give away. Veronica, despite her being more than half a foot shorter and probably half of Ryan’s weight, the sound of the blows she landed were not unlike those that he threw at me. The sound of each punch had a sickening thud; it was more like bone hitting bone. Each punch rang out with an animalistic grunt.

“What did I tell you?! He’s off the fuckin’ menu!” she shouted, grabbing his head and slamming it to the ground.

I forced myself to my feet and stumbled towards them, trying to catch some kind of breath. I could hear the rage growing between each breath.

“Veronica!” I wheezed out.

Her fist hung in the air. Her knuckles were bloodied, glistening under the warm glow of the street lamp above us. She turned her head back towards me. For a moment, the cold gaze I saw in the motel was looking back at me. It was as if all I could see of her face in the shadows were two steel daggers glaring back at me. The fear I had about her in my moment of uncertainty suddenly returned, and she became borderline unrecognizable.

I could barely make out Ryan, as if Veronica’s coat was purposefully shielding him from view. What I could see shattered any notion that he was invincible. His eye was already swelling, with blood and bruises on his face. Even if I could only see part of the left side, it was enough to make my skin crawl. I shuddered as I looked back towards Veronica.

“You got him,” I muttered. “He’s done.”

“Does he look done to you?” she asked darkly. “I thought I put the son of a bitch in his place and he still keeps going after you. I stick around to make sure he doesn’t lay a finger on you, and he skulks around in the shadows the one time I take my eyes off of you.”

The coldness in her gaze suddenly grew bitter as she looked back towards him.

“I’ve seen people like him on the streets. They do not grow, they do not learn, and they do not stop. I’m doing you a favor, Jack. Let me handle him, and you’ll never have to again.”

“Is this what I paid for?!” I retorted angrily.

Veronica steeled herself. Her eye barely twitched. My breathing grew heavier, panicking from the stupidity of my words and figuring out how to defuse the situation.

“You think I want him dead?”

“You’re not fuckin’ thinkin’, and that’s why I’m trying to help-”

“I-I-I don’t want that kind of help!” I stammered out. “I wanted a… a-a-a friend! I wanted to thank you because you seemed like a good person! Someone who went out of their way for a god damn nobody! Saving them, making them feel like they’re actually wanted!”

Veronica was taken aback, although she kept herself surprisingly collected in spite of the heated emotions. I gradually closed the distance between them, fearing what rushing might do for the situation.

“I don’t know if you think I’m a friend or not, but if you are, I’m begging you… please. You’ve done enough. Just leave it.”

Veronica stared at me, before glaring at Ryan. A sneer gradually grew on her face as her fist clenched tightly. She let out a defiant huff as she got to her feet and walked towards my direction. A smile grew on my face as she approached me. I let out a relieved sigh.

“Thank you-”

She practically glided past me. My relief turned to confusion, which then turned to horror as she crouched down and picked up the nearby tire iron. With determined focus, she beelined straight for Ryan. I grabbed her sleeve, but she effortlessly shrugged me off. I also finally got a clear look at Ryan, and he suddenly became a man consumed by fear. He had just met his own reaper. He tried to futilely shuffle back on the ground. 

Both he and I shouted out as Veronica lifted the tire iron and sent it swinging down. She delivered a single decisive strike to his arm. You could hear it shatter from a mile away. His scream probably went even further, as I had never heard him or anyone for that matter let out such a guttural sound. It devolved into pants as he stared at his broken arm. Veronica crouched next to him with a restrained look, clearly wanting to do more than just make his life hell.

“You even get near him, I’m breakin’ the other one, yeah? You say a word about this or touch him… you won’t be a problem anymore. Got it?”

Ryan couldn’t even talk. All he could do was huff out pained shrieks as he grabbed his arm. Veronica lifted the tire iron again. Ryan shouted out, lifting his good hand in defeat and nodding in surrender. Veronica glared at him before nodding back. She stood tall, towering over someone who would have come across as a giant to someone her size, and approached his car. As a final warning or act of defiance, she punctured one of the tires with the tire iron. A pop like a gunshot rang out, causing me to jump, before she tossed the tire iron into the river bank.

Veronica approached me, giving me a subdued but concerned look, grabbing me and gently pulling me away. I looked back at Ryan as he writhed on his back.

“That felt like a fair compromise?” Veronica asked.

I kept staring at Ryan before looking back towards Veronica. Despite the sarcastic tone in her voice, she still looked concerned.

“Could have been worse,” I responded quietly.

Veronica smiled weakly as she guided me away from the site. We took the nearest bus we could find to get back home. Her demeanor had changed during the ride. She was pensive and on guard, which was so off-putting given her aloof personality. Ironically, she was the only one not staring at me. Everyone riding with us stared like we just came out of a costume party a month after Halloween. Suddenly I found myself wishing everyone ignored me again.

“How did you know?” I asked.

“I saw him driving from your place. Had a bad feeling.”

I smiled thankfully. I was caught off guard as she pulled me close. My face turned red as I gave her a look of surprise. She glanced at me briefly before looking straight ahead. She had a look I couldn’t quite pin. Concern? Shame? Uncertainty? Maybe it was a mix of some or all of it, but whatever it was, she looked unfocused and lost in thought.

“Not a lot of good ones like you left,” Veronica said quietly. “Don’t lose that.”

I looked at her for a moment. My body suddenly relaxed as the exhaustion from everything hit. I rested my head on her shoulder. For a moment before I blacked out to a feeling of relief, I felt her hand on my head, holding it tightly.

“I knew I had nothing to worry about.”