“…The motives are unknown for now, but a briefcase with money has been found on the crime scene. The amount is nearly 10,000 dollars. Again, we aren’t informed what this has to do with the murder…”

I felt Vic’s look upon me and looked up. His eyes were full with unanswered questions and pure curiosity, but I decided to hear what else they had to say first, in the news, and then answer to whatever he wanted to know. However, my attention was drawn back to the TV.

“…We also have information that there has been an accomplice. The criminal left the place with another man, identified as Victor Fuentes, thirty-years-old office worker in the same building. It is not confirmed if Fuentes has participated directly in the crime itself, but witnesses have seen him with Quinn earlier that day, too…”

“What?!” Vic jumped on his feet, shocked. “I’m the victim here! Why would they… Why would… What made them even think…” Speechless, he raised his hands and looked at me, like he was expecting me to agree. I just shook head and shrugged. He let out a deep sigh and heavily sat back down. “Great. Just awesome. This is just… awesome. Shit. And what am I supposed to do now? What should-”

“Shh!”

I pointed at the TV. At the moment, they were showing a footage from a security camera in the corridor. Victor appeared on the screen, hurrying for somewhere, and I realized that this has been recorded right after I shot Terrence and Vic saw me. And yeah, here I was, catching up with him and grabbing his shoulder. We talked for awhile, and because there was no sound, it was absolutely impossible to tell what we were saying. Really, if you don’t know what was actually happening, you’d think we’re discussing our way out or something like that. Then we turned around, as we heard the screaming, and ran. The recording ended. Then another one was shown, a shorter one, of us both leaving the building holding hands. Um. Awkward.

“The connection between Victor Fuentes and Kellin Quinn is unknown too. None of their colleagues can remember seeing them together before, so the possibility of close relationship is small. We will let you know when we get some further details.”

Our pictures appeared. I frowned.

“We must remind you, those men are armed and dangerous. If you see them, please, contact the police immediately.”

I couldn’t take any more of this shit, so I stood up and turned off the TV. Vic still seemed quite shocked, he was just sitting there, watching me.

“Dangerous…? Accomplice…? Close relationship…?”, he blinked. “What the hell?”

I sighed and sat back down next to him.

“Sorry, man. I didn’t predict that… I’m sorry. I know I just literally ruined your life…”

“Oh, you don’t say.”, he hissed, his shock slowly turning to anger. “You kill a guy, you kidnap me, you…” he shook head, frowning, “…fucking ruin my phone, threaten me with a gun, now everyone thinks I’m a criminal, and you’re sorry?”

“Look, I…”

“Oh, please.” His eyes narrowed. “Don’t go all ‘Forgive me, I didn’t mean to hurt you, blah-blah-blah’. Just don’t try this crap on me, you fucked shit up enough already.”

Suddenly he got up.

“You know what?”, he continued, so pissed off that his face was turning red. “I’m out of here. I don’t care if the door is locked, I don’t care if we’re on the third floor, I’ll jump if I have to, I just can’t take this shit anymore.” And as he said that, he walked to the window, drew the curtains aside and opened it.

“Stop right where you are!” I quickly pulled out my gun. “Y-you’re not going anywhere.”

Why did I stutter?! I need to stay calm, I needed to concentrate… Vic turned to me and saw the gun pointed at him.

“Oh, you’re going to shoot me? Well, how about fuck you, and your stupid gun! Go ahead, shoot me, I don’t give a shit.” He spread his arms. “Come on. Shoot!”

“You think I won’t?” I raised an eyebrow above the gun, aiming carefully, but my hand was shaking. “I will!”

“Marvelous, then do it. I’m aaall yours!” He just kept standing there, arms spread. “I’m ready to take the bullet, but are you really ready to pull the trigger? I’m waiting, come on.”

“Shut up!”, I yelled. “Shut up, close the window and go back here!” I sighed and added softly: “…Please.”

“No. If you want to stop me so badly, if you really want me dead, shoot.”

I took a deep breath. For a few moments, we were just standing there, watching each other, the silence was full with heavy breathing, shaking hands and suspense. Finally, I slowly put the gun down.

“…I won’t… I can’t.”

Vic sighed. His big sad brown eyes remained fixed on me for a few more moments, then he said:

“Goodbye, then.”

He turned to the window, about to jump.

“No!”

Even without thinking, I dropped the gun on the floor, grabbed him and pulled him back. He started struggling frantically.

“Let… me… go… Let me go, you bastard…”

“No…” I kept holding him tight and trying to pull him as far from the window as possible. “…You’re not going fucking anywhere, and definitely not jumping from that window…”

“Let me go-!” He tried to bite me, but thankfully my jacket was thick enough, so I didn’t feel anything.

I decided to try to pin him to the wall, but he kept struggling and flailing so I started dragging him to the bathroom instead. That wasn’t a good idea, because once I let his wrist go, I received a punch in the face.

“Goddammit!” Unconsciously, I let him go and gripped my now bleeding nose.

Vic dropped to the ground and buried his face in his hands. I needed a few moments to realize he was crying. I wiped some blood off my face and carefully sat beside him.

“Vic…”

“Go away…”, he sniffed. “I hate this situation, and I hate you, so leave me alone…”

“I know, sometimes I hate myself too. Most of the time.” I frowned bitterly.

“What I hate about you the most is…” he continued and sniffed again, “…that you’re actually a nice guy with fucked up life, and I can’t really hate you… And I want to hate you, I really do, but I can’t, and it sucks… It all sucks…”

Victor choked back a sob. I hesitated, then, for his and my own surprise, I gently hugged him. He didn’t pull away this time, instead he buried his face into my shoulder and continued crying silently.

“Don’t cry…”, I started awkwardly. “I, um, I think you’re having a breakdown or something…”

Oh, good job, Mr. Holmes, I thought to myself and frowned slightly. It was quite clear he was having a breakdown. I thought I should stop with the stupid statements.

“You know I didn’t want any of this to happen, right…? It just… did… And please, don’t do stupid things like that anymore, okay? I don’t want to hurt you, and I’m not sure if I can if I have to…”

“I know…”, he nodded weakly, his face still in my shoulder, but I could tell he wasn’t crying anymore. “I hope I didn’t hurt you much…” He pulled back a little to look at me. “I’m sorry punched you, I didn’t mean to…”

“It’s fine.” I touched my nose. It hurt like hell.

“Okay…” Suddenly, Vic realized he was still hugging me and pulled away, wiping the rest of his tears off his cheeks. “…Why are you so nice to me, Kellin?”

“What do you mean?” I tilted head to the side. “I didn’t think I left the impression of a nice person. After all, I lie to you, and I walk around with a loaded gun. This isn’t exactly what nice people do.” I chuckled a little.

Victor shook his head, serious.

“No, you don’t get it. Important thing is that you dropped it to save me when I tried to jump, and if you didn’t, I’d break some ribs and legs and arms or something, and probably die. You’re a criminal, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you’re a bad person… I think you aren’t.”

“Oh, well… Thanks, I guess.”, I smiled weakly. “So we’re okay, for now?”

“Yeah.”, he nodded again and almost smiled back. “We’re okay. I’ll be a good hostage from now on and won’t try to get away, I promise.”

“Good.” I went silent for awhile, thinking something.

“…They could pick a better picture, though.”

“Huh?”, Vic blinked.

“My picture they showed on TV. It’s old and far not my best one.” I grinned a bit. “Now everyone would think I’m a guy with messy hair, funny hat and confused expression on the face.”

“But you are a guy with messy hair and confused expression on the face… minus the funny hat.”, Vic noted, amused, and then bit his lower lip, afraid he might have offended me. “Damn, I’m, um, I’m sorry.”

“Nah, that was a good observation.”, I grinned more.

I patted his shoulder and stood up, then turned to him and reached a hand to help him up. He hesitated for a few moments, then took my hand and got up as well.

“…So now what?”, Victor looked at me. “I mean, now the police thinks I’m helping you, we need to do something… Why did they think that, anyway? Wasn’t it obvious that I have nothing to do with all this? I… I still don’t understand.”

I sighed.

“This camera had to be off at the time, I thought I made sure of it. For some reason, though, someone turned it back on without my knowledge. Anyway, on this recording, you can’t see I have a gun, and you can’t hear I’m… kinda threatening you… heh… So yeah, to me, it kinda looks like we’re calmly discussing something about the murder…”

“How about my horrified face, then? I must say, I looked pretty scared.”

“But you were facing the other way, the camera didn’t record that.”, I reminded him. “Your face couldn’t be seen. Basically, it looked like you came with me voluntarily. Once again, I never considered this might happen, it’s all my fault.”

“Well, you definitely made my life more interesting.”, he chuckled.

“I certainly did.” I grinned, then frowned. “I was thinking about letting you go earlier, but this isn’t the most reasonable thing to do right now. They’re after you, too, just like they’re after me. What I think is, let’s wait. They’ll probably find out that you’re from the good guys soon, and you can successfully go home.”

“You thought of letting me go?”, Vic raised an eyebrow.

“Yeah, I did… I mean, they already know who I am, how could you possibly make things worse for me?”

“I see your point.” He sighed and raised his hands. “Well, too late. There’s no turning back now.”

“There is no going baaaack.”, I repeated dramatically and sighed. “I’m sorry, man, I really am the most stupid kidnapper in the Universe. Here, have this pizza as a symbol of my deepest apologies.”

Vic chuckled as I handed him a slice of pizza.

“Thanks.” He took a bite and raised eyebrows, chewing. “Wow, that’s the most delicious apology I’ve ever gotten.”

“So… Apology accepted?”, I asked hopefully, taking a piece myself.

“Apology accepted.”, he nodded and grinned.

“Great.” I grinned back. “Everything’s alright, then.”

END OF CHAPTER 3.