Debt, short story final

“Which one do you love more?” He said to me. I’m a simple man, age of 34; I need to work to keep dinner on the table. But I needed that promotion bad. And it’s come down to this. Having to choose who lives and dies is an un-answerable question—especially when they’re both family. And the tall, slender man, wearing a suit, knew it, “C'mon, you didn’t pay your debt, now you must suffer.”

“You can’t do this to me! I told you I'm working on getting the money!” I shouted to a gang member.

“We held up our end of the bargain, we killed the slum bag, now we want our 500ks... now, pick one, your daughter or your wife.”

The leader walked into the alley behind my wife and daughter, “you have five seconds to decide.”

“Just kill me!” I shouted, even though I know that they wouldn’t accept. They wanted to watch me suffer. They told me they had already killed my son.

“Alright, your daughter’s dead.” He raised a gun and, being the coward I am, I looked away. A gun shot rung through the alleyway, followed by my wife’s screams. “You have until noon tomorrow.” They walked away.

“No! Leave her body here! Please!” I heard my wife, Anne, shouting. I turned around to find both men, the tall man in the suit, and the leader were out of the alley. I ran out and saw a gun pointed at my wife as my daughter’s body was chucked in the back of a truck.

“Don’t follow us.” The last member hopped in the back of a large black truck, all windows tinted black, and they drove off.

“Why, Jon? He was a co-worker!” Anne screamed at me.

“He stole my promotion...”

“That’s not reason to have him killed!”

We went to our car and drove back to our house in silence. I called as many people as I could to get the money, but none of my friends, or the banks, would lend me the money. I wound up on the couch tonight, but no sleeping happened. It was entirely my fault.

I got up as the sun rised, determined to find the money. I decided to tell my wife to stay home and call the police if anyone suspicious came.
“You know they told us not to Jon!” she shouted, clutching our staircase railing.
“There’s no one left to kill but us, they can’t threaten us with that threat anymore.” I clutched my car keys and began walking off.
“I’m calling them now Jon.”
“Fine.” And I left.

After several long hour of searching for a bank I hadn’t tried yet, I gave up. I was too scared to go any farther from my house; I didn’t want to be too far away from my wife, just in case something happened to her. So I turned around. On my way back, a police car began following me. I tried to remember if I ran a stop sign, but I couldn’t remember any on this road. Soon the lights turned on and I was forced to pull over.

The cop walked up, so I said, “Hello, what did I...”

“Do you have the 500 grand?” he asked, holding a radio in his right hand.

“You have got to be kidding me.”

“Do you?” he asked again, more serious.

“No, I couldn't find the money. But if you just give me a little more time.”

“You were given a month.” He held the radio to his mouth, “Kill her.” A gunshot sound came from the radio, “You have 1 more hours, or your life will be ruined.”

“My life is already ruined!” I drove off to my house, watching the clock. The drive home took a little more than an hour to complete, but I need to get the rest of my personal money before I made a run for my life. I slammed on the gas and drove off home. I checked the clock every few minutes just to make sure I was making good progress. The sun rapidly set during this hour. The hour was up when I was only a few minutes from my house. My phone started ringing and shaking, I picked it up.

“Time’s up Jon, I suggest you find a hotel room for the night. Tomorrow will be long for you,” and the phone hung up. I rounded the last corner to my house, which was now up in flames. I went to call 911 but as I drove by, I decided to not let the gang play with me anymore.

I kept driving aimlessly throughout the night. My life was ruined, what did I do now? I began approaching a large, tall bridge, over a larger body of water. and it hit me, the only way to make it stop was the last step in their game: death. I stopped and waited until I didn’t hear any cars coming. This was key in making sure no one called a rescue team. I went to the tallest pillar on the bridge and checked for car sounds again. All I knew is that I wanted to see my family again. I took one last breath and jumped.