Chapter Sixty-Nine

For Garcia, time seemed to slow down as if he could control it. He heard James's father say the words ‘watch this', then pull the trigger on the gun for the first time, and he could swear that he saw the bullet leave the barrel of the gun and travel through the air, inch by inch, gaining on its target fast, until it finally came into contact with soft tissue.

Perfect shot.

Game over.

The projectile disappeared into the target's head, only to come out on the other side, bringing with it bone fragments, soft tissue, gray matter, blood, hair, and the end of life.

Just as he said the words ‘watch this', James's father had swung his arm right, aimed his gun at his own wife, and pulled the trigger.

Time had slowed down to such a degree that Garcia saw her looking back at him with a smile on her lips, as if they had planned this all along.

Her head practically shattered on impact.

As soon as James's father squeezed the trigger, he pulled his arm back toward himself fast and, before anyone could even blink, placed the barrel of the gun inside his mouth and gave that trigger another firm tug.

The back of his head simply exploded, creating a wet mist of blood that was littered with brain and skull debris. That heavy ball of human carnage kept on traveling upward, until it splattered itself against the ceiling above him.

While his wife's lifeless body tumbled over on her wheelchair, his collapsed to the ground like a puppet with severed strings. Blood began pooling on the floor fast, creating a dark scarlet rug that was quickly enveloping both of their bodies.

‘Noooooo!' James shouted from the opposite wall. He tried to get up, but Garcia stopped him with a hand to the shoulder… the left shoulder.

‘Arghhhhhh! You fuck!'

James crumpled back to the floor, his eyes wide, the pain so intense he looked like he was about to pass out.

‘Jesus!' Garcia said, his stare pinging to Hunter. ‘What the fuck just happened here?'

Hunter's full attention was on the old, lifeless couple on the floor. His heart was beating way out of synch with his thinking because he knew that he and Garcia should be dead. ‘They finally found a way out,' he replied.

‘What?' Garcia asked.

‘I don't know the story here,' Hunter explained. ‘But if I had to guess, I'd say that they've been kept captive down in this cellar by their own son for I don't know how long.'

‘Seventeen years,' Garcia said.

Hunter's eyes almost popped out of their sockets as he looked back at Garcia.

Garcia nodded. ‘Seventeen years they've been locked down here.'

It took Hunter a couple of seconds to process that.

‘It looks like they were kept separate from each other,' Hunter continued, his chin jerking in the direction of the door that led back into the cellar of horrors. ‘Each in their own cell, where I'm guessing they were either kept shackled to the walls at all times, or heavily sedated, so that they wouldn't end their own lives.' He turned to look at James on the floor. ‘This was the first opportunity they got… and they took it.'

‘Fuck you,' James seethed, before spitting up at Hunter. It hit Hunter's trousers.

Hunter didn't move. His eyes stayed on James, but he addressed Garcia. ‘I have a feeling that what he said just before pulling the trigger – "watch this" – wasn't meant for us.'

Garcia shook his head confidently. ‘No, it wasn't.' But before he could explain the meaning of that command, they all heard a new noise coming from the door to the room.

In a flash, Hunter pulled out his semi-automatic pistol and aimed forward. A split second later, Officer Emiliano Esqueda appeared behind the dead couple, weapon in hand… eyes wide.

‘LAPD,' he shouted, and was immediately cut off by Hunter and Garcia.

‘Easy… easy,' they both shouted in unison.

‘It's us,' Hunter called out. ‘It's just us. Take a deep breath and put down the gun, Emiliano. It's just us.'

The kid was visibly shaking, his breathing heavy, his eyes full of fear.

‘What… the fuck?'

Emiliano gulped in air. He was still holding his weapon in a double grip, aiming forward, but his stare was all over the place, clearly trying to understand what it was that he had just walked in on.

‘What the fuck happened here?' he asked again. ‘What is this fucking place? Who are all these people?'

That was when it dawned on Garcia.

He turned to face Hunter.

‘He's the cavalry?' he asked, his eyes narrowing to slits.

Hunter looked back at him. ‘What?'

‘The cavalry,' Garcia repeated it. ‘You said that this wasn't a Hollywood movie and that after you found the trapdoor in the kitchen, you called the cavalry.' Garcia tilted his head in Emiliano's direction, while arching his eyebrows at Hunter. ‘He is it? The cavalry?'

Hunter shrugged. ‘He was willing to help.'

Garcia breathed out despair.