Nothing

I'm dreaming about **** and ****, and it's incredible. I can see myself **** Peter, the man who has stolen the love of my life, desecrated her body, made her his whore. I'm stabbing him again and again, his blood spurting on my face and my clothes. The dream grows unstable. I'm awake. I blink. A young man is making his way toward Peter, a gun in hand. The sun is setting below the mountains, and the fire is dying. Diana, Becca, and I sit back, so angry... We're so mad! I'm boiling, and I can see it on Becca's and Diana's faces, too. No... I realize Becca is looking ashamed, angry, and ashamed. I realize I love her, but I feel terribly sad for her. I look back at the young man. Dark hair, dark eyes. A few days of beard. Becca's ex.

"Wake up, motherfucker!" he yells, waking Sam up with a start.

Peter stands up, his hands in front of him. I suddenly feel confused and conflicted. Who's Becca's ex? I mean, I know who he is, but who is he? What does he want? I don't want him to hurt our master! Why does he have a gun? Well, obviously, to kill the fucker for what he's done to his lover, but why? "What the fuck, man?" Peter asks, looking at him.

"Shut up! I'll kill you!" the guy yells, furious. He's shaking. His eyes are bloodshot. "Where's the thing?"

What is he talking about? "What thing?"

"The magic thing! The thing you used on her, on them!" He looks at Becca, tears in his eyes. "I know what you did, you bastard!"

Shit... I don't know what to do... part of me wants to tackle him, take the gun from his hand, and feed him the bullet, but another part wants him to shoot. "The diamond? You want the diamond?" Peter asks, keeping his voice as steady as he can. I don't know how he's doing it because I feel like I'd be stuttering like an idiot if I were him.

"Stop talking and give it to me!"

"Okay, okay, man... Here..." Peter reaches for his right pocket, using the bottom of his shirt to cover his fingers, and I find myself hopeful. That guy has no idea what he's dealing with... All our master has to do is give it to him, just as he asked. "Take it!" he adds, throwing the diamond at him. Becca's ex lowers his gun and catches it, his eyes wide. Then, he just stands there like an idiot before smirking. We all smirk at him.

"I'm such a dumbass!" he blurts out. "This is way too easy."

"Jesus, Rigel, you're pathetic!" Becca scoffs, shaking her head.

"Well, I guess I can get some credit for trying," the guy shrugs, lowering his gun further.

Our master nods, a big smile on his face. "Yeah, I guess you deserve some," he laughs. "You certainly scared the shit out of me."

"No way we're keeping him, though," Becca complains. "Four of us are more than enough to take care of."

"Totally," Peter agrees. I look back at Rigel, wondering how the hell he managed to find us here.

"Becca told me about the thing, the diamond," Rigel explains. "I thought she was high on **** or something. Then she stopped replying to my texts for days."

"Sorry..." Sam intervenes, scratching his head. "My bad."

"Anyway," Rigel goes on, "I looked for her everywhere, asked around. No one knew where she was and her phone was dead. But earlier today she texted me out of the blue, and she was... Weird."

"I guess it's hard acting natural when you're just a puppet, huh?" Becca jokes, bitter. I keep staring at Rigel, urging him to continue.

"That still doesn't explain how you found us," Peter points out.

"We've got an app on our phones," Becca's boyfriend answers. "We can locate each other with it."

We groan in unison. Why the hell didn't Becca warn us about it? "Sorry... I just didn't think about it. Or I guess..."

"I didn't think about it," Peter completes her sentence, nodding. "Yeah, you're not exactly good at thinking for yourself, are you?" We shake our heads, feeling quite dumb. "And I guess I'm not that great at it either," he adds, laughing at himself. "How long have you been watching us?"

"For a while," Rigel admits calmly. "I didn't know what was up. I thought she was just hanging out with her friends. I didn't want to be the crazy jealous boyfriend, so I stayed far enough for you guys not to see me. But when you fucked her..." he adds, shrugging. "I mean, that was fucked up and weird. I thought there was no way in hell she would let you do it. Not like that."

"Oh, baby... Jealous?" Becca teases. "I'm sorry. He's got a big dick, and he's got the magic thingy, remember?"

"He sure does," Rigel agrees, chuckling. "But that got me thinking back about the diamond and the magic powers and the mind control shit, and it all made sense. I mean, it didn't, but it certainly made more sense than Becca letting someone fuck her like a toy in the middle of the forest with a bunch of people watching."

Yeah, that makes sense, I think to myself, nodding. I look at the gun in his hand, still hanging low by his side. "And the gun?" our master asks.

"I mean... She was acting weird after days of not answering my texts. I located her in a national park, and I thought she was in trouble. I wanted to be ready, you know? Guess I'm still a coward… It took me forever to gather the strength to come here."

Well, that clears everything up... "Okay, well, I'm glad that's settled." Peter claps his hands, sighing. "Did you tell anyone what you were up to?"

"Nope."

"Good," our master replies, crossing his arms. There's only one last thing to do...

Rigel looks down at his gun, then back at Peter. He lifts the gun up, pointing it at himself. "Guess this is the end for me, huh?" he asks with a smirk.

"Looks like it," Becca replies, smiling at him. His gun, his fingerprints. By the time someone finds him, I expect there won't be much to find anyway.

The guy moves his index finger to the trigger and cocks the gun but freezes before he pulls the trigger. The diamond! "Oh, I guess you'll want that thing back, right?" he says, looking at his other hand before throwing the diamond back at our master. "Here you go."

By the time I realize our master's mistake, it's too late. Reflexes are a bitch. Peter moves his hands to catch the object thrown at him, and any emotions or desires pulling on my strings vanish before I can fully process what's happening. I stare at Rigel, still standing with the gun in his hand. He's looking ahead, a blank look on his face. I can see Peter in the corner of my eye, holding the diamond, silent, but I barely register it. The wind is howling, the birds are scattering in the trees, but I barely register it. I've got no desire to speak, no desire to act. My strings are loose, and my mind is like a discombobulated jigsaw puzzle. I'm nothing.

I don't really have any conception of time, but my distant body starts to ache. At some point, I fall to the ground, the moonlight reflected in the water, the smell of smoke in my nose. I can see Peter, still standing, still mindless, and Becca already lying down next to me, her eyes wide open, blinking from time to time, but I barely register it. There isn't much of a person in me to witness anything.

The stars are shining. The sound of rustling leaves, of night critters, of flowing water, are all distant, foreign. Somehow, a fleeting thought appears in my mind, coming from deep deep down. Maybe it's my exhausted brain misfiring, or maybe not, but I recall a question from university. If a tree falls in a forest and no one's around to hear it, does it make a sound?

And this is it! Hope you guys enjoyed it. I guess this is a good opening if anyone wants to continue the story. Someone could find them, or not... Up to you!

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