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As he sat on his knees, arms raised above his head, Charlie began to wonder what exactly brought him to this point in time.
Was it waking up earlier than he usually did leaving him exhausted by the time his shift started?
Maybe it was Glep’s cacophony of videos blasting at full volume that gave him a migraine.
No. It had to be their boss coming in and giving him and Pim a job in the sketchiest part of town.
But as he looked to his side, he knew what the answer really was. Pim.
Pim had convinced him that the mission wouldn’t be that bad and that they could get some food afterwards. He knew Charlie’s weakness, albeit an easy weakness to exploit.
But he couldn’t be mad at him, Pim just wanted to do their job as always, neither of them could predict that they would be in a hostage situation and literally be on call hostages.
Yeah, they had to duck under police tape and walk into the active crime scene to talk to their client, but considering how the smiling friends were responsible for murder mysteries, they just assumed it was the same thing here.
“Charlie… I’m scared…” Whispered the small shaking critter at his right.
He hated that he was ignored when he brought up the fact that something like this would happen, but he couldn’t bring himself to chastise his friend until he knew they were in the clear.
“Yeah.” Charlie gulped, “Me too, man. Just. Stay still and if you get too scared just-“
“SHUT UP, ILL BLOW YOUR FUCKING BRAINS OUT!” Yelled the criminal, waving a gun at the two.
“Eek!” Pim yelped, jolting and shaking harder.
“Hey, don’t fuckin’ wave that around dude, down range til on target or whatever.” Charlie was sweating, he did not like where today had brought them.
“Oh, oh! You want a target?” The criminal reached over and put Charlie into a headlock, planting the gun against yellow skin. “HOW ABOUT THIS? IS THIS GOOD?”
“Charlie!” Pim squeaked, his scribbly eyes bulging.
“Uh- I-“ He didn’t have a chance to speak before the police yelled something through a megaphone,
“PUT THE GUN DOWN OR WE WILL SHOOT. WHAT ARE YOUR DEMANDS?”
“I want a car! And 5 million dollars!” The scumbag screamed, “And for the government to make my birthday a national holiday!”
“What?” Charlie muttered, “What the fuck does that have to do with anything?”
“AND I WANT TO KEEP A HOSTAGE!”
The police outside turn to one another before returning to the microphone,
“We can grant you 2 of those things.”
“I WANT A CAR AND A HOSTAGE.”
“Done.”
“WHAT? ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?” Charlie screamed, unfortunately it fell on deaf ears, he looked at Pim through the corner of his eyes as if begging him to do something.
But Pim just sat there, a horrified expression strained onto his face, his body quivering.
“Charlie- what do I do?” He whispered, eyeing the gunman and his partner.
“I- I’m not sure man, just-“ He was choked mid sentence, the arm around his neck tightening sharply. He took a deep inhale once he was able to find time.
“A CAR AND A HOSTAGE. I GET TO TAKE ONE.” The crazed man looked between the two critters in a frenzy.
The cops raise the megaphone once more, “The car has been dropped off out back. Is there anyway to convince you to-“
Before the cop can finish their sentence, the lunatic grabs Pim by his collar and digs the gun into his skin backing up.
Charlie leans forward and catches his breath before turning around to see Pim struggling against the arms of the criminal.
“PIM!”
“CHARLIE?!”
“SHUT UP! ALL OF YOU!”
Charlie watched helplessly as the man slowly backed his way through the building, a thrashing Pim being dragged with him,
“CHARLIE- PLEASE DO SOMETHING?!”
Charlie wanted to charge or scream or do something courageous. But it felt like all his muscles were locked, he had one idea, but fuck he did not like it.
“WAIT!” He yelled suddenly. The gunman stopped in his tracks, bringing Pim’s body up to his chest making a silent threat to either shoot or run.
“L-listen, my- our jobs are to help people.. Why do you…” Charlie sighed, a bead of sweat running off his nose, “why do you want to do any of this?”
The gunman looked confused, as did Pim, but it was working, right?
“Cause, I can help you! So, tell me man, what’s all this for, huh?” He gave a crooked smile.
After a long silence the man spoke, “My wife left me.”
Pim looked up, which only made the criminal pull tighter, “She left me and took my kid. I want my fucking kid back.”
“W-well, demanding a car or money won’t bring either of them back to you, you just… you gotta find other ways-“
“No!” He screamed, aiming the gun at Charlie who put his hands up again, “She will never let me see her again! Especially not after this!”
“Do you really think that or did you do all this crap to try to prove a point?”
“THE FUCK DOES THAT MATTER? EITHER WAY, I WONT SEE MY KID AND- AND THIS GUY-“ He shifts Pim in his arm, “WILL BE MY NEW KID.”
“Dude, he’s 33…” Charlie squints, “A-and either way, that won’t satisfy you. It might fill a hole for now, but in the long run, you’ll just end up missing your kid more.”
The guy stayed quiet, the only noise thag filled the room was Pim’s small whimpers.
“Please man… just- make the right choice here. There’s always a better choice.”
Another long silence before the guy threw Pim to the ground, keeping his gun trained on Charlie, “You got lucky. Charlie was it?”
Charlie nodded hesitantly.
“I’ll remember that.”
And with that, the guy took off out the back door, the sound of tires squealing followed soon after.
“Charlie!” Pim cried as he scrambled to run towards the yellow critter, “That was amazing! I-I can’t believe that worked!”
“Pim, holy shit dude.” Charlie collapsed towards the ground onto his knees, embracing the small critter tightly, “That was honestly the scariest fucking moment of my whole life.”
“I-I know, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.”
“What the hell are you apologizing for?”
“For bringing us here, getting us into this mess!”
“Yeah, thats was your fault, huh?” Charlie laughed, adrenaline pumping through his chest.
“Yeah! I-I was so scared! I didn’t know he would just grab me like that!”
“I really hope he doesn’t come find me or something. Did you see the way he looked at me after he got my name?”
“I didn’t, my face was planted onto the floor, I thought he was gonna shoot me in the back of the head!”
“Dude, we’re alive, we’re fucking alive after that!”
“I know! I- I kinda just want food? Is that weird?”
“Not at all man, I was just about to say, I’m really fucking hungry. I saw a good looking fast food place down this street, we could go there?”
“Yeah, sure! My treat, I feel bad for dragging us out here..”
“That’s the least you could do right now Pim, I just saved your freaking life!”
“You did! I- I could have died!” The small critters voice cracked a bit, a lump in his throat forming. “We could have died, Charlie!” He started tearing up, his smile twitching and faltering.
“Hey, it’s all good man. This shit happens all the time, I don’t think it’ll be the last.” Charlie comforts Pim in another hug, wiping the tears away.
He’s not exactly a touchy person, but sometimes you just have to do what you can to help someone. He wasn’t exactly sure what would have happened if he didn’t decide to talk to the guy but he was glad that something resonated in him long enough to let Pim go.
He stood up and nudged the smaller critter, gesturing towards the door of the building where cops had sped off to pursue the criminal leaving behind paramedics.
The two emerged, one bleary eyed and the other sweaty but stoic. He had to hold it together for the two of them.
But the millisecond the two got to Charlie’s apartment he started breaking down and screaming, oh well. It was nice while it lasted.