Tanner Bay Episode 32: Defining Moment (Part 2)
(This episode was edited by my good friend Meechie, aka XxInDreamsWeRestxX)
Trent quickly left his father in the hall and tracked down Molly's room. When he finally found her, she was laying in her bed.
Out of breath, Trent said to her, "Molly, there's trouble."
She said, "I know Trent. I just finished talking with my mother."
"So what are you going to do about this?"
"What can we do? We're still legally minors. And they are right; we can't support a baby. Keeping that child would be selfish. Maybe we should give them to a family that can better handle him."
"What? No! I am not giving my son away. My parents raised Julie when they were our age. We can do it too."
"Trent, I don't know."
"Molly, just trust me."
"But what do we do about your dad? I can convince my mom, but can you convince your dad?"
"Don't worry, I'll handle him."
--
Trey forced everyone to go where he instructed. Mac was forbidden to come out from behind the counter. Kyle, Mason, Shane, Angela, and Markko were all forced to sit on the floor.
Mason quietly asked Shane, "Do you know this guy?"
Shane replied, "That's the guy who killed my parents."
"What? You think he came back to get rid of you?"
"I don't know"
Kyle said to the two of them, "Keep quiet. Until we know what he wants, we'd best not anger him."
Angela decided that sitting on the floor waiting for Trey to make a move was getting her nowhere so she asked Trey, "So why are you here? You want money?"
Trey replied, "Maybe I do. I'm trying to think about what I want. Or maybe I just want to have a little fun. But don't worry Miss Waitress, I'm one of the good guys."
Trey quietly laughed as everyone in the restaurant did the only thing they were able to do, wait.
--
Theme Song
--
Danny stopped by the hospital after leaving school. He approached Dr. Pepper. When Dr. Pepper saw him he said, "Hey Danny, how was school?"
Danny replied, "It was school."
"I thought so. Well, if you want to wait a little bit longer, I get a break in about an hour or so. We can have dinner or something."
"Ok, I'll do my homework while I'm waiting."
"You'd better."
Dr. Pepper smiled as he returned to his work, leaving Danny in the lobby with his books.
--
Trey began to pace back and forth in the dinner. The fact that his gun was firmly in his hands prevented anybody from trying to escape.
Mason asked Angela, "So what do we do?"
Angela said, "If we try anything, he'll notice it and off us. We can't take chances. We just have to wait for him to make a mistake and then be ready when he does"
Kyle asked, "And what would you define as him making a mistake?"
She replied, "I haven't gotten that far yet."
"Terrific."
Mason said to them, "He's the guy who killed Shane's parents and tried twice to kill Shane. He's obviously not above killing people. The question is why he's doing this now, and here of all places."
Markko said, "Because he's obviously not calling the shots here."
Kyle asked him, "What do you mean by that?"
Markko said, "Come on, he just comes into a diner and takes everyone there hostage? Yet he doesn't demand money? He's obviously working for somebody. And he's waiting for further instructions."
Angela said to him, "Sounds like a plausible idea. But what do we do?"
Markko replied, "What can we do?"
The five continued to sit there, Mac stood quietly behind the counter, as Trey continued to pace back and forth. The only sound for the next few minutes was the clinking of the rain on the windows.
--
Chuck was doing paper work in his office when he got a call.
On the other end, Chuck heard a voice of somebody who appeared to be hurt say, "Help me. I need somebody to help me."
Chuck asked, "What? What happened? Who are you? Where are you?"
"I'm in the alley near the corner of Brook Road and Westwood Drive. Please, hurry."
The man then hung up the phone. Chuck quickly got up from his chair and headed to his car.
--
Richard watched his grandson peacefully sleep in the nursery. Suddenly, his cell-phone rang.
He answered it, "Yeah?"
On the other end was Mr. Carter, who said, "The jury is coming back."
"Already?"
"Yes, is that good?"
"I don't know. It all depends. But what it does mean is that they didn't have much time deciding on their verdict."
Richard hung up the phone and walked off.
--
Merry walked into the house. She gently shut the door behind her. She walked into the kitchen and ran her hand against the counter.
A single tear fell down her face and onto that counter. Merry quietly walked up the stairs.
--
Richard arrived at the courthouse and met Mr. Carter in the courtroom.
He said, "Sorry I wasn't here. I had something I needed to attend to."
Mr. Carter said, "Don't worry. I understand completely."
Judge Brown returned to the courtroom, as did the jury.
Judge Brown said to the foreman, "Have you reached a unanimous verdict?"
The foreman replied, "We have. On the charge of murder in the first degree, we the jury find the defendant, Grant Carter, not guilty. On the charge of murder in the second degree, we the jury find the defendant, not guilty."
After the foreman had finished reading the verdict, the judge dismissed the jury.
Mr. Carter turned to Richard and said, "Thank you Mr. Anderson."
Richard shook his hand and said, "It's nothing. But if you'll excuse me, I have some things to attend to."
"Don't let me keep you."
Richard quickly walked out of the courtroom.
--
Trent sat by Molly's bedside, both of them thinking of ways to avoid having to give their new son up for adoption.
Molly said, "Maybe we should just talk this through with them."
Trent replied, "There is no talking to my dad."
"Well, what else can we do? He can't force us to give the baby up."
"Theoretically he can't, but he can. He's still my legal guardian until I turn 18. He isn't going to let us move in together to raise our son. And he isn't going to let us juggle him between houses either. He has too much control over me. And I can't let you handle this kid on your own."
"But Trent, we can't provide for him."
"I know we can't. But he's here. We placed the order, now we have to deal with the consequences."
"We really have been asleep these past nine months haven't we?"
"Yeah, it hasn't sunk in fully until now that we're in charge of a living person."
"Trent, maybe it would be the right thing to give him up."
"No, we have each other. I've seen how Angela turned out. They can be bitter. We allowed him to be born, and we're going to raise him."
"Your dad isn't going to have that."
"Well he shouldn't have a say in the matter. I'm not his little boy anymore. He never cared about being a father to me all of these years until he feels it right to stop me from being a father. I'm not a kid. He shouldn't be able to control me."
"You're under 18. Legally he can."
"But this isn't his kid so it isn't his decision. That kid was made from my sperm and your egg. The semen carrying that sperm came out of MY penis; MINE. And it fertilized YOUR egg, YOURS. That makes this kid OURS, OUR kid, not his. And it is my decision to raise this kid. I know it won't be easy, but we'll do it. Because, if we let this chance slip away from us, we will regret it forever. My dad is this kid's grandfather; I am his father. And I won't let anybody, not even my dad, stop me from raising him."
"So what are you going to do?"
"I don't know, but I will think of something. And I'm sorry for putting you through this."
"Don't be sorry. I'm torn about what to do."
"Well, we did the deed, they have video to prove it. Now we have the kid. We could give him up. In fact, the smart thing to do would probably be to give him up. It's definitely the easier thing, giving him to parents who can give him things we can't. But we are his parents; we gave him life. We should be able to teach him and raise him. If my dad could do it, so can we. So I won't let him keep us from our child."
"Until you're 18, what can you do?"
Suddenly, Trent's eyes widened.
He said, "I think I have an idea."
"An idea? What is it?"
"Sit tight Molly."
Trent quickly ran out of her room, setting off to see if his idea would work.
--
Time passed slowly at the diner, everyone still stayed put, too afraid to make significant movements.
Mason asked quietly, "How much longer do we have to sit here like this?"
Kyle replied, "Until this guy lets us go I guess."
Shane said, "I'm scared. This guy is bad news. The fact that he hasn't attacked us yet makes me even more nervous."
Angela said, "He's up to something. I can feel it. I just have a bad feeling that we'll find out what he wants soon enough and we're going to wish we didn't."
Markko said, "So then what do we do?"
Before an answer could be given to that question, Trey's cell-phone rang.
--
Julie walked into the front door of the Anderson home. It was unusually quiet, the only audible sound being the sound of the rain against the window.
She called out, "Mason? Kyle? Anybody home?"
When there was no reply, she concluded that they had not gotten home yet. A few minutes upon walking into the door, Julie detected the faint sound of crying. It was coming from upstairs She slowly walked up the stairs. The farther up she got, the more audible the sound became.
Julie heard the sound coming from her dad's room. She walked into the room to see Merry on the floor in a corner, crying.
--
Trent was in Tommy's office.
Tommy asked him, "I can do this for you, but are you sure you want to do this? If we succeed in this, there is no turning back."
Trent replied, "I'm sure. Just go to him and tell him."
"Alright, but this isn't going to be tough on you, on the family really. I just hope you know what you're getting yourself into."
"I am fully aware of what will come from this. I regret that I have to go this far, but it has to be done."
"Well then, I guess I'd best be delivering this to your father then."
"Yeah, I guess so."
Tommy took some documents and walked out of his office. After a moment of contemplation, Trent too got up and walked out of the office.
--
Trey answered his cell-phone, "Now?"
The man on the other end said, "Yes, as soon as you hang up the phone, kill them all. NO exceptions. Do not leave that diner until each of them is a bloody corpse. You got it?"
Trey replied, "Crystal Clear Boss."
The boss replied, "Ok now, hang up the phone and do it."
Trey hung up the phone.
The man on the other end, Trey's boss, put his cell-phone away. It was Grant Carter, the man whom Richard had just gotten off on murder charges.
--
Trey immediately took out his gun and fired it. He immediately shot and killed Mac. Mason, Shane, Kyle, Markko, and Angela scattered almost immediately.
--
Mr. Carter walked into the hospital. He immediately saw Danny sitting in the lobby doing his work. As he saw the boy, he gave a sadistic smile.
He slowly walked up to the boy.
Danny sensed somebody walking towards him.
He looked over and saw Mr. Carter. His eyes widened as he beheld the man.
Mr. Carter said, "Long time no see, Danny."
Memories of his molestation and rape flooded Danny's head. He saw the face of his molester, the same face that stood before him now."
Danny quickly put down his books and ran further into the hospital. Mr. Carter chased after him.
Danny's heart pounded fast, as the man who mad molested him gained on him.
--
Chuck arrived at the location given to him. He got out of his car and stood in the rain for a second, looking around for signs of people." There was a dumpster a few yards away. Chuck saw a body lying next to it. He quickly ran towards the body. The body was of the man who had called him. It was covered in blood. Chuck felt for a pulse but there was none.
Chuck stood up. Coming towards him, he saw three men approaching him."
He asked, "Did you do this to him?"
One of them said, "And what if we did? What are you going to do about it coppy?"
The men quickly rushed Chuck and knocked him to the ground. Two of the men grabbed his arm as a third one repeatedly punched Chuck. The two men holding him slammed him hard against the dumpster.
Chuck didn't have any chance to retaliate.
The third man picked up a pipe and beat Chuck with it. Chuck was now bleeding heavily."
--
Julie walked closer to Merry. She sat down on the floor next to her.
Julie asked, "Merry? What is it? Is something wrong?"
Merry couldn't bring herself to say anything.
Julie said to her, "Merry, you can tell me."
Merry replied, "A few weeks ago, I found a lump in my breast. I went to the doctors and had some tests run. The results came back today, it's cancerous."
Julie gasped. "What? Cancer? Are they sure?"
Merry replied, "They're positive."
"Can they treat it?"
"They said they caught it early but I still need Chemotherapy."
"Does Dad know?"
"No, he doesn't, and I don't know how the hell I am supposed to tell him."
Julie embraced Merry and said to her, "Don't worry. I will be here for you through this all."
--
Richard stood outside the nursery watching his grandson sleep, when Tommy approached him.
Tommy said to him, "Hey Richard, can we go somewhere to talk?"
Richard replied, "Tommy, I don't have time for this now."
"Richard, let's go somewhere to talk. Unless you want to do this here, but I highly recommend we do this somewhere else."
"No, if it's that important, you'll tell me here."
Tommy took out a folder with papers and handed them to Richard.
He said, "Your son, Trent, he came to me today. He's hired me to help him become emancipated."
"WHAT?"
"Your son is fighting to be emancipated from you. And I'm the one who will be helping him do that. See you in court counselor."
--
In a hotel room, an older teenage boy and an older teenage girl were having passionate sex on a bed, their nude bodies covered by blankets. They gripped each other's hands tightly; each had a wedding ring on their finger, indicating their marriage to each other. Both of them became tense as they climaxed. After their strong orgasm ended, the male pulled his genitals out of the woman's. They both lay on the bed, breathing heavily.
The girl said to the boy, "You get better every time."
She smiled at him as he got up and walked to the window.
He stared out the window.
The girl looked seductively at the boy's naked backside. She walked next to him and lightly rubbed his rear end.
She said, "So what are you thinking about?"
He replied, "I've been thinking about going home."
She asked, "Home? Where is that? And why now?"
He replied, "It's us. I love what we have, and I want us to go back to my hometown, so we can be together there. There I'll build our life together."
She said to the boy, "I'll go wherever you go baby."
"Thank you, I hope you'll think of this town as highly as I do."
The woman walked back to the bed, leaving the boy to stare out the window. The boy was Nash Taylor.
--
Chuck had collapsed to the ground. He was bleeding heavily from his wounds. The three men dragged the dead body of the other man away, leaving Chuck alone.
--
Danny kept running, trying to get away from Mr. Carter. But Mr. Carter kept up a steady pace and remained close behind Danny.
Danny became short of breath but he couldn't bring himself to stop running. He feared that if he stopped running for a second, that Mr. Carter would catch him and do to him again what he had done to him when he was 10.
Danny saw Dr. Pepper going into a supply closet. He quickly called out, "DOC"
He followed Dr. Pepper into the supply closet.
Dr. Pepper asked, "Danny, what is it? What's the matter?"
Danny replied, "He's here, he's coming after me."
"He? He who?"
"HIM!"
Immediately Dr. Pepper realized whom Danny meant. Mr. Carter approached the supply closet.
Dr. Pepper grabbed a pair of scissors just as Mr. Carter came to the supply closet.
Dr. Pepper said, "Back off, I won't let you get anywhere near this child."
Mr. Carter asked, "Oh, and how exactly do you plan to stop me?"
Danny hid behind Dr. Pepper, who refused to back down against Mr. Carter.
--
Trey killing Mac sent everyone in the diner into a panic.
Markko stood with his back against the wall. Trey fired two bullets into the boy's chest, another into his head. They exited the other side. Markko was dead immediately. His corpse slowly sank to the floor, leaving a stain of blood on the wall. His eyes were wide open, showing the boy's final feeling of absolute terror.
Angela tried to flee to the kitchen. Trey turned to her and fired his gun. Angela dodged the bullet. Trey fired three more but each missed Angela. In the dodging of the last one, Angela fell back and hit her head on the counter. She passed out as she hit the floor.
Shane couldn't bear to see Trey kill any more people. He charged Trey, and tried to get the gun away from Trey.
He said, "I won't let you kill my friends."
Trey said to him, "You don't have a say in the matter you little bastard."
He shoved Shane back and took the butt of his gun and slammed it onto Shane's head, knocking the boy out. Shane collapsed to the ground, his wound bleeding.
Trey aimed his gun at Shane and prepared to fire. He pulled the trigger but quickly discovered that he was out of bullets.
Trey tossed his gun on the ground and took out the knife from its scabbard.
Mason saw that his best friend was about to be killed and he would have none of it.
He charged Trey and grabbed his arm. He bit down hard on it. Trey screamed in pain. He pushed the boy away.
Trey positioned the knife and prepared to stab Mason. Kyle quickly jumped up and threw himself in front of Mason. The knife pierced Kyle's left side, just an inch or two away from his navel. Blood shot out from the wound.
Kyle's memories flashed before his eyes. He remembered the fun times he had with Trent. He remembered finding Mason. He remembered the last Christmas, the one in which Mason had legally become his brother. He remembered his chance first meeting with Christa. Their meals at the dinner, their phone conversation, their first date, and Kyle dropping her off after their first official date. He remembered all the confused feeling he had after he met Christa. He remembered all of the trauma he felt from his childhood molestation. He remembered just the simple times he spent with Trent, with Christa, with Mason, with all of his friends. He remembered his dad's wedding to Merry. Finally, he remembered telling Christa, "I'd die without hesitation to protect the ones I love."
Kyle fell back, his vision becoming blurry. He collapsed to the ground. Mason caught Kyle. Mason's hand became bloody from Kyle's wound.
Kyle's world began to go black.
Mason's eyes began to fill with tears. He said to Kyle, "No, NO, Kyle, you can't die, you just can't."
Kyle had one last memory, the words he and his brother had spoken on the night of the last Christmas, Mason, "Kyle, I'm glad we're brothers now. It's everything I've ever hoped for."
Kyle replied, "I'm glad we're brothers too. I always wanted a little brother. Looks like now I've finally got one."
Kyle's eyes closed as that memory faded. His head fell back.
Mason did his best to plug the wound but there was a lot of blood still being lost.
Mason said to Kyle, "No, you can't die, brother, Noooo, don't go Kyle, don't go."
Trey Slyer, held the knife stained with Kyle's blood firmly in his hand. He walked closer to Mason, raised the knife, preparing to thrust it down and end the boy's life forever.
--
Tanner Bay
Thank you all for supporting me throughout this entire season. I hope you will continue to stick by me and this series in the seasons to come. Season 2 is on its way very shortly, so prepare yourselves for even greater things to come.