"That one's beautiful." A voice suddenly said, snapping me out of my day dream. I glanced cluelessly around the room. My mind was trying so hard to convince me that I was at a beach in Hawaii that I had forgotten were I really was. But the classy environment and stuck-up people reminded me that I was in the most pretentious jewelry store in LA, working my shitty day job.

I blinked, then remembered the voice. My vision fell upon the guy who must've said it. He stood in front of me, glancing down into the glass case filled with jewelry.

Something about this guy made him stand out from everyone else in here. He was tall, well over six feet, and his rather skinny frame was dressed in a black suit and tie. He had short, dark, curly hair. His eyes tore themselves away from whatever he was studying and worked their way up to meet mine.

I flinched, and realized he was waiting for my response. I starred at him mindlessly and asked like the genius I am, "Heh?"

A smile spread across the man's face. He motioned to something in the case the stood between us. "That necklace, it's beautiful. Can I see it?" he voice was quiet, but powerful.

I nodded, slid open the glass and handed it to him. He observed to jewels on it rather intently, but then he looked at me again. I was unaware of the fact that I was still starring at him. "That's uh, thirteen carats. " I lied, and continued to babble on about something I knew nothing about. "Anything more pure then that will be uncomfortable to wear. The diamonds would be too heavy."

"Really?" he asked. If anyone else had said it then I would've tagged the remark as sarcastic. But this man didn't strike me as you 'average Joe'. Something about him really intrigued me.

"Yea…" I trailed off. "And it's at a fair price, too. The cheapest around." It really wasn't, but that's just business. The items here are actually ridiculously overpriced.

He smiled at me again, "Trust me, sweetheart, money isn't a problem."

The edges of my lips tugged up into a small grin. He called me sweetheart… "I'm sure that you're wife would be very happy with it." I pressed lamely and held my breath.

A light chuckle escaped him, he didn't seem to notice my ineptness. "I'm not married."

"Oh… Then your girlfriend?"

"There's no girlfriend."

I soaked in his appearance again and asked quietly, "…Your boyfriend?"

His light chuckle turned into a charming laugh. His green eyes seemed to shine. "No, I'm single… And straight."

I looked down at my shoes. I felt like melting into the floor.

But for some reason he didn't look offended. He just stood across from me, necklace still in his hand, and a half smile on his face.

A loud, booming noise suddenly filled the air. But it sounded muffled – like it was in the next room. The vault room…with all of the uncut diamonds. It sounded like a gunshot. Oh shit. I was warned something like this could happen when I took this job.

The customers all started to panic. I looked up at the man I was talking to, but he had journeyed to the middle of the store with another man in a tux. What the fuck is going on?!

Another far off gunshot echoed through the room, and people started to scream.

"Everybody down!" The man I was talking to yelled. He pulled out a handgun from his waistband, as did the other man he was with, and fired a bullet at the ceiling.

All of the scrambling people did what he instructed and dropped to the ground, including me. I felt sick.

"Stay calm." He continued. "Nobody moves, nobody gets hurt."

I laid on my stomach, facing another employee. I could see the panic in her eyes, as I'm sure she could see it in mine. But then she did something I would never even dream of doing. The hero inside of her rose to the surface, and she started to slowly crawl towards the button on the floor that sets off the alarm and contacts the police.

The man I was talking to noticed this, and aimed his gun at her. "I will put fucking lead thru you if you move any closer." He threatened. His sweet, quiet voice had been replaced with one of a murderer.

But despite of his threat, she continued to slowly crawl to the button.

"If you make one more move, it'll be your last." He threatened again, venom in his voice.

I wanted to call out to her, scream at her to stop. But I couldn't. I just laid there like the coward I am. All I could do was watch helplessly.

She said something under her breath – it was too quiet for me to hear. With a steady hand, she reached up and pressed the button. The ear-wrecking alarm echoed through the store.

Not a second later did the man pull the trigger, sending a bullet straight into her chest. She laid on the floor, bleeding out onto the plush carpet.

Everybody in the store suddenly went insane after that. The customers screamed and tried to escape, but I heard more shots being fired. I still remained on the floor.

I just laid there as bodies started to fall all around me, and two other men in suits appeared from out of the back room.

The bullets didn't stop flying, and the blood didn't stop pooling out. My stomach tightened. This has all happened too quickly for my mind to comprehend. I buried my face in my hands and tried to block out the sight of death. I could hear police barging through the front door, and more shots were fired. All I could hear was screams of terror and the aneurysm-giving alarm.

It was too much for me to take. I squeezed my eyes closed and tried to grasp my sanity. The last thing I remember was slowly fading off to a beach in Hawaii…

Part 2/2

My eyes slowly brought themselves to open and the brightness of the sun practically blinded me. I moaned quietly. My head hurt like a bitch. What the hell happened back there?

My vision eventually adjusted to the light and I soaked in my surroundings. It appeared that I was in the passenger seat of a car, and it was driving quite fast down a road. My body suddenly tensed.

I was tied to the seat; my wrists were knotted in rope behind the back of the seat. I glanced to my left and found myself looking at the man in the suit. The man I was talking to back at the store. The man who went insane and killed all of those innocent people.

He glanced over at me with a soda in his hand and smiled, "Well, well. Look who finally came to."

Fear coursed throughout my veins. I was too afraid to scream in his face, or even try to free myself. I just sat there, starring at the road that stretched ahead.

"I got some food." He continued when I didn't respond. He motioned to the Taco Bell bag next to my feet. He certainly had a lot of nerves to get fast food with a hostage tied to his seat. "Are you hungry?"

The very thought of eating made my stomach turn. After seeing all of that blood being spilled, the very aromas the food gave off made me want to puke.

I didn't take my eyes off of the road. But I couldn't help but wonder, after he killed all of those people, how can he just sit there and calmly drink a soda?

"What…are you going to do with me?" I managed to choke out in my fear.

He laughed a little. But it wasn't sweet like before, it was menacing and it made my skin crawl.

"I'm not too sure yet." He responded, taking another sip of soda. He took his eyes off of the road to momentarily smirk at me. "What would you like me to do with you?"

"You're a monster." I spit out. Anger was rapidly taking over my fear.

He looked offended. "Hey now, don't be like that. Just a few minutes ago you were trying to pick me up."

"A lot happened in those few minutes." I said bitterly. The ropes around my writs started to sting and I fidgeted nervously. They were cutting off my circulation and I wiggled my fingers to make sure that I still could.

"Stop moving so much." He commented, noticing what I was doing. "I you keep squirming like that then the ropes will cut you."

I took a deep breath and banged the back of my head against the seat. I squeezed my eyes closed and tried to grab a piece of sanity. I didn't try to 'pick up' a guy who helped rob the store that I was working at. I didn't see him murder my customers and employees, some of which were my friends. The murder didn't kidnap me. And I wasn't tied to the seat in his car.

"Why?" was all I managed to ask.

"Why what?" he questioned seriously, as if he didn't already know.

I couldn't even bring myself to respond. I was afraid. "Fuck." Was all I could spew out.

Tears filled my eyes, and they rolled messily down my face.

He slowed the car down a bit; we had probably lost the cops by now. "Stop crying." He said. It wasn't caring, but it wasn't stern. He just simply stated it.

But I didn't stop, I couldn't stop. What's the point? I'm gonna be dead soon anyway.

He looked over at me, and sighed. He put his soda in the cup holder and ran a hand through his hair. "I'm Vic. Vic Vega." He introduced himself like he was apologizing.

I swallowed hard and said faintly, "I don't wanna die, Vic."

He sighed again. It was more drawn out this time. "Well nobody wants to die, kid… What did you say your name was?"

"I didn't." I snapped.

"Hey, I have the gun, sweetheart." He threatened, my stomach tightened. "Now how about that name?"

He called me sweetheart again. But unlike the first time I wasn't affected by it.

The ropes seemed to close tighter around my wrists and I moved them uncomfortably. I could feel a hot, sticky liquid run down my fingertips. The ropes had sliced open my skin. But despite the blood that was dripping out of me I responded, "My name is Holly."

A smile spread across Vic's face. "Good. Was that so bad?" his eyes caught sight of my bleeding wrists, but he didn't say anything. "Holly… I just got out of prison. Back there, in the store, there was something about you I really liked. I've missed it, Holly. I've missed the way a woman tastes, the way a woman feels…" his eyes were trained on the road, but he reached over to place his hand on my knee.

My heart flip-flopped from inside my chest as it gradually rose up my leg.

My blood boiled. I couldn't swat his hand away so I just spat at him. "You disgust me." I slurred.

All Vic did was chuckle. He wasn't mad, he was amused. "I knew I like you for a reason." He said as he took his hand off of me. He brought his hand up to his lips and licked the spit off of it.

I slouched deeper into my seat.

An extremely painful moment of silence spread between us, before he began to talk again. "I didn't mean to kill all of those people. But that lady pulled the alarm. If she hadn't done what I told her not to do, she'd still be alive… I don't like alarms, Holly."

I was staring to loose the feeling in my fingers. All of this blood loss is making me feel faint.

"…Please don't kill me, Vic." I begged, tears starting to form again. "I'll do whatever you want, just, please, don't kill me."

"Whatever I want, huh?" he repeated, obviously thinking his choices over. "That soda tasted like shit. Let's go get a cup of coffee."

I was beyond shocked. This man kidnaps me and ties me to the seat in his car just so he can get a cup of coffee with me? All I managed to do was nod and say, "Yea… I could use some coffee."

"Oh, and here." Vic reached into his pocket and pulled out the necklace he was looking at in the store. He tossed it on my lap and grinned to the open road ahead of us.

I just sat there – bleeding, near passing out, with a thousand dollar diamond necklace and a convict next to me. I couldn't help it. I opened my mouth and laughed as hard as I could.

I would seriously never trade today for that beach in Hawaii.