Thrust Into His Arms

I quietly lean against the car and bring out my lighter and cigarette to use as an outlet for my jumbled thoughts. I am sorry Rex.

But anything at all is fair in war.

Nothing matters as long as one wins. I say within myself as I watch him slowly approach. But then his car later stops, no longer moving back or forward. A group of us immediately sprint towards it. On getting closer, we see smoke enveloping the car.

I hurriedly run faster than the others because I know that he has asthma and the smoke is way more dangerous for him than others. Reaching it, I see him passed out inside. The door would not open, I break the window glass with my elbow and unlocked it from inside. Curtis quickly starts checking for a pulse as we got him out and laid flat him on the ground because he understands a little medical stuff as his parents operate one of the private largest hospital facilities in the country.

"He is still alive! He is passed out from asphyxiation and toxic smoke inhalation. Has somebody called 911?!" He yells out. Him, me, Lucas and Dom are especially in a state of deep panic as well are all aware of him having asthma.

"We can’t call them here. It would get all our asses busted." Tino disproves. "Even if we do that, it would take a good while before they get here. It will be better if he just taken there instead."

"You’re right. Let’s move him, hurry!" I urge, me and Lucas move Rex into the backseat of a jeep that we don’t even know who owns. Picking it because it was quite spacious. We got Rex to the nearest hospital that we could find and rushed him in.

We instantly cooked up a story on the spot about how we came home from an outing and found him collapsed on the kitchen floor, and there was a leaking pipe. The doctor immediately bought that and did not ask further questions and started to commence treatment on him and barking out orders to his nurses. We had initially been worried that they might not be

equipped to handle Rex’s condition as it is a small clinic. But fortunately they seem to be able to handle it. We are sitting in the lobby chair outside the ward, waiting for the doctor and nurses to finish attending to him. Just then we hear Lucas shriek wildly on the phone call that he is on. "WHAT? How did that happen?" The three of us glance questionably at each other, collectively curious as so what could be wrong. "That was Tino." He starts explaining as soon as he hangs up. "He said that Rex’s car caught on fire." He announces the bad information.

"What?" We all shout chorusly. I particularly was more shocked but tried not to let it show as much.

My mind immediately spiraling thinking about what would have happened if we had not quickly get Rex out. "Luckily no one had been close to it at the time it went off. Otherwise it would have been a really big trouble."

Confusion settles in, "How could the car go up in flames? It was fine when I inspected it right before the race." Lucas asks more to himself than to the rest of us. I see Dom glancing at me in my peripheral. "Could it have been an engine problem that you didn’t pick up on or you didn’t think would be bad?"

"I don’t know. Perhaps." Lucas guiltily responds, rubbing his hands on his head.

"I was high when I inspected it. It is my fault.

If anything had happened to Rex, it would have been on me."

"Well nothing terrible happened, fortunately. So it might not be your fault." I console. If he only he knows that is the real truth. The engine overheated to cause that explosion because he had pushed it too much. The guilt of that hits me. He really did want to win, but he could’ve been dead by now because of my decision to unfairly win and it would not have been worth it at all.

"I need some air."

I let them know before stepping out. The air may be cold or warm, but I don’t feel a thing.

The guilty thoughts grow and overwhelm me before it eventually starts to cool down. And I started to see the bright side to what would have been a horrific situation. It is good that the car burned down. At least there should be no clear evidence left of what I did. Rex might have been suspiciously aware of it during the race.

There is no way he wouldn’t be. I had that settled too. The plan was for Dom to quickly change it after the race.

Now that would not be necessary. It all turned out great even with the close casualties. He can’t argue it even if he wants to without evidence.

All that is left now is going way over my head to pull strings to meet up with my end of the deal with Dom. I have gotten what I wanted, and that is all that matters even amidst the close calls and the guilt. I go back in to meet them now inside the ward. Rex is on the hospital bed, motionless with an oxygen mask on.

"The doctor said that his condition is now stabilized. But he needs to be closely monitored."

"Phew! That was a really close call." Dom exhales. I glance at him subtly before looking back to Rex. "What is that?" I ask when I hear something like a phone ringing out of nowhere. Curtis holds up the ringing phone. "It’s her again." He says. "She has been calling and texting him non-stop. I don’t want to answer but can’t she just take a hint?"

He faces the phone for us to see. I caught her contact name. A capital letter G with a series of emojis. Lucas says that one of us should pick up and let her know that he is unavailable. But I object the idea.

"No. Just turn it off. He can call her when he He wakes up." We all go silent for a while before Lucas speaks, "I guess she is yours now since you won. What do you plan to do with her?" I smirk inwardly.

I start to think how I am going to make her pay for what she did. Maybe I should fuck her in front of them to celebrate her being mine.