“Get out of the car now!” I swung the metal slugger at the hood of the vehicle. There was a loud crunch. Underneath the street light, I could see the faces of the car’s owners who had foolishly dropped their keys on the sprint to their car. They had locked themselves in, and I knew I didn’t have the strength to pull them out of their seats. My hands were shaking, I could feel the cold sweat dribbling down the back of my neck. I needed to hurry.

Without taking my eyes off the two passengers in the car, I reached into my pocket and pulled out my lighter. “I will light this car on fire if you don’t get out! I don’t want to!” I had tears in my eyes but my voice didn’t waver. Destroying the car was the last thing I wanted to do, but if I had to in order to send a message, I would. I walked to the fuel tank and took the cap off, then held the lighter close to it. “You have five seconds!” The passengers’ eyes grew wide and I could see their hair drenched in sweat.

“Five!” Tears started falling down my face. I hadn’t killed anyone yet. Not innocent people at least.
“Four!” It wasn’t the time or place to think about things like their families or friends.
“Three!” I inched the lighter closer, worried it was going to catch if I got too quick too soon.
“Two!” I could barely speak. I heard a rustle in the bushes in front of the passengers house.
“One!” As I went to shove the lighter toward the gas tank, someone popped out of the bushes.

“Stop! Put the lighter down!” He pointed a gun at me. “I need the keys to this car and I can’t let you set it on fire.” I dropped the lighter to the ground, my lighter hand uncontrollable at this point. I tightened my shaky grasp on the baseball bat.

“They won’t get out of the car.” I struggled to say. The man walked over to the person on the driver’s side, waved at the guy through the window, then shot the gun through it. I jumped from the noise but quickly swung my bat at the man with a gun. I hit him in the back of the head, and he passed out. The guy in the car had fainted and the girl passenger was screaming bloody murder. I opened the driver’s side door and pulled the guy out, leaving him on the ground. I leaned over to the woman and held the random man’s gun to her face. “I need you to shut the fuck up before they find us. Can you do that? Can you shut the fuck up?” She was still blubbering. I shoved the gun in her mouth. “I said shut the fuck up.” She nodded slowly. I pulled the gun out. “Now get out of the fucking car.” She scrambled for the door handle, got out, and ran over to the guy who had been in the car. I stayed in the driver’s seat for a minute. I wasn’t thinking clearly. I got out and checked the body of the man who had the gun to see if he had more weapons. He didn’t. The other two scampered back into their house.

I popped the trunk of my new car, threw a bunch of the junk in the back into the street, and hefted the man into the trunk.

Now that I had a car, I had business to attend to. I had to get my dog.