Rescue Me

Part 2

“Bloody hell.” Jesse pulled out his phone and dialled triple zero. Giving his name and the address of the shop along with a brief description of what was occurring Jesse hung up. But even after making the call he didn’t feel any better about the situation. He knew help would be at least a couple of minutes arriving and given that whatever the guy was on was likely to make him unpredictable, that may be too long. He could hear the woman trying to reason with the guy now, her voice tremulous as the man just continued to get more and more agitated. “Bloody hell, why do people do that?” he asked himself angrily and not for the first time. “Just give him what he wants for Christ sake.” Listening for another second he decided he couldn’t wait any more. He couldn’t leave her in there by herself any longer, so hurriedly devising a plan of action, he stepped back into the middle of the footpath.

Jesse strode past the window, and without pause, entered the shop. Moving fast he managed to nearly reach the counter before the man span around to confront him. Jesse put his hands up in front of him and feigned surprise as the blade of the knife, now pointed at him, glinted in the bright overhead lights. “Whoa mate, I don’t want any trouble. I’m just here to pick up my girl friend.”

Jesse could hear the woman’s accelerated breathing. He knew she was frightened but he couldn’t take his eyes off the guy to reassure her.

“Yeah well your girlfriend isn’t going to be much to look at if she doesn’t do what I say” the man sneered.

“Okay, just relax.” Jesse slowly moved closer to the woman as he spoke. He’d like to put himself between her and the knife, but he didn’t want to agitate the guy further, so just moved when he could.

“Stop bloody moving” the man yelled.