"Wow! I knew you had guts, but I didn't anticipate you being this reckless. Now, I absolutely have to take you in."
"Were you ever going to let us leave?" Carl asked.
"No... no, I wasn't. What I just said was a figure of speech. Don't dwell on it too much," Adam replied, his tone growing more serious as he asked, "Are you sure you don't want to surrender to me?"
"No, I can't."
"It could have been so much easier for both of us if you had just surrendered, you know," Adam said.
Carl began to sense that Adam wasn't deceiving him, and indeed, he felt a strong urge to just give in. It seemed like a far better option—one that would spare everyone from getting hurt. Right now, all he wanted was for this ordeal to end, to be granted a second chance. If surrendering meant there was even a sliver of possibility for that, it might be worth considering.
"So... if I surrender now, will he forgive us?" Carl asked, his voice teetering between doubt and a desperate hope.
"No," Adam answered bluntly, causing Carl's expression to darken.
"But it could be better for you. Who knows? The boss might even let you go after putting you through a bit of torture."
Carl wanted to laugh off his words, to dismiss them as ridiculous, but he was exhausted—both physically and emotionally. "If that's what he wants, then—" He was about to continue, but another voice suddenly cut through the tension.
"STOP!"
Both Carl and Adam turned toward the new voice and saw the real culprit stepping out of the car, advancing toward Carl. She called out, "Don't listen to anything he says, Carl. He's just lying to make it easier for him. There's no way your boss would ever forgive you."
Carl tried to reassure her, "Maybe he would, Carly. You haven't seen my boss... He's... The kid is a good person. He wouldn't kill someone so easily or be so ruthless... He has decency in him."
Carly, having been called out in such crude terms, didn't let it get to her. She had lived a life far different from most and had heard much worse than what Adam had just said. Carl, on the other hand, was incensed by the insult to her character. He snapped at Adam, "Don't you fucking talk about her like that. She is beautiful and amazing.
If you knew even a little about her, you'd understand how special she is and just how much she's truly worth."
"You want to lecture me about her worth?" Adam shot back. "Do you even know how many men she's slept with?"
Carl was disturbed but quickly retorted, "I don't, but—" He wasn't allowed to finish as Adam interrupted, "Do you know that she's even slept with... what's his name again... yes, Him. Hin He, I think."
Carl was stunned when he heard this and turned to Carly for confirmation. He got it as Carly looked away in shame. He wanted to scream at her, to curse her, but now was not the time. "So she did. It was something she had to do."
"Something she had to do almost every time they met?" Adam asked, and Carl was once again stunned, left at a loss for words.
He took a deep breath, trying to push down the anger that was boiling up inside him. "Yes, I get what you're saying... she's a whore... a bitch... someone whose worth isn't even a dollar."
Carly looked down in shame, while Adam smiled, thinking he was finally getting through to Carl. But both were wrong as Carl suddenly shouted, "AND I DON'T FUCKING CARE!"
"So what if she's like that? What if she's slept with a hundred guys, or even more? What does any of that matter? When you love someone, you love them for everything they are, for everything they've done, not for—"
Carl was cut off by a brutal kick to the face. He was sent flying into the car, hit it, and then tumbled across the street before coming to a halt.
"CARL!!!!!" Carly screamed as she rushed over to check on him, finding that he was only unconscious.
"Finally, that guy shuts up. I couldn't take another minute of his self-righteous rant. If only he could hear himself spouting such cringe-worthy nonsense," Adam muttered as he retrieved a sword from the car.
"So, are you coming with me willingly, or are you al—" He paused, noticing Carly was already running away. With a sigh, he quickly caught up to her, knocking her out with a swift chop to the neck. Carly collapsed to the ground like a lifeless doll.
"To think, you really betrayed us for this bitch."