"Nick get out!!" Autumn screamed at the top of her lungs. She had ran from the living room and was trying to push Nick out of the door but Richard backhanded her without taking his eyes off of Nick. She stumbled backwards and placed her hand over her cheek.

"Take whatever you want to, but please get out of the house," Nick begged. Richard brought a hand to his mustache and cocked his head to the side, as if contemplating what to do.

"Nah. I'd rather do something else," he said with a laugh. He reached behind him and pulled out a gun. "Now, I think you two would want to cooperate, wouldn't you say?" He sneered, walking Nick and Autumn backwards until their backs met with the kitchen wall.

"You'll never get away with this," Nick hissed at him.

"I did it once and I could easily do it again. Except this time it may be a little tricky. We're talking about double homicide here." He walked in circles in the kitchen until he stopped right in front of Nick.

"You were a good guy, Nick. Everyone loved you. Your mom, your dad, your family..." Richard trailed off. "They'll be sad to see you go. But don't worry. They'll get over it."

Nick stared him stone cold in the eye and almost flinched visibly at the thought of leaving his family. On the outside Nick was trying to be as brave as he could possibly be, but on the inside he was screaming and praying that they would be saved soon, and fast.

As Nick struggled to remain calm, Richard saw the perfect opportunity to make Nick more vulnerable than he already was.

"Please leave us alone," Nick whispered before Richard punched Nick hard in the gut. Nick doubled over in pain and gasped for air, but Richard punched him again in the jaw and then in his nose.

Blood spurted out like a fountain out of Nick's nose and landed on his lips and chin before falling onto the white carpet. Autumn froze at the sight of her boyfriend being beaten almost to his death.

"Stop!" Autumn cried. Richard didn't listen, he just kept kicking and beating Nick, who was now in a fetal position on the floor. Her cries were so loud that she knew Richard heard her.

In a quick movement, she grabbed Nick's gun that Nick had placed on the table and pointed it at Richard.

"Stop it or I'll shoot!" She screamed, not feeling an ounce of doubt in her heart or her mind. Richard stopped what he was doing and looked at her.

"Put that down, sweetie. You don't know what you're doing," he said, inching closer and closer to her.

"I'll shoot!!!" She threatened. Richard just laughed at her.

Nick tried to open his eyes, but the pain and pressure was just too much. He could make out little bits and pieces of what was going on around him, but it was all too foggy and muffled for him to understand it.

"I'll shoot!!!" he heard Autumn scream. My gun! She has my gun, he thought to himself. But..

"No....bullets..." Nick wheezed out, blood dropping from his open mouth and onto the carpet. Richard reached for the gun and Autumn pulled the trigger repeatedly but Richard threw it out of her hands.

"Looks like your plan went down the drain," Richard said, "and soon you will too." He heaved Autumn over his shoulders and brought her upstairs and threw her onto the nearest bed.

"No!!" she screamed, kicking and flailing her arms and legs in an attempt to get her off of him.

"Shut up!" he barked, but then he stopped. He grabbed her one more time, walked down the stairs and threw her onto the couch in the living room.

"Get up!!" He growled at Nick, picking him up by the back of his shirt and leaning him against the wall.

Nick had no strength left in him, and was about to accept that this was how we was going to die. He never pictured himself getting beaten to death. But when he heard Autumn's screams for him, he realized that he couldn't go. He couldn't leave her, not now; not ever.

"Watch, you fucking asshole!" He bellowed, punching Nick in the face with the gun that he held in his hands. "Watch!!" Richard walked over to Autumn and pushed her forcefully onto the couch.

"She screamed exactly the same way last time, Nick. But let me tell ya, it was good. But you'll never know," Richard cackled as he lowered his lips to Autumn's.

"I want you to watch as I ravage her again...and again...and again." He told Nick as he steadied her as she squirmed beneath him.

Nick turned away in disgust as he watched his girlfriend and Richard. Deep inside of him he knew he had the strength to go and stop them, but he couldn't find it. Her screams echoed throughout the house as Richard became one step closer each second to violating her body once more.

Nick didn't even realize that he was on his feet again until the room began to spin violently. Just keep going, he urged himself. Five more steps. Possibly four.

"Nick!!!" Autumn screamed as Richard ripped her shirt in half and threw it over his shoulder. Nick caught it and threw it down onto the floor, but also grabbed the vase that was on the coffee table and hurled it over Richard's head.

"Fuck!" Richard yelled, climbing off of Autumn and looking up at Nick. "I'm gonna kill you. Fucking kill you!" He yelled as he took the gun and aimed it right at Nick's bleeding face.

Nick ignored the blood that dripped from his nose and oozed from his mouth and took a glance at Autumn. She was curled into a ball on the couch, shaking in fear and nervousness.

"Go down to the fucking basement!" boomed Richard, placing the gun on the back of Nick's head. Autumn's eyes widened as she realized what Richard can do with that gun.

"Don't go!" She hollered at Nick, but he only looked back at her with his eyes that were swollen, almost shut.

"I love you," he said before Richard led the way to the basement.

*~*

The basement wasn't finished yet, making the room cold and dreary as Nick followed Richard's orders. His body was so sore, bruises and cuts appeared everywhere where the eye could see, and damage was possibly done on the inside, too.

"Hands on the back of your head, get down on your knees!" He yelled, pushing on Nick's back with his foot. Nick yelped in pain as he landed with a thud on the cold floor.

"I had nothing against you Nick until you came into my office like a lunatic. I wanted Autumn's money because she has her daddy's money, and then I realized something. You have money too! So, I doubled it. Kill you, Kill your girlfriend, get twice the money. Sounds like a plan?" Richard said.

"Sounds...great..." Nick struggled to talk. He glanced up and saw Richard staring at him.

"I'll be right back, Nick. I have to tend to Autumn." He walked up the steps and to the door. "One more thing," he said. "Nighty night." With that, he pulled the trigger and smiled.

*~*

Autumn's world nearly stopped when she heard the gunshot echo throughout the night. When the police arrived a few minutes prior to the gunshot, she thought that it was all over and that Nick would be ok. But her world came crashing down as she sat inside the police car with a blanket wrapped around her.

"Nick! Omigod, save him! Somebody!" She sobbed. She banged her fists on the glass inside the car and an officer gave her a side long glance before looking back into the house.

Her sobs increased as she heard the sounds of thousands after thousands of gunshots that the police inside the house had fired. After her relentless banging, one officer opened the door for her so she could get out.

"Nick!!" She screamed.

*~*

It was silent for the next five minutes until two officers came out of the house, indicating he needed one stretcher and one body bag.

"Oh god no. Please no," she sobbed as the men carried out the body in a long black bag that zipped to the top. She threw the blankets off of her body and started to run for the house but an officer stopped her.

"You cannot go in there, miss!" He yelled.

"I have to see Nick! Where is Nick!" she cried loudly and violently, her cries radiating into the house. The paramedics emerged from the house a few minutes later, pushing a stretcher down the steps and down the driver.

Autumn ran up to meet them and her eyes filled with happy tears.

A bandage covered his left shoulder where the bullet had been, and his face was cleaned up a bit. His mouth and nose were covered with an oxygen tank, but when his weak eyes landed on Autumn he reached for her hand and grabbed it with his own, and the two of them climbed into the ambulance.

Autumn thanked her lucky stars that Nick was alive, and Richard was the one inside the body bag. Their nightmare was over, and she thought that this could only bring her and Nick closer together than before. Nick had regained enough strength to mumble a few words during the ride to the hospital and squeezed her hand the whole time.

Once they arrived at the ER, they whizzed Nick into the hospital and stopped Autumn.

"I'm sorry miss. Only family allowed beyond this point."

"She's...my...fiancee," Nick managed to spit out before breathing deeply. Autumn smiled and took his hand.

"And he's mine."