The sharp pain stabbing me in the back makes me fall over, my muscles failing on me. I turn around to witness Arthur, the man I thought would’ve bled out by now, standing in the doorway with a gun aimed right at my face.
“Phoenix!” Vanessa cries, turning me over as I cough up blood.
Goddammit, I think he shot me in the lungs.
“Aww, is your boyfriend hurt?” Arthur muses.
“Arthur?” Vanessa looks up at him. “You’re alive.”
“Of course, I’m alive. How else would I be standing here?” He laughs mockingly. “You, on the other hand, shouldn’t be.”
“How are you still alive?” I say with a croaky voice.
“How? Well, after your failed attempt to kill me, I managed to get to a hospital. Had to drag myself all the way to the gate on the other side of the property just to get out. Damn, that wasn’t pretty,” he muses, frowning.
“Gate?” I murmur.
“Oh, you didn’t know there was another entry? Tsk. You should’ve done more research,” Arthur muses. “How else did you think I came in here?”
“But the doors … all locked,” I mutter.
“No, you forgot about the one in the basement, hidden behind all the boxes.”
“Fuck …” I mutter, the pain making adrenaline rush through my body.
“You didn’t think I’d survive, did you? Should’ve killed me when you had the chance,” Arthur jests. “Now I’m alive and well. Got the doctors at the hospital to thank for that. Of course, I couldn’t explain to the cops how I was shot, seeing as I was the one who hired you to kill her. All the traces would lead back to me. Couldn’t have that, nope. But I’m back now, and I’m ready to kill you both,” he says.
“Why did you shoot him?” Vanessa yells, grabbing me and pulling me closer. “He has nothing to do with your anger against me!”
“Because he was in the goddamn way,” Arthur says. “Plus, I’m a little mad here, if you can’t tell.” He looks at me now. “I fucking hired you to kill her, and what do you do?”
She frowns. “So, it’s true.”
“Yes, honey, it’s true,” Arthur says, swaying his gun like it’s some kind of toy. “I wanted you dead.”
“Why?” she says, tears staining her eyes. “What did I ever do to you?”
He smiles. “You think you don’t deserve it? After everything you did to my family?” He steps closer, still keeping his gun pointed at us, ready to fire. “You took my mother from me. My brother. And now my chance to get my family’s fortune.”
“What? That’s what you were after?”
He shakes his head, laughing. “Oh, Vanessa. You didn’t really think I loved you, did you? I was only with you so I could gain access to the money you stole when you married my brother.”
“It wasn’t your money to begin with,” she hisses.
“My brother always got what he wanted,” he growls. “He never earned it. He didn’t even deserve it.”
“Oh, and you do? By planning to have me killed?”
“I worked hard; I took over his business, the business my father should have left me, instead of that half-wit brother of mine.”
She makes a face. “You’re a two-faced liar.”
He cocks his head. “So are you, honey, but nobody complains about that.”
“I do,” I cough, and I immediately cringe from the pain.
“What are you doing here?” Vanessa asks. “Haven’t you hurt me enough?”
“No, as a matter of fact, I haven’t. You just couldn’t drop dead, could you? No matter how hard I tried to push you away so you’d go kill yourself, you just wouldn’t, and then I had to resort to hiring someone to do the job and even they can’t do it. So now I’m here to finish the job.”
He raises his gun. “No, stop!” I yell. “Don’t fucking kill her.”
“Jesus Christ, you’re a pathetic hitman, you know that? Falling for the victim? Really?”
“I’m not the victim, you are,” Vanessa yells, and she reaches for her gun lying on the floor.
He fires a shot at the ground, making her jolt up and squeal. Her fingers almost were blown off.
“Uh-uh, Vanessa. That’s not how this is going to work. Kick it over here,” he says. “Give it to me.”
The sirens outside are booming, and the slot is being fiddled with. I’m guessing the cops are trying to break in to see what’s going on after her desperate call. It’ll only take a few minutes for them to come bursting into the hallway with their rifles and arrest us.
But we won’t make it out alive before that time. Not as long as Arthur is here.
Whatever happens, I will not let her die.
There’s only one thing left to do.
Vanessa and I exchange glances, and it’s all we need to determine what to do. We’re going to die anyway, better go out with a bang.
I reach into my pocket when his eyes are focused on Vanessa, and I take out a small pocket knife. As I attempt to throw it at his leg, he notices me, and points his gun at me.
“Fuck no,” he growls.
And then he shoots as I throw.
“No!” Vanessa’s scream goes through marrow and bone. It’s so full of sorrow, that I know for sure she really loved me, even in the end.
The shot hits me in the chest, but Arthur sinks to his knees.
Vanessa focuses her attention on me. “Don’t die, don’t die!”
“I won’t,” I lie. “Do it now,” I say, gurgling up blood. “Save yourself.”
Vanessa immediately reaches for the gun and picks it up while he’s trying to scramble up.
“I’m not fucking going down like this,” Arthur growls. “Not by your hand.”
“Say hi to your brother in hell!” she screams.
Shots are fired, but I only catch half of the ruckus.
The bangs are loud, but the pain in my chest and back are overtaking my body. Blurring my vision, the sirens cloud my hearing.
All I see is Arthur sinking to his knees. His body flops to the floor like a bag of sand.
And then Vanessa slowly drops to her knees beside me.
First, she sighs.
And then her head slams to the ground.
Blood pools underneath her.
I turn around and try to reach for her. She feels so far away, and yet so close I can almost touch her. Her sparkling eyes look at mine as our heads turn toward each other, our faces and clothes covered in blood. My body is leaking blood like a faucet, but all I can think of his her beautiful face and her wretched soul. All mine. I won’t share her. Not even her death.
“I love you,” I whisper, but I don’t think she can hear me.
She mouths back the same words.
Her fingertips reach out toward me, and for a second they graze mine, setting a fire in my heart that can never be extinguished.
No matter if we die, our spark will always live on and on.
