Chapter 25 - Diana
I can’t take my eyes off Barry. He’s pacing, muttering under his breath. He’s fired the gun three times now, screaming that Ashley’s lying. She’s crying so hard, but she isn’t the only one. Most of the women here are. Hormones or not, this place is falling apart in tears.
I chance a glance behind me and see that Ruby is still there with the prospect. Neither has moved since they came in. Either blocking the exit or making sure no one comes in, I don’t know. I honestly don’t care. I just want them gone.
Seeing Ruby here makes me think of Karter.
Knowing how happy he was the other night at dinner about being a granddad and possibly getting to relearn about his relationship with his kid?
It was everything to him. I could see it, even if he hasn’t admitted to himself yet.
He wants to be there for Ruby. He wants to be part of her life.
There’s something inside him that recognizes her.
His brain might not have the memory, but his heart remembers.
And it’s his heart that I plan to protect as long as I can. Getting them out seems the best way to guarantee that.
I lick my lips and look around the room. No one is talking. They’re hardly breathing, just quick gasps between tears. No one is running in here to help, and no one seems to know what to do.
“Barry,” I say, but he doesn’t answer. Ashley shakes her head when I glance at her, and I look away. I can’t think about her either right now.
I take a step forward, and someone grabs my hand from behind. I know it’s Ruby. She’s trying to warn me not to do this, too, but I shake her off as I walk closer.
“Barry,” I say again, louder this time so he can hear me over his own mutterings.
He raises his gun right at me, and I put my hands up as my heart slows to a single beat. “What?” He seems so calm as he looks down at me from the other end of the gun. So steady and sure and not at all like himself.
“What are you doing, Barry?” His jaw clicks, but no other reaction. “Are you really holding your wife and everyone else hostage?”
He looks around, and something flickers in his eyes. Did he even see the others when he came in, or was he too focused on Ashley to notice anyone else?
I take another small step forward and lower my voice. “They’re scared, Barry. You’re scaring them. This can’t be good for the babies.”
He keeps looking around till I say the b-word; then his eyes flash to mine and narrow. “Not my babies. Not my kids.”
I can’t help but look at Ashley, who just shakes her head in complete confusion.
“What are you saying, Barry?” she sobs. “You don’t want to have kids anymore? You don’t want them?”
He whirls on his heel and points the gun back at her, screaming as he gets closer. “I want kids. My! Kids! Not someone else’s you whored yourself out to.”
“I didn’t. I would never. You’re the only one I’ve ever been with.”
“Liar.” He hits her with the back of the hand that’s holding the gun.
She falls, crying out in pain and shock, just like me. My hand covers my mouth at the sight of him hitting her, surprised he would ever do that. That a man so devoted to his wife at the beginning would turn into this… this… monster before us.
“I never lied,” she insists, holding her cheek.
He leans down and spits when he talks above her.
“Then who was the lingerie for, huh, Ashley? Who the fuck was that for? You never wore that shit for me. You’ve been acting off since you got knocked up.
Bet you didn’t expect to get pregnant with your side piece.
Probably thought you were safe to just pass it along to me.
But I know. I know!” he yells so loud that Ashley covers her ears and I wince.
He pounds his chest before he walks a few steps away.
“The boys at the firehouse told me there’s no way you were that pretty and never got a dick wet before me. Guess what, whore? I’ve been cheating too. You aren’t the only one with a side piece. What do you think about that, you dirty slut?”
His words have her folding over in tears as he stands before her, breathing hard. His declaration doesn’t put a smile on his face. Just pain. Pain at what he sees he caused with her or with himself, I can’t tell.
“You bastard.”
I snap my eyes toward Ruby, shaking my head to make her stop before she even gets started.
But he heard. Either the words or her tone broke through to him. He slowly turns his head to her, and from the look in his eyes, it’s clear he’s left the building. There’s nothing left of the Barry I know in that look. There’s only psychotic darkness behind those eyes.
“What did you call me, bitch?”
“You heard me. You’re a bastard. What? You had too many drinks one night and fucked some trash, then felt guilty about it the next day or some shit?
Came home to a pregnant wife and blamed her for your shortcomings?
Got wrapped up in the idea that if you did it, she must have too?
That if you can fall from grace, then she must have led you there or some shit?
You fucked up. Just man up and admit it. You. Fucked. Up.”
“Shut up!” he screams and then fires another round, but Ruby doesn’t even flinch when the ceiling debris comes down on her. Unlike the prospect, who runs to her, and me, who stands in front of her a second after realizing he’s going to shoot at her.
“Barry, stop,” I plead as I take a step back.
I bump into Ruby, who’s as hard as steel, but I keep pushing back, even stepping on her feet till she moves.
“You have to stop. This isn’t you. You don’t want to do this.
Ashley would never cheat. You know that.
Her mom was cheated on. She went through that as a kid.
It built her up into someone who would never do that.
You know that. She’s told you.” I keep walking backward, pushing Ruby and the prospect with each step.
Barry looks at Ashley, who’s sniffing and shaking her head, but at least she’s looking at him.
“Look at her. Look at the pain you’re causing. Those are your kids inside her. Yours. No one else’s. I’m sure that whatever happened, you can work through it. That it will be okay.”
“Ash?” He looks at her, face soft, just like his voice.
She grunts but pushes herself up to a sitting position. “I never cheated. I would never.” She looks at him, pleading that he sees the truth in her eyes. “I love you. I would never, ever destroy that.”
Barry lets out a wail of his own, wiping the tears that fall. “I love you, too, baby.” He shuffles over to her, sinking to his knees in front of her. She flinches but can’t go anywhere, especially when he puts his arms around her knees and cries into them.
I keep walking backward, closer to the door with each step.
“I’m sorry, baby. I’m so sorry. I fucked up. I really fucked up.” He looks up at her with hope in his eyes that I can still see from this angle. “But we can fix this. We can get through this. Oh God, baby, I miss you so much.”
He wraps her in his arms, and I see the anguish on her face as she cries in his hold.
“Go,” I whisper when I know we’ve gotten to the door. With one eye on it and the other on Barry, I push back to get them to keep moving. I watch the prospect go through the door quickly and quietly.
“Come with us,” Ruby says in a hushed whisper.
I look at her with a shake of my head. I can’t leave Ashley. I just can’t.
“Can we, baby? Can we get through this?” Barry asks, pulling my gaze back to him.
He’s eased his hold on his wife and is looking at her as he presses kisses to her forehead and brushes back her hair.
“We can,” she says as she looks down.
He smiles wide, and when she looks up at him, he holds her cheek in his hand and rubs his thumb over the cut he caused.
“But you’ll never be the father to my kids.” The hard tone in her voice feels like the ticking of a bomb.
I start toward her, my body moving on its own. I hear Ruby telling me no, but I can’t seem to stop.
“You whore,” he says a second before he shoots—right into her stomach.
Everyone screams, running past me. I know they’re getting out, pulling Ruby with them. But I don’t follow. I can’t. My friend needs me.
I rush to her side and put my hands on her abdomen to stop the bleeding.
“What did you do?” I yell. “Ashley? Ashley, can you hear me? Help me,” I plead as I look at him, but he’s gone. Not physically, but I know he’s not here anymore. The part that was Barry left when he shot his pregnant wife.
He sits where I shoved him off her. Blinking but not seeing, I don’t think. Then he stands and walks away.
“Don’t go. We can still help her. I need your help.”
He shakes his head at my words but doesn’t leave, just paces. I look around, not seeing anyone else. The once-crowded office corridor is empty.
I turn back to Ashley. She has her eyes open, but other than a blink here and there, she’s hardly coherent.
“Stay with me, Ashley. I’ve got you.”
I look around for something, anything. There’s so much blood. Behind her is the bathroom she came out of. It’s not much, but I know they stock it with female products. I crawl to it on my hands and knees and grab the basket full of pads, then rush back to my friend who’s bleeding out.
I rip two open and press them to her stomach, placing her hand over them. “Hold these, Ashley. Hold them.” I put more on her and apply pressure to try and stop the bleeding. I need to secure them.
Light from the window catches my eye, then the hanging plant in front of it. I stand and jump, hoping to catch it. It’s out of my reach, but only just.
“Barry, help me,” I plead as I continue to jump up and try to pull down the plant. I need the rope that’s holding it up there in some fancy Etsy art project someone must have spent countless hours working on so someone at the hospital could buy it and try to spruce up the place with some greenery.
He does nothing but stand and look at her, saying things I can’t hear. He might not even be saying anything, just moving his lips. He’s completely lost his mind, it seems.
I see the desk chair and run over, grabbing it with so much force that I hit the wall. The hospital can bill me for the damages. I roll it over, careful not to hit Ashley.
Setting it just under the plant, I climb up fast. Too fast. My weight’s off-balance, and the chair rolls. I go down hard, hitting my head.
Spots. All I see are spots. There’s a ringing in my head, and when I push up, I immediately sink back from how dizzy I feel. But I push through.
I grab onto the first thing I can find, surprised to see it’s the chair, and pull myself up, then move the chair back to where I need it.
And slower than before, to prevent any further dizziness, I stand on the chair.
I wobble a bit, but after a moment of surfing the air with my hands out, I’m steady enough to reach up and grab the plant. With a yank and a yell, I pull it down.
The ceiling comes down as well with everything else, dirty plaster and dust raining down on me. I fall again, but this time I expect it and roll. I don’t hit my head, but my ankle twists hard enough to make me grimace.
But it’s nothing. The pain means nothing. I shuffle on my hip back to Ashley and untie the intricate knots that hold the potted plant.
“Ahh!” I yell, frustrated that it’s taking forever. Finally, between my determination and someone above who’s looking out and wants me to succeed, the last knot gives way and I’m able to untangle the entire thing.
“Okay, Ashley, I’m going to lift you to get this under you. Shhh, it’s okay. I’ve got you.”
She groans as I lift her, but it’s better than no noise at all. I fasten the rope over the pads, replacing the ones that are soaked through already.
I check her pulse. Weak, but there.
“Barry, we need to get her some help.”
He doesn’t say anything, and I look back at him. He’s staring forward but not seeing anything.
“Barry!” I scream.
His eyes slowly move to meet mine.
“We need to get her some help or she’ll die.” He says nothing. “Fucking Barry, you want your kids to die? Is that what you want?”
“Not my kids,” he says before stepping away and going down a hall that leads to an office, not to the front.
“Fucking asshole,” I mutter as I look back to my friend. “Hang in there. You hear me? Ashley? Help is coming.”
God, I hope it is.
She blinks, and I take that as she’s trying to tell me she will.
Then blood spills from her mouth.
“No. God, please, no.” I apply more pressure on her wound, and then I do something that I hope doesn’t get me killed. I yell.
“Help! Someone, anyone. Help!”
No answer.
“Please,” I whisper, tears blurring my vision as I watch my once-lively friend struggle to keep going as her eyes close. And after everything she just went through, I don’t blame her for it. I just hope I have enough willpower for both of us to keep her going.