Coraline
Ishriek as Maya continues to pull me back by my hair viciously.
I drop the shovel, the loud clanging ringing in my ears as I’m dragged closer to her and away from helping him.
My feet momentarily bump into the back of Georgia’s head amidst the chaos.
That’s when I see something—a blip of life flutters when I spot Georgia’s blonde brows furrow, and her nose contorts.
She’s still alive.
My nails scrape Maya’s hand until I know I’ve cut her open, hoping it’s enough to let me go, but she doesn’t. I frantically search for Gavin, who has disappeared after hitting the kitchen counter.
She shot him. She really shot him.
Did she kill him?!
“Gavin!” I scream hoarsely. His name bounces off every corner of the house, echoing.
“Maya, what the hell are you doing!” I plant my feet and spring forward. I swing my elbow back until it hits her in the nose. She yelps for a heartbeat, then presses the gun into my neck and racks it back.
“Hit me again, and I’ll end you.” Her threat is a stab to my chest and a permanent end to our relationship.
“Why are you doing this? Why are you trying to kill them and me? How fucking could you?” I shout at Maya, but it only gets the pistol cocked into the back of my head. She hits me, determined to silence me. I shriek from the burning, throbbing pain, feeling completely helpless and betrayed.
“Shut the hell up!” she demands, her vision pinned on me. I see Gavin, who stands to his full height and glares daggers at Maya.
He’s still alive. Gracias a Dios.
He returns with vengeance tattooed all over his body. I’ve never seen Gavin so angry. Then she aims the gun at Gavin, but he stands his ground, not surrendering but not making any attempt to diffuse the situation.
“Come any closer, and I’ll shoot you in the head.” She orders Gavin away.
“Let me go!”
“You think I did all of this alone?” Maya huffs manically. Her voice hardens and seethes in my ear while she holds me at gunpoint.
I don’t understand what I did to deserve this. Maya is my friend.
“I had help. Now that our cover has been blown, you can stop pretending, Gavin.” The barrel is pressed into my neck, right into my carotid artery.
One shot and I’m dead. There’s no surviving a fatal wound like that, especially being hours away from the nearest hospital.
I could bleed out in seconds. I need to stay calm enough to buy us all some time to get out of this.
“What are you talking about?” I turn to her, glaring, eyes filled to the brim with tears rooted in deception. She’s still trying to convince me that Gavin is a part of her mess. Well, I don’t believe a single word that comes out of her mouth anymore.
“Am I lying, Gavin? Tell her the truth. Did you tell her why her car kept detouring on the road that night?” She pokes with a grim smirk. “Did you tell her you were the one who sent the invite to the event? Huh?” she taunts with a wicked tone.
I flick my gaze to him. My heart shatters because the look on his face right now tells me she isn’t lying about those things. A muscle above my lips pulls, twitching. He’s not my enemy.
“Did you tell her what other stuff you specialized in while you were a SEAL? I looked you up, Gavin Ariksen. He’s a hacker. Cyber fucking security. He hacked your GPS!”
“I don’t believe you,” I spit sternly. Something emerges from the shadows.
My eyes flick to the silhouette behind Maya.
It’s a spirit. The woman I first saw in the bathroom mirror when I took my first shower.
She has long black hair with the same eyes as Gavin.
It has to be his mother. She wields a knife, the same knife I took to the basement, then hid in the drawer of newspapers.
I’m going to distract Maya before she can kill me.
“I’m going to ask you one more time, Maya.
Stop dodging my questions. I don’t understand why you’re doing this.
After everything?” I shake my head as another tear rolls down my cheek.
“That’s the least you can do before you shoot me, don’t you think? ”
Maya’s expression hardens, a look of poison coming out of her pores. Her mask has fallen.
“You think Lilly was the only person Liam was fucking?”
My heart sinks to my stomach.
No.
I can’t picture it. I don’t want to picture them together like that. Was Liam more of a shallow asshole than I thought? He had my best friend and coworker? How could I have been so blinded to their affair?
“I’m so sick of your success and self-pity! You don’t deserve the opportunities getting thrown your way!” She raises her fist and connects it with my cheek. My lip instantly gets cut open.
“I want what you have, bitch. Lilly is out of the picture, but for some odd reason, he doesn’t want to sign the divorce papers.
He says he can still work it out with you.
He has a plan to talk to you and make things right.
Maybe if you come back from Alaska, he’ll be able to fix what he broke.
He’s holding on to false hope because we belong together!
” She pushes me forward so she can take aim.
I fall into a wall, a glass frame shattering from the impact.
I prepare for the bullet, with my hands in the air to protect my heart… but it never comes.
Gavin reappears, jumping in front of me and taking me to the ground to shield me. Another shot goes off, I close my eyes, and scream. I can’t handle seeing him get hurt again because I care about the man who revived me. I care about him so deeply; I feel him in my soul.
My muse.
I look up and see Maya on the ground with a knife in her back. The figure who held it is replaced by trembling Merelyn. My lips tilt upwards, and I sigh heavily with relief. Merelyn was hiding this entire time.
She missed and hit the ceiling. Gavin retrieves the gun from the floor and quickly empties the chamber.
I stand shaking, feeling like I’m floating from all of the madness.
Maya has been fucking with me all this time.
Maya has been writing me letters to scare me away.
She’s the one who chased me off the road.
It wasn’t a man. It was her all along—a crime of delusional passion.
“The phones started working an hour ago,” Merelyn says as she gets on her knees to help Georgia. Georgia groans as she lifts her head and settles it onto Merelyn’s lap. “I already called the police. The captain should be here any minute.”
“W-what’s going on?” Georgia murmurs, clearly out of it. It seems that Maya stabbed her and knocked her unconscious.
“It’s okay, honey, you’re safe now.” Merelyn eases her mind. “Help is on the way.”
“Okay,” she murmurs weakly. I quickly glance over to Maya. She’s sprawled out on the floor with the knife still attached to her back. Merelyn stabbed her and then knocked her out with a vase of plants to the back of her head. I hope she’s dead.
“Sweetheart, are you all right?” Gavin returns to me, pulling me into his chest. I’m an utter mess. I sob uncontrollably into his chest, smelling his familiar scent, thinking I was never going to be able to again. I push myself as hard as I can into his warm flesh, desperate to hear his heart beat.
“I thought I was going to lose you,” I cry. “I thought I was going to die.”
“It’s not over for us. It will never be over for us, baby. If our fate turned cruel, I’d still manage to find a way to you again. In. Every. Single. Lifetime. I love you, Cora. I fucking love you.”
I want to say it back. I need to say it back.
I don’t care if all of this is fucked. Gavin wouldn’t hurt me.
Fear and adrenaline continue to paralyze me.
Either way, I can’t say those three words back.
I promised myself I’d only say those three words again when I was sure the next man would be my person.
The timing and person would be worth it.
Someone who protects me, sees me, and makes me feel safe and beautiful.
Still, he hid something big from me, and it’s stopping me from fully falling.
I look up at him as blood continues to pour out of his shoulders and seeps through his clothing.
He presses his lips to mine, harsh and passionate.
I can feel how much he loves me, even though it might be obsessively, it’s still pure.
He licks at my bottom lip, demanding entry.
I quickly oblige and let our tongues dance together as he claims his dominance.
A shot rings out, pulling us apart.
Maya pulled out another hidden gun.
What the hell? I thought she was out! She has two guns on her?
Gavin springs forward, disarming her as Merelyn falls to the ground with a bullet hole in her chest.