Chapter 24
TWENTY-FOUR
LUNA
If I was shocked to see Gemma in this hospital, she’s just as shocked to see me here too.
Then there’s a woman currently dying on the floor in between us, the needle I stabbed her with having done terrible damage, but I already knew it would when I stabbed it into her neck.
I had to do it. It was the only way I could get Gemma alone so I can do what I need to do to her.
Sadly, for this woman, she shall suffer the same fate that officer has.
‘You’ve killed her!’ Gemma cries when she realises that the woman on the floor has stopped moving or breathing.
This is another life I have taken, another crime to add to my ever-growing list of them, but I had no choice.
When I saw Gemma here, I didn’t know what she was here to do.
She could have been here to see Sadie or speak to Reid, or even if it was for something else, I knew she suspected me of framing her because Sadie told me just before her accident.
So at some point, Gemma had to pay. I figured that she was untouchable while she was in prison.
But then I went and saw her here, out in the wide-open world, and suddenly, I knew I had a chance to silence this woman like I wanted to silence Sadie.
Unfortunately for Gemma, I am not going to make the same mistake twice.
I quickly reach onto the shelf behind me to grab another needle, seeking the same weapon I just used on the woman who fell for my ruse of being a patient who needed assistance getting back to my feet.
Whichever staff member left this storeroom unlocked is going to be in a lot of trouble when it’s discovered that two people have been killed by the needles that are kept in here, but not as much trouble as Gemma is currently in.
As I pick up a needle and tear it out of its packaging, I expect her to try and escape this room, lunging for the door handle and hoping to make it away from me before I can deal her a deadly blow too.
I am prepared for that to happen and am confident that I will catch her before she can get away.
To my surprise, she doesn’t try and flee from me.
Instead, I see Gemma doing the exact opposite.
Instead of going for the door, she goes for me.
I don’t have time to raise the needle to use against her before Gemma pushes me hard into the rows of metallic shelving that store all the boxes of needles, causing me to cry out in pain.
It’s also a cry of frustration because I wasn’t expecting this woman to pose a threat to me or fight back, but she is doing both and I realise I have underestimated her.
I have underestimated her desire for revenge.
As I try to get away from the shelving and use the needle in my hand to nullify my foe, Gemma hits me hard across the face, and I am forced to blink as my cheeks sting and my teeth feel as though they are rattling in my head.
‘You crazy bitch!’ Gemma cries. ‘You deserve to die for what you’ve done! You’ve ruined my life!’
She hits me again, almost causing me to drop the needle, and I quickly realise that I am going to lose this battle unless I can start fighting back.
I try to do that, forcing myself towards Gemma in the hopes that I can get close enough to plunge the needle into a part of her body that will cause her the most problems, but all that happens is that she hits me again, this time in the stomach.
That punch takes all the air from my lungs, and I have no choice but to go down on bended knee as I try to gulp in any oxygen I can get. But in that vulnerable position, Gemma takes advantage by kicking the bended leg I rest on, causing me to fall fully to the floor.
Now I really am lying in a perilous position, unlike the one I was in when I coaxed Gemma and that woman in here in the first place, and to make matters worse, I have dropped the needle.
I can see it lying on the floor, but it’s just out of my reach, and while I try to grab it, Gemma takes decisive action to stop me from doing that.
I let out a howl of pain as she places her foot onto my outstretched hand and pushes down on it, the heel of her shoe digging deeply into my trapped limb.
She’s going to break my fingers if she keeps on applying pressure, so I force myself to wriggle free, feeling my hand aching as I do.
It could be broken, but now is not the time to inspect my injuries.
I need to make sure Gemma can’t hurt me anymore and the best way to do that is to hurt her.
I grab her legs and aim to knock her off her feet so she is on the floor with me, a situation that will give me a far better chance of making this a fairer fight.
But Gemma reaches out for the shelves and that helps her stay upright, keeping her balance and leaving me pathetically pulling on her from my prone position.
Then I see Gemma doing the exact thing I just did.
She picks up a needle and takes it out of the packet so that it is ready to be used.
She’s going to stab me with it and it feels like I’m in no position to stop her.
I decide to let go of her legs then because that tactic isn’t working for me, and instead, focus all my energy on trying to reach the needle that I dropped a few moments ago.
As I scramble towards it, I am aware that Gemma will be raising her own needle up before attempting to plunge it down into me.
I can’t turn back and look at her because that would only waste time that I do not have, so I keep crawling until I reach the needle.
Only then do I attempt to turn back and look at my enemy, but as I do, I see the needle coming towards me and there is no time to stop it.
I let out another cry of pain as the needle enters my skin, stabbing me in the left side of my torso, and while it’s not a place that should prove as fatal as being stabbed in the neck, I know I cannot afford for Gemma to get many more goes at hurting me.
So I use my needle to strike back at her, jabbing it into her lower leg and giving her a reason to experience pain now.
Such was the force of the blow I just gave her, the needle actually snaps, possibly because it hit a bone in her leg, and I see her stagger backwards as she deals with the shock of that on her body.
I feel the pain in my left-hand side where she hit me, but push up to my feet, and while Gemma slashes her needle at the air in between us, I decide to take a chance that she isn’t going to be able to stab me anywhere vital in the time it will take me to close the gap between us.
So I rush forward, giving Gemma no time to prepare her next attack, and while the needle hits my shoulder and I feel more pain, she hasn’t dealt me a damaging blow. Now I am pushing her back into the wall, and as her body hits it from behind, my body hits her from the front, crushing her.
As she tries to free herself from where she is wedged between my body and the wall, I reach up and grab a handful of her hair before slamming her head back against the hard wall.
I hear a loud crack and Gemma groans, but I don’t stop, and while she keeps trying to stab me with the needle, I keep hitting her head until she suddenly goes limp.
The needle falls to the floor first.
As I step backwards, Gemma then falls to the floor after it.
When I crouch down to feel for a pulse, I get no sign of one.
Only then do I drop to the floor too, breathing hard, surrounded on both sides by a dead body, and aware that I am going to be the only person to leave this storeroom alive.
I did it.
I killed Gemma.
Now, as it usually is, my next goal is clear.
I need to get away with it.