40. Aurora
40
AURORA
I pull down one of the seats just in time.
White-hot pain explodes through my arm when the fire extinguisher connects with my hand against the seat.
My knuckles crunch with a sickening sound.
I bite my lip to keep from screaming.
It feels like every bone in my hand has shattered at once.
But I'm still alive. My babies are still alive.
I take this chance to kick out at Kristofer, catching him hard in the shin.
"Fuck you!" I snarl, channeling every ounce of rage I've suppressed for seven years.
He howls in pain, momentarily thrown off balance. The sound gives me a savage thrill. Finally, he's the one hurting.
But my victory is short-lived.
When I kick out a second time, his meaty hand clamps around my ankle. His face contorts into something monstrous, familiar from my nightmares.
"I told you, Jamie. You're too fucking predictable!"
He yanks hard, and drags me out from the row of seats.
My back scrapes against the rough carpet. My dress hikes up my thighs as I claw desperately for purchase.
Before I can regain my bearings, his weight crashes down on me. He's heavier than I remember, and the pressure on my pregnant belly makes panic surge through me.
My babies!
"Get off me!" I twist beneath him, trying to protect my belly.
His hands find my throat, cutting off my words. His fingers dig into my windpipe with practiced precision.
"Why did you run from me?" His face hovers inches above mine, spittle flying from his lips. "Why?!"
I gasp for air that won't come.
"Look at me when I'm talking to you!" he screams, slamming my head against the floor. "Seven years, Jamie. Seven fucking years!"
Black spots dance at the edges of my vision as he squeezes harder.
"I did everything for you! I killed for you! I loved you! I still love you!" he pants, his expression softening grotesquely. "Why won't you accept that? Why do you insist on pushing me away!"
My uninjured hand tightens around the knife I grabbed moments ago.
The same one that Kristofer planned on using to cut my babies out of me.
My vision blurs, dark spots growing larger as his fingers crush my windpipe. The faces of my family flash before me—Mom, Dad, my little brother—their blood-soaked bodies sprawled across our living room floor.
Then other faces appear: Ruslan, Hannah, Mikayla, Sofia, and Stella.
My family now.
And then the imagined faces of my babies. Little Andrei with Ruslan's golden eyes, and Nadia with my hazel ones.
I can't lose them.
Not now.
Not ever.
With one final surge of desperate strength, I swing my arm in a wide arc and plunge the blade deep into Kristofer's neck.
His eyes widen in shock. His grip loosens instantly as blood spurts from the wound, hot and sticky across my face and chest.
I gasp, sweet air rushing into my burning lungs. The relief is momentary. But I don't stop.
I yank the knife free and stab again.
Harder.
Deeper.
"Look what you made me do," I snarl, my voice raw and unrecognizable.
Kristofer gurgles, hands clutching feebly at his throat. The man who haunted my nightmares for seven years suddenly seems small and pathetic.
I don't stop. I stab again. And again. And again.
"Look what you made me do!"
Blood soaks everything—my hands, my face, my clothes. It pools beneath us on the theater floor.
His weight starts to slump against me, but I keep going, each thrust of the knife releasing seven years of terror, seven years of running, seven years of looking over my shoulder.
"LOOK WHAT YOU MADE ME DO!"
My voice breaks on the last word, tears streaming down my face, mixing with his blood.
Jamie Fields is truly dead now.
Kristofer's body finally collapses against me, lifeless and heavy. So heavy that I can't push him off me. I'm still clutching the knife, my knuckles white around the handle, my entire body trembling.
And then, suddenly, the world explodes.
The ground beneath me shudders violently, chunks of ceiling raining down around me. Everything plunges into darkness. A moment later, emergency lights kick on, and bathe the carnage around me in an eerie red glow.
Then, those lights flicker off too as one explosion after another pummels through the building.