Chapter 112
EVERYONE DIES
AIDA
“Take the fucking gun!” he shouts.
Breathe.
In.
Out.
Just breathe.
Heartbeats echo in the chamber of my heart.
Quick.
Hurried.
Thump.
Thump.
I swear I’ll drown in pain every single time I inhale.
His hand is on me now—that grip, it hurts.
“I can’t do this.” My body rolls with a shudder, every inch of me a cold, trembling mess.
“Take it!” The way he says it, it sends terror running down my spine.
“No!” My scream rips through the air, but it does nothing to stop him, to stop what’s bound to happen.
“Take the fucking gun, I said!”
“Pl-please, d-d-don’t do this!” My voice shatters with every dripping tear, the wave of emotion crashing over me. But he doesn’t care. He likes it when I cry. When I’m hurting.
“If you don’t shoot him…” The gun in his hand rises, level with the man I love sitting chained to the radiator. “Then I’ll kill him and that other bastard. Choose.”
I know he’ll do it. His wrath knows no bounds. His hatred—that putrid rotting of his soul—it’s been there since I’ve known him.
“Coward,” Matteo taunts. “You were always such a damn coward. Kill me yourself.” His upper lip curls. “I dare you.”
But the man ignores him.
Is Matteo really not afraid to die?
I fear it often. Every time I go to bed and every moment I wake. How I’ve made it this far, I’ll never know.
The man’s thick laughter fills the space around us. “You think you’re better than me, huh? You know, once upon a time, your dear old daddy thought he was too and look where it got him.”
Matteo runs for him, yanking at the chain with a snarl, trying to get to him, but we’re not close enough.
The man’s attention is on me again. “You have to the count of three, then both of their deaths will be on your head.”
My breathing is ragged, my fingers trembling as I stare at Matteo. Afraid for him. For me. I don’t want to shoot anyone. Least of all him.
“One.” His thumb lands on the trigger.
My body shivers with an ice-cold chill, my pulse hammering in my ears.
“Pl-please,” I stammer, turning to his mud-filled eyes, hoping for some semblance of compassion, but there’s nothing within them. They’re empty, as hollow as his soul.
“Two.” He holds my gaze, the gun still aimed at the only man who’s ever cared for me.
“Leave her alone!” Matteo growls, his voice edged with force. I don’t know where he finds the strength among the magnitude of his situation, but somehow, he does. He always does.
“I’d have killed you already,” the man tells him. “But having her do it, knowing I can make her, well, that’s a lot better.” He pins me with a glare. “Your time is almost up.”
“It’s okay. I love you.” Matteo’s gaze lures me into the beauty of those large brown eyes, his lips slipping into a tender smile. “I’d never hold it against you. Do it. I’m ready.”
“I’m so sorry.” The never-ending tears spill down my cheeks. “This was never how it was supposed to be for you and me.”
The man beside me laughs mockingly.
“Remember us and the life we swore we’d have,” Matteo says, his raw emotions etched into and overflowing from his eyes. “Live it. For me.”
“No! Please!” With tears leaking faster down my face, I beg for one more moment, another second, an hour, anything. “I can’t say goodbye!”
“It’s not goodbye. It’s I’ll see you later.”
“Pinky swear?” I cry with gasp after gasp, unable to catch my breath.
“Always.” He grins wide, his own eyes glistening.
“I’ll never forget you. I couldn’t even if I tried.” My panting grows louder, my entire body shaking, my sobbing scraping up the walls.
I can’t let him go. I don’t know how. I just want to die.
With him, it was the only time I never felt alone. I reach my fingers for him. “You’re the moon and the stars, the sun when it rises, the warmth when it sets,” I say. My crying is heavy, sniffling, drowning in the pain, not caring that my tormentor will relish in my anguish.
“You were always so much better with words.” His face turns with a mournful smile, stamped with the realization that he’s going to die today, that we’ll never have the days we once thought we would.
Freedom. There’s none for us. There never was. Everything we imagined, everything we dreamed, was just that—a dream.
People like us, we don’t survive.
Ticktock.
The clock on the wall, it bleeds seconds I wish I could undo.
Back.
I want to be taken back to a time I didn’t exist, where nothing hurt. Where the world was numb. When you couldn’t feel. Couldn’t bleed. And this? It’s an agony I can’t describe—losing the only man I ever loved, the only one who loved me.
I’m losing him with every painful moment.
Slowly, he’s leaving, and I’ll be the one to kill him.
But there’s no other way. That’s what the man wanted.
To make me a hostage to his will. To give me a choice without actually doing it.
Who dies and who lives? I have the power to decide, but there’s no power here at all. I’m always at his mercy.
“I—I’m sorry. I love you!” I weep, knowing it’ll be the last time I get to tell him.
“Thr—”
In a flash, I tear the pistol away and without feeling, without thinking, I pull the trigger.
Pop.
He falls backward, his eyes rolling. “No! Matteo!” I scream his name, over and over, until my throat aches. I drop to the floor, reaching for him, tears trickling from the corners of my eyes, needing to hold him, to tell him I’m sorry. But I don’t get far.
Hands tear me away until I can no longer see the death in his eyes.
Until he’s gone. Until I am too.