Chapter 41
Evelyn
The sound of metal clattering against the hardwood floor beside me forces me out of my daze.
When my eyes focused, I saw Parker was on the floor, blood still leaking from his stomach, and one of his legs looked broken.
Charles was whistling a tune that sounded familiar. I must be delirious because it sounded like Paparazzi by Lady Gaga. He stood over his father and stared as the flames rose.
I tried to breathe through my nose, and pain radiated through me. Panic began to rise again, and I tried to tamper it down.
Parker wasn’t moving. He isn’t moving.
I took a deep breath and fought through the pain. My arms had gone numb behind my back.
Everything hurts, including my heart, seeing Parker lie motionless on the ground made me wish I were stronger. He found me, and now I wasn’t sure either of us was going to make it out of here.
The smell of smoke filled my senses.
Charles clapped with delight as the flames jumped from the his father’s body to the hay lining the barn walls.
The sound of his laughter made bile rise in my throat. The smell of the smoke threatened to take me back under to the safe place in my mind.
Parker needs me.
He was in bad shape. If I didn’t try to get us out of here, we’d burn, and Charles would get away with it all. Blood soaked his clothing, and his chest was barely rising, but my mind refused to believe he was anything but alive.
You have to fight. Don’t let him take Parker, too.
Her voice came steady and calm despite the chaos around me. If I closed my eyes, I could almost see her.
Don’t let this be for nothing.
Charles began to cough and turned his attention back on me.
“You’re going to burn here, just like dear old dad and lover boy.”
“Will you finally be happy when I’m gone?” I questioned, my voice coming out sluggish.
Tipping my chin up, he grinned. “Very. A life for a life, Evelyn. You stole mine, so I’ll take yours. This chapter will finally close once you take your last breath, then things will be as they should’ve been.”
I smiled, feeling the bite of pain from my broken nose and my cracked lips.
“You’ll never be happy, Charles. You can kill me, but you’ll never know peace. How does it feel to know you killed the last person on earth that loved you?”
Charles screamed, then reared back and kicked the legs of the chair, sending me swiftly to the floor.
The chair splintered and broke. I didn’t have a moment to catch my breath before Charles was on me.
Panic overwhelmed me as his body pressed against mine.
My body tensed, and I froze. Images flashed in my mind of the last time our bodies met like this, and again bile rose in my throat, but all that came out was a choked cough.
Smoke and flame billowed around us as the barn became more and more engulfed in flames.
He grabbed my face, his fingers dug into my cheeks as he smiled. His tongue darted forward, gliding across my face, he made me want to rip the tainted skin from my body. I tried to shift away from him, the weight of his body making it hard to move.
“I didn’t always look for her. Sometimes I looked for you. I’m going to enjoy killing you. The others were for sport, but you’re special, and I can’t wait to hear you scream.”
I felt the binds at my hands loosen in my struggle. Hope attempted to bloom in my chest, but it felt false. Beneath my body, the fragments of what once was the chair laid within my reach, my fingers closed around the wood in desperation.
It felt like deja vu. Charles straddled me and began to unbuckle his pants. The burning building had no bearing on his actions. His only mission was to cause pain.
I turned my head away from him, waiting for the inevitable assault on my body, clutching the broken chair fragment like a lifeboat. He was stronger than me, and I was injured, but I had to try.
If there is any way Parker is alive, I have to try for him. For us.
“You didn’t think I would leave without getting a taste, Ev—”
Before he can finish his statement, I bring my arm forward with all the strength I have.
Pain shoots down my arm as I bring the wooden piece down on his head and face.
The strike stuns him, and he momentarily releases his weight on top of me.
The small window gives me enough time to shift my weight as well, knocking him off of me as he scrambles to hold his face.
I struggled to get to my feet quickly. My world was spinning.
Blood was leaking from his temple and jaw. Rage filled his eyes as he charged toward me.
I couldn’t help the tremor of fear that went through me as he closed the distance between us. I hadn’t thought this through. All I know is that I have to fight.
My eyes tried to scan my surroundings for anything that could help me, but I could barely see through the smoke.
Charles grabbed me by the arm with one hand, jerking my body into him as he pointed his gun at my chest with the other.
“You shouldn’t have done that, Evvie. You know I like it when they fight.” He sneered.
“There is a place for you in Hell, you sick bastard!” I screamed into his face.
“I won’t be going there any time soon, but you’re probably right.”
He tried to push me back to the ground, but my feet held firm. Feeling like I had no choice, I grabbed his hand with the gun and pulled it away from my body. With my other hand, I pressed my fingers into the gash adorning his face, digging the heel of my hand into his left eye.
Charles screams. I put all my weight into turning the gun away from me. Beneath my hand, I could feel the soft flesh of his eye and the blood coating my fingers as I continued my assault on his wounds.
Anger rose inside of me like a geyser shooting up my body, filling me with an unfamiliar rage. I screamed as I fought for my life.
I lost my mother. She was stolen from me like a thief in the night.
Then he took my sister, my best friend, the only person who knew me.
Now, he has taken Parker—the one person who showed me that I was deserving of happiness.
All he did was take from me.
Take. Take. Take.
I heard a sickening squelch and pop as I pushed with all my might. Charles roared in pain, returning his focus to the gun in his hand.
My whole body ached, but at this point, I didn’t care about the pain. I let him take from me long enough. I may not survive this, but he would feel my rage. He would not leave here unscathed as he did two years ago. He would remember me this way every time he looked in the mirror.
He shifted the gun towards my abdomen again, inching closer and closer to my body. I released his face, pivoting my body away from the barrel of the gun and using the opportunity to grab the gun with both hands.
A black and purple bruise had already started to form around Charles’ eye. Blood coated the left side of his face, and his eye was swollen shut.
“I’m going to love emptying this clip into you. Tell Celeste I said hello,” he growled before slamming his head into mine.
I’m stunned, but my body reacts instinctively, pushing the gun away from my body and towards him just as a whip-like crack fills the air.
I was already falling toward the floor when I realized the gun had gone off. Smoke filled my lungs, and I struggled to breathe. I expect to find Charles standing over me, but the barn is eerily quiet beside the hiss and crackle of the flames eating away at the structure.
The searing pain I imagined, never came. I forced myself to my feet.
Charles was on the ground clutching his chest with the gun just mere inches away, he stretched out his hand to reach for it when he saw me.
My feet close the distance between us, and I pick the gun up, pointing at him.
Blood is trickling from his ears and mouth. He no longer looks like the blond, polished finance guy. His face is misshapen and covered in blood, streaking his golden locks.
A loud boom rang out through the barn as a beam collapsed, taking a quarter of the ceiling with it. I knew I didn’t have much time here before the whole place came down. My chest felt like it was on fire, and my body wanted to break down.
My mind tells me that I need one more moment, one that my future self will appreciate. I don’t care if I have the last word, but I will have my say.
“You had a family, people who loved and cared for you. But you destroyed it.” Tears gathered in my eyes as I looked down on the man I once called a friend, my best friend.
“You’re a sick man. You are a poison to this earth, and you will not be missed. No one will mourn you. No one will honor you with kind words or fond memories. The only person who still loved you died in this barn, and you will go with him. This is the end you deserve.”
He coughed and clutched his chest, his face stuck in a grimace.
I turned around searching for Parker, eager to get to him. Nothing more needed to be said to Charles.
“Don’t leave me here.” His voice was sad, almost mocking. “You’re all I have left.”
His words made me turn around. They brought me back to that day, the one that apparently changed our lives forever. If I hadn’t asked him to stay, maybe life would be different. At the time, I thought I would never heal from losing my mother, then I lost Celeste, and she proved me wrong.
Charles didn’t deserve my pity.
“Fuck you.” Were my parting words before I aim the gun at his chest and shoot.
He smirked as he coughed up blood, taking his final breath. I’m no longer looking at the man of my nightmares, but the ghost of a boy that I used to know. I mourned him a long time ago.
I made my way through the black smoke until I spotted Parker on the floor.
My steps faltered when I saw the blood surrounding his leg. Another boom rattled the barn and forced me into action. The doors to the barn were no more than two feet away.
I rushed to Parker’s side, threading my arms under his and pulling his body into me. The sight of his leg makes me cringe. I didn't want to make things worse by moving him, but I had no choice.
Sweat broke out all over my body as the heat from the fire intensified.
I used whatever strength I had left to pull Parker. I pull and pull him, dragging him closer to the door. He’s heavy, and with each motion, I feel like the fire is licking at my skin.
My legs are numb, and my arms feel like they’ll give out, but I don’t stop until we’re through the double doors of the barn and surrounded by the tall grassland.
Parker still hasn’t woken up, and I fear that he is really gone.
Sobs worked their way up my throat and out of my mouth, filling the quiet night with my agony and despair.
I choked and coughed as tears ran down my face. I collapsed near Parker, my body finally giving in to its injuries.
A bright light blinded my vision, and the sound of tires screeching and feet pounding across the pavement filled my senses.
“They’re over here!” was the last thing I heard as the darkness took me under.