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“Two,” he says slowly, moving closer to CJ.
I cry out, running my fingers through my hair, and step forward. “No, don’t kill CJ. Don’t kill CJ!” I scream.
He lifts his head up, staring at me straight on. “One.”
He lifts the bloodied knife, and I move, not caring if he hurts me in the process. I can’t let him hurt either of them.
The knife descends and at first, I think he’s aiming for CJ, but at the last minute, he turns to Lilian. I cry out, my legs feeling like jelly as I take the few steps forward to get to him. The knife comes down and I close my eyes, using all my strength to push him away. My hands connect with his shoulders, and I hear him grunt in surprise. My eyes fly open. He falls back, tripping over a coffee table and landing with a thud.
Everything moves in slow motion. I turn my head to the sound of CJ’s screams, and watch as tears run down his face.
A gurgle, followed by a choking noise has me glancing down, my mind taking a few moments to register what I’m seeing.
My knees buckle beneath me. “No!” I wail. My hands shake over the knife that’s embedded in her stomach. My gaze flickers between the knife and her eyes that are slowly dimming. “I’m so sorry,” I sob. “I’m so sorry.”
She tries to force a smile, her chest heaving with long shallow breaths. Her good hand moves, her fingers wiggling like they’re reaching out for me. I ignore the yells and cursing coming from CJ and place my hand over hers.
“I’m so sorry.”
A hand appears on the knife handle, and before I can stop it, Alex is pulling the blade out, slicing through her stomach.
I throw myself backwards, screaming in terror as I watch blood pour from the wound, intestines hanging out.
There’s so much blood. I would never have thought someone so small, so skinny, could produce so much.
“Now, who is it going to be, Allie?”
I barely hear him over mine and CJ’s screams, but I shake myself out of it, glancing up at Alex in a daze, a hitch in my chest.
“What?”
“Who? Who will be next? You and me, or CJ?”
“What?” I repeat, still dazed.
He walks around Lilian’s prone body, still wielding the knife in his hand. I watch his every move, too scared to look away, too afraid of what he will do next.
“Me and you, or CJ. I can’t let him win. You’re mine. We’re meant to be together.”
“No, Alex, we aren’t,” I whisper, lowering my gaze. Seeing Lilian’s body—Lilian’s dead body—has numbed me. I can’t feel anything.
He tilts his head to the side, his gaze seeing through me. “You said yourself, I was like your brother. I heard you, time and time again.”
“That was before she knew what having a sibling meant to you, you fucking sick bastard.”
“I’m not choosing,” I whisper. “This is unspeakable—what you’re doing is unspeakable. I won’t do it. You’re just going to kill us all, anyway,” I tell him, feeling dead inside.
“You belong to me,” he screams.
“So you keep saying,” I scream back. “But I don’t. I belong to CJ—we belong to each other. And you want to know why? Because he loves me. Because I love him. Because he wouldn’t hurt a fly, unless it was to protect the ones he loves. You want to know why I don’t belong to you?” I ask, then turn to CJ, gazing at him through watery eyes. “Because he only has to walk into a room and my heart stops beating and I get butterflies in my stomach.” I smile, placing a hand over my stomach. “I could be having a bad day, and the first person I want to speak to is him. He can bright up the darkest of days by just being there.”
I narrow my eyes on Alex, and really look at him, and with shaky limbs, I get up from the floor, my gaze never faltering. “I’m sorry you didn’t have the right upbringing; I’m sorry you were born into this.I’m sorry.But it doesn’t excuse your behaviour. It doesn’t justify your atrocious actions. You need to the put the knife down. You need to stop this and hand yourself in. Give those families you’ve destroyed, peace. Give them something, because you’ve taken everything from them. Just stop.”
“You don’t mean that,” Alex whispers, acting so wounded, and so like the Alex I knew. My heart aches. If someone had noticed what was happening, if someone had helped him, raised him with a real family, then maybe he would have had a chance.
Maybe.
“Yes, Alex, I do,” I tell him softly, wiping my cheeks.
