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“Shut up,” she bites out harshly, spittle flying from her chapped lips again. “Shut up.Shut up!” Karen slaps herself in the head with the side of the gun before she points it back at my face.
A loud crash in the hall distracts her, though. She turns away, like I’ve completely vanished from her mind, to find out what it was. The noise brings me a few precious moments. Seconds I can use to save the children, because I’ve already realized that Karen won’t be letting me go.
As quickly as I can, I spin around and see my class doing exactly what they’ve been taught. Under their desks, grouped together in the back corner. More than one of them have their phones out. Almost all of them have tears in their eyes, scared expressions on their faces.
“Shh.” I hold a finger up to my lips when Lucas opens his mouth. “I’ll fix this,” I whisper, staring him straight in the eyes. “I’ll fix this.” The promise, the same one I’ve made to him every night. The same one I made to Ciara when she came to me. The one I’ll keep no matter what. When I blink, I see a bird on the windowsill.
The window is open.
The fucking window is open.
Karen slams her hand against the door and I know I am out of time.
We are out of time.
“The window,” I manage to hiss before she spins back around again.
Lucas hears me, though. His eyes widen, but he isn’t looking at me. He is staring at his mother. Afraid for me and what she will do to me. But I can’t think of that, not when he is my priority.
I can buy them time. I can get all of my students out and away from danger. I might be able to save them. Even if it is too late to save myself. That’s the best I can do, and it will have to be enough.
“Karen,” I whisper. I finally manage to tear my eyes away from the children I will do anything to protect. “Tell me what happened.”
Her eyes flash with suspicion, but I have more to lose than she does. Twenty other lives to get to safety and I am a better liar than anyone gives me credit for.
I step away from her and take a seat so that she is forced to turn away from them, from Lucas. I see the moment they realize I want them to move. But first, I need to get Karen’s undivided attention.
“Tell me why you want to kill me.”
Those words break through her psychosis. When Karen blinks and then stares at me with clear eyes, all thoughts of escape vanish.
“First, you turned Deacon against me. Then you turned that little piece of shit against me. What do you expect? That I’d let you get away with it? All he did for months was come home and bitch about how great you are. How amazing you are. I got enough of that back in school. Wasn’t it enough that I always lived in your shadow? You had to take my fucking kid, too?”
I cringe. Lucas doesn’t need to hear his mother speak about him that way. He deserves all the good things—all of them. And what his mother is doing to him breaks my heart.
“Stop, please.”
She smiles at me, a mask of innocence, completely distracted by my plea.
“Why? I’m so close to taking everything from you. Just like you took it all from me.”
I can’t take a chance looking at the students. I can’t let Karen know what I have done. What I’ve told them to do. But I see them out of the corner of my vision. They squeeze through the window. Until only a few remain. My heart races and sweat drips down my back. Almost there, they are so close to being free. I don’t care what happens to me. Not as long as they are all safe.
“I’m going to kill you, Avery.” Her words cut me in two. “But first, I’m going to kill every one of your students. You’re all going to die, and your last thoughts are going to be that you know it was all your fault.”
Lucas and Ciara are the only two left. I thought that they’d make it. Really, I did, but Karen squeezes the trigger, and they both scream.
I look down and almost laugh.
She shot me in the stomach. Right where I’ve already been impaled once before.
“Seriously?” I press a hand to the growing red stain that seeps through my shirt.
I can’t feel it.
Shit.
I can’t feel it.
