The Cruel Game ✓

Chapter Twenty Nine

DAMIEN

As the gunshot rang out, its echo reverberating through the empty hall, my heart skipped a beat. I instinctively turned around, my eyes widening in horror as I caught a glimpse of Maria's silhouette.

Her back was facing me, and I could see her hands gripping her stomach tightly, a pool of crimson forming beneath her.

Time seemed to freeze as I watched her slowly pivot towards me, her face contorted in pain. The sight of her pale complexion and the anguish in her eyes sent shivers down my spine, blood leaking between her fingers as it drops to the floor.

Our gazes meet, and in that moment, I feel a surge of helplessness and anguish. She is risking her life, sacrificing her well-being for a love that defies all reason. I want to tell her to leave, to save herself, but my voice remains trapped within my chest, suffocated by the overwhelming surge of emotions coursing through me.

She takes a faltering step toward me, her body swaying with the effort to stay upright.

The room spins around me as I struggle to comprehend the enormity of what is unfolding before my eyes. I'm torn between the desire to rush to her side and the fear that any movement might exacerbate her wounds.

I felt a surge of adrenaline coursing through my veins as I sprinted toward her, my mind racing with fear and desperation.

Semyonov lays there, a cruel smirk tugging at the corners of his lips, his eyes gleaming with a perverse satisfaction.

Every step felt agonizingly slow, the weight of the moment bearing down on me. I couldn't fathom why anyone would want to harm Maria, the person I cared for so deeply. Tears welled up in my eyes as I reached her side, my trembling hands reaching out to cradle her frail form.

"Maria!" I gasped, my voice choked with sorrow. "Hang on, please, hang on."

Her breathing was shallow, her strength waning with each passing moment. I frantically searched for any signs of hope, any way to ease her suffering. But as I gazed into her eyes, I could see her life slipping away, her spirit slowly fading.

I cradled Maria's head in my arms, my heart breaking as I whispered words of comfort and love. In that bleak hallway, surrounded by darkness and despair, I held onto her tightly, hoping against hope that she would somehow find the strength to survive.

I lift Maria up and look to see that Amelia is crying, tears fall from her eyes-tears of pain. I grab Amelia's hands and walk out of the mansion, the cold hit all of us and I see Ares exiting his car as he rushes towards us.

"What happened!"

"We need to get to a hospital, now!"

We enter his car, I slide into the back with Maria in my lap-her brother looking back at us from the front whilst Amelia hugged my arm. "Is she dead?" Jordan asks.

"Drive Ares! Maria, hold on. You're going to be okay," I manage to say, my voice trembling with a mix of sorrow and hope.

She forces a weak smile, her breath shallow and labored. "Kingston, listen to me," she whispers, her voice barely audible. "This was the price I had to pay... for our freedom."

Her hand reaches up, gently caressing my cheek, her touch as tender as ever.

"Look after my-brother...treat him like your son." Blood leaks out of her mouth, I press my hand down onto her wound and shake my head. Tears stream down my face as I press my forehead against hers, our mingled breaths a testament to our shared pain and love.

"I love you, I love you-I love you with everything in me. I never betrayed you, I was protecting you Maria....I knew this would happen, did you not read the note I left you?" I whisper out, short breaths came out of her mouth.

A soft sigh escapes her lips as her body grows limp in my arms, her soul slipping away from this world.

"You know, hey, open your eyes." She forces her eyes open, "yeah look at me."

She open her hand and reveals to me the hard drive, I raise a brow and take it from her. 

"I'm scared..." she whispers, her voice trembling with fear. "I don't want to die, Kingston..." Her words are choked with coughs, each gasp punctuating her desperate plea.

"You're not dying, Maria. You're not," I reassure her, my voice cracking with anguish. "You can't leave me... What about the little house we dreamed of, with a dog in it because I'm allergic to cats? What about the children we always talked about? And now... now we have our precious Amelia... We have her..." My words falter as I realize the cruel truth hanging in the air. "Maria?"

I gently shake her, my heart shattering into a million jagged pieces as I hold her fragile, lifeless form. "Maria... No, baby, no," I plead, my voice choked with sorrow. "No..." Desperation claws at my soul as her once vibrant eyes stare back at me, unseeing. I press her face against my chest, willing her to breathe, to come back to me.

But the silence is deafening, and the stillness in her body is a painful reminder of the void that has consumed her. Her hands fall limp, and my grip on reality slips away, replaced by an overwhelming sense of loss and despair.

The world around me blurs as tears stream down my face, mingling with the blood and dirt that coat our bodies.

"I love you. I love you Maria." I bring her forehead against mine, as her lifeless hands slip down-my hands continue to press on her wound.

Through the rearview mirror, my gaze locks with Ares, "she's dead," I whisper, my voice heavy with grief, as the words escape my lips.

Ares stops the car, and closes his eyes as he parks up onto the side. He takes the kids out of the car, leaving me alone to hold Maria.

My body convulses with gut-wrenching sobs as I cradle Maria's lifeless body in my arms. The car's interior feels suffocating, the air heavy with the stench of tragedy. I press my tear-stained face against her cold cheek, desperate to feel any remnant of warmth that may still linger. But there is nothing.

Maria's once vibrant eyes stare back at me, vacant and devoid of the light that once illuminated our world. How can this be? How can she be gone? The agony rips through me, tearing at the very fabric of my soul. Each sob that escapes my lips carries with it the weight of an eternity of shattered dreams.

"Don't leave me...fuck!"

The car's interior becomes a prison of pain, its walls closing in on me, mirroring the suffocating darkness that has enveloped my heart. My fingers intertwine with Maria's lifeless ones, longing for the touch that used to ignite sparks of warmth and tenderness.

Blood all over.

Memories flood my mind, each one a dagger through my shattered heart. Our laughter in the beach, lazy Sunday mornings wrapped in each other's embrace, the whispered promises of forever... all now nothing more than cruel ghosts haunting my shattered reality.

I press my forehead against Maria's, my tears mingling with the drying blood on her face. "I love you," I whisper brokenly. "I will always love you, Maria. You were my soulmate, my guiding light."

But my words are carried away by the wind, lost in the vast expanse of a world that has become a desolate wasteland without her. My heart screams in protest, refusing to accept this cruel twist of fate. How can I go on when the very core of my existence has been ripped away?

I clasp Maria's lifeless body tighter, as if my sheer will alone could breathe life back into her. But the truth is an unyielding presence, settling in the depths of my being—I am alone. The emptiness consumes me, leaving nothing but a shattered husk of a man, forever marked by the devastating loss of the love of my life.

But for now, in this suffocating car, I mourn. I mourn the loss of my Maria, my heart shattered into a thousand pieces that will never fit together again. And as I continue to weep into the silence, the darkness outside mirrors the void that now resides within me.

AUTHOR...

Probably hate me right now huh...