8 nights in hell [Billie Eilish]

NIGHT V.4: die for each other

• pov: Mara •

We were both out of breath when we finally slowed a block away from the bank. A light rain had set in and I felt the water droplets collect in my hair. We had taken the masks off and Billie had pulled her hood up instead.
The gun was somewhere on the muddy riverbed of a channel. I had not liked the way it made me feel at all and I already knew it was going to give me sleepless nights. I had not expected to discover that there was a part of me that had actually considered pulling the trigger.

We continued walking as I took out Ricky's phone and called both an ambulance and the police to the address of the bank.

Billie kept looking at me from the side. After I ended the call I let the phone fall on the pavement. With a satisfying crunch the glass broke as I crushed it under the heel of my boot.
If I could have unlocked the phone and deleted the picture of me and Billie I would have kept it as evidence in case we ever needed it but this was the safe option. In a few brief sentences I explained to Billie what I was doing and that it had been Rick in the car in Munich. It was a relief to be finally able to tell her everything again. All that secrecy had only stood between us. It had eaten me up from the inside.

"What an asshole," she just said as I picked the pieces of the phone up and threw them into a litter bin.

I took my gloves off and stuffed them into the pocket of my jacket. "Yeah, but he's not going to be a problem anymore."

I pushed the damp hair out of my eyes and scanned the area. It was completely silent. The autumn air was only filled with the sound of rain and further in the distance some traffic could be heard. We were in a quieter part of Prague and except for the occasional night owl almost all windows were dark. The city was asleep.

I could still feel Billie's eyes on me from my peripheral vison.

"Come on," There was an irritating tickle down my chin, causing me to wiped some blood away with the back of my hand, "let's keep moving."

"Wait." Billie reached for my hand and held me back. "Slow down."

I looked back at her and came to a halt.

"Let's stay here for a second." She pulled me to the side before letting go of my hand and leaning her back against a building to be out of the rain. "Nobody's following."

"You don't know that." I could not relax. Not here and not now. I was still angry at Ricky and in a way the faint throbbing in my knuckles from where my fist had connected with his nose was satisfying.

Billie listened into the quiet night for a moment. "Yeah, I do."

I looked up and down the street one more time but she was right. Different types of hedges lined the sidewalk and every couple of meters a few steps lead up to the entrance of a building. This neighbourhood probably was asleep even during the day. Nobody was around, much less at this time.
I copied Billie's position and leaned next to her. Closing my eyes I felt my racing heart starting to slow down. I could not quite grasp what had happed yet. All that mattered was that we had gotten rid of Ricky. And that Billie had come back. For me.

I heard her move by my side and opened my eyes to find her opening up a pack of tissues.

She turned to face me and leaned in before gently pressing the tissue to my bottom lip.

"Shit." I winched and frowned at her. It was just a scratch and that it hurt that bad only made me angrier.

I took the tissue from Billie and whipped the blood away. Her eyes followed my hand when I lowered it again. "Let me look at that."