Mom

If I Can't Have You

A loud noise forced Chloe awake. She sat up in bed, hearing multiple footsteps and loud voices coming from the house above her. Something was happening and a small spark of hope began growing in her chest.

Standing up, she carefully walked towards the middle of the basement, stopping short of the stairs that led to the main part of the house, the same stairs she had watched her captor coming down time and time again since this whole thing started.

Suddenly, the door flew open, and he was running down straight at her. Taking a step back wanting to get away from him, she wasn't fast enough and was quickly grabbed by him, his arm grabbing her across her shoulders, her back to him and a gun firmly placed against her head. Whatever was happening was bad enough that he was freaking out and that was good news to her.

Chloe watched as a group of men walked down the stairs and pointed their guns at her captor. She saw the patch across their chest and tears flooded her eyes as she read it: "SWAT". She felt her captor leaning on her ear and whisper something that ran her blood as cold as the basement they were standing in: "If I can't have you, no one will."

She watched as a new man came down the steps, this one wearing a bulletproof vest over a suit, his gun pointed at them just like the others, and began talking to her captor.

- "Liam Johnson, lay down your weapon and let her go. It's over."

- "You all need to leave. She's not going nowhere."

- "Liam, listen to me. You have nowhere to go. Just put the gun down and we can talk about you and Miss Chloe being together."

- "I will kill her; I swear to God I will. If I can't be with her, then no one else will. Do you hear me, detective? Leave and she lives. Don't and her blood will be in your hands."

- "Liam, you don't want to do that. Come on, man. Think about it. You know we can't leave, and I know you don't want to hurt her. You love her, right? Then why would you hurt her?"

Chloe was scared. This was her ticket out. The police were there, they had come to get her out, but if Liam didn't put the gun down, she would never leave this nightmare. Taking a deep breath, she decided to take a leap of faith.

- "Liam? Please, just lower the gun, honey. These officers are confused. They think I don't want to be here. Just let me talk to them and we can go back to our lives together. Please?" – she said, slowly turning in his arms so she could face him.

- "Together?"

- "Together, love. And no one will come between us."

Chloe watched as Liam began lowering his gun, and that was when she took her shot. Bringing her knee up as hard as she could, she felt it connect with his privates before pushing him away from her and dropping her whole body to the floor as fast as she could.

The noise around her was deafening. Gunshots rang across the empty basement as the officers shot Liam when he began raising his gun again, ultimately killing him. As fast as it began, it was over. Silence fell around them, and Chloe let out a breath she didn't know she was holding.

Feeling a hand on her shoulder, she looked up and was face to face with the detective.

- "Miss Chloe, I'm detective Jones. Are you okay?"

Chloe tried answer the detective but instead of words all that came out was a sob. The detective quickly embraced her, while yelling to get the paramedics in there. Her whole body shook as more and more tears escaped her eyes and fell down her cheeks.

It didn't take long for two paramedics to come in the room and pull her away from the detective's embrace. The paramedics checked her over and gave her a sedative before placing her on a gurney and take her outside to the ambulance.

As soon as she crossed the front door, the sunlight blinded her. It's been God knows how long since she had seen the sun and now it was blinding her. Feeling the gentle pull of the sedative, she allowed herself to go, the warmth of the sun warming her to the core.

But just as she's about to allow rest to take over, she could swear she heard a familiar voice yell her name.