ᴀʟᴡᴀʏs | ᴊᴀʏ ʜᴀʟsᴛᴇᴀᴅ

𝚌𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝚗𝚒𝚗𝚎𝚝𝚎𝚎𝚗.

Mia's voice is quiet but unwavering when she speaks, "You're nothing but a coward."

Tears finally fall, streaking down his cheeks. His finger hovers over the trigger, but he doesn't pull it. He hesitates. She sees the opportunity, and she takes it. As quickly as she can, she wraps both hands around the gun, forcing it out of her face. They struggle as she thrusts it towards the ceiling and the gun goes off, shooting several bullets into the ceiling. She uses all her strength to keep it from aiming at her, struggling to get it out of his grasp. Somehow, Mia manages to loosen his grip, not enough to take control of the weapon herself but enough to send it flying across the room.

Enraged, Daniel tries to wrap his arms around her when she turns away, but she whips her elbow back into his face. A sickening crack echoes off the walls as he yelps in pain, hands flying to his probably broken nose. Whipping her head around, her eyes search the room for the gun before spotting it a few yards away. She only makes it half a step before strong hands dig into the tops of her arms. He circles one arm around her waist to haul her against him. She screams as she struggles in his grip, nails scratching into the skin of his forearms. Mia kicks her legs in front of her, forcing a shift in weight that makes him lose balance. She twists from his grasp, but it backfires as she spins in the wrong direction. Daniel grabs her by the arms again. He pushes her back a few steps, lifting her again before slamming her down into the coffee table. Mia doesn't have time to fight it or try to break her fall before her back crashes through the table, glass scattering across the wooden floor. The impact knocks the wind out of her, pain reverberating throughout her entire body as glass shards dig into her. She opens her eyes slowly, bringing a hand up to the pulsing ache on her forehead. When she moves her hand away, her blurry eyes see the sticky red liquid coating her fingers. Blinking desperately, her vision clears enough to see Daniel standing over her – two of him, but only for a second. His chest is heaving and her gaze trails down to his hands, swallowing hard as he flexes his fingers before curling them into fists.

"I didn't want to do this, Mia," he grits out, an urgent pleading in his voice, "I just wanted to make you happy. But you couldn't let me, huh? You're determined to be miserable." He takes a menacing step closer, "Just know that you're the one who made me do this."

She knows what's about to happen. He is going to strangle her like he did to those women. To Alana, Megan, Jill, and Lindsey. To Kyla. It can't end like this.

Mustering up all the strength she can manage, all the anger for those women, for herself... Mia kicks out her leg into his groin as hard as she can, making him groan and fall to his knees. She rolls over, ignoring the pain as she crawls through the shattered glass and pieces of broken wood towards the gun. The tips of her fingers brush across the handle when a hand wraps around her ankle. She screams as Daniel drags her backwards, nails clawing into the floor for any sort of traction. Whipping her head over her shoulder, she uses her other leg to kick him in the face. His grip loosens when the bottom of her foot collides with his already injured nose, enough for her to regain the distance she lost. She barely manages to get to the gun, but she grabs it. Her fingers close around the handle, and she flips onto her back, holding the gun towards her attacker with both hands and pulling the trigger.

✧･ﾟ:*✧･ﾟ:**:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧