Miss Angelina [✔]

[24] Redamancy

The men were at a standstill with Luke with none of them able to form the words to move forward. My eyes were glued to the floor with his arm still around my throat, and the hardness of the gun pressed against my skull. I could feel my eyes brimming with tears regardless of how fake this performance was. I could only imagine that my appearance was not the epitome of greatness. My eye makeup had been completely smudged over my face with the amount I had rubbed it during this evening, and even with it being so late in the day, the last of my lipstick would have surely smudged. Plus I had already noted in the kitchen that my clothing had been covered in some of the blood I had knelt in or been splashed with. I could say it was the perfect outfit to play the victim in.

"Let her go," Was the sentence that ended the silence. The men were making their way slowly down the stairs, and Luke was standing dead still in the middle of the room, not far from the main door. It was this sentence that brought my head up, however, because of the voice that had spoken it. I had locked eyes with Owen, fully decked out in a police officer's outfit, his hands grasping a gun tightly, and pointing it towards the head of my best friend. It made sense to me that he hadn't spoken upon entering the house solely because he's been here before - he knows what it looks like, who lives here - he knew I lived here.

"She's my ticket out of here. You think I'm going to let her go?" He sneers, pushing his arm into my throat further. I bring my hands up instinctively to attempt to remove it, but with them tied I am unable to. Unable to breathe properly, I begin to choke against the pressure. He pushes the gun deeper into my skull, which causes searing pain. I attempt to take a deep breath despite the rag around my mouth, and in response, he eases up the tightness of his grip slightly.

"You live here with her. Surely you care about her?" Owen had said. He had met Luke a couple of times at this point and seen our interactions together. We'd always made sure to be overly joyous due to the bleakness of our usual encounters. Luke was especially "fake" nice due to this fact he didn't believe I could love someone, never mind stand to be in a relationship with someone without manipulation or threat of death. Luke had rolled his head in response to this and looked down at me smirking.

"This stupid bitch?" He scoffs, and I drop my head down slightly to look back at the floor, "I managed to kill around fifty people through the years without her noticing, you think she's worth saving? You think she deserves to live?" He had said, and part of me was genuinely hurt by his statements even though none of it was truthful. There was so much emotion, and passion in his words that it conveyed a hatred for me that I didn't believe existed or even could exist.

"Her life's worth is not yours to value." Another officer had said. They had reached the bottom of the staircase at this time, which Luke had allowed them to do without much action or disagreement. They had a far greater advantage over Luke at this moment, not only were there three of them, all far larger than him, they all had guns themselves that I'm sure each one of them would love to fire into his skull.

"Perhaps her death would make a good finale to all this?" He said as though pondering the thought of it. I squirmed against his body to attempt to free myself from his grasp. Part of this was an act just for my benefit; the other part of this believed he would do this. He had been pushed so far already; it wouldn't surprise me if he were pushed far enough actually to hurt me. He cleared his throat, and then in a monotone reporter voice announced, "The last victim could have been saved. Three officers failed to apprehend the culprit before she had her brains blown all over the floor of the culprit's own home."

One of the men took a step away from the staircase, and Luke jolted backwards, pulling me along with him and forcing his arm into my throat. He pulled the gun from my head and pointed it towards them, and they took a step back again.