Sidney Berry had her life planned out: after high school go to culinary school, become a world-renowned chef and marry her childhood sweetheart, Aiden. But after a tragic incident that shakes her world at the end of her senior year, her plans derail...
"Muthaf—" Kru advanced on Phil but the gun sounded and a split second later Kru stumbled back. Phil hobbled forward, firing another shot which sent Kru down to the ground grabbing at his chest.
"Phil!" Sidney yelled from the tracks. Phil turned and started toward her but it was too late. The train clamored into the station with a gust of air, careening over the tracks, horn blaring.
Death should be quiet since life is so deafening. An instantaneous departure from the world into...peace? Turmoil? Or maybe nothingness. Whatever the afterlife was made of it should not feel like life. Absent of voices. It shouldn't still smell like living.
The thoughts ran through Sid's mind for a moment before she rationalized that maybe if she was thinking then she was also still breathing. She sucked in a breath. Her lungs filled.
"Grab my hand!" Phil shouted at her. She opened her eyes to see Phil flat on his belly. His arm outstretched toward her. She tried to reach for him. Wanted so desperately to but her body wouldn't move at all. She began to weep from a mix of terror and joy.
"I can't...I can't."
"Help! Somebody, please!" Phil called out. Sid could hear the train's motors and feel the heat of it idling on the track next to her. The train was on the opposite track. She heard people yelling mixed with excited whispers. It was only a moment before she felt hands on her. Three men had come to her aid and ignoring her screams and yelps, they lifted her up to the platform where more people had gathered to help. Her vision blurred but she could make out Phil's sweaty face close to hers and his hand caressing her face begging her to stay with him.
"Where's...Kru?" She croaked out but a quick glance to her right answered her question. He was an unmoving heap, resting in a slowly widening lake of blood. She couldn't look away. Tears erupted from her but she kept her eyes fixed on him. Not believing the possibility that it had worked. They actually did it.
"I'm sorry. It happened so fast." Large tears fell from Phil's eyes.
"It's okay. It's okay." She told him. Sid tried to move her arm, wanting desperately to pull him close again and confirm that she was really alive, but it merely twitched. Phil noticed and grabbed her hand, holding on tightly. She could see blood seeping through his shirt. She was sure his stitches had probably opened up. Him staying safe at home was all she wanted, but the irony wasn't lost on her that she would most definitely be dead if it weren't for him.
"Don't move." He urged her. She could hear the sirens flowing down from the street above.
Back at Tomi's place, Phil came bursting through the bedroom doors to talk to her soon after Kru's call. He was enraged and begged her not to do this. She was resolved and not able to be swayed. There was no other recourse that she could live with. In her short twenty-three years, life had dealt her just about all she could take. She could not continue on in that way. The only option was to either break and accept defeat or try to fight back. Sid was sure that they all collectively deserved a chance to fight. She would fight to make sure her father's death was not meaningless. That Phil didn't have to live in fear. That she didn't spend the rest of her life fearing a man with a scar who took her world from her. Kru belonged in the hottest hell she could imagine and she wanted to send him there.
Phil told her that he would kill Kru himself if she could just give him time. He was one of the only other people who had witnessed Kru's atrocities firsthand. He knew his brother had to die and he was on board with it happening but not if that meant putting her in harm's way. They yelled, screamed, and cried for an hour until Phil could tell that there was no way he would be able to talk her out of it. So, he pleaded to at least come with her. They both knew though, that the moment Kru saw Phil, the jig would be up. That wouldn't be a problem. Kru was narcissistic if nothing else. He wouldn't dare give a homeless person a dime let alone a second look in the train station. Phil lay on the wooden bench wrapped in clothing completely unnoticed by Kru just like they both knew he would be. He would back her up if needed but Sid was firm with him that she wanted to be the one to pull the trigger. If there was one person who had as much justification to take his life as she did it was Phil and she didn't want him to jump the gun. She had only witnessed a fraction of the torment his brother put him through. She was sure there was more and she did not know how Phil would react to being face to face with him again. Her neck was definitely broken and she didn't know whether life would be the same for her but... they made it through. She felt at peace knowing that Phil had been the one to close a traumatic chapter in both of their lives forever. She smiled through her tears. Phil smiled back at her.
"You did it." He told her.
"The safety was on. I didn't do it."
"Yeah, you did. You pulled the trigger."
Phil kissed her face as EMT's burst through the crowd of people around them. A brace was put around her neck and she was shifted onto a backboard. As she was carried out of the station she slipped in and out of consciousness. The last time she left this station she was in a state very much like this one. Alone and flanked by paramedics. Maybe she was delirious from the pain or the adrenaline was still pumping through her, but this time when she urged her hand to move, it did. She threw out her hand and grabbed at the rail as they passed.
"Ma'am, don't move please." The female EMT tried to calm her and return her hand to the board but Sid held tight.
"Phil? Phil!" She called out. Her eyes flashed around trying to find him. A moment later a hand rested on hers on the railing. Her eyes landed on him strapped to a chair being carried out alongside her.
"I'm right here. I'm not going anywhere." His voice was all she needed to hear to allow her to fully succumb to her body's fight for her to rest. They were carried out of that hell hole together, leaving their pasts lifeless, unable to do any more harm, on the platform below.
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