***Get your tissues ready, guys. You're certainly going to need them. I sure as heck did!***
Chapter 21
Forever And Always
"I told you not to tell him, Calliope!" Vince's voice said, carrying on all around us as we ran down the alleyway toward where our car was parked.
"Callie?" Max questioned, looking over at me as we ran.
"I'm sorry!" I cried.
He didn't say anything to me as we jumped in the car and he started the engine. I looked behind and saw Vince getting in a car only a few places away from ours.
"Go! Go and put some distance between us!" I yelled.
The tires squealed as he pulled out onto the busy street, narrowly missing another car in the other lane as he dashed across the road, turning onto another. I knew what he was going to try and do. He was going to try and lose them, even if that meant getting ourselves lost.
"So you were working with him?" Max asked, his eyes straight ahead on the road as he tried to concentrate on where he was going.
"I'm sorry!" I cried as tears sprang to my eyes. "But I told you everything. Vince was behind all of this tonight. He told me everything I needed to know and where to find the clue in the box. He already knows where everything leads to. He just wanted our help with the last. But I couldn't tell you anything or he said you would get hurt. I can't let you get hurt!"
Max didn't say anything. He didn't even look over at me like I almost expected him to. The only thing he did to let me know he actually listened was to reach other and grab my hand.
"I'm sorry I didn't tell you the truth before," I whispered. "And now..."
"I'm sorry I didn't tell you either, but it's already too late," he whispered back.
"What...?"
Just then, his phone started ringing. After he let go of my hand, he dug it out of his pocket and quickly answered.
"Yes?" he asked, his voice hard. He waited a few moments before nodding and taking his phone away from his ear.
"Who was that?" I asked.
But he didn't say anything. He just accelerated and then turned the car on the road that ran right next to the river.
"Max? What are you doing?" I asked, my voice rising in panic, as I looked at the speedometer. It kept creeping high and higher as he swerved in and out of the cars that were traveling on the road also. This wasn't going to end well, I could already tell.
"Max, you have to slow down."
He didn't.
"What are you doing? Slow down!"
He shook his head, grabbing my hand. "This is the only way I can keep you safe," he said, looking over at me.
I'd only seen Max cry a few times in the time that I'd known him...and this was the time that scared me the most. Because it wasn't just tears in his eyes. They were already streaming down his face and his lips were pressed together in a hard line, like he was trying to keep himself from screaming out.
He lifted my hand that he was holding and brought it to his lips. And when he did, I could feel both his kiss and his tears.
"I'm so happy that I had you in my life," he whispered, his voice thick, as he looked back toward the road. It was like he was trying to take the car somewhere planned.
"Max?"
"I'm so happy that I got to love you for as long as I did, too," he continued. "I wish I would have asked you when I planned. I wish we could have gotten married, I wish I could have been able to make love to you, I wish we could have had those two kids, just like you wanted. They would have been beautiful, just like their mother."
"Stop saying this! What are you doing?"
"Because I love you more than anything and I always will. Forever and always."
But all he did was accelerate even more. I looked forward toward where he was aiming.
I could see the car that Vince had gotten into, waiting just on one of the other roads.
Max didn't speed up so we could get past them.
Only he didn't. He slowed down.
He slowed down.
"Max, what are you doing?" I shouted, panicked.
He was slowing down even more. And I could see when Vince's car started forward, going slow at first, but then building speed.
I'm sure anyone else could have heard my scream just as if they were sitting right beside me as Max was, but he didn't seem to.
"I love you, Callie," was the last thing he said before Vince's car collided with ours.
My world was spinning, spinning so fast that I didn't know which way was up or which way was down. But then that feeling of being airborne, the weightlessness that accompanied it was there. And then we hit something and my head slammed into the dashboard in front of me from the impact and I couldn't see anything else.
The sound of rushing water was what woke me up. Splashing was coming off from my left, like someone was trying to get somewhere while they were in water.
"Callie! You'd better still be with me! Don't you dare die on me! This wasn't supposed to happen like this!" Max's voice shouted.
My eyes were heavy, but I somehow managed to open my eyes. They landed on his face, which was streaked with blood from a cut on his forehead.
"Callie, thank God!" he said, almost sighing in relieve.
But I couldn't breathe. That was because the car was being slowly submerged in the river. The water was ice cold and the thing material of my dress wasn't helping at all. It was almost chest level now, so we must have been under for a few minutes.
"What...?" I whispered, my teeth chattering because of the cold.
"Callie, you've got to stay conscious, okay? I was able to get your window down so you can swim out, but your seatbelt is stuck. I'm going to have to cut you out of it, okay? And then, when the car is totally under the water, I need you to swim. I need you to swim until you get to the surface. Okay?"
"You're coming with me," I said. I wasn't even thinking about why this happened, just that I needed him to be there with me.
"I'll try, but I've got to get you out first," he said.
"But..."
"I'm stuck under the wheel, Callie," he said. "I can't get out."
"I'm not leaving you here, though!" I said, crying all over again. But this time, he wouldn't have been able to see my tears since the water was almost to our chins. I was fighting to keep my head above water, but I knew we didn't have much longer.
"Take a deep breath, okay? We're going under..."
Right when I pulled as much oxygen in my lungs as I could, the water completely submerged us. I opened my eyes, only I could barely see anything. I could feel, though. Max's hands touched mine and I held onto them for dear life.
But only a moment later, he pulled back away from me and I could barely see him reach for something in his pocket.
His pocket knife.
His hands were at my seatbelt then, cutting through the material of the strap as fast as he could while being as careful not to knick me at the same time. The strap was holding me into place in the water, so when the tension left my chest, I knew he'd done it.
His hands were moving then, practically pushing me toward the open window to my right. My mouth opened and bubbles floated up as I tried to scream for him to come with me, only it was muffled by the water.
But he continued to push me until I was out the window somehow. Only I held on tight to the sides, reaching inside for him, but I only caught his hand. I could barely see him then, but I could feel his hand tighten on mine.
Right before it loosened and went limp.
Something pulled me by the ankle and then someone's arm was wrapped around my waist as they pulled me up toward the surface. I could see the lights of the streets and the muffled yells before we broke the surface. And then I could hear the screaming and crying, the sirens off in the distance.
"Callie!" Ben's voice yelled in my ear.
Except I couldn't answer him.
I was looking around in the water that surrounded us, looking for any sign of him.
But he wasn't coming up.
A scream close to me almost made me want to throw up because of how painful it sounded.
And then I realized it was mine.
***Well, hello there, my incredibly awesome readers who are probably freaking out right now, crying their eyes out, and plotting my death right at this very moment! >:D
Soooooo...what'd you think?!? You wanted action, you got action! And you got something else that you weren't expecting either!!!!!1 Mwu-ha-ha!
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