~Callie~
"My god it's like a fucking sauna in here." Stepping into the apartment, the first thing I'm hit by is the shockwave of excessive heat and as I run to the bathroom, it's almost unbearable. The very second I'm done, I decide it's the first thing I need to sort and head to open the balcony door. The air feels thicker in here than it did when we left and it's beyond unnerving. The heat is churning my stomach and opening the door manages to give some kind of release. A cool early summer breeze instantly drifting into the apartment.
It's when I turn around that I realise exactly why the air is so thick and heavy and it's nothing to do with the fact that Cole left the curtains open in the living room, allowing the floor to ceiling windows to trap all the heat inside. No. This is much much worse than stagnant sunlight.
I stare across the room at the very last person on my mind for the past 6 weeks. His brow low, snarl across his upper lip and a gun held in his right hand. My heart rate vanishes. There's no blood in my body. No oxygen. No organs. Nothing but heat and fear. Because right now Cole is downstairs moving too many suitcases out of the back of his car without a care in the world and he's going to come upstairs, unarmed, unprepared, and find his girlfriend dead on the floor covered in her own blood.
"Nice of you to come home." Sebastian's voice curdles any remaining blood cells in my veins and I find myself inching towards the lamp closest to me, flicking one of the dozen panic buttons Cole has around the house. 1. 2. 3. 4 times before flicking the lamp on. Sebastian doesn't notice. Or if he does, he doesn't say anything.
"What are you-"
"I didn't fucking tell you to speak Caroline." He steps closer, climbing over the sofa like he owns the place. "I told you. I told you to wrap things up by your birthday. I was expecting a little push back but I thought after the fucking car you'd realize I wasn't fucking around and you'd give up. I told you not to run from me so imagine my surprise when I get here on your birthday and you're nowhere to be seen." I try to swallow the rock growing in my throat, stepping back as he tries to close the space between us.
"I'm not leaving with you Seba-" He leaps forward. The back of his hand slamming across the side of my face before he closes his hand around my throat, tight enough to make me immediately gasp. Warm liquid slides down my cheek from the cut he's left on my cheek bone but that's the very least of my worries. I can't breath. He clamps his hand tighter around me and my lungs start to burn.
"You don't have a choice on if you're leaving with me or not Caroline. You had the chance to come calmly. You had the choice to come home at your wish and settle into the life I've built for us. You decided not to do that." Sebastian's jaw clenches as I step backwards, digging my fingers into his wrist as I try to get out of his hold. "This was supposed to be easy. I've put up with all of your shit Callie. 4 years of waiting for you to work your crap out. Didn't say a word when I knew you were sleeping with ever Tom, Dick and Harry. Didn't call you a whore, didn't worry that it would fucking ruin you, I kept my mouth shut because you were coming back to me eventually."
"Seb-" I wheezed, backing up more frantically until I could feel the glass railing hit my back. That summer breeze that 5 minutes ago felt like a saving grace now felt even more terrifying. The cold air was freezing into my bones and I needed Cole. I need Cole here to save me and tell me I'm okay, that he's got this under control because I can't do this. I can't do it alone.
"I didn't want you to fear me Caroline. I didn't want to put a drunk driver on the road to intentionally run you off the road. I didn't want you to get hurt. I needed you to understand there's nothing here for you. Your safe at home in my house I bought for you. But now I know, you need to fear me. You won't come unless you do. So I'm going to show you exactly why you're coming home with me. Because this - this- scum you've spent the past few months with- he's a dangerous man Caroline. This is his gun. The drugs I found in the closet are his. The 6 dead bodies that turned up this week all have his bullets from this gun in their heads, his confessions in their pockets. You're living with a murderer and he's going to try and do the same to you."
In one move Sebastian pulls up on my neck, sitting me on the glass railing that is no thicker than 3 centimeters and he lets go of my neck. Just long enough to wrap his hands around my cardigan so I don't tip backwards. The wind whips my hair around us as I try to cling to the railing but my hands are sweating and I know they'd be no good.
"CALLIE!" My eyes snap behind Sebastian, Cole looking as pale as I feel across the apartment.
"Come any closer and I'll put a bullet in her skull before I put one in yours." Sebastian calls out, putting the barrel to my forehead and a sob blubs out of my lips. I want to go back. I want to go back to last night in the garden with Cole counting stars. I want to lay there with him forever and for today to never have happened. Everything was perfect last night. "You have to learn Caroline. He was going to do this to you. He was going to kill you. He's doing this to you." Tears stream down my face, turning everything blurry. "Everything's going to be okay. It's going to hurt but when you wake up, none of this will have mattered and I'll take you home. Where you should be." Pain took over my head as Sebastian hit the back of his gun into my head and the grip he'd had around my favourite cardigan was gone.
My skin went cold as the wind brushed over my skin, gravity carrying me to my inevitable doom. I hear nothing as I fall. No wind, no screams, no gunshots, nothing. It lasts forever. I'm falling through the air for every single moment of my entire life. It's all replayed back to me in second by second plays and when I collide with 2 warm arms, everything slams back into me.
"I've got you Callie. You're okay." I blink, my brow furrows. He gentle puts my feet back on the floor. Cole's dad reaches a hand up to my forehead and I wince, pulling back slightly. What the hell just happened? How am I not dead? Mark starts talking, whittering on as he pulls his phone to his ear but all I can focus on is the gun shot in the apartment 2 floors up. Our apartment. The one where Cole walked into a gun fight without a weapon and panic sets in harder than it ever has. I try to run in the direction I guess the front door is in but Mark wraps his arm around me. "You can't go up there Callie."
"I need to - LET GO OF ME. I NEED TO GET TO COLE." I put more into getting out of Mark's grasp than I had with Sebastian. This feels so much more urgent than getting away from Sebastian did. This terror is right down to my bones. A life without Cole is not a life I want to live. I will not let him die. He can't. I- no. I bend myself down, sinking my teeth into Mark's arm as hard as I can, and he drops me, giving me the seconds I need to run. I find the fire escape stairs and run up them, pushing past the waves of dizziness that threaten to stop me in my tracks. I ignore Mark calling after me, I can't hear what he's saying anywhere. All I can hear is those gunshots. Gunshots and all the things I didn't tell Cole. I should have told him last night. I should have told him how much hope he's given me and how much I appreciate everything he's done. I should have told him my favourite colour is the shade of brown his eyes are, that Honey and Vanilla are the only things I ever want to smell again. How I love when he lays his head on my chest because I can run my hands through his hair and when he speaks it tickles. I should have told him every single time he told me that there is no world that could ever exist where I would want to exist without him. That any anxiety I had that this was right was one with every single drop of lavender essential oil he made me use whenever he could tell I was pent up. I don't doubt it anymore. I know Cole is it. Cole is it for me. He can't die- he can't- he can't go when I didn't-
I push our apartment door open, immediately scanning the space. I see Sebastian. Laid face down in the doorway to the balcony. So much blood around him and part of me is sad that this is what it came to. That he had to lose his life because he couldn't accept the word no as a whole answer.
But there's no Cole.
I climb onto the cream sofa, checking he's not collapsed on the other side and when he's not there I can feel my already broken heart shattering.
"One job Cole. You had one fucking job. Not get shot. Why the fuck is that so hard?"
"Shut the fuck up Rowan. Now is no-" I turn around so quickly I have to regain my footing on the sofa cushions. But the sight of Cole standing, breathing, in the doorway to the rest of the apartment has me bringing out gymnast skills that have gone unused for 9 months. I jump over the coffee table, diving into Cole and immediately wrapping my legs around his waist. He wraps one arm around me, squeezing so tight as I sob. "Shh. I've got you Cal."
"I thought you were- I heard the gunshots- but your dad- I ran." Cole started moving across the room sitting me down on something but keeping me close into him. "I thought I lost you." Cole pulls his head back from the crook of my neck, takes his hand off me to swipe the tears and blood off my cheek.
"I'm right here Cal. I'm okay. We're both gonna be okay." It's only then that I notice Rowan fussing around with Cole's right arm and Cole immediately pulls my head back to him as I realise the blood across his skin isn't mine or Sebastian's. "I'm okay."
"You-"
"It's just a graze. It just got a little close. I'll be fine. I swear I'm gonna be fine." I nod and he pulls me back in, pushing my head into the crook of his neck. Lavender fills my nose and I know. I know he put it there for me because he knew I'd need it right now. This man was shot. He'd shot someone dead for hurting me, narrowly avoided taking a bullet and his focus was to put his damn Lavender essential oils in that sweet spot on his neck where he knows I feel safest.
"I love you Cole." He chuckles. "I love you so much. I'm sorry I didn't say it sooner. I should have told you."
"You worry too much Callie." I lifted my head up too quickly, another wave of dizziness washing over me but I try to ignore it.
"Worry too much? Cole you've been fucking shot, I was just thrown off a fucking 20 story building after being hit in the head with a gun. I can assure you, I am not worrying enough."
"You're slurring your words." Cole narrows his eyes. "Are you dizzy?"
"No." I lie but Cole isn't stupid.
"Legs around my waist."
"No, Cole, I'm fi-"
"It wasn't a request. We're getting you to a hospital right now and there isn't a chance in hell your walking. So do as your told, let me carry you down stairs without bickering with me for once. You can give me as much back chat as you want after the doctors give you the all clear."