Year 3000 - Busted (am I the only one who used to love this song?)
Love is a funny thing. Its magnificent, enchanting, desiring. Every human being seeks out love, they seek out somebody who will cherish them. We all desire love, even though we know the risk of heartbreak and pain.
When I first met Xavier, I tried to push him away. I could feel the attraction between us but I ignored it because I was scared. Yet, Xavier proved to me countless times that he would always be here for me, no matter what. And that's one of the trillion reasons to why I love him.
When Chris started these messages, I was terrified. I assumed Chris was mad at me and my family because we dumped him in an institute. My first thoughts on why Chris wanted revenge was because he wanted love. He wanted to feel secure in the fact that he is loved, that his family does cherish him.
But now looking at my brother, with his cold eyes and sinister smirk, I don't see a brother who wants love. No, I see a monster.
After his confession on wanting to take me down, I froze. My own brother wanted to kill me, just like he killed May. The sister I will never get to meet.
Xavier was still lying on the ground, unconscious. I'm terrified his wound is going to get worse. The piece of glass stuck in his stomach is deep. Very deep.
Chris didn't care about Xavier, whose only relation to this matter is the fact that I'm dating him. If Xavier dies, I will never forgive Chris or myself.
"Chris, this is insane," I plead.
His green eyes glint with something evil. There's something bitter and malevolent in his eyes that makes me want to run and hide under my bed.
"Oh Annabella, haven't you worked it out yet?" He taunts. He's now chucking the knife up in the air and is catching it. My eyes follow the dangerous weapon cautiously.
"I am insane."
I swallow harshly at his wicked smirk. Chris is enjoying this—he's relishing in the power he has over this situation.
Chris takes another step forward with confidence whilst I stumble back in fear. This only makes his smirk grow larger.
"What are you going to do now Annabella? Your precious prince charming isn't going to wake up and save you. You're doomed." I frantically shake my head. True, Xavier might not wake up but I'm not doomed. I still have hope. I have hope that at least one of my friends received my distressing message. I have hope they called the police. I have hope the police will get here in time and stop Chris before he ends up killing me or Xavier.
Hope is my strength.
"Maybe you should be worried, Chris." I counter back. Chris pauses and then he throws his head back and barks out a laugh.
He doesn't seem to have a care in the world. I bite my lip so hard that it draws blood.
"Please, I really don't see any danger here," he comments, his eyes doing a once over of me. I narrow my eyes, not pleased that he sees me as weak and incapable.
I may be small and I may not be the strongest physically but that doesn't mean I'm not strong mentally. I have courage, hope. I may even be brave. What Chris said is very insulting to me.
"You underestimate me," I tell him.
Chris shakes his head. "No, you overestimate yourself."
This guy is really getting on my nerves now.
Behind me, I hear a small groan. Chris doesn't hear it as he's too busy focusing on his knife as he chucks it in the air. The noise had to have come from Xavier.
Quickly, I glance over my shoulder and see Xavier's hand that's on his chest twitching. As relieved as I am that he's waking or is trying to wake up, I wish he would lay still and pretend to still be asleep. If Chris finds out he's waking up, I dread to think what he will do to Xavier.
I'm going to protect Xavier at any cost.
"Chris, how did you kill that guard in the institute?" I ask him to distract him from Xavier. I also asked him because I'm curious, I always have been. It's baffled me how he could kill a security guard at a highly protected place.
Chris pinches his lips together as he thinks about how to tell me. "I didn't kill him. Well, I did but it wasn't intentional. They were taking me upstairs and I refused to go. Naturally, it meant I was fighting them. They were dragging me up the stairs and I just kept struggling until I accidentally pushed one of them down the stairs. I later heard he hit his head on a stair that caused him to fall into a coma. He later died from bleeding in the brain."
A wave of sympathy floods through me at the thought of the poor guard. Chris may not have intentionally killed him but he didn't show any remorse. The whole time he was telling the story, he was frigid and distant. As usual, he didn't care.
"Did you feel remorse? Upset? Did you feel guilty?" I fire questions at him.
He exhales and meets my eyes, "no."
Disgust. I feel disgusted. I want to be sick. A guy died because of him and he didn't feel guilty. The guy might have had a wife and children who will never see him again. Yet, my brother doesn't care. My brother really is a monster.
Xavier stirs again, louder. Unfortunately, Chris catches onto it this time.
"He's waking up," Chris states.
Chris takes another step forwards but I block him. I'm not letting him anywhere near Xavier.
"Now I don't know who to kill. I was planning to kill you and let him bleed to death but if he's waking up then...hmm. Decisions decisions."
I swallow and look behind me to see Xavier shifting his legs. He squeezes his eyes shut and then opens them, blinking rapidly. He groans again and tries to lift himself up but winces. His wound.
I rush over to Xavier and crouch down next to him; place my hand on his chest where the glass is.
Xavier gives me a confused look. "Princess? What happened? Where am I?"
"Its going to be okay Xavier. I won't let him do anything to you, I promise. Help will be here soon." I whisper to him.
Xavier's panicked expression breaks my heart. "What? What is happening, Anna? The last thing I remember is the car crash. Did you drag me out?" I nod my head and he releases a breath. "Jesus."
Xavier looks around at our surroundings and sees Chris. His protective mode goes in. He tries to wrap his arm around me to pull me away from Chris but he fails from his lack of strength. Xavier then settles on sending Chris a frosty glare.
Xavier's grey eyes turn back to me and he assesses me. They widen when he sees my bleeding leg that has a bit of my dress tied around it. "You're hurt, Princess. Are you okay?"
I want to laugh at him but it wouldn't be appropriate. Xavier is so sweet and cute, even in times like this when he's the injured one.
A huff from behind me brings me back to reality. Chris has his arms crossed over his chest as he gives me a bored look.
"Would you please stop your lovey—dovey shit? I want to puke right now."
Xavier ignores Chris's comment. "You must be Chris? The crazy and murderous brother."
"That's me!" Chris waves and gives us a fake bright smile.
I roll my eyes at him and if its possible, Xavier's glare turns colder. I can tell he absolutely hates Chris.
"Right there are two ways this is going to go down. One—" Chris is cut off by multiple sirens. I release a relieved sigh just as Chris's eyes widen.
They get louder and louder until I can see the bright blue and red flashing lights. Several cop cars turn around the corner that is joined by two ambulances. They stop a few feet away from us and hop out. The cops stand in alert stances, with their guns out. Chris is standing with his back to them so he hasn't seen the number of people there yet.
"Christopher Stone put your weapon down right now." A cop calls out to him. Chris turns to his side to stare at him and clenches his jaw.
Chris darts his eyes between me and the cops. It appears he is having an inner battle with himself, on whether to cooperate or not. Eventually, he decides to make it easier. Or at least, that's what everybody thought.
Out of nowhere, Chris pulls a gun out of his back trousers and points it at Xavier's form on the ground.
"Say goodbye to your precious boyfriend." He says, his eyes locked on me.
I don't even think twice, I'm already moving to where Xavier is.
The last thing I hear is a bang.
Word count: 1716
Please don't hate me! *hides behind my sofa*.
So some of you are also asking why the chapters are so short. The answer to that is that I don't have a lot of time right now to write long chapters and I think the chapters work better separate. If chapters 48 and 49 was one long chapter, I don't think it would work as well. I like creating suspense and leave you wanting more.
And I know you hate waiting for updates. Trust me, I feel the same way. When I'm reading books and I'm left on a cliffhanger, I want nothing more than to go and kick something. But please understand that I have a very busy life right now. I'm doing my first year of A-levels (which is very hard) and so I'm trying to juggle study time, work, friendship/family time and writing time. It's very hard. So please understand why I take a few days.
The epilogue will be up on the 1st of March