Dedicated to: xCherryStrawberryx
Thank you for being so awesome! I love how much you support me <<33
"It's a lie. Time does not heal all wounds."
~ thelifeididntchoose.com
Carlton's POV
I picked at my nails vigorously, feet tapping the ground in a restless manner.
"What happened now?" Damien, who was sitting beside me, asked.
I had no idea. Dylan, c'mon. Hurry.
The video in front of us suddenly switched to a black screen. Damien and I braced ourselves. But then, a thank you" message was displayed.
"Dammit." I let out a breathless sigh. Dylan messed it up, didn't he?
Augustus and the other panellists stood up with pride, shaking and congratulating each other while the crowd cheered for their tremendous efforts towards betterment of the society. Vexed, I got off my seat and headed once again to the projector room.
I was going to destroy Dy-
A noise emanated from behind me. A silent crackling like interference from an old television. I turned behind and surely, the presentation was cut and something else was on the screen.
But not what we all were expecting.
We were supposed to display the proof of Augustus' frauds and how he scammed his investors off millions and bribed several coorperate entities. Somewhere in there was an audio of a death threat sent to Breanna, recorded by him. But none of that was showing.
Instead, a glitchy video recorded from someone's phone was displayed. It seemed that who ever was recording it was trying to hide his phone from the others around him.
The people around me were blissfully unaware of the video, talking away with one another as if it were a part of the presentation. But it wasn't. I knew it wasn't. Because a few rows up ahead, Augustus was disconcertingly gripping his colleagues shoulder with distress.
When the phone in the video was slowly lifted up to see what was going around, an eerie silence fell around the conference hall, like a wave of realisation hitting the souls present under that roof. Each and every individual's gaze was glued onto the screen while several of them let out a frightful gasp.
It was Breanna's caretaker, Aunt Vivian, who had supposedly died a few years ago under mysterious circumstances. Nobody knew how or why it had happened. News outlets scurried around for a hint, a head start, anything. All of that, because Aunt Vivian was at a respectable position and a generous lady, and her sudden death a caused panic to flood the headlines.
That same lady was in that video, alive and was being cornered into the wall by a handful of men.
And one of those men was...Augustus Bancroft.
"Fuck..." I exclaimed, endeavouring to hold a chair nearby for support. Because, by God, Breanna told me it was Augustus who had murdered Aunt Vivian and I knew it, but this wasn't what was supposed to be shown on the screen to biggest business tycoons today.
Aunt Vivian dropped onto the floor, screaming that she was sorry, lifting her trembling hands up to her face. But the Augustus, in the video, wouldn't listen. He lifted his arm up, pointing a pistol right to her forehead.
Aunt Vivian begged and shreiked, trying to go furthur away from him but there was nowhere to go.
Bang.
My throat went dry.
Several tiny pieces of glass streamed out of the screen, showering painfully on the people in the front rows, while the screen itself had become pitch black. It took me longer than it should, to realise what was happening.
Up front, steam arose from Augustus' colleague's pistol, after he shot through the screen. A woman shrieked, "He has a gun!" Of course he has a gun, you dipshit.
Some people around me screamed, most had already begun sauntering towards the exit, their bodyguards making way for them.
My whole body had frozen.
Fuck.
This was not supposed to happen.
I wasn't supposed to take it so far.
My brother had told me not to. Caden had told me the consequences of taking it too far. That I must stick to business frauds and never, ever, talk about the murder. Or he will destroy you and everyone you love.
I became numb to the surroundings, sweat dripping down my face with angst as Caden's voice echoed and pulsed in my ears.
"He will destroy you and everyone you love." But I didn't intend this. Someone had played me!
Who would do such a thing?
I had taunted Augustus earlier to show him that I knew about his frauds. From behind the running and screaming crowd, Augustus looked infuriated, directly into my eyes with raging insanity. I realised - now he thinks I did this.
My eyes trailed from Augustus to Damien and then to the man who was dashing towards him.
"Damien, run!" Hearing my voice, the energy of the crowd went even more demented. Even the confused people made a run for it, almost pushing me over. With great effort, I kept myself steady, squeezing through them.
"Damien?!" I yelled for him, but he was nowhere to be seen as everyone tried to exit all at once. All of a sudden, I saw a man lifting a gun to my face. My natural instinct kicked in and I ran the opposite way.
Dylan.
No.
I imagined the worst thing possible must have happened to him, and tears welled up in eyes. I was running now, yanking people aside, and dashing towards the projector room.
I swear to God, if anything happened to him, I would-
Someone rammed into me with extreme force. I was slammed into the wall before landing hard on the marbled floor. My arms and legs trembled as I tried to get back up. They gripped my collar and lifted me up.
I had had enough.
Everything was so messed up. My family was already so disappointed in me, and now I fucked them over even more. Why does this always happen to me? Why do none of my plans ever work like they're supposed to?
A tear streamed down my face as the man pressed the gun to my head muttering so hatefully under his breath, "Hargrave scum."
Zipping and cutting through the air, a bullet shot through the man's head and his body fell lifeless on me, the blood from his torn head dripping down on my suit. My breathing was raspy and I choked for breath as I pushed the man away from me.
"Not so cool now, huh?" Raymond smirked as he reloaded his pistol.
My anger boiled inside of me, my body trying desperately to stand up straight. I pointed a bloody and shivering finger at him. "You. You did this."
"Yeah, I switched the pen drives, so what?"
My eyes snapped wide open. "So what?! So what?! You have any idea what you have done?!"
"I gave a lot of thought to everything I did," he said matter-of-factly, snapping the ammo into his gun. "Now let's get you out of here."
He tried to grabbed me but I snatched my arm away from him. "Don't touch me."
"You still don't understand anything, do you? With that pea brain of yours?" He came close to me, glaring at me. "I did it to protect Breanna."
"Augustus is going to kill me."
"Isn't that the point though?" He chuckled, raising his arms up in the air like he had achieved something great. "I cleared her tracks, now Augustus wouldn't go after her anymore. His new target, my friend...is you."
My whole body fell numb. Words failed me as I analysed the man in front of me, mentally arguing with his logic. He grabbed my arm, pulling me away somewhere, gun hanging in his other hand. "It's better that he goes after someone who can afford to defend himself."
"Wait, we need to get Dylan and Ace!" I suddenly remembered out loud.
Raymond wouldn't let go of me, "You'll die if you stay here any longer."
"Just because you don't give a flying fuck about your friends, doesn't mean I dont either!" With tremendous effort I pulled my arm out of his grip. "I don't care if I die trying to protect them."
He groaned loudly, slamming his fist into the wall. With both his hands, he clutched my collar and yanked me close to his face, until I was glaring right into his bloodshot eyes. "You can't save everyone, Carlton."
You can't save everyone, Carlton.
*****
"You can't save everyone, Carlton."
My hands were clutched tightly between my fathers fingers. Rain poured thunderously, lighting up the gloomy sky by every passing second.
"But Father," I stared at the casket where lied my maid, Mrs. Cheryl, "She taught me how important life was."
Her casket was being lowered into a grave, people standing around and praying for her peaceful rest.
My father bent down to my height. "And then she jumped off the balcony. It's a choice that she made. And for whatever reason she did that, we cannot judge her."
"But... But who's gonna read me bedtime stories?"
"How old are you, son?"
"Eight."
"Then you're a big boy, now." He smiled to comfort me but it didn't. "And big boys read their own bedtime stories."
*****
"Carlton, hey?!" Raymond shook me by my shoulder. "Are you listening?! They'll kill you! You need to run! Now, go!"
"No."
"Huh?" Raymond snarled at me.
"I won't run anymore."
I pushed him off, very violently this time and feet ambled towards the projector room with angst, and he didn't stop me this time. In fact, he came after me. I didn't know what I was feeling. The familiar pain and heaviness my chest was coming back. The one I always felt when something was about to go wrong.
Awfully wrong.
It happened before my mom and brother moved out of my childhood home forever. It happened before Mrs. Cheryl jumped off the balcony. It happened before I saw my Father shoot a man in his office one day. It happened before Breanna disappeared a few years ago.
What would it be this time?
The projector room's door was ajar. But there was no movement.
Silence.
Someone's coughing echoed down the corridor, alerting me. I sauntered into the room and Raymond followed suit.
Inside the room, several bodies were lying still, blood streaming out under them and staining the tiled floors, guns strewn on the scarlet puddles. Amidst all this chaos, beat and battered Ace knelt on the floor, coughing his lungs out. Dylan sat next to him, gripping Ace's shoulder with a stern expression.
I looked back questioningly at Raymond. He retorted, "I didn't do this! I only switched the pen drives, that's all!"
I let out a sigh of relief since Dylan didn't seem hurt at all. Ace had protected him. Streaks of blood were slithering from his blond curls and down his forehead.
And just when I was about to tell them how Raymond's little side plan had put me at the top of Augustus Bancroft's "fuck you" list, I caught a man's body twitching.
I began to react, but it was too late. The man who was supposed to be dead had already grabbed a gun and aimed it towards Ace.
A loud bang echoed in the small room.
Before I leaped at the shooter, Raymond shot the man in the head, a fountain of blood spilling on the wall behind him. But he was too late.
It was as if my whole body went stiff. My lower lip trembled as my head turned towards Ace, my mind struggling to grip reality. The edges of my vision went dark.
Raymond was too late.
I expected Ace to fall face first into the floor. But what happened instead, pulled my heart strings till I choked on my breath.
Dylan fell backward, his body collapsing feebly on the floor, with a thud.
And he lay still.
**********