Brittany stared at him and then slapped him right on the cheek. “You are lucky I threw that stick.”
The guy rubbed his cheek in embarrassed making us laugh even more. “Now that was fun.” Joe snickered, pointing at the red cheek.
“Fuck off.” The guy said, flipping him the finger.
Brittany went and sat beside Alicia with a slight smile. I looked at Alicia still surprised by her presence. Right now I was starting to doubt my own sanity.
“My uncle owns this.” She said, noticing my curious stare.
My eyes widened in realization. Her mother’s side is Indian so this must be her rich uncle’s.
“But we were at the cottage.” I reminded them.
“We met her at the party. You know Alicia would never miss any large party.” Brittany chuckled.
Alicia smiled slightly and shrugged. “I was just beside them when they got the call. They seemed so stressed out and all, I just thought I could be of some help. So I joined them. When your call was traced to this area, I figured it could be this house since it’s been empty for ages now. Turns out I was right.”
I gave her a small appreciative smile. “Thanks.”
She shrugged acting impassive but the gleam of satisfaction in her eyes was a dead giveaway. “Kian would be proud.” She muttered lowly.
I nodded, swallowing hard. “He would be.”
Sometimes villains just need a chance to prove themselves as heroes.
Everyone can change when given a chance.
“So let’s -” Alicia’s sentence was cut short when a gun shot rang throughout the house. Everyone jumped and froze for a good fifteen seconds before I shouted.
“Fuck Alan and Anastasia!” I ran out blindly trying to find the source of the sound.
“Where’s Alan?” A sweaty and limping Logan asked as he tried to run towards us followed by equally tired and bloody Connor, Bryan and Dylan.
I shrugged and pointed to his leg. “What happened?”
“That asshole guard thought it would nice to twist my ankle.” Logan snarled. “But then I twisted in arm and gave him my karate chop, he’s unconscious now.” He stated proudly.
I clapped his back. “That’s my boy. Now let’s find Alan.”
We ran towards the source of sound, coming to a halt in front of a wooden closed door. Ian and Max soon joined us both breathing heavily.
We strained to hear the voices coming from inside.
“Don’t do this Alan, you’ll regret it.” Anastasia’s threatening yet a little scared voice came.
“I have always wanted to do this Anastasia and now I am not going to miss the chance.” Alan said and the click of a gun came.
Before anyone could move Logan had opened the door, makes us all fall inside.
Anastasia stood in a corner, her gun lay a few feet away from her and Alan was in front of her, his gun pointing straight at her.
“What are you all doing here?” Alan scowled at us.
Logan slapped his back. “Playing Halloween trick or treat.”
Alan’s scowl deepened. “Go, you don’t want to see me shoot someone.”
“Of course I do.” Janice said excitedly. “It’s in my non-existent bucket list. Go on shoot, shoot, shoot.” She chanted enthusiastically.
Alan sighed in clear frustration. “This is no game of Call of Duty. Go.”
I huffed a breath of air. “No.”
“Joanna.”
“Alan.”
“Go before -” Alan’s sentence stopped midway when we heard a cackling laughter.
Anastasia should with victory and mirth in her eyes and her gun pointed straight at me.
“Once I kill this bitch, I can die peacefully.”
It was like Déjà vu except this time I could scream and everyone I loved them and they could hear.
“Anastasia, don’t.” Bryan spoke for the first time, taking a step closer to me.
Her face wavered as she glanced at Bryan then back at me and at him. From the corner of my eye I saw Alan, Logan and Connor come closer to me, trying to protect me.
“I thought we’d be happy, Bryan.” She started, pressing her lips together and shaking her head in disappointment. “But your choices have clearly degraded. You were happy here.” She waved her free hand around. “With me, with the gang, with drugs. No dad to shout or no need to go through your mother’s torture. Even Sean wouldn’t have been a problem. But you wanted to step into reality and the reality is that I cannot let you love someone else. You are mine and if I can’t have you, no one can.”
And in that moment I reached a conclusion that she was a crazy overly obsessed ex-girlfriend. If it was up to her she would sew her name on all his clothes so he wouldn’t forget he is hers and everyone who met him would know it too.
I shivered in fright and tension. Why did he ever have to date her? I thought for the millionth time that day.
Janice came besides, gripping my hand tightly. “Is it surprising that I no longer want to my bucket list to be completed?”
I let out low nervous chuckle. “No but I think it’s going to get completed anyways.”
Anastasia stared one more time at Bryan wistfully. “I had even chosen my wedding dress and names for our babies.”
I twisted my lips in disgust. Pathetic!
Bryan gave her a small smile, a smiled that chilled me to the bones. “We can do that even now. Let Joanna go and we’ll go far from her, together.”
I heard gasps around me and not surprisingly one was mine too. “What are you doing?” I hissed.
He ignored me, stepping closer to Anastasia. “We can do that even now Ana.” She looked at him with so much hope in her eyes that it almost broke my heart but I was way too angry to care.
What was Bryan doing? Going back to his crazy ex?
If he’s doing this to protect me then he is the one who needs protection now. Because I was a dragon and I was definitely breathing fire!
“Dude are you okay?” Dylan whispered, patting Bryan’s shoulder.
He looked at him and nodded. “Just get Joanna back to safety.”
I scowled at him. “If this is your way to save me it sucks. I am not going anywhere and nor are you. If you take one more step towards that retarded woman, I’ll bitch slap you.” I warned in a low menacing tone.
He looked at me sideways. “I care for you enough to sacrifice my happiness for yours.”
Any other situation and I would have swooned but this wasn’t the right time. “Don’t you dare Bryan Cooper, I’ll never forgive you.”
“She’s right and nor would I.” Anastasia snarled. “You love her and even though you’ll be with me your heart will always be with her. Better option is to just kill her.” Her gun pointed at me again and this time her finger right on the trigger.
“Anastasia don’t.” Bryan started but his words were lost in the gunshot.
Everything moved in slow motion as I saw the bullet come towards and then screams filled the air. I felt someone push me aside and saw Dylan and Max move to Anastasia and grab her from killing herself. She was shouting manically, “No! No! This can’t happen, this is not supposed to happen.”
I stood still trying feel some pain but I felt none, the only pain being the slight one in my arm on being pushed hard. A body fell in front of me writhing in pain and I blinked, my eyes widened as I realized what had happened.
“You took the fucking bullet for me, you dipshit!”