Adaline
Come in!” A sweet, high-pitched voice was heard from the other side, and I jumped for the doorknob. Gripping and twisting it, I opened the door with a big smile on my face, only to stop dead in my tracks, my smile being washed off by a hot wave of fear. My eyes grew wide while looking at the cold, dangerous and black gun pointing towards me.
I felt Ayato stopping right beside me, stiffening.
The tense atmosphere was cut by a high-pitched, bone-chilling giggle, making us stiffen even more.
“Well, well. I’m so happy you two could pay us a visit,” I gulped at the voice of the woman in front of my eyes, that was filled with pure evilness, goosebumps raising all over my body. In that moment, just a single thought was passing through my mind, making me realize that all of this was real.
Oh shit.
Geezums, beezums, mother of Jesus! In what kind of tragedy, drama, comedy shit serial thing I am in?! I must be dreaming, I swear to God.
Blinking in confusion, my heart drummed in my ears as I slowly stepped forward, closer to the gun. Everybody was caught off guard, visibly stopping breathing as they saw me boldly going towards the gun.
Stopping right in front of it, I brought my hand and softly touched the gun with my index finger. My eyes narrowed.
“Is this even real? I mean, c’mon. What kind of cliché, sappy, cheesy, gag-worthy, cringy romance book/movie is this?” I rolled my eyes, thinking that this situation is way too surreal to be real. “Like, look how fake this is,” I tapped the gun, studying it with boredom written all over my face. “Not even an ounce of real is written on i– AAAAH!”
I moved back, falling on the ground due to the gun going off, luckily, up in the air.
With myself practically plastered on the floor, my eyes studied the ceiling, me afraid of even raising up to my feet. Okay, that gun is real.
Also, there’s a hole in the ceiling now.
“Just how stupid can you be?” The woman asked, probably shaking her head at my idiotic self. “Come on, up to your feet. Now.”
I needn’t to be told twice, and immediately jumped on my feet landing right in front of the woman. My lips tightened and my eyes widened in surprise, and I fought the urge to yelp at the proximity between me and a killer.
She narrowed her eyes to me, making my eyes widen even more. I gulped, hands starting to shake.
Happily for me, an arm wrapped around my waist and pulled me backwards into a chest. It was Ayato.
Ah, now I feel safe.
He pushed me behind him, his posture stiff, his face rid of any emotion.
Now I feel even saf—
Oh no! I won’t let my baby boo sit in front while a gun is pointed at his head. Nope!
I tried to step in front of him, but he stopped me by extending his arm to the side. He turned his head to the side and threw me a scolding, serious look.
I pursed my lips and stepped back, loosely gripping at his shirt in fear for him. He took his hand to his back making me lose the grip on his shirt, and instead take his hand in mine.
“Oh what a cute couple. You know who else would make an even cuter couple?” Sam’s step mother giggled maniacally, staring at us with venomously sweet look. Not as sweet as the gun was gazing at us, of course. She didn’t wait for a response, though, and opened her mouth after a second the rhetorical question had been asked. “His money and I, of course,” The woman started giggling like she heard the best joke of the year, gesturing to Ayato.
My eyes widened, but Ayato seemed kind of annoyed and not at all amused. Of course that he wasn’t amused, Adaline. We’re talking about his money here, after all.
He wasn’t muttering a word, but judging by the expression he had on his face he had some similar situations to this happening in the past. He was calm and collected, his face giving no sign that he was afraid, and instead showing that he knew exactly what he was doing, not as if a gun was pointed at his head.
“How much money do you want?” Ayato asked, making my eyes bulge out their sockets and fall to the ground with a short, high-pitched clink. Kidding. I was just shocked.
“Ayato,” I hissed from behind him. “What the hell are you doing?”
He turned his head a bit to the side so he could whisper to me. Opening his mouth, he said- “Trust me.”
A slight frown has begun to form on my face, and I once again asked him a question. “Do you even know what you’re doing?”
“Nope.”
I resisted the urge to face-palm right then and there. This wasn’t one of those situations where you could just freely face-palm yourself because of someone’s stupidity. And yet again, it was. And yet yet again, I just realized one of those face-palming moments were just a few minutes ago when I touched the gun thinking that it was fake. Oh, the level of stupidity has risen exponentially in this room in the past ten minutes.
Sam’s stepmother’s eyes sparkled blissfully, and she instantly lowered the gun a bit, shocked. “Really? Oh that was easy,” And she took the gun back up, a smirk coloring her lips. “All of your money, of course.”
“No, mother. Stop. Leave them alone.”
A voice called from up on the stairs, and all of the heads snapped to it. She started climbing down the stairs, positioning herself to stand in between us, but to the side.
Sam.
“Samantha, do not intervene,” Her step-mother gritted her teeth together. “You called them here, you betrayed them!”
My eyes widened, and Ayato’s posture seemed to stiffen even more. What?!
“Mom,” Samantha shook her head, her eyes on the woman’s left back jeans’ pocket. “How could you say that when my phone is clearly in your possession?”
She narrowed her eyes to Samantha, and her free hand unconsciously went to hide the phone in her pocket.
“Samantha,” The woman hissed, her voice leaving a chilling warning in the air. “If you don’t shut up, the boy will die.”
Everybody froze.
The boy? What boy? What?
I looked over Ayato’s shoulder and furrowed my eyebrows. My palm lightly touching his back, I looked around.
What boy?
“Ayato,” I whispered to him. Although, his head tilted a bit in my direction, most of his attention along with his eyes were fixed on the woman who was pointing the gun and a very sweet smile in his direction.
“What guy?”
The silence dominating the room seemed to get even heavier, all the heads snapping to me in an instant.
I pouted and looked at all of them.
“Adaline,” A voice called out. I looked at Samantha. “What the fuck?”
And suddenly I realized who that boy was, my cheeks blazing a cherry red. I averted my eyes downwards and leaned my forehead against Ayato’s back. I felt and heard him sigh.
We heard a throat clear and Sam’s stepmother suddenly spoke.
“You don’t believe me? I’m going to kill him!” She put both of her hands on the gun, gripping it tighter.
“Mom, you can’t do that.”
“Oh, and why is that?” The woman rolled her eyes and stared at Samantha, irony dripping over her words.
“Because if he will die, you won’t have his money.”
The woman shut up.
“That’s reasonable,” She nodded her head in thought, but soon snapped back to reality. “Still, I do have the courage to do it. Not to him, but…”
Her body turned.
“To you,” Her eyes sparkled.
Sam’s mouth dropped a bit and she took an involuntary step back.
“No,” she whispered.
“Yes,” The monster smirked, nodding her head.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“No.”
“Y-”
“NO!” A voice suddenly screamed from the door and some frantic steps started walking towards the woman.
Zach?
“Give me the gun right now.” He hold out his palm, some feet away from her.
The woman seemed frustrated by now, fire burning in her eyes.
“Okay, then, I’m going to shoot you,” She shouted, the gun pointed to him. “Say bye bye to the world.”
And she pressed the trigger right as we heard someone shouting.
I closed my eyes, screamed and fell to the ground, my ears covered by my hands.
A faint groan was heard and when I opened my eyes, Samantha was laying on the ground, blood dripping off of her.
I screamed again and with tears prickling at my eyes, I sped up to her and took her in my arms. Vision blurry, I started calling her, but in vain. She was unconscious.
“NOW!” Zach shouted, taking the chance of the woman’s shock to kick her legs, in result making her fall and drop the gun. At the shout, Ayato had a fast reaction and took the gun, now pointing it to the woman’s head who was trying to go for the gun.
Zach took her arms and held them behind her back.
“Adaline,” Ayato’s low voice was heard and my head perked up a bit. “Call 911.”
I nodded my head, my shaky hands taking the phone from my pocket, trying to dial the number.
After I dialed it, I took it to my ear, holding Sam’s hand in my free one.
Please don’t die, Sam.
Please don’t die.
– – – – – –
“She will be unconscious for a few hours. We have successfully retrieved the bullet from her shoulder. Luckily, it hasn’t hit anything important so with a few weeks of recovery, she should be just fine. But make sure she takes her medicine well and that she doesn’t put too much pressure on her arm,” The doctor told us as he had gotten out of her room, our anxious heart finally finding some much needed relief.
The doctor seemed prepared to leave, but stopped and looked at us with a smile on his face.
“You did a really good job calling us when the wound was still fresh,” He smiled at us, nodded his head in our direction and now left.
We managed to give a tight smile back, all of us to worried and still in shock from the situation before to show any expressions of happiness.
Entering Sam’s room, we’ve been standing there for a few hours until Ayato tapped my shoulder, saying that he will have to leave for a bit as he is thirsty. I slowly let go of Sam’s hand and raised up to my feet, now sliding my fingers into Ayato’s hand.
“Zach,” I whispered to him and he raised his head from the ground, his eyes tired. “We’re going to get something to drink. Do you want something?”
He just shook his head and looked back down.
Concerned over him, I opened my mouth to ask him if he really didn’t want something but Ayato tugged at my hand, getting us out of Sam’s room.
I stared at him in silence, feeling guilty that I hadn’t asked Zach again if he wasn’t thirsty.
Probably seeing my pouty lips and my concerned face, Ayato’s voice was heard.
“I will buy him a hot chocolate.”
I furrowed my eyebrows.
“Why not coffee?”
And this time, when I looked at Ayato, he had a small smile in the corner of his mouth.
“He hates it,” He answered. “Everytime he tried to drink it, his face would look so disgusted that even us, the guys that were with him, were afraid to drink coffee again,” And now, he chuckled.
I smiled, thinking that it was cute. I didn’t really like coffee either.
Jemima, on the other hand, loved the hell out of it.
I wonder how she is—
JEMIMA!
Suddenly, my hand left Ayato’s hand and frantically searched for my phone, now dialing Jemima’s number. I felt Ayato stare at me in question, moving to my other side to take my hand back in his. My heart fluttered.
“Addy?”
I snapped back to reality.
“Jemima! You won’t believe what had happened!” I hurriedly said.
“Damn right, I won’t. My sister didn’t even care to call me and tell me that our cousin had been shot! Good God, Adaline!” She shouted at me from the other side and I put some distance between my ear and the phone to avoid eardrum damage.
“How do you know about this?” I asked her, guiltiness setting deep into my heart.
“How?” I sensed a sarcastic smile in her voice. “Look up.”
I looked up and there she was, storming in front of us. I squealed and hid myself behind Ayato.
Jemima ended the phone call, standing right in front of us.
“I called her,” Ayato cut the tension between us and I looked at his head.
“You did a really good job, Aya,” Jemima smiled at him and then snapped her head to me. I squealed and sunk further into my safety which was Ayato’s protecting body covering me.
“As for you, missy,” Jemima took my arm and dragged me in front. “One. I can’t believe you haven’t told me! And two, are you alright?”
Her eyes now showed worry as she examined me from head to toe.
“I’m okay, Jem.”
Sighing in relief, she hugged me.
“I’m sorry I haven’t called you sooner.”
“Nah, don’t worry. Ayato had always been a gossiper so of course he is going to be the first to tell me,” Jem laughed, getting out of the hug and sticking her tongue out at Ayato.
He narrowed his eyes at her and seemed to be ready to kill her when I spoke, catching both of their attention.
“Before you kill each other, let’s go and get something to drink alright?”
They nodded simultaneously, smiling.
– – – – – – –
As we entered the room with the drinks, we stopped in our tracks seeing Sam awaken, a distant look in her eyes as she stared up at the ceiling.
She looked at us as we entered the room, a smile setting upon her lips. We walked up to her, putting the drinks on the nightstand and sitting down on the chairs beside her bed.
It was silence before Sam spoke.
“I guess I have to tell you everything, don’t I?” She let out a strangled laugh and Jem gave her water to drink. She accepted it and smiled at her in gratefulness after she drank from it.
“Well, long story short, my stepmother was in love with money. She found out that the Anders were living nearby my cousins so she decided to steal his money. Being her daughter, I was ordered to listen to her or else threats would fly aimlessly at me, some of them even becoming true,” She sighed, her tired eyes finally happy that everything ended. “I told my father she wasn’t a good choice, but he never listened. Maybe now he will,” She whispered the last part.
“But Zach?” I find myself blurting out the question. “What has he to do with all of this? Why was he there?”
“Zach?” Sam smiled. “Zach is her son.”
Our jaws dropped.
“You have a stepbrother?!” Jemima shouted and covered her mouth with her hands when she realized she had screamed. “Sorry,” she whispered.
We all moved our eyes from her to Sam.
“Well, yeah. He was adopted by her, waiting to finish high school to finally escape from her. He now did so there’s a happy ending to all of this.”
I looked down, silence conquering now the hospital room, leaving us thinking of all that had recently happened.
When did my life become such a drama?
Ayato stopped my thoughts with a question that has risen even more thoughts in my head.
“Where is Zach?”
Sam’s expression changed quickly but was gone even faster than it came, being replaced with a forced smile.
“He had left a few moments before you guys came. He had to go to the police station, most probably, for the case of his mother.”
We nodded our heads.
Maybe that was what worried Sam, but the more as I looked, the more it seemed as it was something else.
I pursed my lips and looked away.
But again, maybe I’m imagining things.