His face looks more relaxed by the time he tucks himself away and it fuels my desire to end his fucking life if I ever escape from these shackles.
My temporary relief from the end of his assault is replaced with panic when I notice the gun is still aimed at Riley.
“Wait,” I panic, yanking hard on my restraints, but not feeling the pain of it in my numb extremities. “Y-you said you’d f-f-free h-him.” I half-sob, my body losing its fight and trying to shut itself down to heal and disconnect from reality.
“Hmm,” He hums, looking at his spend and rubs it into my skin, making me dry heave at the acrid smell of his release clinging to my body. “I did say I’d free him, didn’t I?
He steps away from me and toward Riley.
Relief never had a chance to take hold because in an instant, Guy raises the gun higher and presses it against Riley’s forehead. His beautiful face is blocked by the monster of my nightmares. Black creeps into my vision and I fight to stay here in the present with him. I try to beg Guy to let him go, but nothing more than a broken rasp comes out when I open my mouth.
Riley’s sobs mix together with mine and echo throughout this small prison cell of a room. Meanwhile, Guy laughs in the face of his betrayal.
“Collins listen to me baby,” Riley whimpers and hiccups through his tears, his voice carrying over the psycho’s laughter as he taunts my reason for breathing with his gun. “I love you?—”
“I hate you,” I croak quietly.
“I know. But I’ll love you enough for the both of us.”
The familiar words nearly stop my heart altogether, knowing their true meaning. We had this very exchange when I briefly woke up in the trunk of the car to Riley watching me with drooping, weepy eyes. I didn’t want my first time telling him I loved him to be as a captive in the trunk of a car, now I may never get that chance at all.
I was going to tell both him and Creed that I loved them the night we were taken. I haven’t even heard Guy mention Creed the entire time we’ve been here. My heart cracks at the thought of the man I’ve loved my whole life.
I know he’s probably out there looking for me and won’t stop until he does. I just hope it’s in time.
I’m pulled from my thoughts as I drift away to hear a voice start to sing. Even in the face of death, Riley is singing to me. His voice is weak and sounds so haunted and broken, but the words of the song that he and Creed wrote for me settle over my heart like a balm for my shattered soul.
A song about their love for a goddess born of stardust, and her guardians who rose from ashes.
“This is just fucking sad.” Guy’s voice cuts through the sorrowful song that has flooded the room. He looks at Riley and laughs, the sound so chilling that it wraps around my body like a sheet of ice. “I did promise my little girl that I’d free you. So I will.” He presses his gun to Riley’s temple and a sob escapes his lips. His eyes are trained on mine, trying to tell me everything and nothing all at once. “Collins say ‘goodbye’.” Guy says coldly as he presses the gun harder into Riley’s temple.
No, no, no! Please, God, don’t take him away from me. From us.
Please, please, please, let him live.
He deserves to live.
I try again and again to plead for his life, jerking as hard as I can against my restraints until my voice finally cracks through.
“No, please—” But my second scream is cut off when the room explodes with a loud BANG!
Blood sprays the wall and I cry out, Riley’s name the last thing on my lips before my world explodes around me and my mind fades into oblivion.
