Second Chance

“John!” I yelled after John and he was running down the street. I was in a rush and I had not put on a coat; it was freezing cold, but I did not care. All I wanted was to get John back to the house, where it would be safe.
“John! Come back!” Edward shouted but John just ran faster. I increased my speed but I tripped and fell down onto the concrete floor.
“AHH!” I screamed as I landed on the floor and scraped my palms. I got up and knelt down on the floor and saw that blood was seeping through the scratches.
“(Yn)! Are you okay?” Edward quickly helped me to my feet again and I looked up to see John had stopped to check if I was okay. But once he saw me looking at him and was about to continue the chase he picked up his pace again.
“John! Stop!” I shouted but he ignored me.
“(Yn)!” Edward grabbed my arm, “You’re bleeding! You can’t keep running like this!”
“I need to get John back,” I began to cry again – I was so scared that what happened last time would happen again; I could not let them get hurt. I yanked my arm away and ran after John. Edward did not say anything and ran with me.
“Please John! This isn’t funny! You need to stop running! Something bad is going to happen!” I had to try everything I could to stop him – but to my horror he turned into the narrow side paths and ran through the maze of alleyways between the houses.
“No, John, NO!” I screamed, trying to catch up to him but it was almost impossible. Edward did not know what was happening but he could feel that I did mean something was going to happen, so he left my side and ran ahead of me as he was a much faster runner than me. He could almost catch up to John when John made a sharp turn.
I turned the corner following them but ran into someone. I had hit Edward’s back, and when I took a step back it felt like my heart could beat out of my chest.
Before us stood the gang which I met last time, and they were doing the same thing – trading drugs. And they were looking at us angrily.
My worst fear had become reality.
“We have to go,” John stuttered in a low voice and turned around, grabbing me and Edward on the way.
We ran out of the narrow sidewalk and into the main street. John had already let go of Edward but he was still holding my hand.
I could see they were trying to lose the gang who was chasing behind us, and I tried my best to keep up with them. It was not easy because I had already used up my energy to chase after John.
I was panting like mad and none of us was saying anything. We ran through endless side paths and I could barely breathe by the time we made the fifth turn, when John and Edward seemed well okay with running.
“I can’t run anymore,” I said, out of breath, “Just run to the police station, and remember, DO NOT GO HOME.” And I broke my hand from John’s.
“What?” John turned around, shocked at what I had said, and Edward had stopped running to look back too, “We’re not leaving you behind! Are you stupid? Come on!”
John stepped closer to me and swept me off my feet swiftly, holding me in his arms, bridal style. Then he began to run and follow Edward’s lead.
We ran through a few more streets and finally we could not see the gang following behind us. We had lost them… For the time being.
“I guess we’ve lost them,” Edward looked back and they both slowed down a bit.
“We can go home now; we just have to be careful,” John nodded.
“NO!” I shouted, “We can’t go home! Go to the police station!”
“Why? (Yn), they can’t find us now,” John said, and they had not stopped walking.
“Trust me,” I said, “It’s not safe.”
“Well, we’ll go back and ring the police,” Edward said, “We can’t stop here to ring now; it’s dangerous.”
“Our home is not safe to stay at,” I tried to persuade them, “Please, just trust me.”
“We can’t possibly go to the police station (Yn),” John said, “It’s too far away.”
“But—”
“We’re almost home,” John said and they both increased their speed. They looked around carefully before letting us enter the house, ignoring my pleading.
John put me down onto the floor and we all went to sit down on the sofa. Edward called the police and told them what situation we were in.
“Really,” I said, panicking, “We can’t stay here.”
“Why would you say that?” Edward asked, “And you seem to know about the situation well too, (Yn), it’s strange… Like you already know this is going to happen.”
“You won’t believe me if I say it,” I said, “But please, just trust me on this.”
“Why?” John chimed in, “Tell us, however ridiculous it sounds.”
“I – I’m from the future,” I said quietly, and looked away.
“Future?” they both questioned at the same time.
“Yes,” I nodded, “It a long story but basically I’m John’s girlfriend and Edward’s my best friend and we got ourselves into the same mess with the gang but for a different reason – and later on something bad happened and I got depressed so I killed myself. I got caught in a storm while doing so, so I was transported back to the day when we first met.” I purposely left out the part where Edward saved us because I did not want to scare them.
They looked at me with an identical expression. They both looked stunned.
“That – that sounds crazy!” John stuttered.
“But then why would I know we’d get caught in this mess?” I said, “You both heard me; I was saying something bad would happen when John was running away.”
“Well… I guess you have a point,” Edward nodded, “You seemed well nervous when he ran out – and you can’t know it just because you’re involved with the gang. That’s the least believable reason; you’re not a bad person.”
“But that’s just real crazy,” John said, his eyes still opened wide, “Still, I believe you (Yn)… And I’m glad to hear that even though this is the second shot, I’ve still fallen for you – we’re meant to be, and I’m sorry for what’s just happened… It’s my fault.”
“Don’t,” I said and grabbed him into a hug, “I love you John, I really do… It’s just that I love Edward too.”
“Edward is an amazing guy, so I guess I get why you’d fall for him,” John said, “I don’t blame you… And I love you too much; I want you to be happy and I don’t want to make you choose between me and Edward… But at the same time I don’t think I’ll be able to let go of you and push you away so you can end up with Edward happily. The only solution will be letting this carry on….”
“What?” I stuttered, shocked.
“Edward and I basically share everything,” John continued, “I was just so shocked about you and Edward together and I overreacted. I guess Edward wouldn’t mind, as he’s been doing this all along. As weird as it sounds, I don’t mind it now, I guess I can get used to this.”
“Are – are you actually serious?” I asked, still shocked about John’s speech.
He nodded, and Edward said, “As long as the others don’t know about this, I’m okay with it,”
“So it’s all sorted,” John exchanged a smile with Edward.
“This sounds wrong,” I said slowly, “But I like this.”
They grinned at me, and I could not believe what I was getting myself into. But I did not think I could live with any other solutions. I needed them. Both of them.
“This might have been sorted out,” I suddenly remembered the situation we were in, “But we seriously can’t stay here. They’ll burst in any moment; trust me.”
“Okay,” they nodded, as they clearly believed my story now. We were getting up from the sofa when sounds of banging began at the front door.
Uh-oh. We were too late.
“Shoot,” I muttered under my breath as my heart skipped a beat, “We need to get out of here. We can’t stay here, we CAN’T!” I began to have a panic attack and grabbed the twins’ hands. I pulled them upstairs with me. I had to do something. I could not let the same scenario happen.
“We’ll get out of the windows,” I said while I pulled them into Edward’s room, as his room was the farthest one from the front door.
“But the police will be here soon; we can’t jump from the second floor!” Edward said, but I ignored them and pushed open the window.
“We can’t stay here – things aren’t going to look good if we stay here, we must try!” I said and climbed out of the window first as they were obviously not going to jump down, but they would if I did it.
“No,” John stopped me by grabbing my arm, “That’s too dangerous. I’ll jump first and I’ll catch you.”
John pushed me out of the way and took a deep breath. Then he climbed out of the window and leaped down.
He landed safely fortunately and he signaled me to jump down. I made my leap and John caught me in his arms, with Edward landing beside us.
John put me down and we crept around the house as quietly as possible. I could still hear banging on the front door.
“Come this way!” I whispered to them but just when we were turning around the corner of the house, I caught my feet in the water hose and fell down, and I accidentally let out a scream.
“No!” Edward said urgently in a low voice but he was too late. My scream was already made and the banging on the front had stopped. They had heard me.
The twins helped me to my feet and pushed me behind them while backing away in the opposite direction to the front door. We began to run after a few steps, trying to get as far away from the house as possible. I could hear footsteps behind us now.
But we could not get far. I was running behind the twins as I was not as fast a runner, and before I knew what was happening, I was hit on the back and fell down onto the hard, cold floor just right behind the house, where it was hidden from the other houses.
We were doomed. No one could see us and even if we screamed for help, no one would help us as the gang had weapons and people would not dare to help us.
“(Yn)!” John and Edward stopped and turned around as they heard that I was caught.
“Just run!” I told them, “Go!”
But they ignored me and John jumped onto the man who was pinning me down. He pushed him away and helped me up and Edward helped us held off the men that were trying to get to us as I was struggling to get back to my feet.
“Stop or I’ll shoot you!” one of the men yelled and we all froze. I recognized the voice, and it was the leader of the gang.
I slowly turned around and saw that a few of the men had their guns pointing towards us. The three of us moved in slow motion and the twins wrapped their arms around me protectively, positioning me slightly behind them. Now we could not escape. We were left in the same situation again.
“We can’t possibly let you go because you have seen our deal,” the nasty leader said; I could never forget about his voice, “We need to clear all the evidence…”
“We won’t tell the police,” Edward tried to reason with them. This conversation was almost identical to the one we had in my previous experience. The similarity was starting to scare me. I could tell this would turn ugly.
“Only an idiot will believe that,” the man boomed with laughter, “We’ve already wasted too much time; we have to end this quickly. You and you—” he signaled the two men who were flanking him, “Get your guns ready.”
They pointed their guns at us. “I love you (Yn),” John whispered and gave me a squeeze, “I’m glad that you’ve chosen to enter our lives again. I don’t know what exactly has happened last time, but it doesn’t matter even though we can’t escape this time. I love you, and I love you Edward; you’re the best brother anyone could ever get.”
“I love you too John, the best twin in the world,” Edward whispered and overlapped his hand on John’s which was on my shoulder, “And I love you (Yn); John’s right and I’m glad to have you in my life.”
“I love you both,” I whispered, “Forever and always. I’m sorry for this…”
I knew what was about to happen and I would not let the same thing happen this time. As I could see the men were about to fire their guns, I pushed the twins away with all my might and threw myself forward.
“Nooooo!” I could hear John and Edward scream as I fell onto the floor. I looked up and could see that the men were aiming their guns at John and Edward.
“FREEZE!” just like last time, the police had arrived in time to save the other two. John and Edward were safe now. One person was going to die anyway, and I was glad that I was the one taking the bullets this time. I could begin to feel pain in my upper body.
“(Yn)!” the screamed and fell down onto their knees on either side of me, with tears running down their faces.
I smiled at them weakly and a happy tear rolled down from the corner of my eye – my mission was accomplished; maybe God really wanted to be fair to them and let them live.
I had caused too many troubles for them and now I had sorted everything out. Maybe I was given my second chance to set everything right. They had given the best time of my live and it would only be fair if they could live happily ever after. Everyone deserved the same amount of happiness; I had used up mine in my two “lives” and now it was going to end for me. John and Edward had done too much for me and now it was their time to continue and enjoy their lives, without me being a burden, which was causing them troubles, making them to fight over me.
“Why, why?” John took my hand and pressed his lips to the back of my hand, “Why did you do that? WHY?”
“Because I love you,” I breathed, “I’ve caused way too many troubles for you and now I can finally do something for you two. You two are the purpose of my life…”
“How can we live when the purpose of our lives is gone?” Edward cried and put my hand against his cheek.
“You still have a chance to find a new one,” I said.
“No,” John sobbed, “We won’t have the strength to find a new purpose when our source of energy is gone!”
“Promise me,” I looked them in the eye, “Live. Do not waste my effort. Live happily for me and don’t you dare hurt yourself. Understood?”
They looked pained, but nodded anyway.
“I love you,” I smiled at them and I admired their faces for one last time.
“I love you too,” they said, and I closed my eyes happily after hearing those three words from them, which were the meaning of my life.