I'm Not Dead

[ C H. 2 7 ]

Trigger warning: disturbing images, violence.

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I wasn't sure if the first shot missed because Joe's aim was off, or because he was warning me my final moments were now, but he was absolutely trying to shoot me with the bullets that he fired afterward.

In instant, the quiet room erupted into madness as me, Eleanor, Mateo, and Alice rolled off the bed and pressed ourselves into the corner between the wall and dresser. Immediately, as he moved into the room, Alice and Mateo started crying as they clung to us, and I desperately looked for a way out but there was none without getting shot. Eleanor must've realized this as well because, for the first time since this mess started, I saw tears glistening on her face.

"Stop it! Stop Joe! Let us explain! Please!" She screamed over the gunfire as the four of us huddled together.

I was in full panic mode now. I had no idea what to do. Every time gunshots had rung out the past couple of weeks, someone had died no matter the scenario. Not to mention the last time I heard a gun go off in a close vicinity I held my mother's bloody corpse in my arms.

I couldn't breathe.

My chest was so tight, I was surprised my heart didn't come up my throat.

Briefly, the gunfire ceased as Joe made his way into the center of the room and pointed his gun at us as he walked around the foot of the bed. I could tell by the way his chest rose and fell and how his eyes burned at the sight of me that I was a dead man. "Move away from the kids Rocco! Your siblings can go, but you die tonight!" he barked.

Sobbing, Mateo and Alice both gripped onto me as they begged him to stop. Wrapping my arms around them, I held my youngest siblings tight as I released a shaky breath. "Please let me explain, please," I begged, my voice scarcely above a whisper as images of my mom flashed through my head. I felt like I was relieving that night. Hell, I was about to, only this time I'd be the one with a bullet in my chest.

"You fucked my wife and knowingly put my family in danger! There's nothing to explain! If you don't step away from them, I'll shoot all of you. It's you, or all of them, make your choice!" He screamed at the top of his lungs as he cocked the gun and fired two shots at the ceiling. "Now!"

Inhaling sharply, Eleanor looked at me with the darkest glare I had ever seen. I had seen her glare at me in anger before, but this time the look was different. She wasn't going to forgive me for this. Turning to Joe then, she took a sharp breath as her bottom lip trembled. "Please don't do this in front of Mateo and Alice. They don't need to see it."

"El..." I gasped.

She was going to let me die?

Rotating his jaw, Joe reached out his arm and gripped the sleeve of my shirt. "I'll do it out back so the clean-up is easy." With a harsh tug, he jerked me forward and away from the little ones gripping me.

"No! Don't hurt him!" Mateo screeched, lurching forward, but when Joe pointed the barrel of his gun at him, he fell back against the wall and instead hugged Alice tight as the two of them sobbed.

Joe then pointed the barrel of the gun at the three of them before pressing it against my temple as he gripped my arm. "If any of you try anything stupid, I'll blow his brains out right now!" He yelled, as he then pushed me towards the door. He was really going to do it, he was really going to kill me.

"We won't! Just take him, Joe!" Eleanor snapped as she stepped in front of the little ones protectively.

Looking back at her with desperation, our eyes met.