A Love Like War (On Hold)

Chapter 10

ANNIE'S POV

I should have killed her back then. Back when I had the perfect chance laid out right in front of me. Back when doing it was as easy as counting from one to three. Back when I wasn't her friend, her BEST FRIEND. There was so many chances where I could have killed her back then.She was my bunk mate after all; all I had to do was simply get on top of her and stretch out my hands and strangle in her sleep or something. But for some reason... I couldn't bring myself to do it.

At least, not after what I saw that night.... That fateful night when I got completely drawn to her.

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With a gun in my hand I watched her from the shadows as she stood there, still as the water from the pond before her,wearing nothing but a one piece black dress that hugged the curves of her body and a pair of skin-colored flat shoes as she gazed at the star-filled night sky above her.

'One clean shot to her head.... that's all I need.' I thought to myself as I angled the wretched contraption towards her direction. 'One shot... One clean shot...' I chanted repeatedly to myself as I breathed in a lung of air to steel my nerves with what I was about to do. With one eye open, I aimed the riffle at her head and watched her,as if she was also steeling herself for her upcoming death, breathe a lung full of air and closed her eyes.

'One clean shot to the head...' I repeated to myself as I aimed at her head, with one eye open, and placed my index finger at the ready. I was about to pull the trigger when she suddenly started to move.

With both her hands above her head, she began to wave them in an up and
down motion that made her look like she was flapping a pair of wings like a bird that was about to take flight. It was something that I wouldn't have expected from someone as stiff and stoic as her but there she was... dancing an odd sort of dance that I have never seen before and yet somehow... it looked so beautiful...

The water beneath her rippled gently with every graceful step that she made. Her dance was captivating; it was as if, through her dance, she was telling such a romantic tale. But, for whatever reason it was, whenever she open her eyes, her usually dead-like sapphire blue orbs, were tainted with so much sadness that it made my heartache and, at some point, made me want to comfort her. Especially during those parts when it looked like she was being supported by some invisible being or seemed like she was looking at someone beside her that only she could see.

Captivated by the beauty and elegance of her dance, I had complete forgotten why I was there and what I was supposed to do. That was. until I felt a pair of hands on my shoulders which made me tensed.

"She once told me that, that dance was called Pas de Deux." a warm and familiar voice said in an almost inaudible whisper as if he was afraid that she might hear him.

Reluctantly, I averted my gaze from her and shifted it to the owner of the voice. To my surprise, it was no other than Marco Bodt; her so called prince or so they say. And for some reason, the only thing I could do was stare at him and hope that was my face was as blank as it usually was so that he wouldn't suspect anything.

In return to my stare, he simply smiled at me. But somehow the way he smiled at me tonight was disturbingly different. Unlike his usual smiles, this want didn't reach his eyes. Slowly, he shifted his gaze from my face to the riffle that rested in my hands and from that was when, for the first time, the warmth in his eyes completely left turning them into a solid bronze color that made my blood run cold and the air, for some odd reason, had never felt so cold at the back of my neck.

'Why... why was I suddenly feeling scared? And of Marco of all people?' I thought to myself as I fought to keep the crawling fear from showing on my face.