Duskwood - Choose or Lose

Chapter 23

A/N: Hooray! A Jake POV! At the end of the chapter is a detailed murder scene. I marked the spot with asterisks. If you can't handle something like that, only continue reading after the second asterisk. Enjoy! :)

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Jake POV

I ran for my life, the fire was getting closer, and I was sweating like hell. A look behind me assured me that I saw a black silhouette, I was not alone here. I didn't have time to check who was in here with me, though, and ran further away from the fire. The heat was getting closer, my heartbeat was way too fast, and I tried to breathe as little as possible. I looked at the map one last time and ran towards the exit. But before I could reach the exit something exploded behind me, and I was thrown violently against the stone wall. Everything turned, everything hurt, my lungs burned, my eyelids grew heavier.

What is all this for?

Was this still really just about Hannah?

No.

It was for her.

She wanted to sacrifice herself for someone she didn't even know. I just couldn't let that happen. Hannah was safe, everything was going according to plan. The only thing she didn't know was that I knew I would probably never make it out of here alive. It was planned from the beginning that I would die here, and I would repeat that sacrifice if her safety was at stake.

A last look at my phone reassured me that she had indeed answered me, but my will to live had already deserted me. In the last few weeks, I had partly forgotten that Hannah had disappeared, I only had eyes for this unknown woman who never showed her face.

I closed my eyes and said goodbye to my life. I slipped my phone from my hand and leaned against the wall. A twinge in my lungs assured me I'd already inhaled too much smoke. In the darkness an angelic voice spoke to me, I tried to answer but was unable to.

"Ruby?" I asked weakly.

My eyes flew open, and I woke up with a start in a bed that was unfamiliar to me. The smell and the white sterile surroundings let me know I was in the hospital. As my breathing settled, I remembered what had happened. I had visited Blair to see how she was doing, we had kissed intensely and I would have probably fucked her on her hospital bed if she hadn't had stab wounds. How could I be so selfish? Even now, I saw nothing more in her than an opportunity to have sex.

"What the fuck is wrong with me?!" I exclaimed.

"You love Ruby, and you miss her. You just don't want to face the pain," an all too familiar male voice said to me.

"Benjamin?" I sighed.

"Yes, it's me. I must admit that my therapy sessions did not achieve what I had hoped for. The chief doctor called me after he saw your medical file. He assumed you broke down because of your psyche. And he was right. Blair Moore told us everything that had happened before."

I couldn't hold them back and the tears made their way down my cheeks as I tried to sit up. My heart ached and I knew what he was getting at.

"I miss her so much, but..." I choked on my own tears.

"There are no buts. It's perfectly fine that you miss her. I want to tell you something."

I nodded to confirm that he could continue. "My wife died in a car accident 20 years ago. I blamed myself for ten years until it was finally discovered that her ex-boyfriend had tampered with her brakes. I was angry, sad, devastated and frustrated. I threw myself into the next relationship after 3 months and it ended in disaster. Despite our horrific breakup, she asked me to go to therapy. I did what she said, and I learned that what I was feeling was normal. I wanted to follow in my psychologist's footsteps and became a psychologist myself. I want to help people who have been through something similar to mine." A wide smile spread across his face, and he pulled out a chain from his shirt that hung tucked there around his neck. There were two rings on the chain. "It's been 20 years since the accident, but I still love her. I still wear our wedding rings. It took 15 years before I was really ready to get back into a relationship. I couldn't be happier, but my heart will always belong to my wife."