Promise until the end

Chapter VIII: The case of Maxwell Hills

(Tw: death, mentions of drugs, mention of depression)

I hugged him tightly and brushed his hair away from his face. After taking a deep and shaky breath, I started...

"Listen.. one day.. We'll buy our own appartement and live together. We'll do food fights every day, cook together, and we'll spend so much time with each other that it's going to get annoying!"

Max softly chuckled and his breathing calmed down a bit. He seemed more relaxed, so I continued in the same soft tone.

"Remember our project? With the flowers? Well what I was thinking, it's that it would be nice to have a cute little garden with all sorts of flowers. We could also have strawberries, so that we don't need to steal them from your neighbor, the way we did the other time. Ahh...our garden will be so pretty, the neighbors will get soooo jealous, don't you think?

"Haha.. totally.. tell me more" Max asked, his eyes still closed.

"Even more? Hm...oh ! We could ride motorcycles! I...always wanted to try ! Admit it ! I'd obviously be so good at it !" I asked, trying to keep a happy voice. Even if I tried really hard, the sadness kept making my voice crack.

"Hehe yea, except i wouldn't exactly get on one with you riding it ! You would crash the moto, that's a fact !"

His comment made me chuckle through my tears and as I looked down at him, I saw he was looking at me with a warm smile lighting up his face under the tears. Seeing him happy even in this situation made me smile. He always got happy over small things.

"You always got happy over the smallest things, it's adorable. I'm so happy I met you, Max. Stay with me, I don't want to face the world alone. It's scary.. stay with me, please.." I couldn't stop my voice from cracking into sobs as the words came out.

"You're an incredibly strong woman, the world should be scared of you. Hey, you're independent, pretty, responsible, strong, i know it. You'll achieve amazing things, and I'll always be there to watch over you."

"Maxwell, I made you a promise and I failed to keep it ! How do you want me to live with myself knowing I let you die and failed to protect you!?!"

A slight warm and grateful smile curved his lips before he spoke in a soft voice.

"Oh but you did protect me.. you did so much for me. You went to get me in jail. You risked your safety for me. You did so much more for me than I could ever thank you for."

Silence took over the atmosphere as I held him tightly in my arms. I intend on staying with him until the end. I won't let him die alone, among the bricks, the dirt and the darkness of the night. That's the least I can do for him.

We stayed like that, sitting in the darkness for a long time. I was seeing Max's eyes slowly shut closed, still having that peaceful smile on his face. Everything was calmer and my sobs had stopped. Max looked at me one last time, before his eyes quickly got wide open. He opened his mouth to say something, but instead, he grabbed my shoulders and flipped me over to the ground as the loud "BANG" of a gunshot went off.

I closed my eyes tightly as the gunshot went off. Once I opened them back, I noticed Max sitting down, with his back turned to where the gunshot came from. He was staring into space with his mouth opened, frozen. I sat up and shook him a bit, very concerned.

"Max what happened?! What was that just now?! Are you okay?! I don't understand, wha-"

"BUAGH-!!!"

He fell towards me, his head over my shoulder as he coughed blood. I didn't have a single idea of what just happened and what I had to do, everything happened so fast...