Treat You Better

Chapter Sixty-one: The Child and The Brat.

Chapter Sixty-one: The Child and The Brat.

I always thought you'd have to be the one dying for your life to flash before your eyes. But as the gunshot that sent Angelo to the ground rang in my ears, it felt like I was the one who took it.

"Y-you just..." I choked, staring at Franca because I couldn't bring myself to look down.
The shock only lasted a second, all I could feel after that moment was red hot rage that sent energy buzzing through my whole body.

Even when the first loud crash against the double doors happened as the police tried to force their way in, I didn't look away, but she did, taken by so much surprise. So she didn't see me coming.

"Aaagh!" Franca screamed as I crashed into her, taking us both down so she hit her back against the edge of the table first before landing flat on the ground.

"Violet you're out of your mind!" I heard Hale shout from somewhere at the back of my mind. But I couldn't care less about him at the moment.

"YOU KILLED HIM!" I screamed, driving my fist into her face in blind rage before digging my hand in her hair and ripping out a fist full.

She yelled in outrage, the gun dropping from her hand. I pushed it as far away from us as possible just as I felt Hale trying to pull me away by my shoulder.
"Stop, stop it-!"

"I said don't TOUCH ME!" I yelled, jabbing an elbow into his stomach before grabbing his broken arm, standing to face him and twisting. Hard. "Are you deaf?"

I was for sure, with how loud and agonized his scream of pain was, but I couldn't feel anything besides the need to tear him apart. For all the suffering he caused me, for existing.

Unfortunately, my dealing with him had given Franca just enough time to get up again and yank me back by my hair so that Hale fell, wriggling on the floor in agony.

And suddenly the scale was tipped, I was the one thrown to the ground while Franca was on me, her hands squeezing my throat, cutting off my air.

Through blurry eyes, I stared at her, trying desperately to pry her strong hands away. She looked insane, her makeup smudged, blood leaking from her hairline into her left eye, a part of her hair missing and her face twisted with hate.
This wasn't the last thing I wanted to see...

"You foolish child, you think you can ever change from the helpless, stupid thing you are?!" She gritted through her teeth. "You're not the hero, you are nothing, you are-!"

Bang!!

She paused, the pressure eased off my throat and my eyes widened as her left arm went slack before a patch of red appeared just below her shoulder, soaking through her pretty blue top.

"I said, not a scratch." 

Angelo.

I pushed Franca away, immediately gasping for air, coughing as I turned onto my side, my cheek resting against the cold tiles. Oh Lord, Angelo was okay!

"Just great." Franca whispered from her point on the ground,  grabbing her arm, half her shirt was red now. The loud banging was still going on at the entrance, the double doors were only just starting to give.

"Stay down. It's over." Angelo said to Franca, then his feet moved to step towards me before he crouched down and touched my cheek. "My strong girl."

Turning so I could see his face, I blinked severally, the way he was looking at me- so adoringly- and the bright halo of gold the lights from the ceiling cast around his head, all coupled with the fact that I'd thought I lost him made him look like a figment of my imagination.
"How?" I rasped, my throat hurting from... you know, nearly dying. I reached up to touch the hole in his grey, oversized shirt. "Bulletproof? How did the guards not see...?"