(Mia's POV)
"You had your chance Amelia," he shouts. I keep my eyes shut, hearing him sharpening the knife and Charlotte's cries. I feel a sharp sting as the blade enters my skin, I hold myself completely still expecting that to be the end... but it's not. I open my eyes anxiously to see blood dripping from a cut on my palm. The blood forms beads at the surface and drips down my fingers slowly. I look up at the knife, my blood dripping off it onto the floor below. "That," he says sternly. "Was your final warning. You tell me your decision or the next one's for your throat understood?!"
"I'm not giving you a single penny," I say through gritted teeth. "Fine then," he says turning the knife towards Char. "Do you want the girl to live? Or don't you?" "I... I do," Char says through her tears. "Just... please don't hurt her anymore." "I won't," he says blankly. "If you promise to give me all her money yourself. If you do that for me, then she can live." She looks back at me desperately and shakes her head. "I can't," she sniffs. "I can't betray her like that." The old man grits his teeth with rage. "Very well," he says tugging Char towards him by her hair. "I suppose you need a final warning too!" At the end of his sentence, he scrapes the knife all the way down her forearm viciously.
"Ahhh!" She screams in pain. "You're a monster!" She looks down at her cut, her tears falling into it making her flinch. The blood drips all down her arm and onto the floor. She looks back at me and the cut on my hand. The man takes a tissue from his pocket and wipes the blade of the knife clean. "See? Gone," he says. "Not a single trace, no matter how much blood drips onto this knife it can always be washed off, without a single trace."
He walks back over to me slowly, pressing the knife against the wall, right next to my throat. "You're putting up quite the fight aren't you Amelia?" "You wouldn't dare," I say through tears. "You're nothing but a coward, that's why you ran when I was a child. You'd never kill your own daughter you never would!" He looks at me with piercing eyes before laughing loudly. "You think that huh? Well you can find that out for yourself right now."
He moves the knife from the wall and holds it millimetres away from my throat. "3... 2..." he starts counting. "No!" Char yells kicking him in the shins so he stumbles backwards and she can grab my wrist, dragging me away from the wall. "I won't let you hurt her!" "I've had it up to here with you," he says through gritted teeth, grabbing Char by the scruff of her neck and holding to knife towards her with his other hand.
"This is how it's going to work." He throws her onto the ground. "You've made it very clear you don't wish to take the easy way out Amelia so I give you two more options. I end it for you here and now or I end your pathetic little girlfriend here first and you watch her suffer before you." He pins Char down on the ground by her shoulders, hovering the knife over her throat. "Mia run," she mouths to me. "Char I can't leave you like," I mouth back. "Trust me," she mouths. "Run as fast as you can."
Thinking it couldn't get any worse, I give Char a nod and mouth "goodbye" at her incase it was the last time before sprinting into the distance. I glance a look behind me seeing if he's moved at all, but much to my distress the knife is still hovering dangerously close to Char's throat. I keep running, tears in my eyes thinking I may have made a terrible mistake. What if I'd just ran away and left the love of my life as bate to that monster? And I was having to live mu whole life without her. I couldn't do that, there was no way.
I decide to trust Char's word and keep running, and soon enough I turn around for a second time to see he's let go of Char and started chasing me down the street. "Amelia Roberts come back!" He yells. "Come back or else!" He chases me, the knife still clenched in his fist. My heart races as I feel him start to catch up with me. Charlotte runs behind me, sweating and out of breath. I pause for a few moments to catch my breath, knowing that he was fast approaching me, and sit myself down on the concrete.
"I thought I could distract him longer I'm sorry," Char says with tears in her eyes as she catches up and kneels down next to me. She clasps her hand over my injured palm, stopping the blood from streaming out of me. "It's ok sweetheart," I whisper. "There's only one way out of it and it's not caving in." "Please don't tell me you'll..." she cries. "No sweetheart," I say caressing her cheek. "I'll fight with every fibre of my being before I leave you. But just incase that happens... I love you so much and you're the best thing that happened to me in my life." "I love you too," she whispers with red teary eyes. "Thank you Mia, for everything."
"Now you've said your goodbyes," the old man says grabbing my wrist and pulling me up. "Your time is over Amelia, you've had your chances but I'm afraid this is it." He throws me onto another wall and holds the knife by his ear and swings it once towards me and then back again. I hold my breath as I watch the knife swing towards my throat at what feels like lightning speed. It gets closer and closer to stabbing me when someone grabs his elbow and hurls him back at full force.
I move away from the wall sheepishly to see Char stood with his arm in her lock. I watch with wide eyes as she tackles him to the ground with all her strength and holds the knife over his throat. "I'm sorry Mia," she says looking over at me. "I'm sorry for what I have to do." She pulls the knife closer to his throat and I watch from the side, seeing her eyes cry and her hands shake as she realises what she's about to do. She cries more and more as the knife gets closer to his chest. "Charlotte no," I say quickly. "I can't let you live with that kind of guilt, give me the knife." "But Mia," she says holding the knife back slightly. "That... that's your dad. Do you really want to kill him?"
"Charlotte sweetheart," I say rubbing her shoulder gently. "All that man did is let me down and abandon me. Only to come back all these years later and try to kill me. If I do this, I'll be free, and you'll be free. Please I can't live with knowing there's someone around wanting your blood who I could have ended." She steps back and passes me the knife slowly. I take it into my hand and step into her place, holding the knife over him. "Don't you have anything to say for yourself?" I ask through gritted teeth as I lower the knife. "My daughter's a traitor," he says staring up at me angrily.
I swing the knife back by my ear before swinging it back down and stabbing it into his throat. He takes one more gasp for air as the blade enters his skin before he's left lifeless on the pavement. I look down at my father's body, almost wanting to smile. I didn't feel guilty, or ashamed but rather I felt free. I pull the knife from his throat and take the tissue he used to wipe it before from his pocket and wipe it again. I wrap the knife in the tissue and stuff it into his pocket.
"We're free sweetheart," I say looking over at Char. She wipes the tears from her eyes and takes my hand gently. "We're free. Are you ok, that was a big thing you just did." "I'll be ok," I sniff. "I don't know I just don't feel bad but I feel like I should." "Look let's get out of here before someone sees us," she says stroking the back of my hand to comfort me. "And then we can go back to bed if you'd like?" I nod and we walk all the way back to the house. I look back after a few metres at my father's lifeless body on the ground, the fear starting to eat away at me but I try not to think about it.
As soon as we get inside we kick our shoes off and run back upstairs to the bed. Char wraps her arms around me into a warm, tight embrace as tears escape from my eyes. "Are you ok sweetheart?" She whispers stroking my hair. "I just..." I sniff. "I feel nothing... I feel relieved... and slightly scared but mostly nothing."
"Those emotions are perfectly normal ok? All that matters is I'm here with you and you're safe," she whispers kissing the top of my head. "I love you more than anything, my darling." "You still love me?" I sniff. "Even though I quite literally killed a man today." "Only a very bad man," Char says. "And a bad man who tried to kill you as well. Nothing could make me stop loving you, I'll love you forever." I turn my head around so she can kiss my lips softly. I wipe the last tear from my face and start to smile slightly. "I'm free," I whisper. "We're free."
————-
A/N Hope you enjoyed those chaotic one shots today. Or is enjoyed a strong word lol? Anyway consider tomorrow's one shot as a public apology for the events of today, I hope I can be forgiving for torturing you all today.
