The Moment I knew- wattpad competition

The Moment I knew

Twelve bongs. That's how long it took me to understand; just twelve full chimes of the near-by church bell and I finally had figured it out. Between each of the caustic tolls, silence grew. And with that silence, my realisation ripened and gained ever more strength.

I was dead.

I had to be dead. For standing before my boxy cell door was a beauty I had not laid my eyes on since 10th grade.

3 years, 2 months and 11 days ago.

I stare at the girl whom I had once loved. She has barely changed, her eyes are still that familiar rich blue and her cheeks are the same apple red. However the last time I saw her she didn't wear cropped jumpers and she didn't have a black club and spade painted delicately on her hip.

I also don't seem to remember a cold harsh glare ever being directed at me. But it seems 3 years, 2 months and 11 days can change far too much.

"Good evening, Alex." She whispers, yet even through her undertone I can hear the sarcasm her tonality always used to carry.

"You shouldn't be here." I reply, the same level of volume in my voice.

A mocking expression fills her face and I wince at how unsafe it is for someone as reckless as her. It's inherited, her recklessness; its exactly what killed her mother.

"I'm here to get you out, Alex dear. You have exactly 3 hours until your execution is due and I'm here to stop it from ever happening. I'm saving you." She some how manages to hiss in a sing-song mockery. "I'm saving your fucking ass. Okay?"

Her scornful song stops on that line and she watches me. Analysing my reaction, focusing on every movement of the eye, twitch of the lip, shift of the hands, every gulp and blink and breath. She watches, waiting patiently for my reply.

"How?" My voice is unexpectedly high.

Her plush lips form a half-perfect smirk and she pulls out two silvery-grey guns from inside her thigh length black trench coat. She loads one with two bullets and she slides it under the bars of my cell door. It stops centimetres before my feet. I glance at it. "Charlotte... I'm going to die anyway, what's the point? And what use is a gun while I'm behind those." I gesture to the steel bars that stand between me and Charlotte.

Charlotte. It's a name that doesn't suit its occupant. She isn't a Charlotte.

But then nor could I imagine her as anything else.

"The point is, I'm not going to die. You are going to die, and I am not. Not soon anyway, not in three hours. And you are. Unless you let me get you out, you are going to die in 3 hours and I will have no point left to live. I have spent 3 years crying and plotting and trying to figure out a way to get you out because I cant stand to live a day without you." She said, drained and yet so determined. Suddenly her strong facade drops and I see the broken girl I left.

I left that little girl on the side of the road, sitting next to the 3 men I had just shot. How could I have been so stupid? I left her among the bloodshed I had just caused. I left my beautiful Charlotte sat in the middle of a war zone.

Blood stains and gun shots fill my mind and I clamp my eyes shut. I could have done nothing else. If I had not killed those men, they would have killed Charlotte. I remind myself of that every time I think of why I am here, sentenced to death.

I stare at the cold metal killing machine on the floor and kick it away.

"I love you. But I killed them."

"To save me!" Charlotte yells, she slams bullets into her gun and I cower, not sure what she'll do. She clicks it into live. It's live. And ready to shoot.

She pulls the gun up and I clamp my eyes shut. I hear 4 consecutive shots, expecting to feel agony. But instead, I feel two soft arms engulf me. I bury my head into her chest and I let a single tear fall onto her coat.

I pull away from her arms and finally gaze into the eyes I've spent years only dreaming of seeing again.

"Someone would have heard your gun shot. We should leave." I say, expecting her to get up right away.

"No. Not yet." She breaths, pulling me closer. I feel the accelerated beat of my heart, and my breath hitching. I smile. I've spent too long away from this feeling.

She smells like she used too. Almonds and milk and fresh cotton and toothpaste.

Her arms loop around my neck and I wrap mine around her back, pulling her in tightly against me.

"Alex?" She whispers, almost content.

"Yes?" I reply, with her here, I forget the bitter taste of prison air, and the sour smell. The grey scale seem to disappear and suddenly I care for nothing but my beautiful Charlotte.

"Can we die together?" She asks. And however weird the question, however disturbing the request, I nod.

-------*****-------

I hear one chime. One single and beautiful chime, the church telling us its one in the morning. I hear cluttering and shouting. They heard the shots. But we are content. That chime rings in my head. and I smile into the golden blonde hair of the girl lying in my arms.

I run my hands through her hair, leaving messy streaks of red. She's pretty like this, asleep and alone and content. I lay her down, and use her hands to cover the blood stain on her white shirt. I took her coat off to use as a blanket.

This is the moment, now and here. I know. I know I am mad.

I pick up the gun. Loaded with just a single bullet. I lift it up to my head.

Point blank.

I pull down on the trigger.