The Waitress

28 - All My Dead Friends

Kaely's eyes shot wide open and she screamed. Time slowed around her as she stared – horror in her dull eyes – at how quickly her mother had gone down. She wasn't aware of the bullets that had begun raining down on the ballroom, killing guests by the second until she felt strong hands grab her arms and haul her back with ease. She began to fight, screaming louder as she tried in vain to return to her mother's body, but the grip was strong and she was tugged to the side of the room until she was shoved back against the railing of the staircase with accidental force. Her eyes slowly drifted around and she saw Oliver heading back into the chaos with his head low and searching. Kaely's eyes widened even more and she looked around frantically, lifting her head quickly at the sound of her name.

"KAELY!" Eliot screamed, trying to get to the stairs as quickly as he could. Dex was holding him back. "GET OUT OF THERE!"

Kaely staggered over to the mouth of the stairs, searching blindly for the handrail while her head span, but more bullets showered down on the wood, splintering it in every possible position. She screamed and jumped back, ducking her head to avoid getting hit. Her sight was blurring, and she felt dizzy. But she couldn't pass out. She had to stay focused.

"Kaely!" someone else shouted, and Kaely whirled around to find Lexus shoving through the crowds of people, trying to get to her. "Kaely, get upstairs! Go find-"

Another bullet soared through the air and struck Lexus dead, lodging itself into the front of her head. She went down, wide-eyed and lifeless. She tried to scream, but instead found herself ducking to vomit.

I need to get out of here, she thought to herself groggily, stumbling to her feet after wiping her mouth. She remembered she'd hidden a gun somewhere, but she couldn't remember where.

She lifted her head, making eye-contact first with Allison Bryson. She stared at her for a moment, and there was mutual agreement in their shared gaze. Allison's eyes then flickered up to the balcony, in front of her room. Kaely understood at once, and Allison was gone again.

She couldn't believe what she'd just seen. It'd happened too fast; there was no time to mourn or grieve when she was being attacked. She found herself angry. Someone was literally gunning down her mother's home. Word of the event must have reached Richard Campbell; he'd planned his revenge the old fashioned way.

"Get out the way!" someone screamed, and a loud smash rang throughout the room, slicing through the staircase and obliterating the left half of the first set. Kaely screamed with it and ducked out the way, turning to find Oliver moving for her. Another window smashed, and five bullets shot through another window and pelted him down, slicing cleanly through his body. Five bullets, was what it took to kill Oliver Dalton. Kaely went cold.

Get upstairs. The thought was clear in her mind, forcing her to move for the staircase in a stagger. She kept as low as she could to avoid getting hit, and made it to the base of the stairs where it split in two just as she heard a loud shout from behind her. She recognised the voice and turned weakly. In the middle of the room stood Richard Campbell, surrounded by his seven gunmen. He was looking up at Kaely, madness and anger flaring through his eyes. He'd lost his hat somewhere. The room silenced around them, as if nothing mattered but the mutual hate between the two.

"Now you know what it feels like," he shouted over the noise, an ugly scowl on his face. "To have the ones you love taken from you, just like that. Now you know."

Kaely opened her mouth to reply, to tell him how much of a monster he was before she died, but her eyes were relocated just over his shoulder as she recognised the person moving towards him. Portia had fire in her eyes, and held something tightly in her hand. She held it above her head and in an instant the bomb activated and exploded, shaking the room violently. Kaely was thrown off of her feet and slammed into the glass window behind her, feeling it crack but not shatter. She landed painfully on the ground as her ears began ringing loudly, blocking all noise. She lifted her head, dazed, to see what had come of the commotion. There were dead bodies everywhere, smashed glasses of alcohol mixing with their blood. Those that weren't close to the explosion were shakily rising from the dust-covered floor with fear and pain etched into their expressions as they looked around at the aftermath. Kaely struggled to lift herself up on her elbows, grunting at the pain that shot up her back at the movement.