Glitterdust (Completed)

44. Hollow talk

When I open my eyes, everything looks blurry. All sounds seem distorted and muffled, as if I'm swimming underwater. I try to stand up, but before I can straighten my back, I discover that this is a bad idea. There's something wrong with my legs and I feel dizzy, as if I'm about to faint. I sink back to the ground. My left hand lands in something warm and sticky. I take a look at it. It's red.

Somewhere in the back of the room where I am, I hear a man talking.

"I need an ambulance here."

The guy is quiet for a second. "Police might be a good idea as well."

There's the silence again. Someone is probably asking him a question.

"She shot someone down. I... I think I stabilized the victim, but please hurry!"

What is he talking about?

I hear someone scream. It's incessant and it wrecks my nerves. I want it to stop and I put my hands on my ears.

Suddenly his face appears in front of me. Dan. His name is Dan. He is my boyfriend. Correction: he was my boyfriend. What is he doing here? He should be far away. Far away and safe from this terrible mess.

"Will you please stop that?" he says.

It was me. It was me all along. I stop screaming.

"Thank you, Elise. Can you now please tell me what happened here?"

I open my mouth, but I choke on my words and look helplessly around. Where is Megan?

"Are you alright?" He stretches his hand towards me, but I still remember where it was the last time I saw it; on Sasha's back. No way that he's going to touch me with that hand. "I tried to examine you, but I couldn't find what is wrong with you." He smiles apologetically. "You always told me to pay attention to the quiet ones first. Megan was screaming her lungs out, but you were lying there as if you were dead."

Bile rises in my throat. I don't know if it's because of his proximity or Megan's poison.

"Why does Megan have a bullet in her shoulder?" he asks while he offers me a cloth to wipe the vomit from my mouth. I only make a bigger mess of myself; Megan's blood is on my hands.

"She poisoned me and then tried to shoot me." My voice is a mere whisper and I'm not sure if he heard me. "She failed."

He nods, but I can see in his eyes that he doesn't have a clue what I just said.

"Well one thing's for sure, I'm never going to work with that director again." A crooked grin lies on his face. "I was so worried after that last phone call, I knew something was wrong. Your speech was slurred, I thought you were drugged. And then I saw all the filth about me and Sasha on the internet..."

My mind wanders off, I'm not ready to hear his version of the story. 

Black particles are on the back of my hand that held the gun. I blow at them to remove them from my arm and they form a black cloud of dust. Once again I try to rise, but my body is useless at the moment.

Dan seizes his opportunity, and lifts me off the ground. He carries me out of the apartment, bridal style and I hate him for it. I hate it because I'm helpless, I hate him because of the Sasha situation, I hate myself because of what happened to Megan.

It's strange, but I can't hate Megan for what she did, not yet. Maybe it's the poison, maybe it's because I try to process all the events. Maybe the time will come that I will hate her, who can tell? For now I can't help but feel sorry for her. We both lost Greg, but she lost something more. 

She lost herself.

Thousands of stars twinkle in the night sky above us as Dan opens the door to the fresh air. In the distance I can hear the sirens approaching. 

And I think of my friend, a life lost in a world full of opportunities. A world where it appears that we can become anything we want, and nothing can hold us back. Until something takes us by surprise and the timetable of our life doesn't fit our expectations anymore.

And then I cry.

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AN: Thanks for reading! If you liked the chapter, please vote for it by pressing the little star :)

There's only one part left and I hope I can answer all your question in that one :)