Ridiculous: Mattory

28: Bare My Skin and Count My Sins

Mallory

My brain struggles to catch up with what my senses are telling it is happening.

Because they're telling me Luke just pulled a gun... on Lawrence.

"You called me?" Matt says in disbelief.

"Told you you wouldn't believe me if I told you who I was," Luke says, almost cheerily. "And you had to read those letters before it was too late. If you knew it was me you wouldn't have, just out of spite."

Lawrence clenches his fists and narrows his eyes. "You. Did. What?"

"You see, there's one thing you didn't count on in your perfect little plans," Luke says scathingly. "Me." He takes a step closer. "Back up."

"How could you? After everything I did for you—" Lawrence snarls.

"Oh, shove it, Lawrence," Luke snaps. "Mallory, you don't have to pretend you're still trapped, I've got him taken care of."

My body springs into action before my thoughts can catch up, letting the cuffs that hung loose on my wrists drop to the floor. Now that I can move it's quick work to release Matt's too, and from then it only takes a moment to untie the ropes that bound my ankles to the chair legs.

Luke and Lawrence are still arguing,their voices growing ever louder, but I tune them out. "Matt, come on, we have to—" The words die on my lips as I look at him and understanding clicks into place. Nonononono—

"Yeah... the whole 'bleeding out' thing... wasn't quite a joke," Matt says with a weak laugh, and I swear a part of me died with his words.

No. I did not come this far just to lose him now.

"Luke," I start, my voice pleading. I'm not entirely sure when my ex-boyfriend switched in my head from 'enemy' to 'ally,' just that it was somewhere between him pulling a gun on Lawrence and about two seconds ago. "Luke please."

"I'm working on it, Mallory, but I'm just the slightest bit busy saving all our arses right now." But for one moment, his gaze slides sideways to me.

Lawrence bolts.

Luke lets out a cuss as his big brother storms up the stairway, and tears off after him.

I can only stand, stock-still and in silence, as footsteps and shouts sound from above my head. Far more than just two people are up there, I realize, but a loud crack rings through my ears before I can figure out what that means.

One lone gunshot slices through the air before it all goes silent.

~~~

I'm not quite sure what happened from there.

I remember half a dozen people pounding down the staircase. I remember lots of shouting, and being lead up the staircase and back outside. I remember what seemed like hundreds of police and EMTs swarming the scene, though in reality it couldn't have been nearly that many.

I remember searching the crowd wildly for Matt, hoping against all hope that he hadn't actually been hurt, that it had all been a trick of poor lighting and raging adrenaline.

At some point, I dimly realize he's not coming.

Someone drove me to the hospital. It might have been Detective Reynolds.

Above it all, there's the blurry image of a body on the living room floor, as whoever it was that had brought me out of the basement rushed me by it. Had it been Lawrence? Had it been Luke? Someone else entirely?