Perfect with You

Chapter 38 - Death in our Kiss

"First, before I say anything else, you should know that if you take one step outside of the room you're all currently in, then you will fail the challenge and the consequences will be immediate"

Chloe grabbed the front of her shirt and pulled until the fabric slipped between her fingers. She pounded her chest and took a hold of her shirt's collar and dragged it down until a ripping sounded and her neck got burnt from the sudden friction with a shift. She kept asking herself what was left. Her courage had dissipated through her bloodstreams, her courage vanished when Max's sanity did, her restraint evaporated through the palm of her hand that was used for hurting her, and her love wandered away when it was met with a closed door. So now, what was left? Inside of her, she wondered... was fear really the only thing dragging her around?

"Alfred is okay. I will not hurt him as long as you follow the rules and do as I say. That goes for you, Max, and Ted as well"

Upon hearing his poised voice once more, the bottom of her stomach felt something. Something else than fear. There was still a covert anger inside of her that had been overshadowed by other matters but was now fueled by the desire of revenge.

That fucking psycho! Gramps has nothing to do with this! 'I will not hurt him, as long as you follow the rules'? You're not going to hurt him Ethan, but I'm not going to follow your fucking rules. All that stops now.

It swirled inside of her, rushing from the core of her chest and around her limbs, the two quiet people in the room, waiting for her to explain what was going on, for her to tell them what to do. But there was nothing they could do, they shouldn't be involved. Without a response, without a breath of creation, Chloe let the phone slip away from her ear and let her hands hang low.

I will not miss my chance this time. I was finally so close to feeling normal, and then that shit-eater ruins it all! He ruined Max!

It clicked and her eyes shot open. A running flame ran across her skin, the rusty shackles breaking as she took a pertinacious step towards the door, but as soon the chain around her ankles got loose, her whole body felt lighter and she forced herself into a running motion as she held out her shoulder in front of her and shot the door open with an intentional bang, wanting to let Ethan know he had two seconds to run away before she would knock him out, stomp on his face, kick him in the ribs and break every single one of his fingers in an unleash of absolute fury. As Chloe nearly jumped down the flight of stairs, Max exclaimed something, but it was too quiet and too unimportant for her to give it any attention. She felt her whole body suffusing adrenaline to her limbs as her hair flew back when she ran down the last step of stairs, feeling saliva in her mouth beginning to perfuse from the pure thirst of physically dealing with her problems for once. The first thing she saw was the shocked face of her grandfather, sitting on the couch with his hands sinking deep into the cushion, his pupils as tiny as the smallest liver spot on his gaunt cheek. The reason all too clear, the face of fear all too perspicuous when she saw the devil behind him, pressing a gun into the back of his head that he held in his dead hand, still with the phone in his other. He was staring at her, or rather, glancing at her as he immediately took his attention away from her, looked forward with this repulsive look in his atrocious eyes that disappeared behind his closing eyelids. He took a short breath.

"NO!" Chloe screamed, jumping forward with her heart thrusting inside of her heart and neither of her feet touching the ground as the trigger was pulled, the bullet making its way through her grandfather's skull as if it was butter, the massive shockwave, given the immensely close distance, created a circular hole rimmed with abraded skin, the bullet pushing tissue out of the way beyond their breaking points and lead to the tissue snapping back toward the opening and overshoot like a half peeled orange. A burst of tiny pieces of skull and lumps of flesh scattered, painted the couch red, painted Ethan's brown jacket red... sounds similar to dropping a tiny wet rag on the floor began passing through the room almost systematically, followed by a loud thud as the disfigured face of an old man collapsed onto the wooden floor, and then his lifeless body. Blood- way too much of it- began forming a red pool around his fractured head, the flesh in the wound was severely burned, but all Chloe could focus on was his eyes that popped slightly out of their sockets and his open mouth with his tongue drooping out.