Insanity (Sequel To Madness)

End? Well, Not Exactly

~*Shane's POV*~

I watch as Joshua hits Violets forehead hard with the butt of the gun, causing her to fall to the ground unconscious. I glance back at Rebecca who stares with concern in her eyes.
"Get somebody. If I die, Violet is the owner of Main District. Tell them all now." I demand sternly.
"Go. Now." I demand again, louder this time causing her to kick off her heals and dash back towards the entrance to District 10. I sigh in relief and turn back to face Joshua.
"Is this really how you want things to end?" I question him with a small chuckle.
"End? No, it is just beginning for me. Nothing will be ending except for your mistakes." Joshua announces while pointing the gun back at me, which I only reply with a shrug.
"Everybody makes mistakes. That is what being a human means." I respond, trying to pick apart all of his words to buy me time. If Rebecca can bring people out here fast enough, Joshua will be caught and nothing will happen to me at all.
"And you're still trying to belittle me... Even now?" Joshua chuckles back while rubbing his fingers over the edges of the gun.
"I'm not belittling you. If your only claim against me is that I've made mistakes, then allow me to tell you about your mistakes." I comment while chuckling softly.
"My mistakes? Like what?" Joshua laughs back at me, shaking his head.
"Like ignoring our daughter while she was dying!" I shout at him sternly, not even taking a moment to think about my words. "She was a little girl, and you took all of our resources to search for a cure. If you hadn't been searching for her, we could have saved Angie." I add while shaking my head.
"She would have died anyway." Joshua replies, his voice slightly raised now.
"And Violet would have married me anyway!" I shout back while still shaking my head.
"You knew who she was, the minute she walked in to your compound you knew. You tricked her into marrying you." Joshua argues, his eyes full of a fire that doesn't seem to have a taming to it.
"I tricked her? Do you really put her so low that any man could trick her into a marriage?" I chuckle while looking down at my wife who lies on the ground unconscious. Her hair falls over her face in a way that makes her look like she's asleep. Sometimes when I wake in the night I see glimpses of her sleeping patterns. The way she sometimes shouts in her sleep. How she screams about memories that when awake she claims she doesn't remember. How her fingernails dig into her skin while only one name escapes her lips, a name of the one man who she wishes to save from a death that had already come to him. I wonder if she dreams of his death more now. I know she did when she first came back to the mansion. I could hear her cries for Jack echo through the mansion, waking me up from even the deepest of sleeps. I wonder if she dreams of him now, as she lies on the cold pavement with her hair sprawled out like it does when she sleeps. I know her intelligence, and she could not be tricked by me. The only one who has ever truly tricked her is Joshua when he meddled in her memories.
"She didn't marry you willingly." Joshua states back to me, breaking me from my haze of staring at the young girl who has been through far too much.
"But she did. Even after she was shot and lost her child, she married me." I deny him and look back up at Joshua who still has the barrel of a pistol pointed at it.
"I heard about that, and that child wasn't yours, was it?" Joshua asks while chuckling softly.
"No... She was pregnant when she arrived at my compound, that was why I allowed her to stay there in the first place." I explain, remembering how she had jumped out of that beaten up truck her and Maddie had found. How she fearlessly walked to the gate of my compound and demanded entrance. I liked her bravery back then, even still now she has it. Violet dashing towards Joshua even now, pointing a gun at herself to protect me. Her courage is admirable honestly.
"You pitied her..." Joshua mutters back to me, his gun slightly dropping as he realizes the truth.
"No." I respond as I turn my eyes to stare into Joshua's.
"What was it then?" He questions me in return, furrowing his eyebrows in confusion.
"She was strong, even though she had every reason not to be." I explain while getting a small urge to smile back at the memory.
"You were... What? Envious?" Joshua questions me, even more confused now.
"No, I was in awe." I correct him with a slight chuckle. "But I never showed it." I add while giving the girl on the ground my eyes for a moment.
"You never show anything. You turned off everything after Angie died." Joshua tells me, rolling his eyes in a kind of annoyance.
"I never did show emotions, you forget. Angie just forced me to, but without her I had no reason to." I mumble, remembering the brunette hair of my daughter that used to flow down her shoulders while she walked.
"You had me, wasn't that enough of a reason?" Joshua questions while raising a brow at me.
"I never loved you like I did her." I admit while looking up at my past lover.
"You said you did, so you lied even more?" He chuckles while directing the gun at me with a more strait trajectory.
"I did. But, I suppose that proves that I was never gay for you like you wanted." I admit while shaking my head, remembering the idiotic claims of my youth.
"Well, I wasn't for you either I have to admit." Joshua chuckles back while keeping a smile on half of his face. I nod slowly and rub my hands together softly.
"So, are you still going to shoot me? After all that we've been through." I question him, breaking the silence between us.
"Through everything that you and I have done, that is just a more reason to do it." Joshua explains while still softly rubbing his finger over the edge of the gun.
"But you don't want to for some reason, something is holding you back." I mumble while watching his nervousness through his actions.
"I do want to kill you, and I want that compound." Joshua states sternly, staring at me.
"I don't doubt that." I answer him with a shrug.
"And I want her." He adds while looking down at Violet for just a moment before looking back at me.
"That too." I add with a slight chuckle at his strange cryptic words. Out of nowhere I hear the loud scratching noise of the District 10 entrance door being opened. Joshua's eyes flash with fear as he glances at the door behind me and then back at me. I watch his hands with shake nervously until his fingers on the gun slip. I hear the loud bang of the gun as it goes off out of Joshua's own nervousness. The bullet hits my gut and I feel a large amount of blood rush out of my mouth while I fall to the ground. I clutch my wound and cough up more blood while my wound leaks out the same substance.
"Shane!" Rebecca shouts loudly as I feel my head begin to spin. I try to respond, to explain what I just saw happen, but it all just comes out as mumbles through my coughing. I want to explain to everyone that it was an accident, and that I can feel parts of my intestines spinning around inside me. I hold my stomach and feel it start to slice open while more blood rushes out.
"H-help..." I call when blood stops coming from my mouth for just a moment. I try to keep myself up with a shaky hand that sits against the pavement.
"H... H... He..." I make out as I feel my head spinning harder, almost as if it pounds against my skull.
"Shane!" I suddenly see Rebecca's face in front of mine as she tries to speak to me, but most I just understand as mumbles through a muffled area. It almost sounds like she is talking underwater. I make out a few things.
"Help."
"Coming."
"How bad."
"Injured."
"Joshua."
"Can't die."
"Please."
I begin crying from how much the pain begins aching. It feels like my body is slowly going numb. The blonde in front of me presses her hand against mine on my wound, trying to save me. Her tears flood her previously well done face, her make up now smearing as it slides down her face with her tears. I hear her scream suddenly and a hand pushes her away from me where she struggles to get back to me. Her cries are loud, and I can hear them through my hazy state. Someone holds her down on the ground and she shakes herself, trying to get free. I look up as I fall backwards onto the ground, seeing Joshua standing above me with a knife in hand. It has smeared blood on it and it drips very slowly onto the ground next to me. He suddenly stabs the knife through my hand back into the gunshot wound he had created before. I spit out more blood and clench my eyes closed out of the pain from that one. He digs the knife inside me, twisting it to make sure he damages me. He suddenly lifts it out and more blood comes pouring out of me onto the sidewalk. I yelp slightly when the knife goes back in, higher this time and slicing part if my finger in the process. I feel part of my ribcage crack under the pressure he forces on it. My breathes don't seem to he coming anymore while he drags the knife under my ribs, causing even more damage. I'm guessing my lungs are punctured now, making me spit up more blood that is causing me to choke. It builds up in the back of my throat, causing me to cough up even more of it. I try to pry open my eyes and see the blurred image of Violet lying on the concrete and Rebecca being dragged away from me suddenly. She struggles to break free, but to no avail. She was never the strongest girl, but she has always had such a strong will like her father. As Joshua cuts me again with the knife, digging it deep in my chest, I can't help but be envious of Jack. His death was sudden, and he didn't deserve it of course, but at least it was quick and painless. I have to close my eyes again from all the pain that continued etching through my body. I gag on my own blood, the thick, metallic substance has completely started drowning me in my throat. I feel my fingertips and feet go completely numb, followed by both my arms and legs. I feel my head stop pounding, instead it feels like it is going numb with the rest of me. I lose all feeling in everything around me, I can't even feel the pain anymore. And soon, I feel nothing at all.