STALK [l.h]

• 49 •

"I watched you that day Luke, I watched you everyday and my god, you were the most beautiful thing I've ever seen." She whispers that night. She was sprawled on top of me, the side of her head just resting above my chest that, I worried about how much she could hear how fast my heart was beating. It was beating for her.

"I knew I had very slim chances with you but, I wanted to risk it. I feel like I don't deserve you Luke, you're too amazing for my own good. I just knew you know and I know it sounds crazy..." Her voice fades into a quiet sob and I hold her wrists so tightly before pressing them to my chest. I don't understand how someone so special could feel this much pain, so much doubt in herself when in fact, I was the lucky one, I've always been. Not her.

"Hey...hey...don't cry, you have me okay? you've always had. I'm here now." I slowly let her fingers open and press them flat right above where my beating heart was. I could feel the tears brimming in my own eyes. "See...this? Tori listen, this, is yours okay? It's all yours. I love you."

"Are you fucking listening to me right now Hemmings?! I'm talking to you!" Ashton's voice rang loudly through my left ear, just another second close to leaving me deaf. I felt like this was it. The last straw, and finally the camel broke its back. I looked back at the girl I cared so much about, weak, helpless. All of this was my fault, she doesn't deserve this and I certainly didn't deserve her. Her eyes dart to mine with the amount of strength she had left to even keep her eyes open, her other eye was black and swollen. Her lip was bruised up and bleeding. Her mouth twitches open and the tears fall down on my face again. "Run."

"What?" I whispered, but before I could even react further, I heard a guttural groan from Ashton as Victoria slammed her heel on Ashton's foot and then socked him in the face. She squirms away from him as much as she could and I immediately took the opportunity to crawl and try to aim the knife I had to Ashton.

My arm swung right in Ashton's chest but his hand immediately caught grip of my wrist. He punched me right in the stomach and just like that I let go of the knife, hearing the sharp blade hit the concrete floor. "You think you can outsmart me, huh?" Ashton growls at me while he throws me on the floor once again, kicking the knife away, far enough so that it was impossible for me to reach at this point.

He pulls out a gun from his back pocket, clicking it and facing it to my direction. "I've had enough of your shit. Now, you fucking die." He says through gritted teeth, then that was it. I hear the loud gunshot ring inside the small room.

This is it

This is the end, everything flashing before my very eyes. My family, my friends, Ashton, Victoria. I didn't even get the chance to say goodbye, to tell her I how much I love her, to give her the life I promised. It was nothing now. I somehow imagined this to feel serene, quiet, a time for me to let go of all those things and just fall into a pit of nothingness by the time I was dead, but it was different. I was troubled, shaken even. I could hear the ringing in my ears and then a sudden silence that surrounded the room. I close my eyes tightly and waited for the pain to envelope my whole body, just a few more moments before I eventually run out of blood and bleed to death...

but it never came...

I opened my eyes to see a mop of hair in front of me, both her arms struggling to hold her body up that was already halfway lying on her left side. She looks at me with big bright teary eyes before her back falls on the ground. Her hair flying slightly across her face as she falls. As soon as I saw it, I felt the blood drain and my face went pale.

The deep dark red shot right there, in her chest. Her shirt soaking up her blood made it seem like it was getting bigger and bigger with every second I wasted just by staring at her I'm complete shock. Ashton paces around the room then sits in a chair right in front of me. He just sits there with his chest rising and falling as he looks at what he has done. With all the strength I had left, I managed to crawl beside her bloody body and lifted her head and cradled her in my arms, the rest of her lower body lay flat on the floor. "Babe, baby please, can you hear me?" I say trying to find the slightest sign of life in her eyes. She slowly blinks them open and weakly smiles as she sees my face. "Luke--"

"No shh, please, we're going to go get some help you're gunna be fine, oh god what did you do..."

"No...L-luke, please listen to me."

"we're going to get you some help okay? Just please oh god, j-just don't move a lot..." I stutter as my hand slightly brushed on the wound trying to stop the blood flow, however I wasn't doing a very good job at it. Her skin felt soft, and wet and just covered in the sticky blood. I took my hand of her chest not being able to stand seeing all of the blood she's losing and the skin that was very wounded. "Hey...hey now...I'll be okay." She says with her fingers slightly brushing on my jaw, then on my chin.

"No, no you're not please don't say that."

"I-I will be. I love you Luke." She says just above a whisper, and I hold her impossibly close to me as I felt my body tremble. "Don't...please don't say that like you're saying goodbye. I love you, I love you I love you, stay with me." Her eyes slowly close back again and my whole body went numb as I try to call her out one more time. "You were worth it, you always were." She says, her voice fading with every syllable. She takes my bloody hand and presses it flat against her chest once again. "T-this? This is yours, always."

I brush my hand just above her forehead to set her hair aside, her face now in full display. "No, You're okay, you're okay." However all I got in return was a silent breath before her face completely went pale and her fingers that rested on my face fell on her side. "No n-no stay with me, come on stay with me." I rest the side of my head on her chest trying to make up a heartbeat but there was none. "Don't do this please don't leave me."

My tears were never ending. "No, please no." I screamed, I yelled, I called out her name. I looked at her face so lifeless yet still so beautiful. To think I may never ever see that again just broke me down, I hit rock bottom.

"You killed her" Ashton whispers and I raise my head to face him, anger bubbling up inside me. "You killed her! This is all your fault!" He shouted again and my fists tightened their grip. However I didn't want to fight him anymore, what was the point. She's gone, there was basically nothing else to fight for. "No Ashton..." I weakly say. "You did."

We both sat there in silence, my sobs still echoing throughout the room in hopes she might breathe again, although I knew that was never gunna happen now.

I heard Ashton's shaky breaths and I looked up to him again seeing he had a telephone raised to his ear. "what are you--" I asked but I was cut off when I heard another voice on the other line. "911, what's your emergency." his lips tremble as he tries to form a sentence. His ear desperately presses to the phone. "Help me." and after that he presses the gun against his head and pulls the trigger.

Soon enough, as I lay next to a body, I heard the sound of sirens from a far distance. I knew the cops would be here soon, basing on the scene here with me being the only one alive, it was bad news. It was like acid on my tongue, referring to the only girl I ever loved to just a lifeless body now.  Despite how tired I am, I knew, I needed to leave the place before the police gets here.

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Yeah that just happened, srry. The next chapter is the last by the way.