Forgetting Billions | ✓

35 | Forgetting Selena

JASMINE RECEIVED a note the next morning from none other than her tormenter. After trusting her mother the last time only to have her ruin their plan, she decided to not tell her parents. This was the best idea for all of them.

She opened the note up again, seeing an address written lazily across the bottom. Above it were the defining words that would change the course of her life, or lack thereof, forever.

Come silently and the game will be over soon.

Jasmine almost wanted more to be written, just so she wouldn't be as much in the dark, but she knew it was foolish of her to expect this moment to be easy. Swallowing down the reminder that today was most likely her last, she crumpled up the letter and stuck it in her pocket.

She was done fighting back, done risking her family's lives for someone who only wanted her. She decided that if she were to die, the fact that she had for them would make up for her past mistakes. Maybe her death would allow her parents to forgive her for the choices she had made. Maybe they would learn to love her for who she truly was once she was gone.

It would be better than never accepting her at all.

Instead of dwelling over her sacrifice, she placed her remaining effort into contemplating how SS knew she had come to Ahmedabad, India, or how they had managed to find her house in such a big city. The only people that knew her address, after years of summer holidays spent here, were Shayan and Selena.

Shayan and Selena.

"SS," she whispered out loud, her eyes widening as she fell against the cool, concrete wall behind her, as if for physical support.

She couldn't help but wonder if after all this time, she had been loving the enemy– someone she had been fighting for, defending their honor with every breath she took.

Shaken to the core, Jasmine closed her eyes, sending a message to the unknown power ruling over her life to make sure Shayan and Selena were never involved in hurting her. She didn't ask to survive, knowing that was a wish that could never be granted, but pleading for the innocence of her loved ones could not be that much to ask.

Jasmine pulled herself off the wall, her eyelids heavy from lack of sleep and her mind a mess from the verbal beating she had received from her mother the night before. At the same time, this weakness was what empowered her to take those steps into the morning air. The hopelessness she had carried on her back for so long was what led her to the basement of Rahul and Bianca's now-abandoned house, with her head turned down in surrender.

All the doors were unlocked and the dusty windows were smashed in, mirroring the outside of her elementary school after the shooting. She expected to see paling bodies surrounding her and for a fleeting moment, she saw Karina fall forward with her fingers clasped around her neck. She saw her and Rahul drop to the ground at the same time, one with a bleeding neck and the other with a bullet lodged in his chest, Bianca's scream echoing in the background.

She heard her own scream as she watched her life fall apart from the art cabinet yet again, twelve years later. She still felt like that crumbling six-year-old, especially as she faced death head-on.

With a deep breath, she entered the basement with no plan, no prayer, and no hope, only to find Selena fitting a familiar black mask over her eyes. Evan tucked in the hanging, loose pieces of fabric into her wavy hair, securing the disguise in place. When the door creaked open, both turned to face Jasmine.

She should've known. Selena and Evan, the lovers with a mutual hatred towards their best friend. She should have seen this from a mile away, were it not for her blind trust in them.