The Man between my crosshairs (girl X assassin)

Chapter 37/the dull eternities of the immortals

A/N Well wattpad's web interface ( the one we use for typing ) seems to be back to normals so we can return with a normal number of chapters for this week. Sorry for the unnecessary cliffhanger. 

Zoe and mother rushed to the emergency staircase. Zoe lept from stair to stair jumping and running down the steps. She knew it would be faster than the elevator.

"Ryder," she said panting to Mother "I left a smart mine under the car! "

"He would notice," Mother said, while she was in her 50s she was still very fit and following Zoe with ease.

"Not if he was angry," Zoe said , jumping for one staircase to the next.

Zoe got to the level that the cars were stored in. Zoe burst out of the emergency door and looked around to orientate herself.

There in the distance, she could see Ryder walking towards the car the mine was hiding under.

"No Ryder stop!" shouted Zoe.

Ryder continued to stroll towards the car.

"Ryder STOP!!" Zoe shouted again.

Mother burst out of the door.

"Rydeeeer!" said mother.

"RYDER" Zoe said louder and longer. She was running after him, shouting desperately at the top of her voice. Her lungs were bursting. While she was fast he was very close to the car. Ryder got to the car he turned around, with a look of resignation he looked at her then dipped in.

As he did he paused long enough for them both to be sure that they had seen each other.

Zoe ran towards him. For a brief second, she felt like she wanted to die with him.

She shouted 'Stop' , 'Stop'.

Behind her in the distance Mother joined in the chorus. The door shut and the mine did its job. The bright flash of the flames made a blast of light which you could feel warm your face. It was almost silent but then the noise and pressure of the blast shot out like an exploding sphere from the car. Mother was already getting down but Zoe was in the path of the blast. It hit her like the back of a giant's hand slapping her entire body over. Zoe found her self lying on the floor surrounded by a beach of broken glass. She looked, up many of the car windows had been blown out by the force of the air. The world had been muted like everything was happening a long distance away. Her ears were damaged.

Zoe looked over to Mother, she had been sheltering from the blast wave but was now covered in glass blown from the surrounding car windows. Zoe went over to Mother and found she was Ok but also deaf. Zoe looked around checking for security cameras. She took mother and had one last look at the incessant chemical fire in the distance. The surrounding car batteries and fuel cells were now shorting out and adding more heat and intense light. It was like Ryder was being picked up and taken by angels dwelling in the most dazzling incandescence.

Now inside Zoe and Mother tried to walk around, like the didn't know what happening. Everyone in the hotel had felt the ground move, but was unsure what it was. Some people reassured themselves it was a rock or something in the ground.

********

Zoe took Mother back to the apartment.

"What was that?" Mother said when they got back to Zoe's room.

"That was me. I left a mine under the transport he hired" Zoe said not able to take the guilt.

"Well, that solves that." Said Mother " I can get a flight out and get out of your kill zone."  She looked at Zoe and changed her tone to something more reassuring "you did the only thing you could."

"If that was so sensible why do I feel so terrible?" Zoe said sitting down. She held her hand up, it shocked in a way which was oddly uncontrollable, Zoe was freaked by the fact her hand could move without her wanting it to move.

Jeeves entered the room. Mother ordered some hot sweet tea to handle the shock.

"Madam a message has arrived from Mr Ryder. From the header, I believe it was set up to be automatically delivered.

" Play it," Zoe said.

"If you are getting this message it means you have succeeded and I am dead. Well done, I always knew the better assassin would win. To be honest neither of us had our hearts in it. Being equally honest , I'm not sure I had it in me to kill you either. I've left this message I want you to know that from the moment I met you I loved you. I knew I would never love anyone else again. A galaxy of a few hundred billion and I had to find the perfect person. I knew if I lost you, I would feel I was like a book with the best chapter ripped out. Every moment I've spent with you has been the most perfect in my life. Each day I was in hell and each night I was in heaven. For me our few hours together out shone the dull eternities of the immortals. Never regret what you've done. For now, know I found love and that is something I pity everyone else in known space for living a lifetime and never seeing."

At this point, Zoe was on her knees crying.

Ryder's voice continued.

"We could never be together. Each minute we had was cheating fate. Rose blossom is no less beautiful given how short it is in this world. Regret nothing. I don't. May you find love again as well as I have done. I guess this is Ryder saying good-bye."

Zoe tears streaming held her hand out to the speaker as the words ended.